To be terribly afraid that that was it?

[entropynow]

DS about to reach a year unemployed. So was that it, that 19 months of postgraduate temporary contracts, and now all he has to look forward to at 24 is the dole for the next 40 plus years?

All I hear is "new graduates win over old ones, no employer will look at you with a year's gap" and to make it worse he ignored my advice to do voluntary work, convinced he'd get a "proper job" if he only tried hard enough. But with a 2:2 even from a good Uni, no-one wants him.
Can't read my FB with all my friends' children's wild A level and Oxbridge successes right now. Can't go to friends, can't admit how I feel.

Feeling like the worst parent in the Universe. If I'd done better at mothering he'd have a job, and nothing will convince me otherwise.

Yes, I know, it's not about me. I have no right.

Sobbing

With the current market a lot of employers like to start with a temp to try them out. Otherwise it is costly advertising/interviewing etc and then possibly getting the wrong person. Interviews are like exams, some people are really good at them but not that great at the actual job and employers know this. I have got almost all my perm jobs from temping.

Can i ask what kind of salary he is looking at?

He's spent a year unemployed and you live in Manchester?

Was there never any warehouse work, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, supermarket shelf stacking on offer?

Has he signed on with any agencies? They offer various work opportunities...none of which I'm sure he'd choose to do, but any job has to be better than being unemployed for a year?

And it's all experience.

I graduated with a 2.2 from a top uni 4 years ago, failing to get on grad schemes I thought I'd get a temp job back in retail. I ended up absolutely loving it, and stayed for 3 1/2 years, getting promoted on the way.

I quit a couple of weeks ago, rejigged my cv, contacted agencies and applied to as much as I could. I applied to one job that is more related to my degree, from application to job offer took me 12 days, I start on Monday.

This was partly luck, but I also now had loads of experience to talk about, meeting deadlines, working to targets, managing teams, prioritising etc, this is what employers want.

So I agree, maybe set his sights a little lower, all jobs give you experience you can use, and you can go into any interview with confidence.

He was on £20K in his first job 3 years ago, would be happy with that I think, partner has a bit of money from an inheritance and they are quite frugal so will get by.

I've suggested temp work a lot already.

Very unlikely he'll start on £20k. Seriously.

I'd second that. I would have thought 20K unlikely.

Even though he did before? Are things so much worse? Honestly, I don't care, he can come home if he needs to, or we'll top up so he can live with partner. What's possible?

don't let the 2.2 get you down. It's experience employers are after, I got my best city job with no degree at the time but a ton of experience. I also turned away first class degree holders for jobs when I helped with recruitment, for a poor interview performance, bad CV or more often they didn't make first cut due to a simple lack of experience or a huge huge gap. Best I think would be an internship, followed by an apprenticeship scheme with a company, and voluntary- so much excellent experience and free training. I often see one off computer projects advertised where I lurk (tend to be medical things). or a masters if finances allow, some will certainly allow 2.2s

He needs to be realistic

It appears he may have lost his work ethic along the way and possibly thinks some jobs are 'beneath' him while he's looking for his chosen line of work?

Quite a lot of people in my company are earning less than they did 3 years ago, and our jobs are being advertised on lower payscales than they were then.

£20k will be too high.

I am on less now than i was before i went to uni in 1998! And my last job i dropped from 38k to 24k and that was in London.

I think 16k may be more realistic. Sorry.

It appears he may have lost his work ethic along the way and possibly thinks some jobs are 'beneath' him while he's looking for his chosen line of work?

No. Why assume so? He spent 13 months in a PIP processing centre.

maybe start with small small projects for small companies and then apply for a larger company once he has the experience to draw upon and fluff up a bit, in addition to a standard entry level job in anything (for which he may only be paid minimum wage) but use it as experience and make that experience relevant, do bits of relevant work here and there in that position.

How good does he reckon his programming is? Does he participate in any programmers' groups? I don't know where you live, but am aware of loads of very active groups in London, B'ham and Manchester. Online groups are also v. important. I've been offered work on the basis of my helpful contributions to programming forums.

In a lot of ways, he's much luckier than people in other disciplines, as so much of the work is 'virtual', you don't have to get off your arse anywhere near as much as most do.

If he fancies being dramatic, it's a VERY good idea to target a completely specific job that is your heart's desire, learn every last thing about it down to what coffee they have in their machines, then go there with something wonderful and a brilliantly impassioned pitch to the man/woman holding that particular card. Camp out in their reception, if necessary.

That said, the first thing any IT professional will do is check out his online existence. Here again, he needs to be constructively active in groups/forums. It is also still true that "if you build it, they will come" ... but, one more time, you have to let them know it's available, and you do that via groups.

Tell him to get stuck in - and have fun :) Enthusiasm counts!

And as I said, the Job Centre will expect him to apply for minimum wage jobs and/or send him on a mandatory work programme before too long.

I honestly think he is trying anything that will mean he can stay living independently.

That said, the first thing any IT professional will do is check out his online existence. Here again, he needs to be constructively active in groups/forums. It is also still true that "if you build it, they will come" ... but, one more time, you have to let them know it's available, and you do that via groups

Agreed - hence LinkedIn being a good idea.

Because you said he's about to reach a whole year being unemployed

There are jobs out there

Just not his choice of jobs

Very, very unlikely he will start on £20k. I'm from Manchester and know that graduate jobs there are more around the £16k mark.

But obviously something isn't working.

I have been there, when I left with my 2.2 I applied for loads of grad schemes, or jobs I thought I could get. Not even an interview, hence why I went to retail, and it's all worked out really well.

I did feel like I'd failed, like my parents had forked out so much for me and I'd let them down. But I haven't, I loved that job, met amazing people, and have prospects. Not the route I thought I would go, but that's how things go sometimes.

My DH gets loads of work thru LinkedIn.

Hippymama, thanks for local knowledge, helpful.

Yes, MrsKoala - it's very useful for profiling yourself.

Tbh, any job, bar work, retail work, cleaning toilets, whatever will look better on his cv than a huge gap. As someone else has said, if he doesn't find something soon the job centre will start putting him onto mandatory job placements :( good luck to him, it's very hard at the moment.