Gen Z and millennial workers in Britain are so fed up with being ghosted by employers that some are giving up on the country altogether. One graduate with a maths degree says he spent more than a year applying to over 1,000 roles in the U.K. without landing a single offer—only to secure a job in Austria within weeks.
The couple—who post on TikTok as @tamandanna—explained that despite having multiple qualifications to his name, Tam still couldn’t get a bite from British employers.
While he was firing off applications in the U.K., she was applying for roles back home in Austria—and immediately felt the contrast. “Within two or three weeks I had a job,” she said. “In Austria companies are literally crying out for good qualified staff and then in the U.K. it is so hard to find a job even when you’re highly qualified.”
Tam is far from alone. Many Gen Z graduates are discovering that their qualifications no longer guarantee a direct path to graduate schemes, high-profile jobs, or even a foot in the door they once did.
One company even took an entire year to get back to Tam about his job application, only to tell him he’d been rejected for the role he’d applied for.
Now, it’s been nine months since the couple uprooted to Austria for work, and Tam said it’s all been worth it: “It’s been such a good decision because now I’m in a job, I’m earning, and the quality of life is good.”
Their advice for the millions of young unemployed people who just can’t seem to catch a break? Think outside the box.
Tam admitted he had to look outside of his field of study to successfully land work. After having no luck securing a data analyst job, he widened his search and struck gold. “I thought, what have I got to lose? Keep open because there are opportunities, it’s just tough to see them sometimes.”
