This post is taken from Face Youth Lab, Youth Lab is the place for marketers and researchers to keep up to date with youth movements and trends. To see more please visit www.faceyouthlab.com.

To coincide with the release of our Tech Tribe report we got in touch with some of our Headboxers to give us an insight in to their lives during the recession. The first topic we approached them about was job hunting during the recession, has it been as bad as everyone makes it out to be? Or is it still a fruitful market for the young professional?

Here is what the Headboxers had to say:

“A few months ago i was trying to ignore the recession, i thought that it was still in firms best interests to hire graduates because in a year or two things hopefully will be looking a bit better and i didnt think firms would want to miss out on a round of graduates. I was wrong, 45% of firms that hired graduates last year are not hiring this year.

I had a job interview at a huge PR company, “£$&%*%”. The assessment day was not great, i left feeling pretty rubbish because i thought i had screwed it up, a bit nervous and didn’t sell my skills as best as i should have but i had got out of a microeconomics exam so i had at least had the experience AND got out of an exam but to my surprise i got a call back for a second interview. Now i got my hopes up, the second interview went brilliantly and i was excited. They seemed to really like me and were interested in everything i had to say.

A week passes and i get a phone call. Its “£$&%*%”, i didn’t get the job, they really liked me and thought i was really enthusiastic about the job and they usually hire 2 graduates each year but economic conditions blah blah, can only hire 1, the other person had more experience but thanks for applying.

Gutted. “

Recent Graduate, 21.

“I have taken a year out this year before i start University in September. I had hoped to get a job but no… I have handed out tons of CV and application forms and have not even had 1 interview. At least i have a definite place for Uni so that is sorted. Hopefully i will be able to get a part time job when i start but i am not holding out much hope for that

When i decided to take a gap year before Uni, the recession wasn’t even on the horizon so i thought i would just walk into a job… i wasn’t really bothered where i got a job so it would be easy”

Soon To Be Student, 18

Part 2 coming soon…

This post is taken from Face Youth Lab,  Youth Lab is the place for marketers and researchers  to keep up to  date with  youth movements  and trends.  To see more  please visit www.faceyouthlab.com.

As we established in our last blog entry (It’s a matter of life and debt…) debt amongst youth is at an all time high (or is that low?). If you are inclined to believe the media the reason for the red is the environment we have grown up in, a world where being significantly in debt is accepted as the norm. Yes, this is a good point and was very relevant a couple of years ago, however Tech Tribe tells us that this attitude is beginning to change, 60% of our Tech Tribe respondents disagree that “debt is fine because everyone else is in it too”.

This swing in overall mindset can be put down to everybody’s best friend, the recession; however the economic downturn has not altered everything. Day-to-day spending habits have not changed significantly with only 50% of respondents actively looking for ways to save money now we are in a recession. Even more surprising is the loyalty to credit cards with only 26% starting to save rather than buying on credit cards and just 22% reducing credit card limits to try and curb spending!

The ability to spend in any situation is, we think, due to 2 things – for those with the highest levels of debt, they are in so deep already that they feel any changes they make are unlikely to make any significant difference to their situation – again it comes down to getting that well paid job. For others, it is a ‘what can I do?’ situation. The recession is too big to handle – it’s a macro level thing, which is going to affect everybody. It’s almost too big and scary to comprehend on a day-to-day level, so whilst there is an ability to sweep debt under the carpet, the spending will continue.