Summer holiday from Uni - where are the jobs?

[MrsClattenburg]

DS is now back from Uni for the (ridiculously long) summer holiday so will be back living here May-Sept.

He's trying to find a job and started looking before he came back home but hasn't been successful with any of his applications so far. Listening to Jeremy Vine discussing this now and it's so depressing... loads of people applying for just one job and so understandably, why would a business then want someone back from Uni for 4 months rather than someone who won't leave after the summer?

If your 18+ year olds have summer jobs, where are they working?

My DS worked on a warehouse in the uni holidays. They generally used a lot of agency staff so I guess it was cheaper to employ him even if it was just for 3 months.

You don't "get a job" that's a contract as a full employee in these circumstances. You sign up to as many temp agencies and zero-hours gig-economy options as you can, and you make yourself available, energetic and keen. You get yourself up and dressed and ready to leave the house by 7:30 every day, so that you can let the temp agency know that you can be on-site in 30 minutes or less if they need someone quickly. One day there's an urgent call to the agency and you plus 3 other random temps get sent to a random warehouse where they just need someone to shift some cardboard boxes from A to B or whatever menial task they have as a one-off, and the company reports back to the temp agency that you were energetic and obedient and did the job well. The agency then knows that you can be relied on, and are more likely to call on you next time. By the end of the 4 months they are placing you regularly, and next time you are home for the holidays they are ready to start utilising you as much as possible. Or if the agency option doesn't work out, you do whatever you can on the gig-economy apps which basically works in the same way on a micro-scale with opportunities meted out by the minute rather than by the day.

Work the summer season in Cornwall,there's lots of summer work in retail/hospitality/holiday parks.choose a location and go round asking.most don't have accommodation so you stay in a tent for the summer,have the best summer ever doing seasonal work.

People still think it’s easy for students to just walk in and get jobs, it’s not like the 70s or 80s when there was an abundance of casual jobs. My local supermarkets haven’t taken on extra staff for about the last four years. I’ve looked up student friendly jobs locally for my own uni son snd all you get are those bloody surveys. Mine isn’t even coming home this summer because he’s hoping he might get better luck where he is, which is bigger than here.

DD has 5 different jobs at the moment over the year as a whole - a lot are zero hours contracts but she gets work. We live rurally so when she's here its go to the nearest city and many of the jobs she gets are sports based coaching (at her uni) or tours on river (here) and I think the fitness level needed cuts competition, normal length days with about 5 hours physical activity. Then she also has a job looking after 2 SN children and a dog and cat. Had another job doing catering at university events by us. Another job as university ambassador / rep. 3 of her current jobs her university funds (2 sports coaching and 1 uni ambassador). Zero hours contracts are easier to get but then they do select who is best at job to give work to when there's an oversupply of staff which is at the moment.

My friends DD is at uni in America and started coming home at Christmas to visit rather than the summer because of the jobs issue. In America she can get work, she can get one through the uni. Here she was back for over 3 months and could get nothing.

@Converse4Ever The USA has a much more bouyant economy. Unfortunately they don’t want others taking their jobs!

Both dc worked from 15 so when ds25 went to uni he had experience and that helped. He was in Nottingham and always had work, not glamorous but factory work etc. it was often not nice hours but it was something. In the summer he found bar work and also grass cutting.he did though always have to knock in doors and be proactive.

Posters have not really picked up on the fact employers don’t want to train dc for a few months. It’s not like it was in the 80s. Back then there were casual jobs but it’s definitely much harder now. The “when I was a lass “ simply doesn’t wash now.

Are there any children’s holiday camps near you? Some of the ones near us are still looking for staff.

DD is on a zero hours contract, all the staff are desperate to work more than 4 hours a week/fornight but are repeatedly told there are no more shifts....and yet the shop keeps recruiting!

Pet sitting? I know officially you need to be dbs checked but where I live all the pet sitters are rammed in the summer holidays and I’d happily pay a student minimum wage to pop in to see my cat for ten minutes a day. It could be a money maker if you get a few pets to pop in on ?

Both my DS were lucky. Their employers allowed them to keep their jobs they’d had since they were 16 and work ad hoc when they returned home each uni holidays. DS1 worked at JD Sports (although advertised online and seemed very competitive). DS2 walked into Papa Johns and was given a job on the spot - over the years staff have come and gone constantly, it all seems very informal as staff don’t seem to be very reliable!

My oldest also does tutoring. When he was doing his A levels, he tutored GCSE students, and now he’s at university, he tutors GCSE and A level students. It’s far better paid than any other job. He charges between £20 and £40 per hour and he finds it easy and enjoyable.

Dd can’t find a job in Manchester.

My dc worked for chains - McDonald’s, kfc , costa and vodka revs all very happy to take on casual staff for summer or transfer to uni town after summer.

My DCs work(ed) as lifeguards. You have to do the NPLQ (national pool lifeguard qualification). It takes a week and costs £300ish. Courses run all year round especially in school holidays. You have to to be able to swim but not amazingly. DC2 also works term time as a lifeguard and earns lots.

Are there any garden centres near you? Both DD and DS worked in our local one once 16, and I would imagine this time of year is the busiest so they might be taking on my staff.
Re uni age, two of her friends are lifeguards, and pick that up when they are home. DD has been lucky in that she got a job at home for a smallish chain of restaurants on zero hours and they would like her back now it’s the uni hols. She also has a job in her uni town at another larger chain of restaurants and they have said she can transfer to our local one over the summer. I do see that she is very lucky though tbh.
Off the top of my head of her other friends, one works for a bakery chain (the posh one, lol!!!) and works here and in her uni city. Another two work in gyms during the holidays.
are there any local attractions, eg stately homes, National trust, theme parks etc?
I hope he manages to find something soon.

There are very few jobs around here. My DC is lucky than can go back to the pub they worked in during A levels.

This is happening everywhere, not just in the UK. I was at a juice bar a couple of weeks ago, not in the UK, and there was one person working. She took orders, took payment and made each smoothie, as well as dealing with Ubereats and other delivery orders. It was ridiculous. Took 20 minutes from ordering to getting our drinks.

We won’t be back.

Even back when I’d just graduated and was looking for a summer job/PT job to work whilst doing my Masters, I found it impossible. I ended up changing my Masters to FT in the end, as PT was a bit pointless if I wasn’t working! This was back in 2004. I found recruitment agencies useless, didn’t get anywhere with retail applications (and speculative CV touting), despite having worked in Boots for a couple of years, and the paid jobs as MP staffers etc (that I was really angling after) were ridiculously competitive.

A few of the uni students home for summer round us have picked up cleaning jobs with our cleaner's company as "holiday cover", so the past couple of weeks we have had someone shadowing our usual cleaners and getting to know routines at different houses ready to step up over the summer holidays when a lot of the cleaners are on holiday or looking after their DC so lowering their hours. Our usual cleaners have young DC and as they effectively work 0 hour contracts they are stepping down their hours over the 6 week holiday to fit around the childcare they can get.

According to one of the girls shadowing the other week a few of her friends have got jobs cleaning in hotels/ bnbs and holiday parks over the summer.

There are a few uni leavers who have studied or are studying childcare/ education who had DBS and are offering ad hoc holiday childcare/ babysitting services.

There are quite a few uni leavers also offering gardening/ grass cutting/ Car washing/ pet sitting and walking services. There was a bit of a blow up on SM the other night as a young man was offering dog walking and had quite a bit of interest and a local professional dog walker and pet sitter got on about insurance/ pet first aid/ qualifications to work with animals ect.

There is a lot of enterprising going on rather than applying for McDonald's/ supermarket/ pub work round us as those jobs no longer seem to exist.

Apologies, not read all the comments but I would suggest he thinks about offering tuition for his subject to school pupils- via fb etc?
getting a dbs would be a good idea.
also, using the time to get some meaningful work experience in any workplace, consider volunteering, doing extra online ( free) courses- massive number of free on line tech courses/ ai. All great stuff to discuss at grad interviews. What will make him stand out?
a degree is no where near enough now.

Interesting that a few people have mentioned supermarkets and McDonald's - these are the places it is notoriously difficult (these days) to get in with. They pay well and look great on CVs so have 100s applying for every job 😬

There are a few ideas here though, so thank you.
Unfortunately DS can't drive yet which is slightly limiting for some places.

It took both of my kids months to get cafe jobs. It's so hard. Beware of 'trial shifts' in independent cafes ' I.e you work for free for half a day then never hear from then again. Good luck.x