The final flurry of essay writing, revision and dissertation hand-ins leading up to the demise of University are punctuated with certain terrifying buzz-words: ‘Work experience’, ‘internships’, ‘graduate schemes’ and shock horror, ‘real life jobs’.  Emails are flung backwards and forwards, letters drafted, redrafted and CVs scrutinized.  For the lucky few, elusive, seemingly unobtainable positions can become a reality.  For most, just more in a long line of ‘application practice’.

After partaking in this ritual, patience and determination wearing thinner with each polite decline and unanswered proposal, you can imagine my surprise when I, completely by chance, ended up as a fishery manager.  The closest I have ever come to catching a fish is with a fifty pence net on a bamboo cane from a village shop; the unfortunate, traumatized six centimeter long fish was sloshed into an un-naturally bright purple bucket, poked, stared at, and set free. Since then, choosing fish from the supermarket shelves, cooking and eating it, are the closest I have come to fishing.

Needless to say, it was a far cry from the jobs to which I had been applying.  I survived my first day in a blur of confusion, having plunged head first into the unfamiliar world of rainbow trout, damsel flies, rod types and of course, the oh so stereotypical fishermen.  My notepad and pen, my saviours, allowed me to store vital information; the types and sizes of fish, how to drive a tractor, the prices of different fishing tickets and the calculation of stocks and catch.  

Added to this, the complications of feeding time were worth much consideration.  I was told it was similar to tennis, a swift action of the wrist, with the aim of spreading the food evenly across the surface of the water.  Trust me, it’s easier said than done!  But to my surprise, I began to enjoy the work, and the experience it has given me is invaluable: interpersonal skills, team work, administration, spreadsheets, managing deliveries, communicating with customers, to name but a few.  Don’t get me wrong, becoming a fishery manager is certainly not my dream career destination, and I am in no hurry to become a seasoned fisherwoman.  However I am in no doubt that the skills I have gained will help enormously when I rejoin the application race; this time, certain that I have already had more than enough ‘application practice’, I am now ready to tackle the process head on, armed with my fishy experience.  My advice to anyone in the same situation is to broaden your expectations rather than narrowing your sights.  Jobs, skills and experience come in the most unlikely of forms, and all opportunities should be grasped with both hands.