University careers advisers are used to steering fresh-faced students towards the labour market – but they are now increasingly seeing graduates in their 40s and 50s looking for help to revive their careers.
More UK universities are now giving their graduates lifelong access to campus careers services, including advice with job applications and interview preparation as well as helping to find new opportunities for those who feel stuck.
Gil Hamilton had been in the same job for 17 years and was increasingly unhappy. She said she had no idea she could still access careers advice at the Lancaster University, where she studied in the mid-2000s, until a chance remark earlier this year.
“I was really quite worried about changing jobs, I hadn’t had a job interview in 18 years, I hadn’t had a different job in all that time, I didn’t have a CV, I didn’t have anything. It was quite daunting. I couldn’t remember how to write a CV or cover letters, interviews were obviously terrifying.
“I hadn’t thought about speaking to anyone in a professional capacity, and then a friend mentioned that they’d read in an alumni magazine about getting careers advice from their university, so that’s how I heard about it,” Hamilton said.
Lancaster’s careers service put her in touch with its career coach Rachel Beauchamp, who proofread her CV and talked her through the rigours of the current job market.
“I was feeling, do I actually have any other skills? Can I do anything else? Rachel was really good at saying: look at all these things that you’ve done and how you could use those in different contexts. That was probably the most helpful thing, as well as a bit of confidence,” said Hamilton, who successfully interviewed for a new job.
“I was so nervous on the day of the interview – I’d had interview prep with Rachel where we talked about the questions that might be asked and how to prepare for them. Although I was terrified at the interview – I could feel myself shaking – I felt I sold myself well and got across all the things I am good at.”
Beauchamp said Hamilton was like many older graduates who had not applied for jobs through formal routes for 15 to 20 years, and wanted trusted sources of advice.
Beauchamp said: “I’ve had quite a few people who have had caring responsibilities and have been out of work for quite some time. Now they are going back into the workplace and don’t know how to approach it.
“More recently, it’s been around people facing redundancies or changes at their work, so they may be looking at retraining or going into something new.”
Part of the challenge for older graduates, according to Beauchamp, is recognising the skills they have gained outside their workplace. Beauchamp recently helped a graduate with extensive experience running parent groups at her children’s schools.
“She’d been out of work for 12 years and now she wanted to get back into the workforce. I had an initial appointment with her about writing her CV, and I saw that she’d undersold herself. She’s now just started in an administrative role in the NHS, based on that confidence boost and the CV support,” Beauchamp said.
Jeremy Swan, head of policy and advocacy at the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services, said many graduates are not aware that lifetime access “is rapidly becoming the norm”, even though more than 40% of universities in England and Wales now offer it.
Hamilton said: “I’m in my 40s and most people at that stage have been in their careers for 20 years or so – and how many of them moan about what they do?
“None of us do anything about it because the job fits in with your family or you’ve got decent pay, so you just stay with what you know. But I thought, I am just going to make myself miserable for the next 20 years.
“More people need to know it’s easy to get help – and it’s free as well – to get a bit of confidence to go out there and try something else.”
