If you are a high income household, do your uni student DC work?

[Newmeagain]

I don’t think I am wrong here, but have started to doubt myself.

My DD is doing a very demanding uni course with long contact hours, so is not working during term time. But I strongly encouraged her to get a summer job before she started uni and again this summer. She is also having a couple of trips so not just working.

It is not essential for her to work as I have a good salary and her father (exH) is very well off and gives her an allowance. But she tells me that quite a few of her uni friends and friends from school are not working.

i get that she doesn’t love her minimum wage job, but when I was growing up (not UK) it was a bit of a “rite of passage” for all students, even from upper middle class families, to have a job waitressing, supermarket cashier, etc. For the experience and to be earning some of their own money.

am I wrong?

No you're not wrong. My lad was doing a demanding uni course and we never encouraged him to work whilst at uni. Summer break was different though and he worked in a camping warehouse packing stuff one year and behind a bar in a local club for a couple more years. If nothing else it showed him that getting a good degree opened the job market wider and whilst there is nothing wrong with a minimum wage job, he learnt he wouldn't want to do that forever.

Mine has applied for about fifty jobs, she has had one interview for a Wetherspoons and she didn’t get it. When I was there university I had all sorts of jobs. She’s been round the city and she’s been to an out of town outlet village with her CV. Only one shop even took her cv.

Are you talking about during term time or in hols?

definitely in hols, and yes if she can get flexible hours at uni - my daughter finds this tough as there is a diluted opportunity!

Yes, well, that is a separate issue and you are right - there are very few jobs available and in fact I have been telling her that she is very fortunate to have one!

Good luck to your DC - it’s very difficult in the job market.

I think it’s important to have a job regardless of parental income. Dd does not work in term time as her course is quite demanding. She has three jobs over the summer vacation: cleaning uni accommodation at our local uni, swimming teacher and tutoring maths and science.

Both my older children wanted to work from finishing GCSEs, they did some volunteering while still at school and worked in the holidays throughout Uni. DC1 had a bit of a side hustle doing nails and lash extensions during term time as she could do it to suit herself. Then did bar work in the holidays.
DC2 got a job working for the university in second year and carried that through to third year which worked alongside studies, and did several different jobs when home for the holidays.
Mine both got much more from working than the money, they’ve made lifelong friends and useful contacts and appreciate the skills and experience they’ve picked up from working too.
We could afford for them to have not worked very easily but maybe we’re lucky as it wasn’t even discussed by either of them. They just got stuck in finding work for themselves.

Just in the summer holidays.

You're not wrong and it always used to be that students worked, and probably still is outside MN. Her peer group are probably more affluent than average, so don't need to work, there's also likely those who do need to work but can't find a job.

However, as well as earning money, working gives her additional life experience that will help her when she's looking for a graduate job, so worth doing for the experience and reference if nothing else.

I’d say summer internships are more common if they don’t need the money but many need to be applied for very far in advance

I think it would be very beneficial for your DD to get a holiday job. My DD worked all the way though uni (her course wasn’t that demanding and I couldn’t afford to give her an allowance) as well as working during the holidays. I think this really helped when she was applying for jobs after her degree as she had lots of work experience unlike those that were bankrolled by mummy and daddy.

In that case yes.

My daughter is currently working two jobs - but she has a car and I’ve told her if she wants to take it back with her she’ll need to pay.

During term time I give her 200 a month and x husband gives her 100. She gets minimum loan and is at an expensive uni. Her course also has expensive field trips so she is expected to contribute. She also wants to do an overseas placement - I will buy her flight but the rest she’ll need to find!

We're not wealthy but didn't need DS to work in the holidays. However, we've always encouraged him to work and he did get jobs in the Uni holidays. I'm convinced having these jobs on his CV helped him succeed in getting full time work once he graduated.

My ds works at uni - he does one 4 hour shift a week which is enough to provide for his spends (we buy food, clothes and bills). In the holidays he works at the same place but does more hours. He is very lucky to have a student contract which allows this.

3 at Uni

2 doing heavy science degrees don’t work during term time
one is still at Uni doing his masters as it doesn’t finish till Sept so no he’s not working
The other has picked up some hours locally as he’s a life guard We are a small place so there wasn’t anything full time available

The other has stayed on in his Uni accom as he has work there for the summer. He works in the same place on Saturdays term time

They’re all old boarding school kids and their old school friends are about 50/50 work in the hols

Mine didn't work, ever, until the summer of second year of uni when they did paid internships in the field they went into/will go into. As we saw it their education was important and their sole responsibility was their school work and grades.

They are incredibly helpful children at home, have chores that they don't need reminded to do, do their own laundry, cook family meals, lovely to chat to, helpful if you are doing gardening and unpacking shopping, putting things away. They have a good work ethic.

Over the summer of first year at uni they both learned to drive and then second year was the internship. Ds graduated and started working in the July so no summer off. The world of work is never ending so we wanted them to enjoy themselves before all that started.

We paid for them through university. Dh and I both worked from age 13 and both worked summers in uni holidays. We didn't want that for our children and selfishly we enjoyed them being home with us because they were also off out with their mates too.

DS is at uni and isn’t working. He’s had a bit of a mental health meltdown this year so will be repeating it. He has picked up labouring jobs in his gap year and last summer but this year I have sort of employed him.

His DF had a knee replacement followed by the dog being diagnosed with a mast cell tumour and needing surgery so DS has been in charge of gardening and general jobs around the house that I’ve been struggling to keep up with due to the invalids and the hot weather.

He’s back on track with his mental health, it wasn’t anything to do with uni, but the culmination of a series of family events and bereavements that overloaded all of us over the last few years.

He has an opportunity to pick up some bar work locally but the World Cup is currently his priority. He is doing a sports degree so is sort of relevant, he claims. Hopefully he can pick up some shifts from next week when the tournaments over.

DD will be continuing to work at least 4 hours a week through uni, she is considering taking in another job as well, part time. She doesn’t need to work as we support her but she wants to work. She has learnt a lot from working.

Yes. 40 hours a week in a local hotel. We are lucky we live in a touristy area so plenty of hospitality jobs available. They will have her back at Christmas and Easter as well. Prior to uni she worked in a shop at weekends / holidays but she fancied a change. Plus she gets tips so she is better off. We give her an allowance during term time but not during the holidays.

Yes, in the holidays. Sometimes a salaried job. This summer jobs are scarce. He is Babysitting, pet sitting and watering plants.

Ours all worked through A Levels and Uni, despite us being a high income household. It stood them in good stead to go on to their professional working careers with a solid work ethic and experience that jobs can be a lot worse!

I worked because I had to and it was miserable. My daughter can choose her own path. She will have enough money to live on but if she wants extra, she will work.

Too much is made of rushing young people in to work, ignoring the economy they are living in. It’s not like students who don’t work will never get a job. When we recruit, we aren’t actually bothered about work experience unless they have done a work related internship. Someone who waited tables during the school holidays isn’t any more useful to us than someone who spent the summer with their friends. It isn’t an indicator that they are any more likely to work harder or turn up on time. They could have been a terrible server or pretty unreliable, we rarely get references of any use from employers anyway. I’d much rather hear from a uni tutor who says they were hardworking and interested in the job.

As a uni lecturer, I had students who worked and students who didn’t. The ones I would employ were the ones who actually engaged with the teaching material.

I'm plenty comfortable and DD has a job. It's great for her.

She started work at the local when she was 16-ish b/c she wanted extra spending money and has continued. Now that she's at university, I'm not giving her any extra ££ to burn on clothes and cocktails although I do sub her £50 for 'groceries'.

In the way of wealthy people, it's easier to get a job if you have connections. The village pub staff (front of house and kitchen) come and go depending on the kids' holiday schedules. One of her friends does a few shifts a month at the pub to keep her hand in and also does admin at the hospital when she's in town plus has a job at university (where she's reading medicine) for when she's there.

This, to me, is what people are missing. Some students have a lot to deal with in their home life. Disregarding them because they didn’t work means you can be missing out on a loyal, dedicated person.

I expected mine to but few of his mates are. Partly because summer jobs are impossible to find, partly because working hours are inflexible or unpredictable. Those that are , have jobs with family or other connections.

We have totally funded DC1's degree - he has taken no loans. But he has also had 2 jobs and still achieved a first. With his earnings he has paid for holidays and also has healthy investments - he is so not like me. I worked but spent it all in topshop and on going out!

So I think it is totally reasonable to expect DC to work during the summer and it is good for them too.