'I went for 1,200 jobs but got only two interviews'

A woman who struggled to find a job after graduating from university said she applied for more than 1,200 roles - but only secured two interviews.

Deanna Woodhouse-Hawkins, 25, from Birmingham, applied for the positions over a period of 18 months, after graduating with a degree in computing and IT through the Open University.

Ms Woodhouse-Hawkins found it impossible to find a job in her field and said she never received any feedback from potential employers on her applications.

"It was depressing," she told the BBC. "You'd think you'd get more [interviews] as you apply and you'd tailor these CVs and you just hear nothing back."

"Even when you do the assessments they ask you to do, you either don't hear anything back and if you do it's just usually, 'Oh, you haven't passed'," she added.

Ms Woodhouse-Hawkins, who lives in Quinton, eventually found a role as a Junior Python (widespread computing language) Developer at Global Telecoms Networks, where she has just completed her three-month probation.

After struggling with her mental health throughout the job application process alongside claiming Universal Credit, she received help from a foundation that offers support to unemployed people get set up with tech careers in the West Midlands.

She said the programme, run by Generation UK, "instilled hope" that she would finally get a job in a field she had trained for.

A skills boot-camp, between October 2024 and January, taught her how to craft a CV that stands out, as well as interview techniques and additional technical skills that were missing from her Open University curriculum.

Ms Woodhouse-Hawkins, who has been diagnosed with anxiety and depression, believes the main reason her mental health plummeted was because she got no feedback from potential employers on why she wasn't successful.

Out of more than 1,000 applications, she only secured a job interview for her current role and one previous application.

"It was just literally, applying for jobs, not hearing back, getting ghosted," she said of the process.

"Tailoring your CV to try and get a response. Not getting a response and if you do get a response it's very generic of, 'Oh we've moved onto a different candidate', or someone else fits the job better.

"It's just all the same usual, just being ghosted."

Kelsey Flynn, head of impact at Generation UK, said Ms Woodhouse-Hawkins' experience of rejection after rejection was "far too common".

"We see it all the time," she said. "Unemployment amongst young people is on the rise and it's really scary.

"Most of the people that we come across desperately want careers and are really trying to find them. But they just need access to the training and support."

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