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Articles Beware of friends who bear the gift of a job This article is from a previous edition of Graduate Career This article was printed in the September 2009 edition of Graduate Career. To download an electronic copy of this edition, please click here. by Tom Sanchez I was delighted when a friend from the pub asked me to work for his company. I had just left university with a first-class BSc and was braced for a long and soul-destroying search for employment - one of thousands of graduates chasing jobs in a recession. My friend’s company managed some big artists in the entertainment business. Furthermore my friend was the leading light there. Not only was I lucky to get something in a field many people my age would die for, but also I was optimistic that it was an opportunity to make some really good money. My friend spelt out his terms: a three-month spell, with all expenses paid, to see if I liked the work and they liked me. I agreed. I was told I would have to start at the bottom and work my way up. That seemed fair enough. This was a new business for me and I wasn’t sure how things worked. Off I went to London. The office had just relocated so my first day was painting and fixing light bulbs, getting keys cut, heaving office furniture around and sorting out the immediate needs. On day two I progressed to ordering water coolers and stocking the fridge with cold drinks. That was fine. I expected to be given basic stuff to do. Trouble was, nobody was prepared to pay for their drinks — or for anything else. People sent me out to buy all sorts of things and I used my own debit card to order items as there was no proper office expense system in place. My expenses piled up. After week one I had spent about £180 on things for the office. I had even been asked to book a locksmith, electrician and plumber on my debit card. My overdraft was soaring. After that first week frustration had already set in. By the end of week two, it had all got worse. I had an ever-growing pile of receipts and tried to sort the matter out. But I was always told that the my friend was too busy to see me and I should just keep a check on what I was spending. “You’ve got to realise,” I tried to explain, “I don’t have any money. I have just stopped being a student and have an enormous overdraft.” I kept saying this to staff who wanted me to buy this and that. It fell on deaf ears; the requests and orders kept coming. At the start of the third week I had had enough and decided to tell my erstwhile friend that the job was not for me. I was digging a financial hole for myself by working for free, personally paying for office equipment and not getting my promised expenses. Worse still, I was missing the chance to chase a job that actually paid, even if only the minimum wage. But a chat with the boss helped. I am now getting my expenses — train fares and office purchases — paid, but I still have to face a further eight weeks of working for free before even being considered for a job. I’m going to stick with it, even though it feels like slave labour. There’s nowhere else to go. Tom Sanchez is a pseudonym

Articles

Beware of friends who bear the gift of a job

This article is from a previous edition of Graduate Career

This article was printed in the September 2009 edition of Graduate Career.

To download an electronic copy of this edition, please click here.

by Tom Sanchez Beware of friends who bear the gift of a job

I was delighted when a friend from the pub asked me to work for his company. I had just left university with a first-class BSc and was braced for a long and soul-destroying search for employment - one of thousands of graduates chasing jobs in a recession.

My friend’s company managed some big artists in the entertainment business. Furthermore my friend was the leading light there. Not only was I lucky to get something in a field many people my age would die for, but also I was optimistic that it was an opportunity to make some really good money. My friend spelt out his terms: a three-month spell, with all expenses paid, to see if I liked the work and they liked me. I agreed.

I was told I would have to start at the bottom and work my way up. That seemed fair enough. This was a new business for me and I wasn’t sure how things worked.

Off I went to London. The office had just relocated so my first day was painting and fixing light bulbs, getting keys cut, heaving office furniture around and sorting out the immediate needs. On day two I progressed to ordering water coolers and stocking the fridge with cold drinks. That was fine. I expected to be given basic stuff to do. Trouble was, nobody was prepared to pay for their drinks — or for anything else.

People sent me out to buy all sorts of things and I used my own debit card to order items as there was no proper office expense system in place. My expenses piled up. After week one I had spent about £180 on things for the office. I had even been asked to book a locksmith, electrician and plumber on my debit card.

My overdraft was soaring. After that first week frustration had already set in. By the end of week two, it had all got worse.

I had an ever-growing pile of receipts and tried to sort the matter out. But I was always told that the my friend was too busy to see me and I should just keep a check on what I was spending.

“You’ve got to realise,” I tried to explain, “I don’t have any money. I have just stopped being a student and have an enormous overdraft.” I kept saying this to staff who wanted me to buy this and that. It fell on deaf ears; the requests and orders kept coming.

At the start of the third week I had had enough and decided to tell my erstwhile friend that the job was not for me. I was digging a financial hole for myself by working for free, personally paying for office equipment and not getting my promised expenses. Worse still, I was missing the chance to chase a job that actually paid, even if only the minimum wage.

But a chat with the boss helped. I am now getting my expenses — train fares and office purchases — paid, but I still have to face a further eight weeks of working for free before even being considered for a job. I’m going to stick with it, even though it feels like slave labour. There’s nowhere else to go.

Tom Sanchez is a pseudonym

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Bec posted:

I think everyone in the above posts are being really harsh. I can understand how you got panicked into that kind of situation, afterall it was a friend you were working for and so obviously trusted them. Graduates are vulnerable to exploitation in the current climate, which is not the graduates fault and they deffinatley should not be ridiculed for making a mistake when trying to be proactive and get ahead! Also when the job market is so awful and you get the opportunity to gain experience which may lead to a job in an exciting industry or even just to enhance your CV it's not surprising that people decide to take the gamble- it's much better than giving up and sitting at home. I hope things turned out ok for you and the people who have posted above calling you an idiot should think about doing something more constructive with their time- leaving insulting posts shows your inability to construct an argument and is well kind of pathetic...