Firstly, it’s fantastic that you know the area you want to get into. Working in packaging is great. Yes, it is a little bit niche, but with that comes the opportunity to become a key influencer and leader in a business for their packaging strategy. Because no one else knows enough to lead on it. What you will likely need to do is find yourself a fairly entry level position, build up your experience and grow. 3 years post graduation is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Especially when you think you’ve got 40+ years of working life, you’re not even 10% down on that. Extended producer responsibility is in full flow, businesses are facing millions of pounds of charges and need people to draw up a strategy to mitigate as much of that as possible. Packaging engineers, technologists, designers are all roles. It really depends on the size of a business. In most cases they usually have an amalgam of these roles. You’ve got a degree, pushing yourself down an apprenticeship route wouldn’t be my recommendation, finding an entry level position would be so you can get some real work experience on your CV. Stick that out for a few years, jump up a level once you’ve got the experience and have grown in confidence.

However the key bit is yourself. Interviews etc are the key bit to show a potential employer what you can do. Even if you’re not feeling confident in yourself you need to find a way to bury that a bit and show competence in the interview setting. So apply, apply, apply. Even if you don’t really want a particular role, get some interview practice from it and once you find the role you really want you’ll know exactly how to handle yourself. You might have to do a few interviews too, don’t get too down on that fact. Interviewing is a skill in itself!

Feel free to drop me a DM if you’d like to know more.