To be panicking about DC’s employability post uni?

[NeedXanaxPlease]

DD is going into the final year of an Anthropology degree (might get a first but probably a 2:1) from a top RG uni. Has done a Fine Art foundation year. Always worked part time since finishing A-levels (Maths, English Lit, Art), first as a barista/front of house/waitressing, then as an after-school nanny during uni.
She loves working, is highly responsible, great people skills (and people judgement) and quite numerate/commercially savvy. She is a great kid and would be an asset to any team. But… she hasn’t had a single internship so no “relevant” work experience (didn’t get her act together after first year and a long recovery post an operation for a sporting injury after second year) nor does she really know what she wants to do after graduation. She is definitely not pursuing the classic investment banking, Bain/BCG/McKinsey, accountancy, law routes.
I am now feeling highly anxious and helpless as I don’t know how to support/guide her. I did the classic Tier 1 strategy consulting, MBA, corporate M&A so I am spending hours each week helping my friends’ kids who want to pursue this path (mock case studies, mock interviews, CV reviews) but am at a complete loss re how to help my own. I feel that I am spiralling. This is not helped by my being involved in graduate recruitment at my work – CVs I see are all full of Economics/Management/Sciences degrees, multiple internships/work experiences/summer schools – they are highly structured and tick all the boxes (to an extent where I can’t differentiate between them). My DD wouldn’t stand a chance on paper.
Sage mumsnetters, please reassure me that she can get a job without internships and with a “soft” degree? Does she stand a chance with graduate schemes? Should she even bother applying? What potential career routes she could explore?

Just leave her to it. She doesn’t need your help.

@NeedXanaxPlease

Based on this, would she be interested in Medicine (Graduate Entry), such as via this course, for instance?

It's a massive undertaking and not for everyone, but I do know a handful of people who have done this.

www.sgul.ac.uk/study/courses/medicine-graduate-entry#entry-criteria

Sometimes people fall into random niche well paid jobs by accident on non grad schemes. I know people who have got jobs doing admin work after uni for companies unrelated to their degree. Shown an aptitude for the industry and being trained up and promoted quickly internally. Life is not over if you don’t get on a grad scheme.

What about a tax graduate job. Well paid and interesting according to nephew. Doesn't need a specific degree

To answer your question re what she enjoys - problem solving, pace, probably projects/variety, rather than routine, degree of creativity, seeing specific outcome/result.

The hospitality business would satisfy all those needs… look at management training programmes.

@CormorantStrikesBack

Sometimes people fall into random niche well paid jobs by accident on non grad schemes.

sure, I totally believe that, I guess what I am after is what are those niche well paid jobs?

PAs Stripe are millionaires now - right time, right place - not sure I’d count on that although it’s quite a tempting dream to nurture…It does happen… just never to me or anyone I know

I would advise her to try her uni careers service again - she could ask who would be best placed to advise her on careers options outside of banking etc. She might have just been unfortunate in who she spoke to.

But another thing to bear in mind is that with the less popular paths they will not be able to spoon feed a path to her - they are more likely to support her to think about how she can do her own research, and take the next step in the right direction.

It sounds unlikely that your daughter will step into a well paid, coveted after role as soon as she graduates, but that doesn't mean anyone needs to panic. She does need a plan though, and to start taking steps to catch up. That's fine too.

To be honest, I think you need to pull yourself together. Spiralling??

So maybe she'll take a gap year and think about it. It doesn't matter. She's worked hard and to have you yapping at her heels about next steps won't help her confidence or enthusiasm.

I work for the largest telco in uk you can guess which one. She would walk on to our grad scheme.
whilst not the insane money open up the bcg etc of this world it absolutely gives you a reasonable salary and a much more rounded life.

OP your behaviour is ridiculous for someone in a supposedly high powered job.

First of all, you already live in London. Your daughter doesn't need to have a 'well paid' job to buy a house. She can live at home rent free, and you presumably can help with a deposit? Or did you spaff it all on ski holidays?

Secondly, your daughter if she's indeed as capable as you say, should be doing her own research. She managed to Google NICE guidelines. There are thousands of websites, blogs, etc with salary information, tips on every sort of career imaginable.

The fact that she hasn't, means she doesn't really care. Or maybe, she's done it, but doesn't want to share as you'll dig into all the details.

She's privileged, even if it takes her a few years she'll land on her feet. Why so much worry?

The way you describe her, it really sounds like she’d like something meaningful rather than a (even highly paid) corporate job.
Could she approach this holistically and start with really basic questions eg working indoors or outdoors, with people or alone, at a computer or not etc.
Then she could focus her research on which careers meet her answers.If she’s great with people and on the ball, could she proactively approach suitable organisations for work experience? I wonder if that would open more doors than just sticking with those places who offer formal internships.

OP, you give the clear impression of loving your daughter and at the same time being disappointed in her.

But what’s the point in telling you what niche well paid job that X has? I’m not been funny but it could be of no interest to your Dd.

She needs to think about what large organisations/areas she might want to apply for grad schemes with.

And also just look at what non grad jobs are being advertised and think is that an area/company she could see herself working at and potentially work her way up.

Also I work for a big company, have recruitment experience across finance and tech. You don't need internships! Apart from a handful of very competitive schemes like investment banking. In fact all the jobs she's had will provide a great base for competency based questions.

Social justice, boredom at work, etc is irrelevant when you need the money. To eat, pay rent and eventually buy a property. You should know this better than anyone.

Your daughter can afford to be picky, however as she has worked part time and plays high level sport one cannot accuse her of being lazy. Have a bit of faith. After all, you didn't work so hard just to have her consigned to the corporate treadmill, did you?

BTW I just went for the highest paid jobs because I had to. I don't want my kids to do the same, as long as they're hardworking.

''Social justice, boredom at work, etc is irrelevant when you need the money.'' Good thing not everyone takes that view. Sounds like OPs daughter has different goals cf people OP recruits. So she will have to find her own way - maybe taking a scenic route. My own dd has taken a very different route (art) to me (anthropology!) - and I also worry ( a lot) - but it's up to her. Neither of us would think of banking or such like though.

@OneCoolPearlOP

Social justice, boredom at work, etc is irrelevant when you need the money. To eat, pay rent and eventually buy a property. You should know this better than anyone.

I know! That’s why it was so simple for me - I wanted/ needed the money so I wasn’t asking many of these question. Just went for the highest paid route (at the time). I guess she can afford to ask those questions and I need to accept that it might means tough consequences for her. I find it difficult to accept. It’s either I keep bankrolling and become increasingly frustrated or stop bankrolling and potentially watching her living in a bed sit/struggling financially.

I am listening though and taking all the advice on board, both about options open to her and on working on my anxiety related to this.

Most obvious choice of career to me would be civil service fast stream since she has studied anthropology and so is obvious interested in people and society. She could do a Public Policy MSc first because that would be great prep for a career in the civil service, but not necessary since selection is based on aptitude tests. Local government also has a graduate recruitment scheme that she could look at too, but my first choice would be civil service because of diversity of roles and increased earning potential. A profession like social work would also be an option with a relevant masters, but you'll have heard how challenging that can be as a career and it is not well paid. The only reason for doing a Masters in anthropology would be to pursue an academic career and I would not recommend that because it is so competitive and yet so poorly paid. Even lucky academics can end up working on temporary 'junior' contracts well into 30s. Many find that there are no opportunities for them to make a living out of academia once they've finished their PhD.

I am senior in marketing. She should apply to all the big blue chip FMCGs - P&G, Unilever, L Oreal, Boots, PepsiCo, Nestle, Mondelez, Coke, Tesco etc. They will be less demanding about specific internships, and her Barista type experience will be quite attractive. Would be even more attractive if she had retail or sales experience (even for marketing) - shop floor is fine, anything which requires dealing with customers.
Also, she should look at Google / Meta, those are very interesting jobs for new grads with her type of background, combining lwft and right brains (anthropology / English and the maths A level). It’s not too late to get work experience ! She still has a couple of months this summer where she could get a retail or temp job at least. But I would definitely avoid the childcare ones. She’s ticked that box anyway, and in a corporate environment it’s not especially valued (sadly).

I think it's so sad that you have worked in a misogynistic toxic environment to fund school fees and ski-ing trips. Sounds like your daughter has more sense and is looking at a more personally fulfilling career. I think the crux of it all here is that her career us potentially disappointing to you and that's why you are freaking out.

By the way, marketing would tick a lot of her boxes (creative, varied, fast paced, also analytical), just not the social responsibility ones, though all the large FMCGs churn out enough spin on this to fool the 20 year olds. i would add Diageo to the list of companies above btw.

She could also look at advertising which is exciting but hard to get into.

Alternatively, what about law school. Start with idea of becoming a human rights barrister type thing, and then drift into something more corporate and highly paid. That’s an obvious path for someone like her, literate , decent uni but an arts degree, and from a privileged background.

i reckon she actually has a plan - she just doesn’t want to tell you about it.
Would be interested to know what you consider a decent salary for her, say about 10 years in. If she progresses well, FMCG marketing in a leading company would be about £90k-£100k i reckon (with about 25% bonus on top). So good, but nothing like the earning power in banking/consulting…. Which may not be enough for you.

Based on what you said about her advocating for her friend, might she be up for volunteering (part time is fine) with the CAB? It might give her a boost in one direction or another (third sector, local govt, civil service/policy, law…) and it could provide another workplace reference.

She gets on a graduate training scheme. My cousin did Geography then went in to HR at a large retail conglomerate. Another did TV Presenting/production and got hired by Tesco and is a buyer for them.
You seem to think it's banking/law or nothing - there's a heck of a lot more out there! Get her looking at graduate training schemes and see if anything sparks an interest.

I’m sure she’ll be just fine. I also do graduate recruitment in my role and frankly being personable, teachable and hard working puts you in the top 5%!

I studied drama and eng lit at uni. When I left I wanted to get into TV, it took a long time to get my first job but got in eventually. When working in TV I identified a target job role and eventually got there. It fell apart when I had kids and so I took on part-time work writing for websites. That led to the world of writing and design for digital. I set up my own limited company around 12 years ago and work as a contractor on a healthy day rate, with six-figure earning potential if I worked the same number of days as a perm employee (I prefer to take a lot of time off). I've had a lot of different job titles over the last 12 years, but the latest is Service Designer (SD). It got harder to be a contractor when the tax rules around IR35 were changed, but it's not impossible.

The SD role in government is great for people who enjoy problem-solving, and some government projects can have a big impact on citizen's lives. Like any job it's not perfect, there's a lot of bureaucracy and frustration. Digital design teams attract a broad mix of people, often people with degrees in art, English, humanities etc.

Roles she could consider in digital design teams:
Service designer
User researcher
Content designer
Product owner / manager
Delivery manager
Interaction designer

With the roles above there's a large variety in pay depending on whether they're in the public or private sectors, what level you're at, whether you're an employee or a contractor, for perm employees you can progress to managing design teams.

The word 'design' can put many off but design mainly means 'solve problems'.

There is a huge, huge range of careers which are not banking or similar but don’t mean you end up penniless and homeless. Perhaps she has different priorities, she isn’t automatically throwing her life away because she wouldn’t be able to afford to send her kids to private school.