To think living in a city is too much for DC?

[AllstarFacilier]

DC1 is applying for university. They want a job that will most likely mean they’ll need to live in a city, as there won’t be many opportunities for it. It’s a niche, arty specialism and tbh wouldn’t transfer to other jobs much, so they need to be absolutely sure that they want to do this before starting to pay for the course.

The pay is hard to find an average of, as most things say you can expect between £35000 and £85000 per year, so quite varied and I imagine will depend on experience.

Round our little town, £35000 sounds a decent wage. Houses are around £12000 for a nice semi 2 bedroomed with a drive. So DC thinks this is a good wage. However, if moving to a city such as London or Manchester, I doubt this will translate as well. I’m not sure how much accommodation would be in London, or where the areas people live in to be able to travel in to the main area. Does anyone know how much it would cost roughly for one person to rent and travel in London? Plus then there will be council tax, bills etc.

I don’t want to put them off a career they are passionate about, but I also don’t want them to have a degree that is unusable around here and not be able to afford to use it elsewhere.

YABU - let them figure it out as they go and it will all work out
YANBU - City life is too expensive for a single person to start off in a career

If they can start off at 35k and work up to 85k they will be fine. Rent for a one bed flat is about 1500pcm in London travel depends but could be about 800 pcm. Much less in ManChester. On 35k that would be v manageable or he can share for less. If he lives out of a city he would have a nice first home and be able to afford a car. Choosing to live in a city it will take a few more years and he may need to carry on house sharing to start. As I did. It’s fine. Pretty fun actually, like an extension of your uni time. Everyone about his age will be in the same boat. Your earning potential in a city is much greater overall. Sounds like you maybe don’t want him to live or work in a city ? If he worked in Manchester he can commute from some of the cheapest properties in the country…?

Cities are far better for opportunities and social life. Also higher earnings.

This is helicopter parenting in the extreme. They're only applying to university and OP has decided where they should live and not attempt a city.

Just let them live and make their own choices and mistakes.

But that’s growing up. You have to budget your finances. I was actually worse off when I started work in London because of the cost of everything but … I adjusted. Went out occasionally, take outs occasionally, and still had a blast. Your first flat sounds awful but that doesn’t mean it had to be. My first house share was with a complete knob but then I found a fab house and we had a blast. We stayed in and played cards, had bbqs, watched tv together. All starting out, all in the same boat. Amazing times. Autism is a struggle but I think living a solitary life in a small town could be more limiting overall

There are options that are in the middle price wise eg Leicester & Chichester are 2 that have good commissioning theatres who will employ people in that field.

OP a lot of people on here how no idea how an autistic person thinks. Cut the apron strings is just not how it works with an autistic 17 year old whose emotional maturity may be three years behind their actual age.

There's a good chance I'd guess that your YP hasn't really thought about all the long term consequences of the decisions they're going to make and are entirely focussed on the niche course that they are currently fascinated by. My advice would be to talk about all the things they need to take into consideration, do the thinking ahead for them and discuss the possible consequences of their decisions with them. When they have all the information then they can make a more fully informed decision as to what is actually likely to work best for them in the long term.

Step away

So I studied costume/set and props I actually live in a small village, earning 50k plus. There’s a lot of opportunity all over the country in set/prop design, you’ll be surprised. You can work anywhere and it’s not just for theatre! Ive commissioned set and prop works for parades, leisure farms, outdoor events….all sorts and then there’s all the different types of jobs you can also do i.e teaching others, Doing carnival, doing outdoor arts which travels all over….you really do not have to work in a big city

This is really interesting, thank you! Are there any instagrams/pages they could follow that you know if in this field?

Based on what you are saying, my main concern for the job would not even be salary, but employability.
How many of the graduates actually go on to have the specific career and how many get a generic graduate job because they can't find a job in the field or just realise it's a bad career?
As a young person before university, they'll know very little of how they'll feel once they start their working life. Many people don't realise that even a career in a field you like can be 90% things you don't like (ie: making lots of phone calls and having to negotiate if you're an introvert, creating neat slides when you have ADHD or doing Excel and emails as an artistic person).

Your DC should ignore.marketing. prospects and talk to actual graduates (forums, LinkedIn, social media).
I work in tech, so I'm in a very different bubble, but have many friends with STEM degrees such as chemistry, bioengineering etc who just couldn't get work in the field - there's very few jobs. They retrained as software engineers, one is just doing an additional masters in CS. They are doing well, but say they should have just studied it from the start.
I also used to work at a retail bank and half of the credit risk team were physics PhDs who used to work at prestigious institutions such as CERN or academia and quickly realised they hate the lifestyle (super long hours, low pay, hierarchy, it's very hard to move) and went for the corporate life.
I'd personally also have done a different degree if I had known how few people actually go on to have the specific career.
I did gain transferrable skills, but I could have gained skills that would be directly applicable at my work on top of that.

Back off and allow them to make their own mistakes

Unlikely they will graduate snd then move back to their home town regardless of the degree

Honestly let them discover this all by themselves. They may strike lucky, they may not but they are adults and don't need their Mum butting in. They won't thank you for it!

I'm being vague on purpose, but while my first job out of uni looked great on paper, it was mostly about making powerpoints, meetings and negotiation skills. I hated it, so I quit and changed careers. I definitely wouldn't have done my master's in my original field had I know what the job marked would be like.