Paying to find young person a first job

[mothersdaywoe]

Has anyone tried this, its not expensive £500 for coaching, CV analysis, career advice BUT no guarantee of employment at the end.
Its been a year now, DC is depressed and failing further and further behind

So does she have a job? You said earlier she was being turned down for call centre and care work. What work experience does she have already; can she build on this (and contacts made)?

If you give an idea as to sector she wants to get into, people on here can probably provide useful advice for free (or start another thread with an appropriate title).

Where did you volunteer please?

Coaching could be worth paying for.

job centres can be useful - some areas do have specialised coaching eg for people with disabilities but generally this varies by area and even when it exists in your area the places are taken very quickly.

if the uni careers place is booked out then yes it can be worth paying for coaching. You’d ideally want someone who knows the field she is trying to get into.

ignore all the stuff on here about take any job. Useful advice if you need money but won’t help you get to where you want to be

You didn’t come here to discuss jobs but your title is “Paying to find young person a first job”… for someone who has actually been working for six years?

precisely she doesn’t need money otherwise she was signing on and accessing all the joys of universal credit.
It’s no point going to work for the British heart foundation shop to get more shop experience when she could be doing those three hours for Tesco’s and £45 up on the deal.

I volunteer at a well-known art gallery in London. I’ve not been involved with any others but I’ve been told a lot of similar museums and galleries also use volunteers. I appreciate you might live nowhere near London but it may be worth looking into similar places near you if that sort of environment is of interest to her.

Thank you

OP, I think you have mis-steered your own thread.

You asked about 'first job' in your title whereas what you really wanted was 'first step on proper career ladder in X industry for someone with a degree in Y'.

Honestly, in order to have a career she will need to have professional training. There are far more graduates every year than there are professional vacancies. She needs to get a job, and keep applying

Is her degree in law?

I'd take the contacts/introductions offer with a pinch of salt, because it's just not how real networking works. It's relational, not transactional.

Think about it, if you were an employer and you had a choice of one of your own network contacts, with whom you had a bona fide relationship, suggesting someone they were prepared to put their own name behind, would you really choose someone who had paid to be introduced to you instead?

Hello, yes, that’s entirely fair

DS worked for free, in a small company that needed but couldn't afford extra staff. He knew it was illegal to do an unpaid internship but it exactly fitted the skills he wanted to learn. He did two or three days a week and because the company was small, he really did learn useful skills - the bespoke software for that industry, how to do stocktaking and quality control. After a year and a half of free work he got his first job on a fixed term contract and six months later, his first permanent grad job. Also, the staff he met there moved on to second jobs and so he had a network of people in the industry keeping an eye out for him.

If she knows what interests her, suggest she looks for small companies or start ups that appeal to her and approaches them with a really honest letter, saying: I am seeking entry level work in [this industry - whatever it is] and happy to intern unpaid for a minimum of six months, two or three days a week, in exchange for industry experience. My strengths are XYZ. If you could use this help while you grow your company, I am keen and can start immediately. Please get in touch.

In addition, I strongly advise her to set up a start up of her own, however small. DS started by selling specialist items in the industry he wanted to get into. He went to trade shows and fairs and bought up showroom stock very cheaply and sold it on at quite a big profit, then reivested in more stock. Soon he was being invited to the trade shows as they knew him to be a reliable buyer. It was not a living or a full time job, but it meant he got to know various people in the industry that interested him.

She could team up with a coder if she isn't a coder and design an app. Or start up a shop online selling specific items in demand related to her chosen field. These things might not go anywhere or make much money, but they add to her CV and show her as a self-starter. And she'd learn some skills: website building, how to generate SEO etc.

It is so hard to keep spirits up. What does she love doing? What are her passions? When is she happiest? Help her come up with some ideas based on these and set small, achievable targets.

Maybe it's the attitude that calls center and cleaning jobs are crappy and shitty and she's far too good for them? Which obviously isn't true as she can't get them!!

I echo previous comments about volunteering. Voluntary organisations are crying out for people so look for a related field. They will learn and maintain transferable skills whilst showing commitment.
If as the above commenter has queried your DC's degree is in law, perhaps look at volunteering with the Citizens Advice Bureau.

What’s her approach to job hunting ? Is she applying for vacancies or is she approaching companies that she’s interesting in working for. Can she sell herself well in a conversation ? There’s a lot of hustle in getting on and so many opportunities identified through networking and chatting to people. Even socially. People like to employ people they know or know of. In her position I’d probably temp and then go to some local network events. ( I saw one advertised on my local FB which seems to have been in a bar). ChatGPT is actually really useful - at the very least she should be running her CV through it against the job specification to ensure she’s hitting all the necessary points and all the relevant trigger words are included. I used to be a recruitment consultant back in the day but the whole recruitment landscape has changed from when I was working. CVs are not the same so it’s important to know how to maximise her skills. Academic prowess only counts for so much which is why I would suggest temping.

Op I work in graduate recruitment,
there are grad specific rec agencies where she can register her cv.
We get hundreds of applications per role so we so usually end up having to filter out anything below a 2.1 or poor a-levels, sounds like she is ok in that respect.
Things that could be holding back -
Geographical location
Being too ‘open’ on career choices
Lack of jobs in her desired sector
Poor cv
Something simple such as not indicating right to work or driving license
The big grad schemes start recruiting from autumn onwards for the following year - is she interested in any of those ?
Has she thought about relocating ?

@mothersdaywoe "she’s worked at Tesco’s for six years"

Tesco is more than just stacking shelves and sitting at the till. They employ thousands of people in logistics, purchasing, HR, IT, finance, estates, product development, marketing, legal dept. and much more, both in the UK and internationally.
Tesco also has a graduate training scheme. Has your daughter asked about this - either internally or via Head Office or the website?

You haven't said what career your daughter actually wants to follow - a career in a very niche industry or academic area will have a very different recruitment process to a more general career. Paying £500 for some generic advice seems a waste of money - most of the "advice" will be freely available on the internet.

Yeah that’s probably true. My depressed daughter needs to be called names by some randomer on Mum’s net. Thank you so much for your comments.

So your advice is that she breaks the law ? Amazing.

....where did I call her names?

Go away

"Shitty call centre jobs" are also often a good way to get a foot in an organisation. Once you are in, there are then more chances for progression for existing employees than outsiders.

What was her degree in and what does she want to do career wise?

Wow. Your attitude isn't helping.

I gave you a lot of advice and you caustically toss one piece back in my face (which hugely helped my son gain an excellent job in a highly competitive field.)

With a mother like that on her side, no wonder she is feeling dispirited.

Just help her find experience. My son's employer may have been technically breaking the law by not paying him. But he was a start up and struggling to finance his new busines. DS worked in a voluntary capacity and got an excellent skillset, solid CV credit and track record as a result, in a notoriously difficult field to break into. Now he is well established, because of it. I think both he and the start up benefited hugely. And from this, you take: suggest she breaks the law!

Do you want her to succeed?

OP is being extremely hostile for no reason.