To be frustrated that DD is struggling to find a job in her desired field while her friends on skilled worker visas aren’t

[Andiessock]

My DD is in her mid 20s, she graduated with a masters in philosophy over 2 years ago now from a top university in London, she has a BA from a top university as well. Her two closest friends during her masters weren’t British.
DD struggled to find a job directly related to philosophy or even culture in general, she did manage to get a job in the civil service but she doesn’t enjoy it at all.
Her two friends both managed to get jobs in the field they desired originally on graduate visas, now both are sponsored on skilled worker visas.
One works at cultural institute associated with her home country in programme coordination so planning and running events that promote her countries culture etc. specifically in literature and philosophy.
The other works at a non-profit cultural institution in a similar role to her other friend but a little more research heavy less events centred.

First of all I’m not entirely sure how either of these roles fall under “skilled workers”, they must be making around 40k to even qualify and whilst I understand the first friend being preferred over a British national since it’s a cultural institution, I don’t understand why non-Brits are being given roles in an industry Brits are struggling to get a foot in the door at.

Im all for migrants for what it’s worth, this is not intended to be slanderous to migrants, especially in industries which need the talent from abroad; but I don’t see how that applies here and in this case it does feel like “foreigners are stealing British jobs” (not a sentiment I typically agree with or would use any other time). That’s not to mention that I’m not even sure how these roles qualify as skilled workers in the first place.

AIBU to find this incredibly frustrating?

OP means she’s all for migrants, provided they stay in low paying roles or don’t impact her and her family’s life.

Of the three people you’ve described, I can so far tell that two are at least bilingual, likely fluently (at least able to study a masters in their non native language), have intimate experience of multiple cultures and have the skills to be able to move and establish themselves in another country. The other has the same qualifications as them but still lives with their parents.

What demonstrable skills does your daughter have that equalises, and then out shines, these plus points of her friends in an interview?

Has your daughter even applied for those roles?
Does she speak a foreign language?
Do you know the CV from her friends and any other qualifications they might have?
Does she have any work experience, internships, work placements... that can set her aside other candidates?

There are plenty of reasons why her friends would get those jobs over British candidates, none of them being their nationality, but better qualifications, more experience, or simply doing better at interviews.

Supporting your daughter understanding where the gaps might be seems to be a much better approach than telling her she should get a job simply because of her passport.

Op are you going to acknowledge the posts asking if your daughter applied for either of these roles?

if yes, the answer is they were better candidates as the employer even paid for the privilege of having them as an employee.

if no, please move on and stop blaming 3rd parties for what you perceive as your daughters failures. You‘re overly invested. At some point we need to let our children adult and that includes not prying into their friend‘s lives like this (and being xenophobic about them).

You lost me at ‘foreigners taking our jobs’

YABVU. I work in the cultural sector and we hire non-British people all the time if they are eligible to work. Its not our business to look into the rights and wrongs of their right to work. We interview and hire solely on the requirements of the job and whether the applicant ticks the person specification and interviews well.

Exactly what roles did your DD think her niche masters would lead to?

The op’s dd lives at home - her experience of being impoverished will be somewhat limited. Easy to think you don’t mind being poor when someone else pays the bills.

The issue is doing a degree and a master’s in a pretty useless subject

Is she only looking at jobs that require a philosophy degree, if there even are any 😳

Maybe time for her to rethink her options rather than be unemployed.

Is she sure that both her friends need a work visa, a lot of people may have right to work without a visa that you are not aware of via ancestry, settled status etc..

I work in a highly skilled workplace and we have staff from all over the world. We hire the best people for the jobs and there are some skills we can only get by casting our net worldwide.

If your DD plans to go in to academia or cultural type job she had better get used to that as they are both highly mobile and international sectors.

What are you talking about? Why do you think Brits should be handed jobs over non-Brits who are evidently a better fit? Does your DD share this entitlement, perhaps that is coming across in her applications.

Btw OP you do realise you need a sample size of at least 30 carefully matched subjects before you can draw statistically significant conclusions?

You come across, in terms of your ideas though not your writing, like someone who left school at 16 and has not progressed at work, saying ‘but my special dad went to university! She has a degree! Why are employers not queuing up to employ her??’ Naive.

Racist? Against the Swedes and French?

The roles you describe are exactly the kind of roles that foreigners are likely to be more qualified for, i.e. more likely to have the cultural and linguistic knowledge that make them assets.

Is your daughter multilingual or does she have a native understanding of another culture? If she's monolingual and monocultural I can't understand why you think she'd be suited for that kind of role.

Luckily for you and your daughter there are not all that many of these roles that are specifically suited to people from multicultural/multilingual backgrounds so she probably has a lot more opportunities in the long run.

She's not unemployed, she's working for the civil service which is in general a very respectable career with plenty of opportunities for advancement.

I got into this mindset a few years ago when I was a fresh graduate struggling to get a first proper job. I'd be looking at my friends who seemed to have moved ahead of me and be furiously thinking "What have they got that I haven't? How could Firm A possibly have preferred them over me?"

Needless to say it's an extremely toxic and unhealthy mindset and it held me back a lot. One of the best things I ever did was learn to stop comparing myself to peers, and to just maintain a laser focus on my own career, my own strengths and weaknesses. Seven years on, I'm in an interesting, fulfilling and reasonably well-paid job which I never ever would have predicted I'd end up in (not a million miles away from the Data/AI ethics roles that have been suggested upthread actually).

Your daughter will be fine but you must stop agonising about what her friends are up to. It's not healthy and it achieves absolutely nothing.

You seem to think that your daughter's place of birth means that she should be employed over others who were born elsewhere.

I'd really examine this in yourself OP, and possibly talk over the ethics/philosophy of it with your daughter! She sounds like an interesting, sparky woman. I think that situations like these, involving people we treasure and adore, can really bring our unconscious bias to the fore.

So I'm presuming that your dd applied for the roles that her friends are doing and that she was unsuccessful. What feedback did she receive after the interviews?

Ah right, missed that bit.
It must be sickening to spend so much money getting a degree that looks to be potentially worthless.
Which leads onto a whole other discussion that probably isn't appropriate for this thread.

OP it is rather pathetic to blame these two people for the fact that your daughter can't find a job she likes...

Instead she needs to focus on her interview skills and job search rather than you looking for scapegoats.

No it isn’t. It’s hoping to get a job in a very niche area rather than looking wider afield. There aren’t many jobs that require a philosophy degree. There are plenty that need a good degree regardless of subject.

This may be outdated now as i am going back 15 years, but when I was looking for graduate jobs, the feedback I got from interviewers was that my CV stood out as I had more work experiences that many other graudate applicants, regardless of what jobs they were. Could that be a factor here?

Stop looking at the immigrants and look dispassionately at your daughter. Could she brush up on interview skills? What is her ideal job? What is she doing to get there?

Hi OP, a quick google search brought up quite a selection of options for her, perhaps she needs to focus on adapting her CV to each role applied for as well as her interview skills? Its so hard when we see our DC unhappy in their work but as many other PP have said the civil service can give lots of other opportunities and she can apply for transfer to other departments if she is not happy where she is.

I hope the below information is useful to you and your DD, all Google sourced!

Core "Ethics" and Knowledge-Based Roles

Academic Researcher/Lecturer: The most direct path is to pursue postgraduate education and become a philosophy professor or researcher, specializing in these specific philosophical areas.

AI/Data Ethicist: With the rise of artificial intelligence, there is a demand for specialists to consider the ethical implications ("should we even do this?") and responsible innovation surrounding technology.

Clinical/Bioethicist: In healthcare settings, ethicists help medical teams, patients, and families navigate complex ethical dilemmas.

Ethics and Compliance Officer: Large organizations in both public and private sectors hire officers to ensure operations are conducted ethically and comply with regulations.

Policy Analyst/Advisor: Working for government agencies, think tanks, or non-profits to develop policy rooted in sound social and ethical principles.

General Professional Careers -
Philosophy graduates often pursue professional degrees in fields like law, business, or government, where their strong reasoning abilities are valuable.

Law (Barrister, Solicitor, Paralegal): The ability to construct robust arguments and analyze evidence is a significant asset in the legal profession.

Civil Service/Local Government Officer: Roles in the civil service require logical thought and the communication of ideas for public administration and policy implementation.

Journalism/Publishing (Editorial Assistant, Writer): Strong communication and analytical skills are essential for writing, editing, and research-focused roles.

Education (Teacher, Lecturer): Teaching at various levels, from primary school to higher education, allows you to apply your understanding of pedagogy and knowledge transmission.

Human Resources/Management: Epistemological and ethical understanding can aid in navigating workplace dynamics, fairness, and organizational behavior.

Consulting/Business: The ability to think critically and analytically about complex problems can lead to executive or consulting roles in various industries.

Ultimately, the skills acquired in these philosophical disciplines are adaptable to many fields that value rigorous thought and principled decision-making.

Sometimes you just have to do a job that pays the bills.
Masters in philosophy and you expect to just be handed a job 🤣 the real world has come calling I’m afraid.

And you sound like a knob, by the way. So what if her friends have jobs that your daughter doesn’t? They have skills she doesn’t and/or interviewed well. Sometimes Brits are turned down for jobs 😮

A mod removed my comment. Reall? What’s this site really about? I think it’s about time to bin this forum.