“You may start looking for a job” my mother said to me one evening after we were discussing what I should do with my life. Little did she know I had been looking for months. Without luck.

My mother always ‘joked’ that when I was 16 I’d have to start looking for a part-time job while I did my GCSEs, except she wasn’t joking at all. I’ve worked all throughout my years of study in various jobs ranging from retail to hospitality and now in an office in Belfast. While my current job is fine and the pay is slightly above minimum wage, it lacks challenge and it certainly isn’t what I want to be doing for the rest of my life.

After completing my undergrad, I made the decision to undertake a Masters in Conflict Transformation and Social Justice hoping to get a job here at home. Two degrees later I am struggling to get a job. Sometimes I find myself asking what was the point when I can’t seem to build a career here?

To be clear, I’m not saying that there are absolutely no jobs in Northern Ireland, there are plenty – but with the caveat of ‘X’ number of years’ experience accompanied by a never ending list of ‘desirable criteria’ that is simply unreachable without someone willing to give you a chance in the first place.

Employment doesn’t come hand in hand with a degree anymore – any graduate could tell you that. The struggle to find a post-graduate job in Northern Ireland is driving young, talented people elsewhere. It’s also stopping young people returning to Northern Ireland after completing university degrees in other parts of the UK or Republic of Ireland. In a BBC Report, only 34% of those who had graduated from universities elsewhere in the UK returned to Northern Ireland to work in 2018. If young people are struggling to get jobs and build careers here now, what will it be like post Brexit? Not to mention the implications of not having a functioning Assembly in Northern Ireland.

This isn’t a case of the Millennial generation complaining. This is a case of young people struggling to get a foot in a door that rarely opens. Many graduates, if given the chance, would make up what they lack in experience, with hard work and the chance to prove themselves when it’s hard to stand out from the crowd.

I want to use my two Degrees here at home, but I fear that I might have to leave to one day come back. This is the scary reality for many graduates from Northern Ireland. The Department for Education states that ‘six months after leaving university, Northern Irish graduates had an average salary of £21,935 a year…’ I can’t think of any recent graduates I know that would say they earn close to that amount; very rarely would you see a job which is aimed towards graduates paying over £18,000 per annum.

I wrote this not out of spite for my fellow graduates who have been fortunate enough to receive job offers in their chosen fields, but out of pure frustration for myself and the majority of others who have not been so lucky to land a job paying £21,935 per year, six months after graduating. My love for the time I spent at university is now being overshadowed by my frustration of being stopped dead in my tracks by the sheer lack of opportunities. As I approach my 25th birthday I cannot be blamed for feeling like there is a distinct lack of opportunities in the job market. I only wish I could earn enough to start paying back my student loan; at least then it would feel as though I am finally on the right path, but for now, I wait.