Hello, world!

Hello, world!

Don’t worry – I’m not so disillusioned that I truly believe the entire world is reading this little blog. I’d be lucky for even a handful of people to stumble across it. But however you wound up here, I’m glad you did.

I imagine that the initial readers of this blog will be made up solely of my friends and family (hi, guys!), but for any of you who have not have been directly coerced by yours truly to come and cast your eyes over this tiny corner of the internet, I should probably introduce myself…

I suppose the natural thing to reveal about myself first is that I have very recently finished university, after spending three years studying towards a degree in English Language and Communication (first-class honours, tyvm). Believe it or not, it’s not all as yawn-worthy as it sounds. Yes, university (at least for me) involved long hours pouring over textbooks and research papers. In fact, many a day went by when using my new pastel coloured highlighters was as exciting as it got. I did, however, make the most of my time at university (at least I like to think so) and gained many new experiences along the way, be it personal or professional. And this, I suppose, was my motivation for starting this blog.

Don’t get me wrong, in no way am I trying to suggest that I am the fountain of all graduate knowledge. I have, however, completed many an internship throughout my time as a student and, from these, I feel I have gained enough experience to warrant sharing some advice with people in a similar stage of life. And, thus, Adventure Capital was born!

I first came across the term “Adventure Capital” on Bplans.com, an advisory website for business start-ups, which defined the term as “Capital needed in the earliest stages of the venture’s creation before the product or service is available to be provided”, with financiers investing in start-ups that they believe to have high-growth potential. And that got me thinking about all the things we – as graduates – are expected to have accomplished before even finishing our undergraduate degrees, about all the things that we are expected to have before we are able to provide our “service”. The simple and unfortunate fact is that degrees alone just don’t cut it anymore. Proving your commitment and eagerness to learn by dedicating three years to extensive study is no longer enough. As well as your academic credentials, you are also expected to have a wealth of knowledge and experience at your disposal, all before you’ve even been awarded your diploma.

Such is the way, I suppose, what with the commercialisation of higher education, blah blah blah… Despite UK unemployment rates falling to an all-time low this year, the graduate job hunt is undeniably competitive, with more former-students than ever before entering into the dog-eat-dog world of resumes, interviews and assessment centres. The sad fact is that, for “investors” (in this case, potential employers), graduates can be far too much of a risk. We are, indeed, “start-ups” at the earliest stages of our “venture”, as it were, and employers simply have no clue whether we have high-growth potential or not, and whether, therefore, we are worth investing their time and money in (I love a metaphor, can you tell?).

But all is not lost. Even coming from an average uni, I have witnessed first-hand what students and graduates are capable of: many of my friends and course mates have already achieved remarkable things, exceeding all expectations of what this supposed “snowflake generation” is capable of. Therefore, I’m taking matters into my own hands. With this blog, I hope to shed a little light on the possibilities of what you could achieve as a graduate, student or entry-level worker. Our generation is branded as lazy, entitled and over-sensitive, but I hope that by offering some advice and insight, and therefore inspiring you to reach for your own dream, we can disprove that stigma one by one.

Thanks for listening to me waffle on (something I am bound to do on a frequent basis by the way – you have been warned). I hope you’ll stick around to see what’s in store.

Bye for now!

E x