Mum, it's not easy to 'just get a job'

Having just finished my A-levels, I am now facing the prospect of another challenge: getting a job. Every summer since I was sixteen I have hunted tirelessly for the elusive summer job.

A teen of the Thatcher years, my mother greets all my complaints of having no money with the same three words – get a job. If only it was that easy for people of my generation.

Each summer begins with scouring online vacancies and applying to any local shops or restaurants, so far without luck. And it is no longer a simple case of sending a CV; applying to be a Waitrose checkout girl involves references, a twenty-minute "online values assessment", 250-word responses to questions such as "describe your greatest achievement", and (if you're lucky) a group assessment of two hours after which (my more successful friends inform me) further interviews followed.

This may seem excessive for a checkout girl, but such processes, in my experience, have become de rigur.

The single largest obstacle to gaining employment during student-hood however seems to be the infuriating dichotomy of "lack of experience". I initially hoped that voluntary experience in my local community-run shop would have been sufficient, but I have quickly discovered that this is not the case.

With every rejection I was told that I simply didn't have enough experience, and it is with increasing frustration that my friends and I all bemoan that without experience we cannot get employed, but without employment we cannot get any of this necessary experience.

The lack of previous employment has also meant a lack of references to use in my applications, and while I accept that using my school form tutor and woman whose children I babysit may not be the most professionally impressive referees, I feel that employers could be more understanding of students trying to gain employment for the first time.

I may not have experience of previous employment, and studies mean that my hours may not be as flexible, but it is incredibly disheartening that so few employers are willing to hire sixth-form or university students, especially when the government's annual loan to cover living costs falls substantially short of my chosen university's estimated living costs.

And even if I did possess the necessary experience and iron-clad referees, the Saturday jobs and summer jobs, so seemingly abundant in my mother's youth no longer exist.

I have found, in my extensive searching, very few jobs that are consistent with a demanding academic timetable. My experience is part of a larger trend: the UK Commission for Employment and Skills reported in 2012 that the number of teenagers with Saturday jobs has halved since the 1990s to around 20% or 260,000 teens.

This trend is reflected in my friendship group, very few of whom have jobs. One of my few employed friends is perfectly ready to admit that that she only got a job at our local theatre because of "connections", (a friend recommended her for the job), while another confessed to lying on their CV to seem more experienced.

It seems ridiculous that my friends and I, all committed and hard-working young people are constantly rejected from employment; I having been turned down by Boots, House of Fraser, Waitrose (twice), and H&M (only this week), while Marks & Spencer and Cath Kidston are yet to respond to my three week-old applications.

The truth is that getting employed as a student is a disheartening, nigh on impossible task made worse by the "on yer bike" attitude of the older generation. It's just not as easy as they think.

(Source: TheGuardian)