It was the final week of Michaelmas term: I had five supervisions, four interviews/assessment centres, and was running low on clown makeup to get me through it all.

By this point in the term, I had already submitted 27 job applications and had a range of interviews/assessment centres which were prompting an identity crisis, considering the jobs were in areas as diverse as law and consulting to communications and human resources. The vast differences in the jobs to which I was applying were definitely my fault; but, the problem remained that, as an international student, I needed a job if I wanted to have somewhere to live in the UK the following year, so I thought a scatter gun approach to applications would be my best bet. Yet, this meant that I had to paint on a new face and create a different identity for each of my interviews. 

“I discovered the need to paint on a new face and create a different identity for each of the interviews.”

Before commencing each of these interviews, I would go into the bathroom and apply my clown makeup, reminding myself of who I was today and why supposedly my skills and interests perfectly aligned with the job. As application season continued to heat up, I spent more and more time applying more elaborate makeup, as the job interviews became more and more different and less and less aligned with my skillset and interests. However, after one of my final round interviews at a Magic Circle law firm where a partner straight out said that, in his opinion, I would not suit a law environment due to my love of interacting with people constantly, I was forced to reconsider my application choices.

At that moment, as the partner callously brought me back to reality, I was reminded of the experiences of one of my favourite protagonists: Alice, from Alice in Wonderland. During one of her interactions with The Cheshire Cat, she asks “would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” to which the Cat responds, “that depends a good deal on where you want to get to”. Funnily enough, I had not thought enough about where I wanted to go with my career. Instead, I had spent far too much time fixated on the idea of a job, so that I could live in the UK post graduation. As a result, I had not spent adequate time thinking about the type of job which would suit me, rather I was blindly following my friends who had converted law, consulting, and banking jobs from their second-year internships and vacation schemes.

“I decided to rethink my career path and realign my applications around one or two careers which I thought would be most interesting.”

So, after hearing directly from the partner, I decided to rethink my career path and realign my applications around one or two careers which I thought would be most interesting. By narrowing my focus, I was able to spend more time researching and writing my applications which meant that, in turn, I knew more for my interviews. With this tighter focus now, I only needed a little bit of eye makeup here and there, compared to a whole face which I was doing for my interviews earlier during the term and over summer, not only helping my skin but also keeping my identity crisis at bay! Only then was I able to convert my first non-law/consulting/banking final interview into a full-time job which I am so excited to start in London in September 2021.

Whilst there was luck involved in my experience, I think it serves as a good reminder to those searching for jobs that not every Cambridge student needs to be a lawyer, consultant, or banker (except for my friends, so they can take me to fancy bars and pay for the bill!). If you have thought about it a lot and one of those careers is definitely for you, apply. However, if you are unsure and think you may be just applying for these roles as lots of your friends are, take a moment to really think about what you want, as it will save you a lot of time in the long run.

Ultimately, what I am trying to say is that many of us are going or have already fallen down the rabbit hole of job applications. However, before you fall, make sure you have an idea of where it could lead you, as then, hopefully, you will not need to pack your own clown makeup.