To be gutted and annoyed that DD did a degree and now works in Tesco?

[whitman]

DD is 21 and also pretty miserable. She has just had to up her hours at Tesco. She worked there part time while being a student and absolutely loved it for a part time job (only working 1 6 hour shift a week). She is in her 3rd full time week and hates it. She is really upset, to the point of tears. We all told her that she would be better doing a vocational degree (one that actually let to a job).

She applied for lots and lots of jobs that didn't even require a degree but definitely matched the sort of thing she studied.

She then applied to be an RSPCA officer, but unfortunately struggled at interview.

She did Biology with Animal Behaviour.

She doesn't have much work experience honestly.

It's just a shame that she spent all them years and money to end up doing the job she was doing before the degree.

She's very upset and is pretty miserable all the time. Is there hope for the future?

She could become a teacher for example. Being a teacher is an awful lot like working with animals anyway.

She's 21. I guarantee she will not be doing what she's doing now in 20 years time. Congratulate her (and yourself) on her work ethic - it's a good, honest way to begin earning money and in itself is providing real life experience which will serve her well in future job applications and interviews, focus on the transferable skills she's gaining.

She has a job and can continue to apply for jobs closer to the field she's interested in. Can she maybe volunteer at an animal shelter or something too?

Fwiw, I was on £8k pa when I originally left university - I took the low salary to get me a foot in the door of my, at that time, chosen profession (journalism). I'm still in communications, really enjoy my job and am earning more than 6x what I was back then.

Honestly, focus on telling her she has the rest of her working life ahead, gain those skills and that experience and do more interviews. I'm always struck by how the most impressive candidates crumple at interview - I can't tell you how important it is to get interview experience and learn to cope with stress.

My advice

1. cut the Tesco hours so she has time to apply for jobs / research volunteer positions etc.
2. if she isn't set on working with animals move away from this. So many people are willing to do it for nothing it is hard to make a living
3. she has a STEM degree. That is very valuable. She should be proud.
4. stop going for jobs that don't require a degree thinking she is more worthy of it than the competition without a degree IYKWIM. It doesn't work like that. Snidey comments will also bash her confidence
5. shut her sister up and any other negativity. She needs optimism and confidence drilled into her at this stage
6. depression after uni is common. All that work, debt, hope. Support and encourage.
7. she is 21 - most people are only mid way through their degree. She's only just stepped off the GCSE/A level/uni treadmill and is young compared to her graduate peers.

HRTFT but a relative is involved in a large volunteer-run animal charity and they always have volunteers and students on placement, or work experience, who come for a month or so and help with the work. www.workaway.com/ is one site that a lot of people use for finding work - it could be fun, would let her feel like she's not stuck in a rut.

Has she considered an animal service like pet sitting, dog walking? Or trying to get a job at a kennels or cattery? As well as volunteering?

She just needs to see the Tesco job for what it is - a stop gap while she finds the right job for her. It's great that she's working and earning money in the meantime, not sitting at home watching YouTube! Some great advice here from others. Get some volunteering experience under her belt and practice interview techniques. The right job will come before too long.

DH ended up working as an office junior/admin temp for a few years out of uni. That then progressed to a training contract for a professional role, he now has a career in a field he had never considered and wouldn't have thought he would be good at.

Degree does not = good pay or a career unfortunately. It doesn't open doors, it just ensures that certain doors aren't shut.

She will get there. I would look for admin type roles in animal charities, or wider charity sector or sciences. Plus like everyone has said, volunteering. Although even volunteering is hard to get in many areas, its all about who you know.

I think 'must go to university' has been one of the cruelest tricks ever played on our young people. I'm old, I left school in 1969 when only about 6% of us got the chance to go to university, and most of them were boys. It was very rare for a girl to get that level of education. Because of the comparitive rarity of a degree, having one did ensure you could get a better job back then.

Unfortunatley there's massive competition for the degree level jobs now and kids need far more than 'just' a degree. Time can't be turned back but it was during her course that she should have been building up a body of experience, although it's not too late now. She's 21 - she has years ahead of her. If she still wants to work with animals, she needs to keep trying, even for voluntary posts. Apart from the chance of getting what she wants, the more interviews she goes through, the better she will be at handling them.

I know she has a degree but there are several organisations, including the OU, who offer short courses in a variety of subjects that she could take to possible broaden her knowledge and to show she's committed to learning.

Do Tesco have a Graduate Scheme? She could do worse.

Oh I remember that feeling! At that age you feel like whatever you do straight out of uni is what you’ll be doing forever. Obviously we all know that isn’t true!

Firstly, reassure her that working in Tesco is great for her CV. Employers like to see jobs like that because it shows that you’re happy to work hard and aren’t going to be stuck-up thinking that certain jobs are ‘beneath’ you. Plus the fact that she worked part-time alongside her studies is very commendable and shows that she has good time management skills. She’ll also have lots of positive transferable skills from the job: dealing with the public, handling money, stock-taking etc. So she’s off to a great start!

Once you have some retail/front of house experience it’s also much easier to get similar jobs elsewhere. There will be recent grads who’ve never worked a day in their life struggling to get jobs in pubs or shops right now because they have no experience! So now that she has that experience, she should look at leveraging it into something closer to what she wants to do.

Do you have any zoos/nature reserves/wildlife parks near you? If so, she could look at working in a front-of-house role somewhere like that. Selling tickets or working in the gift shop/cafe or something like that. Then she’ll at least start to make contacts in the field she’s interested in and might be able to wangle a few days volunteering out of that.

I work in a very competitive job in the arts now, and right after my Masters I was working as a security guard in an art gallery. A few people told me that kind of work was ‘beneath me’ with all my qualifications but it was absolutely vital to get me to where I am now. And we had someone working in the gift shop with a PhD! Acting like academic qualifications make you too good for certain jobs is never a good look.

I think I hated every job I had until I was at least 25, I don't think its where you want to be at that age, whatever it is.

Has she got some professional career advice? I think that would be the best route to take. Of course she's frustrated to be in Tesco's after all her hard work but she can't have graduated long ago so it would be crazy to assume she'll still be there in 5 years time. I do recommend getting some career advice though.

Haven't RTFT so not sure if someone's mentioned it, but has she looked at teaching English in North/South East Asia. Generally you only need a degree and to speak English as a first language. I did over a year in Seoul and it was a huge learning/growing up experience for me. I also took it as an opportunity to volunteer with charities there who are desperate for people to edit their English language posters/adverts/press releases. Almost 20 years down the road and I'm doing quite well in my field and still use that volunteer work/experience in interviews.

She really should have been advised to do as much volunteering as possible whilst at Uni, and even done a placement year.

The problem with non vocational degrees is that they are pretty useless on their own . They need a lot of work experience with them to have any value to employers. It is why Apprentice degrees are going to be the big thing in the future.

It's obviously not too late for to do something else. The minimum she should be doing is a graduate programme at Tesco's or Morrisons ( they do have them , the degree can be in anything).

No job is worth being miserable in. She should leave and do agency / temping work and cut back on her outgoings as much as possible.

She needs to cut back on her Tesco hours that are makin her life a misery and use the spare time for something to further her career.Could she give talks , join/volunteer in relevant societies to expand her network of contacts in the right areas.

Has she tried civil service that's where I ended up!

I have a Biology degree and worked as a waitress for a year before landing a "real" job in my sector at 22. I am 26 now and have been promoted twice she still has bags of time!!!!

If you are interested give me a PM and I might be able to sort some work exp or shadowing, I work with farmers, water companies environmental charities and college students on a daily basis all over the country!

She's not alone.
The figures for the number of people actually working in their chosen field 12 months after leaving uni are quite depressing.
That would have been bad enough when they were free but to walk away from uni with 50 or 60k in debt only to end up in a minimum wage job must be galling.
I was listening to a guy on the radio the other day talking about the number of people studying forensic medicine currently being twice the number jobs actually in that field, and none of them are retiring soon.
My daughter has just finished A Levels and has decided to take a year out and despite doing maths , physics and geology and originally wanting to do something in STEM, is working at Marks and Spencer's and loving it.
Who knows.
The good news is they have brains and youth on their side.🙂👍

It's rare to get straight into a career after uni! Everyone does some retail time.

She needs to ask for feedback from her interviews. Without that it's guesswork as to whether the main problem is her lack of experience or her interview technique.

She also needs to go back and make active use of her university's careers service. That's part of what she's paid for with her fees and they can help to advise and to send her in the direction of relevant work experience and job opportunities. They can also help with CV writing and interview practice.

Do you mind saying which university she graduated from and what her degree classification was?

It sounds like she needs help in her interview techniques. My dd studied the job discription, company, looked on line for relevant questions that were also going to be asked.

She also did an apprentiship, which was lower pay but enabled her to get vital experience. She has just to 23 and has had quite a few ‘good’ jobs. She’s just about to finally start in the role she always wanted but it’s took her three years of job hopping and gaining the right experience to bag it.

Tell her not to lose heart she just needs to focus on one line of work and explore the route in to it

This is a very stressful time of life for many people. I was very depressed at this point as I had no idea how to get a "graduate job". I graduated in a recession. None of my family had been to university so they couldn't help me or even understand the issues. DH was similar even though he had been to Oxford. He worked as a waiter for 8 years.

I took a low paid job that offered training just to get a job. I moved into a professional job at 23. DH not until age 32. Both of us lacked guidance. Neither of us has worked in areas related to our degrees. Your dd could do with a mentor and there are free mentoring programmes out there now, try googling for them. It's a big shock leaving uni because your life is mapped out up to this point and then for many people suddenly you no longer see a pathway. I think this pathway is what your dd is missing and a mentor could help her a lot.

A couple of bits of advice, when she's at home she should really work at her cv modifying it for every job. Also work at get covering letter, can you get someone good to look at her CV and covering letters? My dc's treated job hunting like a job. Also spread the word around around acquaintances shes looking for work.

Definitely the voluntary work, I volunteer with the RDA and sometimes admin jobs have come up, people tend to work in them for a year or two them move on to 'better' jobs.

Be aware that university careers services are often not very good. They're less likely now to be staffed by professionals and tend to be focused on "professional" careers. Interview technique training tends to be very one-size-fits-all.

Does your DD know anybody who works in a field she's interested in? There's no substitute for getting to know someone who's actually involved.

If it's practical work with animals she wants to do, volunteering will help her get in touch with people who can assist. A friend of mine is a kitten fosterer: she looks after pregnant stray cats and their babies at home. Cats Protection fund any veterinary treatment they need. As well as having gorgeous kittens around all the time, she's now a really experienced animal handler who can deal with all sorts of emergencies. The cat rescue community is always keen to help her out.

Maybe she should do sone sensible vocational training? The market is over saturated with people who want to work with animals.

That's true enough @Racecardriver

For every position advertised for a vet animal care assistant there will be 200+ applications and it's really hard to get noticed, even when a large number of those will be from people not suitable but just want to cuddle kittens. The battle with getting these positions is not having a good interview technique, but in making it to the interview in the first place - which means not being one of the 195 rejected for interview.

Which brings me back to my earlier point - realising that the first person to read the applications wants to reject 195 applications as fast as possible, not choose the five best for interview. The goal of your application/CV is about not getting rejected at the first cull, it is not about getting selected for the job - that's what the interview is for.