My tips for new graduates!

My tips for new graduates!

Wednesday, 2 August 2017

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Remember when you were little and you used to say "I can't wait til I'm grown up" and now all of a sudden you're grown up and you've graduated from university and life is strange. Yeah, same. I honestly cannot believe I've been graduated for an entire year! It seems like only yesterday that I was moving in to halls. My advice to anyone starting uni this year: just enjoy every minute of it, because it was the fastest 3 years of my life!

Although it seems like the year has absolutely flown by, when I think about it, a lot of stuff has happened. Stuff that I'm actually proud of. I left uni with next to no experience in what I actually wanted to do, an irrelevant degree and not much going for me to be honest. The first few months (few meaning, like, six) I was waking up most days to a rejection email and it was TOUGH. You kinda start to feel like you're never gonna get a job. I think that's something that university doesn't really prepare you for - how tough it is on the outside world. I don't know about anyone else (maybe I was just ridiculously deluded) but I left university thinking that my degree would give me a bit of an edge, and maybe it did, but not enough to land me the job I wanted. Anyway, I spent the next 7ish months working internships for next to no money and struggling financially but I honestly am so grateful that I had that time to actually LEARN. I learnt so much about the job that I wanted to do, about myself as a person and about the big wide world of work. [You can read about my intern experience here].

Fast forward to right now, I have a full-time (fully paid - hurrah) job doing what I want to do. It's not EXACTLY what I want to do but at the end of the day, I'm only 22 years old so I have plenty of time for my career to grow. AND as of 2 days ago, after four years of financial struggle, I got out of my student overdraft.
So my advice to new graduates would be this:

1) Apply for anything and everything
Obviously, experience is everything. If you have little experience on your CV, apply for internships. It is annoying to be struggling financially, but it's only temporary and it will pay off in the end.

2) Don't give up
I was told this constantly when the rejections were getting me down (see here) and tbh, it got pretty annoying. I was all "EASY FOR YOU TO SAY WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR DREAM JOB SHUT UP" but, like, seriously don't give up. As cliche as it sounds, if you work hard things will work out.

3) Every tiny bit of experience counts
EVERYTHING. If you want to go in to social media (like me) try to build a decent following on your own channels and put them at the bottom of your CV.

4) Be realistic
Speaking from experience, if you're just out of uni with next to no experience and an irrelevant degree - chances are you're not going to get a job at the BBC.


I know a lot of this stuff is pretty obvious but I can't express enough that I've been there. There were times when I felt like utter shit but it worked out in the end just like it will for you. And I'm not there yet, my ultimate goal is to move to a city and work in a big, fast-paced company but I know that I have time for that.

Feel free to comment your graduate stories below, I'd love to read them!

July Favourites

July Favourites

Monday, 24 July 2017

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Favourites posts are my absolute favourite posts in the world and I'm not quite sure why, but alas I love writing one so here is another.

Going au naturale
It's taken me a lonnnng time to feel comfortable going out in public without any make-up on but now I can say that I am. I haven't worn a dot of make-up for over 2 weeks and my skin is LOVING me for it. I don't even think about it! It saves me so much time when I'm getting ready in the morning AND I have been complimented on my skin.

Love Island
Soz, I just couldn't do a favourites post and not mention it. I am HOOKED. Like, hooked. Camilla is a complete queen and Kem is so jokes. If you're not sure what I'm on about, search it on Twitter!

Planoly App
My friend told me about this app a few weeks ago and it has literally changed my life. It basically lets you upload pictures to your Instagram feed without actually uploading them so that you can see if the picture fits in with your theme. If you're Insta addicted (like me) I would definitely recommend it!

Stormzy
He's the people's champ, I love him so much. Is music is fab, he's a great performer and he stands up for what he believes in. What a guy.

Bad Education
I've recently started watching this again from the beginning and I'm SO GLAD I did, I had forgotten all the absolute jokes. Jack Whitehall is hilarious and I think I'm a little bit in love with him.

Olympus PEN EPL8 
I bought this on my first pay day of my new job and I have absolutely no regrets. It takes fab pictures/videos and it connects directly to my phone so I can post them straight to Instagram (defo a huuuuge plus for a social media addict like moi).

Feeling like a grown up (sort of)
I'm beginning to think that we never actually feel properly like adults. Regardless, the little times that I do make me so happy! For example, I've been waiting and waiting for the time when my taste buds mature enough for me to actually ENJOY the taste of wine (rather than leaving me secretly gagging but pretending to like it purely to seem grown up) and that time has finally come! Drinking wine makes me happy. It also makes me feel grown up when I come home from work and think, "you know what, I'm going to have a glass of wine while I watch mind-numbing reality TV". Sad, but true.

That's all of my favourites for this month! Please comment below letting me know what you've been loving.

xoxo Kayleigh

City break on a budget!

City break on a budget!

Sunday, 2 July 2017

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I honestly can't remember the last time I wasn't skint. I've spent my entire life being absolutely shite with money - I can't save a penny to save my life. So when I booked to go to Edinburgh I stupidly didn't save and ended up going with less money than I would've hoped. HOWEVER, my senseless spending and inability to control my debit card use gave me a fab idea for a blog post - city break on a budget, because (believe it or not) it IS possible to have a cheap city break! Here are my top 3 tips...

1) Book an Air BnB over a hotel.
Not only can you book an entire flat rather than having a tiny, postage stamp room but its more often than not CHEAPER. I definitely recommend reading the reviews and checking out the location on apartments/houses on air bnb because you could save LOADS on travel and accommodation.
We managed to nab ourselves the most gorgeous apartment in Stockbridge, just a short walk to the town centre, the castle, museums and the botanical gardens. We didn't have to get taxis anywhere other than to & from the airport.

2) Avoid eating out if possible
Obviously it's great to eat out when you're on holiday - that goes without saying, but if you're on a budget it's probably best to avoid it where possible. As we had an apartment, that meant we could use the kitchen provisions at our leisure so we cooked our breakfast and our dinner one night in the apartment, probably saving at least £30! We also treated ourselves to a takeaway one evening rather than going to a restaurant which also saved a few pennies. It definitely didn't feel like we were missing out because we ordered the yummiest sushi and ate it while we drank prosecco, did a facemask and watched love island!

3) Research free attractions

In cities there is always LOADS of free things to do. In Edinburgh there's the castle, museums, the botanical gardens. We spent most of our time just wandering around looking at the beautiful buildings  which I was more than happy to do as it's one of my favourite things. We also had a browse around the botanical gardens and, honestly, I've never felt so serene in my life!