Currently looking for a flat share in London myself, trying to make sure I don’t end up living with a weirdo is no mean feat. The Easyroommate and Flatshare websites have begun organising Speed Flat Mating events in and around London. This is a great way to meet potential roomies and make new friends.

In the same way as Speed dating you get given a name badge. If you’re looking to rent you display your name, budget and desired area. For those who are trying to rent their rooms out they display their name, rental amount and the nearest overland/tube station. Once everyone’s arrived and you’ve had a few bevies, for Dutch courage, the mingling begins.

Feeling bleary eyed on my long commute home I ended up coming across a feature in the Evening Standard about some commuters living in tents on Lea Valley Leisure Complex to avoid the Monday – Friday slog. They call themselves ‘Camputers’, I call them nuts. I, for one, will be packing up my tent at the end of festival season and it won’t be coming out until V Festival next year. In the mean time I will carry on looking for the flatshare of my dreams and speed sharing until the right one comes along.

This morning I find that the media is brimming with stories on how graduates with degrees below a 2:1 are struggling to find work. While I have a certain amount of sympathy for those who are finding it an increasingly difficult task to get employed, I can’t help but feel that there is a certain amount of ar$e scratching taking place.

“I spent three years (probably one year of not doing very much and two years pulling my socks up) getting a degree, now give me a job.”

Sorry guys and girls, that just doesn’t cut it any more, and hasn’t done for a long while.

As undergraduate barriers to entry have eased considerably over the years, the onus on the student to complement their studies with quality work experience has increased. A quick chat with friends and colleagues reveals that many, including me, went looking for work experience in our second year of uni and found it to be exceptionally valuable when it came to finding full time employment.

In the past few weeks  at Speed we have had a few interns join us, all of which appeared to find the experience worthwhile, and all of which would be given a good reference if they requested one. A couple of these references from credible workplaces will be valuable gems when it comes to applying for work.

Whether you get a 1st a 2:1 or a 2:2, employers of today want to see real passion and drive to learn the job at hand; work experience is not a nice thing to have but an essential ingredient to a shining CV.

I leave you with one of the jobless graduates quoted in the Independent “I probably didn’t put as much effort into my degree as I could have done.” Well to be honest friend, why the hell are you complaining?

I wrote a few tips some time back for graduates or soon to be graduates looking for work, I hope this helps!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Employers ‘requiring 2:1 degree’ (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Nearly 70 graduates for every job vacancy (independent.co.uk)
• Nearly 70 UK graduates are fighting for every job going (telegraph.co.uk)
• Graduates warned of record 70 applicants for every job (guardian.co.uk)
• Graduate Job Fears As Budget Cuts Loom (news.sky.com)

Tesco, Toshiba and Virgin, all brands that Speed work with, have been featured in The BrandFinance® Global 500 2010, a league table of the most valuable global brands.

We are proud to be working with all our clients and of course are looking forward to adding the other 497 brands featured on the league table to our client list.

Euro MPs have “strongly” criticised telecoms firm Nokia Siemens Networks for providing “surveillance technology” to the Iranian authorities.

BBC – Government calls for action on mobile phone crime

The government has called on the mobile phone industry to do more to protect handset owners against theft.

Total Telecom -France Telecom to spend €2bn on fibre network by 2015

France Telecom said Wednesday it will restart investing in fiber optics in France after the group had put investments in the rollout of the ultra high-speed Internet network on hold last summer pending regulatory clarification.

The Times – Google expands reach into ultra-fast broadband

The internet search company plans to become a provider of ultra-fast broadband to thousands of homes in the US

The Daily Telegraph – Twitter and Facebook can improve customer service

As social media takes off, many employers have seen the customer service potential of social-networking websites, writes Duncan Bannatyne.

The top 10 consumer mobile apps in 2012 will include:

1. Money Transfer – e.g. iMobile
2. Location-Based Services – e.g. Loopt
3. Mobile Search – e.g. Taptu
4. Mobile Browsing – e.g. Firefox Mobile
5. Mobile Health Monitoring – e.g. Main Street Medica
6. Mobile Payment- i.e. Charge Anywhere
7. Near Field Communication Services – e.g.  iCarte
8. Mobile Advertising – e.g. AdMob
9. Mobile Instant Messaging – e.g. Fring
10. Mobile Music – e.g. Spotify