I’ve always associated autumn with trying to find cosiness and cheer in life to distract me from colder, longer nights. It’s the time for drinking hot chocolate, having feel-good movie nights with housemates, and seeking out any room in my medieval College with decent central heating. It’s also – if you’re unfortunate enough to be a finalist – a time when the question “What are you thinking of doing next year” creeps into sentences and destroys the sense of optimism you had spent a whole day cultivating.

There’s no point dressing it up. 2025 is a really shit year to be graduating. The graduate market is the worst it’s been since records began. A mix of economic gloom and AI replacing entry-level jobs means that a degree from the most employable University in the country feels more like a one-way ticket to unemployment right now. Even if you are lucky enough to receive that fated email that doesn’t open “We regret to inform you…”, don’t get too excited about your future in corporate heaven. Chances are you’ll be working longer hours than the devil for a company that’d rival him in an immorality competition – all for a wage that’ll just about cover the commute to Canary Wharf.

“There’s no guarantee of a steady job at the end of that road, just another cliff edge with instability and debt at the bottom”

And don’t think you can keep your conscience clean by opting for a masters either. With cuts to scholarships across the board, you either need come from generational wealth or commit the heist of the century to be able to afford postgrad fees. Even then, there’s no guarantee of a steady job at the end of that road, just another cliff edge with instability and debt at the bottom.

So is there any hope? Should we all just drop out, retrain as a barista, and accept our fate? Well I think that maybe, just maybe, we all need to take some deep breaths and slow down a little. Even when the economy wasn’t on life support, graduate life wasn’t as straightforward as: get a degree, get a job, move to Surrey with your partner and children. The fact is that employment has never been totally linear. Not getting that one consultancy grad scheme you definitely really cared about doesn’t condemn you to never moving out of your parents place. Most people don’t stay in the same career their whole lives, and those who do probably had to retrain because they too made the mistake of doing a sociology degree.

“Cambridge is so fast-moving that it’s easy to fixate on the compounding stress and mania of it all”

And don’t forget, you’re still doing that degree. We’re lucky enough to study at one of the best Universities in the Country in one of its prettiest cities, in what are supposed to be ‘the best years of our lives’. Ask yourself, what are you going to nostalgise about in the future? Will it be all the amazing nights you spent with your friends avoiding responsibilities? Will it be getting the once-in-a-lifetime experience of being taught and lectured by genuinely world-leading academics in a field you do, deep down, genuinely care about. Or will it be that time you had a nervous breakdown staring at a cover letter that recruiters probably won’t read. It might seem obvious when I spell it out like that, but Cambridge is so fast-moving that it’s easy to fixate on the compounding stress and mania of it all. So don’t feel guilty about experiencing all the social events and extra-curriculars that make Cambridge so fun – anyone who calls them a waste of time is just boring. Even as I’m writing this article, I probably should be finishing my application to the latest no-hoper journalism grad scheme, but I don’t regret my decision in the slightest.

Maybe I will be one of the very lucky few who end up getting a job with half-decent pay that I genuinely enjoy when I graduate. If that is the case, then feel free to complain and roll your eyes at the inevitably self-agrandising LinkedIn post that comes with it. But I won’t be ashamed if it works out differently. I won’t chalk my time up to Cambridge as a failure because I left without a job. I will have enjoyed my degree, made friends for life, and gained genuinely useful skills that will serve me well in a future career – even if I don’t know what that is yet.

It is okay to be able to say you don’t have a plan for next year. Finding the right thing might take time, and that’s normal. And I can guarantee that in ten years time, you won’t be sitting in the pub still hung up on how much better life might have been if you just got that investment banking job.