Aditi Kukreja, a determined Indian student from Raipur, offered a brutally honest glimpse into her grueling job search in London. Armed with a master’s degree in law from Queen Mary University, she started applying for jobs in March 2024, only to face relentless rejection — over 2,000 times.

Despite following every rule and working tirelessly, she found herself repeatedly turned away, with online applications yielding no results. Refusing to give up, Aditi shifted strategies. She printed dozens of her CVs and walked door-to-door, handing them out at restaurants, cafes, and bars across the city. Yet, even after over 100 in-person attempts, she remained jobless — even McDonald’s rejected her for a Shift Leader position, a moment she candidly admitted was “a little embarrassing.”

Eventually, Aditi decided to return home to Raipur. However, she views this not as defeat but as redirection. “Maybe all those rejections weren’t failures, but signs pushing me toward something greater,” she reflected on Instagram, where her journey has resonated widely. Her resilience has turned her into an unexpected inspiration, sparking supportive comments from others facing similar struggles.

Her story also comes amid looming immigration policy changes in the UK. New proposals may soon require international graduates to secure graduate-level jobs to extend their stay, making an already difficult job market even tougher for students like Aditi.