Caitlin was left wondering if going to university for four years and getting a degree was worth it. Latest research from the Institute of Student Employment shows competition for graduate roles is at a "record high" as estimates suggested there were 1.2 million applications for 17,000 graduate vacancies last year.

Setting herself a target of sending two applications a day, Caitlin was immediately rejected 150 times without feedback and did not hear back from 271 other applications. She said: "I put so much effort into my applications and so much time that when I didn't hear back from them that I just wondered what made my application not worthy of feedback?" Caitlin completed a year in industry as part of her finance and accounting degree at Swansea University and hoped it would help her stand out when applying for roles. Instead, she has a spreadsheet filled with rejections dating back to September 2023.

"I worked hard for my degree and had experience so was thinking, was it worth it? "There was a period where I was feeling completely demotivated and didn't believe in going to university or getting degrees." Caitlin thinks the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by companies as part of their filtering process could be a reason why she did not get very far in some applications. She said initially her CV was not written in a way that could be read by some resume screening programmes where AI is used to read CVs.

"I was just getting straight rejections whereas after adjusting it, sometimes you'd be invited to an assessment after you've applied," said Caitlin. "Had I have known that from the get go, that would've helped me with my other applications." She reached the assessment stages for 221 of the roles she applied for and had five final interviews before getting a job. Latest data estimates an average of 140 applications were received for each available graduate job in 2024. (BBC/ Getty Images)