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- Name: Keaton B.
- Year Of Graduation: 2023
- College/University: Northumbria University
- Major: History (minor in City Planning)
What do you do for a living?
I work for the public body running public transport in my metro area. I’m a Corporate Planning Associate, and I help write the organizations’ strategies and policies. I also do planning responses because every development in the region has to ensure that it doesn’t negatively impact public transport provisions.
Can you tell me about your job search experience after graduation?
I ideally wanted to do something related to either environment or heritage. There are a lot of big estate-based charities in the UK that do both, and I thought I could work for them or something similar. I thought, well, I’ll float into something! No need to worry about it. So I didn’t. In my final year of uni, I wasn’t looking for work as much as I should have been. I’d also booked a volunteering trip for a month in Thailand, in July. This was right after I graduated in June. When I came back, I was like, okay, it’s time to focus up and look for jobs.
I started off looking for those sort of heritage-based jobs. It soon hit me that we’re in the middle of a cost of living crisis, you know? These charities had no money. They weren’t hiring anyone. So I did lots of different forms of volunteering on the side as well to keep that interest alive, like working in an archive, volunteering in parks, and other things like that.
It just got to a point where I was sort of drained. I was practically working nine to five with my job search. I was in the public library applying all day, and it was completely draining. I probably submitted hundreds of applications, and it wasn’t working out. I was also applying for minimum-wage jobs just to get some money, and that didn’t work out either.
I finally caught a break in April. I got a call back from a grocery store that gave me a part-time job. I did that for a month. In terms of my current job, I actually did very well in the interviews and I asked the interviewer what had gone wrong. They told me I was second to someone who was already in an internal position. They ended up calling me back though, saying they had another internal promotion so the job was available again if I wanted it. Of course, I accepted.
Why did you choose your major? Would you still pick this major now, if you could go back in time?
I picked history because that’s the only thing I was genuinely interested in. In the British education system, there’s a period that you go through called sixth form, and that’s between 16 and 18, and you usually go to sixth form to then go to university. I picked history as one of my A levels, which is what they’re called in sixth form. That was the only one I was genuinely interested in. I remember I failed a couple of my exams because I had a good knowledge of history but was rubbish at answering questions. I had to retake them and I felt pretty disappointed in myself since I enjoyed the topic so much. By the time uni came around, I knew I wanted to pursue it more.
In my third year, I added my city planning minor because it included a trip to Amsterdam. I was like, well, I’m somewhat interested in city planning and I get to spend three months in Amsterdam. That’s excellent!
Fourth year is when I really started doing history properly. My dissertation was on environmental history, and I specifically focused on a famous public park in my city and how it was landscaped and created. I kind of struck gold, because everyone in the city knows the park but doesn’t know how it came to be. I kept digging and digging and talking to heritage people who were interested in the park, and there’s loads of history behind it that no one has looked into. I really dedicated myself to that dissertation and environmental history as a whole.
If I could go back I would have still picked history, but I didn’t do much research on different universities. I kind of just picked my local one, but others had history and archaeology degrees for example, which would have been cool.
If I asked you 3 years ago, what would you think you’d be doing right now (in life/career)?
There was a period when I wanted to be a writer of some kind. I was reading a lot of George Orwell, especially his non-fiction work. I wanted to do something like that, something in writing. I thought history would have been good with that, with writing narratives and things like that. Also, in my current role where I write different policies and business cases, they all have to have a narrative behind them. I’ve kind of realized I am able to do something in that realm.
What’s your biggest struggle right now?
When I was job hunting, I was definitely going through some sort of quarter-life crisis. Since I was unemployed for so long, it kind of felt like time was passing me by. Everyone says not to compare yourself to others, but you do. Everyone was going for jobs and they had money in their pockets, and for me, it was like, am I going to have enough money just to go out for a pint with my friends? My sense of worth completely collapsed.
I’m in a much better place now, but I’m not 100%. I think I’ve realized I keep latching on to external things. I dedicated myself to my dissertation, then dedicated myself to my job search, or this, that, and the other. I need to focus on my mental health. I’ve booked therapy to learn how to be satisfied with myself instead of grabbing onto external stuff.
If money was not a factor, what would you be working on or spending more time on?
This is a bit weird, but I’d like to set up my own bit of land, like a big estate, and make an eco-village sort of thing. So like, little Hobbit houses and solar panels. Very solar punk, which is depicted in fiction as kind of what utopia would look like. It’s very green, in harmony with nature, with renewable energy, and things like that. I’m sort of against landlordism so I think a co-op would be the best way to describe this vision. We all share the rent and resources, and everything gets distributed back to the residents equally.
If we traveled 3 years into the future of your life, what would you hope we’d see?
I’m really surprised at how well this job has worked out and how lovely the people are, and it’s quite a modern organization. So I would like to do something similar to what I’m doing now. I’m not 100% sure where I would go with this career though because planning is such a broad topic. I want to stick with environmental themes. Currently, I’m focusing on environmental strategies, like looking into how the organization can be greener, which is brilliant.
Also, I’m still living at home right now and I hope in three years I will have moved out by then.
What advice and/or learnings would you give to the current students or recent grads?
For current students, start applying for jobs as early as possible. If you don’t know what you want to do, apply for jobs that you even have a mild interest in, because you don’t know what opportunities might arise. I have an interest in city planning but didn’t think I’d be a city planner, you know? Be open-minded.
For graduates, be strategic. Don’t do what I did when I was completely burnt out every day. Make sure you have some time to relax and reflect, and balance your mental health as much as possible. Don’t be afraid to seek mental health help if you need it. Go to bed early, drink water, and eat three meals a day. It’s the basic stuff that makes a huge difference.
Connect With Keaton:
- LinkedIn: @KeatonB
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