After slaving away in college for three or four years most of us shiver at the thought of not finding a job in our respective fields. We spoke to Ruth (21), a recent DCU graduate about the real struggles of finding work as a newly qualified journalist in Ireland.
Did you think it would be as difficult as it is proving to be to find a job?
No, I didn’t think it would be as hard. Obviously I didn’t expect to walk into a full-time job, but I thought I might at least get an internship or even a graduate programme to begin with … but even those seem hard to come by. I’m working in retail at the moment and I hope to move back to Dublin next year as it is the best place for someone in my field to find work.
Did you feel ready to start work in the area you hold a degree in?
I think I was ready to start working in journalism because I felt I had acquired the relevant skills to succeed in my profession. My course covered all elements of journalism and it was possible to choose classes based on your preferences.
Do you feel you had enough experience and skills from your course to pursue a job in this field?
I felt I had learned most of what I needed to know, and though I gained practical journalism experience outside of college, I felt the course itself was lacking a little in practical experience. I had to complete just eight weeks of placement which is a relatively short space of time in the grand scheme of things. After all, the best way to learn is by doing. I would also have liked the chance to specialise in a particular area of journalism.
So, have you applied for internships or have you applied for all types of jobs in journalism?
I applied for every job that came up, from internships to full time contract positions. The majority of employers wanted applicants with a number of years’ experience, but how do you gain experience if they won’t hire you?
Image: Jennifer McDonald
Do you feel pressure to get a job in order to stay skilled?
I definitely feel a small amount of pressure to get a job in my field, but I am only out of college a couple of weeks so I can afford a little more time to find the right position.
Long day at the office? Lectures till 6pm? Five kids to feed? Take-away or a ready meal for dinner, right? Wrong. However tempting or however tired and drained you are after a long day, take-aways and junk food are not the answer… unless it’s treat night of course.
Pizza (Image: JMcDonald)
Busy lifestyles are causing more and more people to fall into unhealthy eating habits and students are definitely on that list. It’s hard to motivate yourself to cook for one and buy proper food when it’s easier to just grab a pizza and save the effort of cooking.
It is often said that eating healthy is expensive and that good food just costs too much, but I’m sorry to tell you that this is not exactly true and especially for us students, because we can make several dinners from just a few ingredients, and here’s how;
Buy a packet of chicken fillet breasts, usually about 4 for €6. You will get about two dinners from this packet of chicken, unless you’re bulking of course. Then invest in a bag of sweet potatoes and a head of broccoli or whatever veg tickles your fancy.
How to make it:
Chop up some chicken(I know this is horrible! I much prefer to buy diced chicken breasts)
You can cook the chicken on a pan or in the oven, the latter is a better option, just pop it on a tray, add some seasoning and Bob’s your uncle.
Chicken breasts are often quite cheap and will make several dinners (image:JMcDonald)
Chop up some veg and boil that in a saucepan,
Then boil your sweet potatoes.
How much does it cost:
Chicken breasts: €6 (usually 4 in the packet)
Veg:€2 (mixed bag, chopped for approx. €2)
Potatoes: €2
Total: €10.00
You can use your remaining chicken breasts to rustle up a yummy caesar salad, just add lettuce and some bacon for about €2 and some dressing which is about €3. I also like to add some crunchy croutons! This is perfect to pop in your lunchbox and save some cash on lunch while in work, college or school.
You can use your potatoes and veg to put together another meal, just add meat or fish of your fancy.
With some key ingredients you can set yourself up for the week. Why not add some diced beef and make a stir-fry and add some rice or noodles. A stir fry is quick and easy and won’t break the bank.
Diced beef:€3
Veg: you will already have some veg left, or buy a packet of pre-packed stir-fry veg
Rice/noodles:€2
An omelette is another quick and easy meal for anytime of the day and it is so cheap. Buy a box of eggs, some chopped spinach, cheese or whatever you fancy, you can chop up some of those sweet potatoes and make some healthy wedges to go with it. And once again, if you are cooking for one, you won’t need all the eggs and you will have a few left to rustle something else up later in the week.
Omelettes are quick and easy and super cheap (Image: JMcDonald)
How to make:
Break some eggs (try not to get the shell in or you will spend about ten minutes teasing it out with a fork)
Whisk those in a bowl, I like to add some milk to the mix, some grated cheese and some pepper. If you are using bacon in the omelette, chop that up and pop it on the pan first and then pour on your whisked eggs.
Flip it over once it’s set (easier said than done…it will probably break at this point but don’t worry, we’re not feeding Ramsey)
Then add spinach on top and enjoy! (Of course you can leave this out if you want)
If you decide to make some wedges from your sweet potatoes, just dice them into strips, par-boil them and then pop them on a try in the oven to get nice and crispy!
How much will it cost:
Eggs:€1.89
Cheese:€2
Spinich:€2
Total: €5.89
These are just a few basic, easy and quick meals to make that are healthy and won’t break the bank. Shop wisely and think ahead, ask yourself how many meals can I mix and match from these ingredients. Swap your crisps and fizzy drinks for fruit and water for most of the week. Everyone needs treat days and of course life is too short to skip on that Toffee Crisp every now and again but life will be a lot shorter if people keep making bad habits.
Swap the fizzy drinks for water as often as possible (Image JMcDonald)
So whether you are a busy student who is missing home cooked meals, an exhausted parent and worker, a singleton who finds cooking dinner for one a pain in the backside, there are easy ways to curb bad habits, and believe it or not it’s not too hard or expensive to do so.
So get to the shops and get cooking or dial that take-away and ‘start tomorrow’!
Soaring rent prices and a lack of accommodation in Dublin is forcing third level students to choose to study outside of the capital or in many cases, commute.
Finding accommodation, and the money to finance it, is a huge struggle for students and one student who knows this more than most is 22 year old, Cian.
Cian is a third level engineering student in DIT who said he was forced to live in hotels and travelodges for a whole college year due to the rocketing prices and lack of rented accommodation. “Yeah there were a few of us living rough if you like, it was a tough time”, says the 22 year old.
“We had a house, it was a two bed, among four of us, on Sherad Street, but is was so unsafe that we just couldn’t stay. The house was infested with rats and there was a huge hole in the roof, the floor boards hadn’t been laid properly and the house was so damp, it was just horrendous”, says the DIT student.
After moving out of this house, Cian said that he and six of his friends were practically homeless. “We grabbed couches where we could, our friends were great but we couldn’t stay anywhere permanent, some nights we were staying on couches of people we barely even knew”, he explains.
Cian says that him and six of his friends moved from hotel to hotel each week. “We couldn’t let on that there were six of us in the room so one of us would check in and pay and then the rest of us would pay that person our share”, he says.
Cian and six friends had to share one hotel room for most of the college year
Renting a room in the capital, if you are lucky enough to find one, can cost anywhere from €400 to €600 a month, according to adverts on Daft.ie, Myhome.ie and various other accommodation advertising sites.
“We did save a lot of money living in hotels, but it was a horrible and stressful time”, says the engineering student. “We are from Leitrim so commuting just wasn’t an option and the hotels cost about €160 a week, so among the six of us that wasn’t too bad”.
B&Bs are becoming the only option for students in the Capital
The hotel life was far from luxurious for the students Cian explains, “We were all on top of each other, we had no privacy and then there’s the problem of not being able to make any food, bar a dodgy cup of tea”.
“We spent about €50 a week on eating out and to be honest it was all crap cheap food, like Burger King and McDonalds”, he says.
Living in digs is becoming more and more popular now as students will take anything they can get. Laura is a 25 year old student who shares her experiences of living in digs.
“I got a room in a house and lived with the homeowner, a woman, and her young daughter”, she says. “The room was lovely and the rent wasn’t too bad so I was happy enough, but there was a lot of rules, which, as an independent adult, was slightly annoying”.
Laura explains how she wasn’t even allowed her boyfriend over, “he wasn’t allowed to step a foot inside the house, the woman was concerned that her daughter would be getting a bad example. One day he carried in my bags for me and I got a bit of a warning”, laughs the 25 year old.
“The house was lovely, reasonably priced and I was close to my placement so I put up with the rules”, she says.
The Higher Education Authority has admitted that this is the first year it has seen students being forced to put off college because they cannot find adequate accommodation.
With thousands of students opting to study in Dublin every year the problem is a growing one, which needs “short-term solutions not long-term aspirations” according to the Fianna Fáil leader, Michael Martin.
Video: Jennifer McDonald, Conor McMahon and Orla Stafford
Boxing and beauty are not two words we usually link together, but European champion and female boxer Clare Grace sheds a new light on the contrast between femininity and the physical demands of the sport on the female body.
Clare Grace, end of front row, right hand side.
Clare Grace is 20 year old student and boxing champion from Kilkenny. She’s in her third year of sports science and nutrition in DCU. Clare boxes for the Irish team and has ambitions of competing at Olympic level in the near future.
It all started quite early for Clare when her father suggested she try out boxing. “My family has always been passionate about sport and when I was nine my dad brought me to my local boxing club just to try it out and I’ve never looked back,” says the European champion.
It wasn’t long before Clare showed great potential and began to compete. “I was about 12 or 13 years old when I first entered the ring, it was overwhelming because I suddenly realised that my opponent was going to try and hit me in the face but after a while I got used to it and that’s the sport I suppose,” says Clare.
Clare is now ranked 1oth in the World
Following Katie Taylor’s success at the Olympics in 2012, female boxing has become more recognised and discussed, but when Clare started boxing a little over a decade ago she recalls how it was very unusual for girls to be involved in boxing. “When I started it was all boys but now in my college club there are two senior girls including myself which is a lot even though it sounds otherwise, there are lots of girls signed up to the club but only the dedicated few turn up for training sessions,” says Clare.
Clare never feels intimidated in the male dominated sport
Boxing has long been associated with men, but Clare says that she doesn’t feel out of place because of that. “I never feel discriminated against because of my gender, in my boxing clubs you are a boxer, you are not categorised as a male or female, just as a boxer,” she explains.
Opening up about her perception of femininity, Clare says, “Yeah I have muscles but I think things are changing, I think it’s okay for women to be strong and have muscle, of course there is still a stigma attached to how women should look and the perception of femininity but I do feel this is changing”.
Clare explains how as a woman it is hard when you have bruising on your face. “It is often hard to explain to people that the reason you have a black eye is the fact that you are a boxer, people often look at me like ‘what happened to that poor girl?’,” laughs Clare.
Clare says she has had to make many sacrifices to compete at this level
For a lot of women the idea of going into a male dominated sector would be intimidating but Clare never feels that way and she never feels like she has to impress anyone with anything other than her boxing abilities.
“I never get dolled up to go training, you’re just going to sweat it off anyway so it’s a waste of make-up and make-up is expensive” laughs Clare. “It’s not really why I go training anyway.”
Having a spot on your face as a young woman can often feel like a nightmare but for Clare even bruising on her face “is no longer the end of the world”.
“When I was younger and in secondary school I was more self-conscious and I would try cover them up with make-up”, says Clare. She recalls one moment that a teacher held her back after class and asked if she was okay and what had happened to her face. “This was the first time someone actually noticed it enough to be concerned, in a way it made me even more self-conscious and I started to notice people giving me a few funny looks, but now I’m older it doesn’t bother me like it used to,” she explains.
Clare focusing on a sparing session
Like any girl her age, Clare likes to go out and have fun and she says how sometimes it’s hard when all her friends are getting ready and she’s “trying to cover up a black eye”.
“But that’s the kind of things you have to deal with if you want to compete at this level,” she says.
“I do have to prep myself up before entering the ring”
“Humans are judging machines, and of course I get labelled”, says Clare. “I often get called the girl who boxes rather than by my name.
“My close friends know me as Clare, a girl, but I’d be wrong if I said I didn’t get labelled.”
Clare recently won bronze for Ireland in Europe
And what about the sacrifices she has to make?
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have to make sacrifices for boxing,” Clare explains. “Like when my friends are all going to the student bar and I have to go to training, or when all my friends are in relationships and I don’t have time to be, but I love the sport and for me that comes first.”
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