I’ve spent the last couple of evenings at the Union of Jewish Students’ two blue ribbon events of the year.
Sunday’s Student Awards ceremony celebrated the very best work carried out by Jewish Society members on campuses.
There were some mightily impressive tales – stories of tens of thousands raised for charities, JSocs in obscure corners of Britain putting on weekly Shabbat dinners, events attracting 1,000 students or more.
The award winners fully deserved their honours and seemed truly humbled to receive them.
Jewish students are in the front line of tackling extremism and antisemitism. They face up to these threats far more often and in much closer contact than their parents and grandparents. Their efforts can easily go unnoticed, but hopefully these awards will have gone some way to rectifying such oversights.
Last night I attended UJS’ first career networking event. I had been invited along to advise some of the 100 plus graduates and soon-to-be grads on how to become a journalist.
The event was co-organised by TrainE-TraidE and University Jewish Chaplaincy. Professionals from industries including law, property, finance and marketing offered advice on overcoming the difficulties of finding a job in the current economic climate.
I felt some initial joy at arriving and being able to pick up a name badge from the “professionals” table, rather than queue up at the “students” side of the room. It may well be almost five years since I graduated, but such delights are still greatly appreciated.
I met some genuinely impressive potential journalists and other students hoping to make decent careers for themselves in a range of industries.
The other professionals were very busy throughout the evening, but sadly very few of the students (perhaps unsurprisingly) wanted to be journalists. One or two were genuinely interested, asking about the qualifications they would need and the best ways to get work experience in a newsroom.
A few insightfully asked how they could use/exploit blogging, Twitter and Facebook for journalistic ends. As the industry continues to move with the times, these potential cub reporters will be working in very different newsrooms to their predecessors.
I have to say, however, that the young candidates were clearly split into two camps. Those who were shy and genuinely looking for help and advice on finding their way in the working world; and those who displayed a remarkable level of smug arrogance and clearly felt they were above needing such assistance.
One particularly smarmy chap – the sort who walks with the swagger which says “my daddy is very rich and has bought me such an excellent education that I really don’t need to mix with you riff-raff sort of people” – came to sit at my desk. He was far from the only one to employ such a demeanour.
Some might say that if he was such a cracking candidate he wouldn't have needed to attend the event. I couldn't possibly comment.
Anyway, I asked whether he fancied being a journalist?
Him: “No, essentially I want to be a lawyer.”
Me: “What stage are your studies at?”
Him: “I’ve nearly finished my conversion course.”
Me: “So really you’ve no intention of becoming a journalist?”
Him: “I thought maybe the JC would like a legal columnist?”
Me: “Well we already have one, thanks, but I’ll see what I can do to help.”
Him: “Er, actually there’s a really important law person there who I want to speak to.”
At which point he leapt from his seat, turned his back on me and ran across the room to brown-nose a lawyer who, if she had any sense, would not hire this young chap to so much as sweep her office floor.
No doubt he will make a cracking lawyer.
Thankfully most of his fellow job-seekers were considerably more interested in finding out how to make their way in the working world and undertook their networking with an appreciative and deferential approach. A good number were quite shy and it was clear that they have suffered knockback after knockback in trying to find a job.
It was also obvious, just from the sheer number of graduates wandering around, that jobs really are not easy to come by. Many of last summer’s graduates are still looking, and are soon to be caught up by this year’s uni leavers.
Securing a position in the industry you have chosen is rarely easy. It is great news for Jewish graduates that an event such as this has been set up to support them. The three organisations who helped plan it are acutely aware of the need to offer help in this way, just as much as they do for issues affecting day-to-day life at uni.
The wider Jewish community does right to offer them this level of assistance.
