As a young, inexperienced university student hunting in the job market, you should work your way from the bottom up – better start with serving food in the pub.

That is if you are unimaginative. What I believe is this

The more bold the attempt, the more exciting the opportunity.

When my roommate Virginie failed the interview for a receptionist job in a Jesmond tennis club, she turned to target at something better.

And a few weeks later, she was offered another interview, with a slightly better place – the United Nations.

I still remember when she applied for the internship with the UN’s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (she studies Disaster Management), she was asking me to check her CV but still felt she wasn’t good enough for them, saying, ‘I know this isn’t gonna work, but I’ll try anyway.‘

And it worked.

It turns out you don’t have to have a stunning CV to intern for the UN (but how ridiculously high the standard is sometimes for working in a pub serving fish and chips!).

I know this isn’t an ordinary path, but as a career starter, maybe, think bolder, aim higher – and you will be pleasantly surprised.

Well, the UN seems a pretty good place to start – If you have a look on the Internet, you’ll find that it actually offers quite a few internship opportunities for students (especially if you are doing a master’s) which run through a period of 1 to 4 months. The UNESCO offers similar internship programmes.

So back to Virginie’s story.

She turned the UN down.

It was because she was asked to work in Geneva for 6 months starting next January, but that would clash with her academic schedule.

But this wasn’t the end of the story. Virginie emailed them explaining her situation. Surprisingly, the staff expressed their interest in her again and agreed to reserve an interview for her whenever she’s available.

I know not all companies are so generous when it comes to flexibility. But here’s what I learnt from the GuardianJobs (weekly newspaper available at the entrance of Careers Service on second floor in Armstrong building)

Ask your past employer/tutor to write you a reference explicitly states that, with less flexibility, you’ve been as productive as those who enjoy more time. Don’t attempt to avoid talking about a difficulty until the end – no interviewer wants a nasty surprise just before recruiting you.