I’ve always believed you are as old as you feel i.e age is all in the mind.

It wasn’t until I returned back to the ‘workplace’ (an office with other human beings in) I acknowledged that I was actually a little tiny bit older than the people I was working with.

But it wasn’t because I was old, I was 38. It’s just that with the exception of two senior editors, everyone else was younger than me – either their 20s or – at a push – their early 30s. There were a few (men) in their mid 30s but that was it.

I didn’t think anything more of it, having – somehow by the grace of God managed to establish a career without having to battle with overt sexism or misogny.

But I think that with the recession, and our ‘out for themselves’ government, times have changed.

Even though I was supposedly brought up during the ‘me, me, me’ days of the 80s I’/ve prided myself  on my  ‘old school’ feminism;  in that I believed women still had to keep together in order to educate their male colleagues about institutionalised sexism.  It’s not that men were/are  the enemy – attitudes were/are.

Trying to live out this ethos is becoming harder.  Because I’ve seen first hand how being older than 35 -when it comes to holding down a full-time professional role – can be career suicide.

I’d like to think that the examples of women I know (not just ones with children) that have lost their job or found it harder to get permanent or temporary (as opposed to the bits and pieces of freelance crumbs) employment contracts, are just anomalies.

But I’m afraid that it is part of a wider switch in the job market. As jobs become more scarce the old boys network somehow gets tighter and stronger.

This means ‘older’ women get pushed out. Don’t be kidded by the stories of how women are going it alone and setting up their companies in order to create the work/life balance missing from the corporate world.

Most of us do still want to work in the corporate world – we’re not all mumprenuers, we want to make a difference to our younger female sisters too.

Look around you? How many full time 40something women (not freelance, not self employed) do you see in senior positions in your office?

But it’s not just men, I’ve worked with (normally younger) women who have seem  my ‘working mummy’ status as a weakness to be exploited for their own career gain. I don’t think they are even aware of it – it’s just that it’s become a real ‘dog eat dog’ world and that’s the reality.

But younger women, you need to wise up, because in a decade or so it will be you who has joined the ranks of the vanishing 40something women.

And you need to get smart  now.

I have no solutions, but I would like to hear from other women who can identify to all this. Let me know at samantha.moneybags@googlemail.com

Don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, oh but I’m going to anyway. My question:  aren’t all these pictures of students jumping up in the air after getting their A level results a bit over staged?

When I got mine, some 20 years ago. I merely glanced at them (an A and a B by the way) and went back to work, I was doing (paid) work experience for our local newspaper.

I knew it then, and it seems to have got forgotten over the years, but the reality was and is that you need more than decent grades and even a degree to secure a decent future. Getting those grades might mean you’ve got into university. But even when the economy is booming getting your dream job or any job is going to take a lot of hard work beyond that.

First you’ll need a hard skin and talent – having family who are well connected and a good degree helps, but I’ve worked alongside Oxbridge graduates who were useless and non graduates who were brilliant, and guess who’s still in journalism (clue: the latter)?

Even then you will need dedication and single mindedness – you’ll need to get work experience and lots of it, unless you are a science or maths supremos who intends making your career in academics/research (and even then you may need to be a bit determined because even those jobs are in short supply).

But most of all you’ll need humility, even at my age I’ve a lot to learn. I don’t assume because I’ve been in journalism for 20 years that I know everything.That’s probably why I didn’t jump for joy when I got my results all those years ago, and why even when I got my 2(i) I didn’t go crazy either.

The journalists and colleagues I’ve worked with and friends in jobs in fact all those making a living, are those who kept their head down and let their work speak for them, not their grades.

Sorry to be a party pooper!

I’m writing this blog from our local library. Our internet at home went down two days ago and so, it seems, has the internet connection of a lot of local businesses around here.

We use our local library a lot, my daughter loves nothing better than maxing out her library card with as many books as she can borrow, and ergo I have re-discovered my love of the library; which wasn’t that hard considering the years I’ve spent with my head in a book.

This got me thinking, libraries are under threat in the latest round of government spending cuts. In fact there’s the possibility that yet another valuable service may end up the way of free dental and optical checks – non existent. Can you imagine – no libraries, the thought sends a shudder down my spine.

The recession, it seems has turned the attention of the government on services it considers wasteful, or surplus to requirements, another example being the NHS trusts that are likely to be declared bankrupt because they borrowed money to make their service offerings better.

But in my opinion, libraries and the NHS are not profit making entities, they are part of a civilised society whose services should and can be enjoyed by everyone -regardless of social status or salary size.

Why when we can bail out the banks, can we not bail out the NHS. I know the NHS is not the most efficient service in the world, but neither were (and are) the banks.

For example, running businesses or institutions on a profit basis would mean sites like this wouldn’t see the light of day

Too many people are still out there out to make a fast buck, and they are using the recession as an excuse to do it. Why do you think the richer are  getting richer during the recession?

I’ve got a micro example, a friend I know fell behind on their council tax, one month, owing just under £200. The council knew the family were having financial problems, and theywere apying each month just not on the 1st of each month.

Last month a bailiff arrived on their doorstep, demanding £400 for unpaid council tax – the £200 extra was his company’s expenses. And  how many families have fallen behind with their council tax, and paid the bailiffs expenses to get them off their back. A lot I imagine.

When it comes to cost-cutting there’s another scary fact out there, one I discovered when I went to a conference held by my union the National Union of Journalists. It noted that women are twice as likely to lose their job now as they were pre-2007. And I have to say, out of my group of friends, the only ones to lose their jobs were my female ones, including myself. With so much news around the recession these facts get overlooked – and we (women) are in real danger of losing many of the rights we have gained over the last few years.

My only consolation as I write this is that money can buy many things but it can’t buy integrity and peace of mind, nor can it buy you a happy soul and loving relationships. Those – like the NHS and local libraries  – are priceless.

The announcement by the Coalition government in 2011 to raise the upper limit of university tuition fees to 9,000 a year has brought the value of university into sharp focus.

I saw the outrage explode all over Facebook and other social networking sites; many students feeling cheated and betrayed by the new government. Several people I knew at university went up to London to take part in what was supposed to be a peaceful protest but that ended negatively for all those involved.

Prospective students entering university with the new tuition fees in place will now face a difficult dilemma, as they decide whether the benefits of university outweigh the cost.

As much as I loved university, if I was going to pay £9,000 a year for tuition fees it would me make me think carefully about how necessary a degree was for my chosen career.

Don’t get me wrong, university  has its good points. The lifestyle is a lot of fun (imagine one big party), you meet all kinds of people, some of which will become lifelong friends, and become a more confident, independent person.

My course was both challenging and stimulating and I was incredibly happy to receive a 2:1.

University also teaches you some valuable life lessons. For most, it is their first time living away from home, standing on their own two feet.

However, the thought that new graduates are likely to leave university with a debt of around 50,000 is a sobering one.

The debt isn’t the main problem though. The current employment situation for graduates is.

Until recently, a degree was guaranteed to boost your employability, improving both career and salary prospects. In a report from the 1994 Group of universities, 80% of those who graduated before the recession were in graduate – level jobs within three and a half years of leaving university.

Millions are finding themselves left out in the cold as they struggle to gain employment in a job market saturated with graduates and still recovering from the effects of an economic recession.

Many graduates, me included, have been forced back home, unable to afford their own lodgings. A report released by the Office of National Statistics in winter 2009 revealed that more young adults in their mid twenties and early thirties were living with their parents in 2008 than was the case in 1988.

Graduates do typically have higher employment rates than non- graduates. In the final quarter of 2011, 86% of all graduates were in work compared to 72.3% of non- graduates.

It seems that in the future, hands –on training will be just as vital as academic training.

Employers are placing more and more emphasis on work experience as a way of sifting the most promising candidates from the rest.

In the industry I want to go into, journalism, most employers won’t even look at you unless you can show that you’ve used your skills in a practical environment like the newsroom.

Many students also feel that work experience counts for more than academic qualifications. Jessica Delanghe, a student at the West of England university in Bristol, said: “ in this economy it is more important to have experience in the relative field than to say you have spent 3-4 years preparing for it through university.”

Universities are now starting to offer employability schemes, in an attempt to blend the student experience with the skills required for work.

One example is the University of Surrey’s Global Graduate Award scheme, which provides free foreign language lessons to undergraduates, whatever their course.

It is clear that in the current economic climate simply having a degree is not enough. In order to beat the recession, students are going to have to spend more time improving their employability and carrying out work experience placements. This, rather than any formal qualifications, is likely to be the key to success.

What do you think – is a university degree worth the debt? Have your say below.

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Ever since the start of the recession, news of youth unemployment has dominated the headlines. Totaljobs.com released a report which found a third of graduates were still looking for work more than 6 months after leaving university, despite many completing over 100 applications, and International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde recently stated that youth unemployment was too high.

According to the Office of National Statistics, the percentage of recent graduates employed in lower skilled jobs rose from around 27 per cent in 2001 to around 36 per cent at the end of 2011. However, graduates typically have higher employment rates than non- graduates, who may struggle with a lack of higher education.

As a graduate myself, I am going to share my own experience of the youth unemployment crisis.

When I started university, I thought that having a degree would mean my future was secure; I would graduate, walk into my dream job and live happily ever after.

The reality turned out to be very different.

As soon as I graduated, I started apply for journalism jobs.  I didn’t get a single interview.

Most didn’t bother to respond at all. It was usually only after a month or so had passed that I realised I had been unsuccessful.

So I quickly woke up to the reality that currently faces most graduates: bleak prospects and an unsettled job market.

I decided that if I was ever going to become a journalist I needed a qualification more tailored to the profession and enrolled on the NCTJ diploma in journalism distance learning course. I moved back home (which took some adjusting to after three years living away!) and began searching for a job; I was completely broke at this point.

So I handed out my CV to all the local shops, bars and restaurants in my area, thinking that my qualifications and previous retail experience would be more than enough to get me hired. A month later and things were looking desperate.

I couldn’t understand? Surely, as a graduate, I was qualified? Perhaps that was part of the problem? Because I had a degree most potential employers probably suspected I had more ambitious career plans.

I felt demoralized, my self- confidence diminishing with every unsuccessful application. There were times when handing out another CV almost seemed pointless and a waste of effort. What was even more frustrating was that shops I had given my CV to were still displaying the same vacancy signs weeks later.

There I was, actively seeking work! I wasn’t claiming benefits, yet I felt like the system favoured those who were.

Eventually I managed to get a full time position doing administrative work. My few months job hunting made me realize how lucky I am to have a job at all, even if it’s not something I want to do long term.

Millions of young people are currently facing long-term unemployment and with figures likely only to increase, there seems to be no way of knowing when the situation will end.

(Pic courtesy of neonbubble via Flickr)

First the bad news, I am no longer a bride-to-be on a budget. Before you ask, other half and I haven’t eloped, nor have we split up.

We decided that, with his new job, my new ventures, an imminent family move and (more to the point) – the fact that we can afford a slightly bigger wedding now –  we wanted to re-think our whole budget wedding thing.

So we are planning a different wedding in a few months time and have already set another date with our priest.

I have to say trying to plan a wedding in five months, a wedding that seemed to get bigger by the day, ended up being just a little too much. And the family politics, which I may write about another time, have been one eyeopener too many for me.

So I’m now a very calm, chilled, caffeine drinking (detox be gone), working mummy with a very chilled wedding to plan; most of which is in place.

Coming to the decision was the hardest part and followed a really tough couple of weeks for me.

In fact during the last few weeks there have been moments when I felt I was either going to have a heart attack or spontaneously throw up.

Take the week before last. I’d agreed to write an exclusive story for one of the national newspapers I occasionally work for.

I’d found out a certain lender was doing something a bit different, and although not earth shattering was certainly worthy of a report.

That was on the Monday, then mid afternoon on the Tuesday the editor asked me if I’d mind writing another longer story to accompany my exclusive. Of course I would, so I said yes and spent the rest of that afternoon teeing up contacts and trying to source a case study.

But then on Wednesday disaster struck. Not only was Imogen not feeling well, a stinky cold as she put it, but my mum (who was going to look after her while I worked) was also not well. My standby childminder was on holiday and there were no places at the pre-school which Immy attends the other four days of the week.

Cue first wave of nausea.

What was I to do? Well I managed to persuade my unwell mother to cover me for an hour on the Wednesday morning during which time I managed to interview experts and write up most of the copy.

Thing is, despite my best efforts I was having no luck finding a case study. “This never happens, why today of all days” I asked Andrew – who was training away from home.

I couldn’t possibly admit to the editor that this had happened, he’ll never let me work for him again. As one freelancer friend said: “Never mention the C word (i.e childcare)  editors just don’t want to know.”

So I soldiered on, only for my attempts to come and bite me on the back.

The following week I had some guides to write, along with a short feature. On Monday I was all smiles and positivity: “Okay I can manage this,” I said as I sat down with a pack of Belvita at 9am..

Could I hell?

At first everything was calm and my tummy was returning to normal.

Then on Tuesday all the butterflies broke loose when I discovered a voicemail (mobile reception is bad where we live) the editor telling me there had been a problem with my story. I spend Tuesday night tossing and tuning, with all kinds of scenarios ranging from a class action law suit through to being banned from working by the NUJ (my union)

On Wednesday morning, already feeling green I had to deal with an inaccuracy in my story. Luckily it was corrected online, but still I felt sick and still do to be honest.

Was my inaccuracy down to stress? I make mistakes, I’m human but not like this one, while not terrible it wasn’t me at all.

Was it the strain of having made the decision to cancel the wedding ? Was I just a crap journalist? Or was I right, you can’t have it all and I’d simply done too much?

I’m now popping antacids and hoping that this week will be more work, more play and less worry.

And thankfully a beautiful wedding, which is just about far enough in the distance to get excited about, to plan.

Companies, hey? Who’d work for one. Well most of us are employed by companies, of varying sizes but companies nonetheless. Even freelancers like myself can’t get away from corporate entities, working as part of a team within an organisation is a fact of life for most of us.

Before I started university age 18 I’d already worked for four employers, and during my studies I worked for three more.

Although I’ve been a journalist since the age of 16, I’ve worked for at least 12 different companies since. Some were good, some were okay and some were bad. It’s testament to one company that I’ve been working for them in various department and with varying responsibilities since I was 19, when I did a work experience placement. In fact when I joined them as a staff reporter age 24, after spending two years at a well-respected but badly managed local newspaper,  I remember being amazed that they had a dedicated human resources person.

Since then I’ve worked for several large companies but it was my experience of working for internet-based media companies that taught me the most about employers and where I learned how and how not to do things.

Mainly because many of these companies were so new, and everything so untried and untested, no one was really sure what they were doing. But that wasn’t the problem ,the difference between the bad and the good bosses was that the good ones quickly learned and moved on. For example one internet company employed a bunch of journalists including myself and within six months realised their business model had changed. Rather than sack us they offered us the choice of retraining or a generous severance package. Another got rid of a team of journalists following a take over, and even gave the freelancers two months salary.

Another thing I’ve learned is never ever join a company because you feel sorry for them and think you can sort them out – I was headhunted for one role and took the job on that basis. I thought the boss was a nice guy and seemed like the ideal inspirational boss, but he was ruthless like most bosses and to him business was business. So when I didn’t achieve what they wanted I was the one left crying, literally.

I’m still amazed that some employers get away with so much – so long as they get rid of you within 2 years of they can do almost anything (bar descriminate against you on a sexual, disability or age-related basis) which is why you need to make sure that any company you join is right for you. Even in a recession good staff are like gold, whatever companies may say.

So if you are thinking of changing job here are some things I reckon you should watch out for.

Training opportunities, a good employer should make sure their staff are at the top of their game, or at the very least  let you continue with any other studies.

Generous severance packages – I’ve come across what I call ‘vampire employers’ who will actively recruit dynamic staff simply to drain their ideas and contacts then sack them less than a two years into their contract. As I’ve noted above good companies reward staff from beginning to end.

Questions to ask:

Find out what happened to your predecessor (before you join the company). In one of my last staff jobs my predecessor – the previous editor – had left the company in less than great circumstances but I didn’t find this out until I joined the company. The woman in question was regularly referred to in colourful adjectives that would have made for decent industrial tribunal case. Needless to say most of the employees were men.

Ask your future manager for a reference. Dynamic managers – managers who are confident in their own skin are prepared to delegate tasks and get on with the job of moving the company or the department forward. The best way to find out if your new manager is dynamic is look at their track record, and what people say about them.

Find out what the job involves and ask for a job description. That way you will know what is expected of you.

It’s also worth checking your contract before you join the company. I wrote this article about how debts can lose you a job for the Guardian late last year.

What tips would you suggest to anyone looking for a new job or wanting to change careers?

The iconic film that made these words famous was released when I was nineteen. I was reading Biochemistry at university, before anyone had mobile phones or used the internet and before the Spice Girls had launched their careers.

These words inspired my generation more than cloning Dolly the sheep (although it always continued to puzzle me how anyone could fancy Ewan MacGregor sans hair…).  Anyway, the irony of course is that today, like a lot of women in the 21^st Century, I realise that you cannot choose to have it all.  I chose a career.  Others choose a family.  Yet few of us feel like we have any choice at all.  But maybe we do and we are too scared to modify our choices…

Christmas and Easter lead me to reflect and feel a little philosophical. The Religious aspect has nothing to do with it (and neither does the increase in alcohol), rather, time with my family makes me feel like I have made the wrong choice…I can choose my job and choose my career and, frankly, choose to work less and choose to commute less and choose to earn less, without impacting on our lifestyle.

In the 16years since Trainspotting was released, I have come to realise that having choice is hard as you have to live with consequences of your decisions.  Perhaps better to have no choice and blame someone else? And what does it mean to choose life anyway?   I could quit my job tomorrow, but this is no easy decision.  The truth is that in the last sixteen years, I have had two marriages, one divorce, a couple of kids and twelve different homes…but only one career.  That said, after a long weekend of family fun, I drafted my letter of resignation…but so far I have failed to print it…

More from Accountant in the City

Our mummy blogger holds down a high profile job and has two young children. And she often asks herself ‘how do I do it?’

“Can crocodiles walk upstairs?”, asked my three year-old daughter when she woke up last Saturday.  Such a great  question – and a shame that I couldn’t find the answer on Google! I was, however, curious despite the fact that that my fruitless emails searching had put us 40 minutes behind schedule…so I emailed the local zoo in the hope that they could assist…

While waiting for a response,  I took my baby to the local shoe shop to purchase his first pair of shoes, hoping that I would remember to mark the event in his baby book (I  know he’s a second child but it seems a shame to leave it completely blank!). Unfortunately, the little monkey refused to take a single step with shoes on his feet and remained rooted to the spot in the shop.  Even my abandoned iPhone on the other side of the store could not convince him to move (though it did attract a number of other sticky hands)! For a moment or two I thought all of my prayers had been answered and I would once again be able to go to the toilet without being followed but in the end we returned home empty handed.  The weekend schedule had been scrapped.

Meanwhile, the Zoo had replied to my earlier question:

“We have asked our zoo curator and the crocodile keepers. Whilst they all believe that crocodiles would be able to walk upstairs, nobody has actually witnessed it.”

An answer like this was not going to satisfy my three year-old…but a gator sanctuary in Florida clarified the issue, thanks to a crocodile named Bubba, “an amazing gator who passes away several years ago“, who had apparently been trained to walk up and down stairs so that he could make public appearances.

I never thought to ask whether Bubba had ever been asked to do this in shoes…

By Samantha Downes, Ella Mag ed.

Great news… there have never been so female directors on top company boards.

Bad news… the number of female directors is still far short of a 25 per cent target set by a government review last year.

The Davies report, which I wrote about here last year recommended that companies in the FTSE 100 should have 25% female board membership by 2015.

The Cranfield School of Management has been noting the progress of the report’s proposed target.

But we have come some way to breaking the glass ceiling in 1999 just 6.9% of directors in top companies were women and this time last year it was 12.5%.

Cranfield reckons it could rise to 36.9% by 2020, well above the Davies target.

There are now 141 women holding 163 board seats in FTSE 100 firms, while the number of companies with no women board members has fallen to 11.

Drinks giant Diageo had the biggest percentage of female directors at 44%, said the Cranfield report, adding that the number of women at senior executive level varied “dramatically”.

But and a big, big ‘but’ here, the Davies report only covers the UK’s top companies.

Liz Field, chief executive of the Financial Skills Partnership is one of many to note that while the increase in top board membership is clearly welcome, a lot more work could be done to help adjust the gender balance throughout company hierarchies, in particular at the level immediately below the one currently reported on.

She says recent research indicates that female participation at this level is actually declining rather than rising, a trend that needs to reversed if we are to ensure a continuous pipeline of female talent. Companies would do well to follow in the footsteps of the most progressive amongst them which – besides introducing better diversity monitoring and tailored development and mentoring programmes for women – are also trying to tackle the most deep-seated causes such as unconscious bias.”

Carmen Watson, managing Director of Pertemps Network Group, agrees.

“We should be encouraged at the steady progress taking place at director level, we need to ensure there is a diverse pipeline of talent to continue to fill these positions in future.

“Women already have the capabilities to break through into the boardroom in larger quantities and need the support of much more progressive working conditions instead of being handed positions through quotas.

“It’s certainly healthy that we’re having the debate about whether quotas are needed to generate more female directors. However, using positive action this way could create tension among executives who have reached their position on merit alone, and this ultimately does a disservice to the many talented women we have in the UK. Businesses are starting to realise that change needs to be brought about but until proven strategies are introduced on a widespread basis, the change will never be significant or sustainable.”