If you're an Arts graduate - especially one with an English degree - I recommend writing copy. The money's not that reliable, as you get jobs as and when you like, but if you're living at home and you're not worried about paying rent/bills, this is fine. You can work all day in your PJs, which many people dream of (having done it a bit, I can say it's not all that).

I started researching and writing guides from home with a publishing company who wanted some 2,000 word city guides. I pretended to know my way around Svalbard, Spitsbergen, and three Belgian cities. Really, I just knew my way around the tourist info on-line. But I picked up a lot of good info on the way - like most people in Svalbard drink a lot, there being six-month nights in winter. Also, you can't go off the road there without a shotgun. Bit like Bolton.

This summer, I scored a VERY nice little number, writing bar reviews for Reading. And this time, I went in person. That was fun! I got to have a lot more control over the tone of the copy, used my (pun-based, dad-jokish) sense of humour. Plus, the people who were running the project loved going out as much as I did and were really sorted and friendly.

In addition to those, I've also written a bit in my Uni's Fresher's guide. But that was for free. Helping a friend. Oh, and I've done about 500 words for Itchy city guides. So: copy. Worth looking out for if you're a thorough researcher and you like working in your PJs.

Peeps, the job papers are BARE. Looks like the only way I can feasibly work in media in the next year is to get a job in.. *puke*... Media Sales. To be honest it might be a lovely job. I'm not completely sure what it entails. But it sounds like cradling a phone under your ear for six months, listening to ad agents remind you that it's a very difficult financial position, and no they're not keen to spend their cash on adverts in your publication, thanksverymuch.

List of things you can work as during the credit crunch:

• Media sales executive
• Kibbutzer - agricultural work, darning socks, looking after kibbutzettes (little kibbutzers)
• Start up a business selling home-made draft-excluders out of newspaper and old pairs of tights
• Publish an 'under-a-fiver' recipe book. Actually, this is rather old hat - other possible titles may include, 'baking with tinned goods', '101 ways with lentils', 'toast for dinner again! yay!'.
• Insolvency Consultant, Mainly Working In The Field. I.e., bailiff. Must bring own bovver boots and cold dead heart.
• Financial journo. Say what you like, as a lot of people probably still think that they won't be affected by the recession. Also, may become National Credit Crush, à la Robert Peston.

• Housing, career or financial advisor: advise those bearing the brunt of the economic crisis, and thus save your own interests

All in all, I can't say that the recession looks like fun for anyone. Graduates are surprisingly well-placed in the grand scheme of things. Few of us own property, few have dependants and most are welcome to live in and work from their parents' place. Employment-wise, we've got degrees - and if we can't find work, we're in a good position to reconsider postgrad study. I don't have a lot to complain about today. In fact, I'd rather be a media sales exec than sign on.

On that note; signing off...

This weekend, Boyf came to visit. It's the first time I've seen him in six weeks - I know, seems sadistic, doesn't it? He's back in the UK and I'm out here. So it was aces to see him. It's so cool to be able to just turn to the people you love and say what's going through your head without having to reach for your mobile! Showing him round Paris he remarked that I seemed happy to be here. It was good to have someone tell you that.

So, is it lonely? Upping sticks for something abroad? At times, it is. As well as language and cultural barriers, you have to start your social scene from scratch. If you live alone, that leaves a lot of hours to fill. And you might hate the place you've moved to. (To be honest, much as I love Paris, there's only so much art you can stomach in one afternoon).

Having said all that, I wouldn't give this up for the world. I've got the hang of banishing self-pitying thoughts - not something you can rave about on your CV, but very valuable! Plus, almost everyone I have met in Paris has been really friendly. I miss the people at home. But they'll be there when I come back. If not, they'll come out for a weekend of pauses gourmandes!

So if the question is: how lonely is it?
Then the answer is: only as lonely as you feel.

So, what am I doing here? I'm in Paris doing a three-month internship with a TV and film website. It's English-language site - my French A-level is rustier than an old trombone - and I'm on the editorial. That means I write the chatty stuff. I work specifically on TV series under the TV editor.

A typical day for me starts at about 9.30am, but there's no strict start-time. (My boss comes it about 10.15 most days). I check a load of showbiz and entertainment blogs and pick three news stories that I think our readers would like to hear about. I write those up 'til noon, do a bit of brainless database work, break for lunch at 2pm then, from 3 'til 6 or 7, help the editor compile a feature or a quiz or some soap spoilers.

It's fun! I spend all morning perusing the red-tops, filching stories off the 3am girls, and for homework I watch a lot of telly. It's basically getting paid to do what I'd be doing if I were unemployed, except that I don't turn up for work in my pajamas. I'm not sure I could do a job like this forever, because it feels a bit.. inconsequential, maybe, and not very socially constructive.

Yes, I've still got that not-working-for-Oxfam guilt that I should've binned at 15...

So that's that, in a nutshell! Excuse me, it's a Saturday night. No more blogging - I'm off to take advantage of the Parisien nightlife (Favela Chic, to pose). Promise to give you all the water-cooler goss another day. Bises!

Ah, Paris. So, I got into work at about half-past nine - not that anyone's here to check up on me. Then I chatted to the other intern, Charlotte, about whether she's going to get a job as a chalet girl when her stage is over. As we're chatting, her boss and her boss's boss walk by on the way out to a "working breakfast"; they insist on bringing us back some viennoiseries. MY boss, a laidback and stylish 24-year-old, still isn't in yet, so I'm perusing The Mirror for the news of the day.

No, I'm not making this up: the world of work really can be like this. It might be that I'm in France, where working hours are an hour later than British ones, and it's normal to lunch in a bistrot. It might be because I'm an intern, and not being paid what I should be for the full-time week I'm doing. It might be because it's nearly the weekend. But, with an atmosphere like this, who cares?

I'll let you know how I got on this internship - or stage, as they call it here - on the weekend. Bises.

Hey readers. This is What Do You Do With A BA In English?. I'm here to rep the arts graduate experience. In doing so I hope to reassure you that when YOU graduate with YOUR arts degree you will be vaguely employable.

So here's the skinny. I went to uni in 2005 and I graduated the summer just passed, 2008. I studied a three-year BA in English Literature at a nice Russell group uni, and I left with a 2.1. I chose not to do anything further study.

I left uni with no sense of direction, and no grand ambitions. Lots of my friends were flying to jobs in Europe, doing internships with brilliant independent magazines or winning fancy training contracts with high-profile law firms.

But before you squeeze my hand and make consolatory noises, let me reassure you that I didn't feel too bad about having nothing to do. I had everything I wanted, apart from a Grand Life Plan.

So when hit with the indefatigable question, "What Do You Do With A BA In English?", I had to get me a stock answer.

Two words:

Gap Year.

That phrase is a magical password to a land of shut-the-wellwishers-up, not to mention parental 'laissez-faire'. It gives me a year to try out everything and anything that I think I might be good at - education, journalism, working in the arts, events management. It gives friends and relatives a year off asking me that dull but essential question. The thing about an arts degree is that it leaves you a well-rounded, talented and interesting person. Instead of despairing over all the options, I learned how to exploit them.

So, readers, that's what I'm doing now: enjoying my Gap Year.

But what have you done with your BA in English, I hear you cry! Patience, reader. I'll fill you in bit by bit on how employable - or not - I've been over the last five months, and how I got to Paris. Paris, I know!! But that can wait.

As for my degree, I think I used it for scrap paper last time I did the G2 crossword.

Laters.