• You must always be available for work
• Contact MA

More want safety net

In the light of the current financial crisis there is a powerful logic to the trend the Magistrenes Arbejdsløshedskasse (MA) [graduate unemployment insurance fund] is seeing at the moment – namely a steady increase in the number of new members.
- We have made significant gains in membership both in terms of salaried employees and graduates; with unemployment rising across the board, it’s a good idea to protect yourself. The number of new salaried employee members rose in the course of the last half of year by 29.3% when compared with the same period for 2008, explains consultant Karin Rose Kolding from the Department for Strategy and Development at Magistrenes Arbejdsløshedskasse. She emphasises that the increasing unemployment amongst members, whilst not a cause for alarm, is still serious enough for people to want protect themselves as much as they can.
- Our advice is: Join up and get busy job searching. We have had feedback that some students are almost “hiding” at the universities and playing for time. This is a bad idea; the only justification for studying longer is to get further qualifications and experience. It’s better to take the bull by the horns straight away, counsels Karin Rose Kolding.

Free coaching
Graduates who join the MA are immediately protected against unemployment. For employees the rules are different - you have to have been a member for one year before any benefits are paid. So, if you’re an employee in a precarious job situation or a vulnerable industry, the best thing to do is just grab an application form and a pen.
- We are generally on high alert due to the financial crisis, and when a student graduates, he or she is automatically immediately invited to attend a meeting. Our consultants are themselves well educated and are therefore well able to help our members with the right advice and assistance. The consultants are divided between all four universities and people can come into our offices and receive coaching on a variety of issues. Some of the offices have Internet cafes and photocopiers which people can use in the job-search phase, says Karin Rose Kolding.

Brushing up applications
If you’re unemployed for the first time in many years, it’s a good idea to give both your application style and CV a basic brush-up. It’s no good sending the same application you used to get a job 10 years ago. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then, even from a purely application-related point of view.
- A classic error on applications is to forget who you are actually writing to, so the application becomes less about the job and more about the actual applicant. It is important that there is a thread running through the application or CV that corresponds to the job. People should forget all about standard applications and CVs. Both should be tailored to the individual application. Applications can easily be given a little more edge; academics are very nice people – too nice sometimes, believes Karin Rose Kolding and suggests that a little boldness can make an application stand out from the crowd.