Young adult son can't find job

[BoyJob]

Does anyone else have a young adult DC who is unable to find a job?

DS graduated a year ago with a 2:1 in a very specific artistic/technical subject. He has wanted to work in this role since being quite young. Unfortunately, neither he nor any of his peers, even those with contacts in the industry, have found a job in that area, although most have found some other type of job. Almost all of the adverts are looking for someone with experience.

He is sending off applications for all sorts of jobs, but usually gets no response whatsoever and, occasionally, a brief "no thank you" email. We are very concerned that the longer this goes on, the more unemployable he will become.

We are in the South East. Is anyone else in the same position?

It's really difficult at the moment in IT, and it's not just new grads that are struggling. DD (mid 20s) had an IT job but her contract wasn't renewed, and she has been out of work for months now. There are a few jobs around but just so much competition. Most of the ads I see are for school leaver apprenticeships, very senior positions or yet more training courses. A friend in her 30s is in a similar situation, IT again. One IT company I know has cut 20% of their staff, and another one usually recruits regularly but have had a freeze for about a year.

As for retail, hospitality etc., she has been applying online, but with no luck, and she just will not walk into shops and apply in person (ND). And as others have said, they know that grads will leave when they find something better, so they wouldn't be first choice.

It's all very stressful, for parents as well as the kids!

IT (if you mean tech) like any other pro-cyclical sector isn't immune to recession. It also hasn't helped that the media constantly pushes ,'learn to code and make the big bucks' with the result that everyone and their dog has tried to 'career change' into tech. So many training courses simply to waste government money for no discernible output.
Those of us who've been here a long time know that the field is boom and bust. Always has been since it became a department crucial to operations. This current winter is nothing new.
Furthermore many roles are project based and when funding dries up projects, and so staff are cut.
However as the field is vast certain skillsets and niches are more in-demand and stable than others.
Your daughter will find something don't worry also she's a woman and a lot of initiatives to get more of us into technical roles. The market turns usually every couple of years I'm expecting things to pick up in autumn.
Hiring is slow in summer as people are on holiday, picks up in autumn and quietens down again from Christmas until early March.

@PasteldeNata78 thanks for the positive words.

Not any help for you, but your my eldest son has got a place to start that kind of degree in September. He has Dyspraxia - including Verbal Dyspraxia, and hearing loss. I too think he could be on the Autism Spectrum, but is not diagnosed. He's passed his Level 3 ICT course, at college. He has never had even a part time job, so now I feel a bit more anxious about things. It's not my place to tell him what to do, but he has his heart set on going to uni. Does anyone have any advice on what he could do to help him work towards a career in this area? Like should he be trying to find some work experience/part time work alongside the course? I want to encourage him, at the same time as being realistic of him finding a job after his degree. He is coming on for 20 now.

TV industry is over as we knew it and more and more of us are having to change careers.

It's very serious and I would encourage your son to think about transferable skills with a view to having to work his way up whatever he does.

Yes but the problem is that you need to have done an internship to get an internship.

I've been looking at some of my younger colleagues' LinkedIn profiles to see what they did and quite a few of them did internship/work placement after internship.

It would be fairer and easier for people to get into their respective fields if employers would offer internships or at least work placements to people who hadn't already done one.

What’s happening @coastingcoffee ?

Well it depends on the field . Some like journalism require like you said a string of unpaid internships.

The less/moderately competitive ones that take more than a handful of graduates every year just require evidence of workplace skills to answer competency based questions. This doesn't mean internships it could be volunteer work or a uni society position.

Things like 'how do you handle a difficult team member, 'tell me about a time you met a strict deadline' etc.

@EasternStandard very low commission rate means there aren't enough jobs to meet the freelancer demands.

Post covid was a busy time and many networks and channels had a surplus of programming which meant that there was no need to make new content.

Several series haven't been renewed and development projects have been scrapped.

If something is commissioned there are shorter series so less work. Also in house permanent staff are taking these roles (with little to no experience)to keep companies afloat and not hiring the normal freelancers.

It's affecting all levels of industry from those starting out to those with 20-30 years. From top level Executive Producers to Runners there just isn't enough work. We've been advised to hold on until 2025 if possible!

@BoyJob

He might want to check out any suitable opportunities here, OP.

https://www.gchq.gov.uk/section/careers/working-for-gchq

Auticon maybe helpful?
https://auticon.com/

Tech is hard at the moment- I only recently started working again after several months following redundancy. I've a couple of friends who are very experienced who are struggling to find anything just now.

You could try these people for advice
https://employmentautism.org.uk

Your DS may need to relocate to get the job he wants. It is a big thing, but perhaps you can put in support? Ensure he has help moving, finding a place to live, settle in, trips home planned and paid for?

[]www.animationuk.org/subpages/job-vacancies/]]" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.animationuk.org/subpages/job-vacancies/]]]]

is this website any good- lists all the companies. May be worth writing to everyone. (Animation companies at end of article)

Has he thought about going freelance? I know someone who gets commissioned to make short adult cartoons. He also gets people paying him through Patreon to watch him draw his content. He earns a surprising amount from doing this.

Thank you so much to everyone who has replied to my post and who has sent me private messages. Apologies for not having responded for a few days - work and family commitments were given priority.

It seems we have some light on the horizon as a job might be available through a family contact. Not what he wants to do at all, but a solid admin job. We shouldn't have to be relying on "who you know" but I no longer care!

I shall be working my way through all of the suggestions you have made in any event, just in case that doesn't work out. Thank you all again.

I feel I must respond to this post.

Honestly, knowing what I know now, I would be trying to dissuade my son from going to university to study something like this. Although he went to what is considered one of the best unis for this type of course, I was not very impressed by the rigour of the course itself. For starters, the work seemed to fizzle out towards the end of the academic year (and let's not talk about what happened during Covid!). There didn't appear to be very much help in how to go about getting a job.

Please read through the entire thread as there are people on here who have experience of this an related fields and they all appear to be saying that there simply aren't the jobs available now. As I have said before, none of his peers have secured a job in this field, other than a bit of freelancing.

If it is really something that he wants to do (and it was the only thing my son wanted to do) you both need to go into this with your eyes wide open. We paid for all his rental/day to day needs when he was at uni, but he had to take a loan for the uni fees. It is a huge debt hanging around his neck and I'm currently unsure as to whether it was worth it.

Good luck to him though. Times are tough for these youngsters.

@BoyJob Thank you for your response. I was kind of worried about the choice of course. To be fair, it really is down to my son in the end about what he'd like to study. I am really hoping he'll get the support he needs to find a job.

I will talk to him about the lack of jobs, and mention how it may not work out the way it hopes it will go. I think he'd be prepared to do further study on ICT areas, but again that will likely cost more in the long term.

Times are definitely tough for the youngsters of today.

There is a big shortage of engineers though. A lot of ICT skills are transferable to study engineering at Uni degree level.