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Get a job, any job. That’s always been the conventional wisdom. “You’ll impress employers,” say some; “It’s much easier to get a job when you’re in a job,” say others. But what the advice givers won’t have taken into account is that staying in an unrewarding stop-gap job can have a huge detrimental effect on motivational levels as well as on general well being. So much so that, unless you watch yourself, that stop-gap job could easily turn into a permanent one because you may begin to lose the energy to move on.

The trouble with much careers advice is that a lot of it is based on unresearched assumptions about what the best thing to do is. Now however, a leading psychologist has looked into the effects of taking a stop-gap job as compared to remaining unemployed or getting a job that is related to your career plans. Hold on to your hat though – it makes pretty grim reading.

The research was lead by Professor Tony Cassidy of the School of Psychology at the University of Ulster. He found that both unemployment and stop-gap jobs have “deleterious effects on both psychological and physical health.”

The study followed 248 recent graduates from their final year to up to twelve months after graduation. It showed that seven out of ten unemployed graduates and three out of ten stop-gap graduates experienced ‘clinical levels of distress’ – that is distress that was severe enough for medication or counselling. In comparison, among those graduates fortunate enough to be in a job related to their career ambitions (about twenty per cent of the sample), only one in twenty was experiencing this level of distress.

Apart from psychological distress, the survey measured several other aspects of well-being, and these results told the same story; you’re happier, healthier and more positive if you’re in a job related to your career plans.

“So what”, you might say, “isn’t this just a statement of the obvious?” For Professor Cassidy however, his survey contains an important message for new graduates: “Everyone knows it can be tough getting the job you want after leaving university,” he says, “but this research shows for the first time how tough it actually is and what the risks are. Stop-gap jobs sap your self-belief. Graduates who are forced into this position can easily lose their motivation. As a result they stop sending out application forms and end up settling for the negative situation they find themselves in.

“But if you know it’s going to happen, you can take steps to avoid it. Final year students should develop contacts with tutors so that they have someone to help guide them; new graduates should realise that they can still use their university careers service.

“And, perhaps more than anything, those of you who have to take a stop-gap job should understand that it can take a number of steps to reach your career goal, so try to guard yourself against becoming downhearted if you seem to be going backwards.”

The biggest danger of all, is simply settling for what you’ve got too soon.

David Williams is a journalist involved in
the student and graduate industries.
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