Do your DC do volunteering work?

[PooshTun]

At the breakfast table this morning I was reading my local paper and I came across an ad for the volunteering services centre. On the xth a number of local charity groups will be at y to sign on teenage volunteers for the summer. Volunteering, goes the ad, can 'help your child boost their cv and personal statement'.

I accept that many people volunteer because they are genuine. However, I am cynical enough to believe that some parents include volunteering as part of a strategy to build an impressive cv for their DCs.

Is anyone brave enough to own up to the latter?

And do Uni admission panels really attach any weight to this?

I mean, we use to laugh at Miss World contestants who go on about their charity work with Third World children while dressed in a £1,000+ gown.

You made the hand wringing assumption that all students from low income backgrounds will be working stacking shelves through the summer.

You're just not with it Poosh. Despite your big job.

Poosh the MC firm which made the mistake of employing me once had a fabulous touchy feely gentleman in charge as Senior Partner. Decent firms employ people with depth, not brash exteriors. So bollocks again.

Most students have student loans. I made the comment that many will be busy with paid summer jobs in order to lessen their debt burden.

How does this translate into a comment about low income students stacking shelves?

Apologies for multiple posts. In response to Poosh @ 20.30pm: (I shouldn't need to spell this out to a sharp City bank employee) school students are those scrutinised by university admissions tutors whereas undergraduates are those scrutinised by banks looking for graduate trainees. Therefore your bank is assessing undergraduates. Duh.

Poosh according to you your eldest kid is in Y7. Your comments strongly suggest that you're not in touch. Perhaps wait 'til you are? (meant in the nicest possible way :)).

Yellowtip - Why does everything have to come back to you?

The fact that you haven't experienced something doesn't invalidate what the other person is saying.

It seems to be an underlining theme in all your postings. I mean, you dismiss points made by other people, not just me, because of your DCs or your experiences as if you and your brood are the bench mark.

I get it that you consider yourself unremarkable and yet you got yourself a good job. Good for you. But that doesn't invalidate my points about the recruitment of graduates being groomed to be the next generation of international business leaders.

Yellowtip - Are you that desperate to score points that you are flaming for using the term 'undergrad' in the wrong context :o :o

Maryz - I am too tired to repeat my post about posters who fail to understand what is actually being posted and who then launch in a lengthy diatribe which only serves to highlight their inability to comprehend what was being written in the first place.

Can I just assure you Poosh that I haven't the slightest vestige of a wish to 'score points'. Nor do I or would I ever hold my DC out as a 'benchmark'. How completely absurd.

But credit to DC like Maryz DD, she sounds great.

Banks are not the only city employers. We certainly don't look for exotic volunteering. In fact I think it's the sort of thing that might make some of our key decision makers get a bit antsy. I'd love to say we don't care about sporting prowess either but I'm pretty sure that's not true. In fact, I was at a seminar in NYC last October where various international firms were discussing recruitment to the profession and one man (not from my firm, from another large international firm) made the comment that he always tried to employ rugby players. He had some rational for this - about being team players, more rounded, etc-which I reckon was somewhat tenuous. My own unwritten gatepost criteria of choice is 'has read a book, ever' which you'd think was aiming low but actually........

And a significant part of my own interview for the particular job I just mentioned was a discussion about cockroaches....

The last job I applied for rather than got head hunted for, I got it when I understood the reference to a notice saying 'beware of the leopard' made within the first couple of minutes of the interview.

My 'has read a book, ever' criteria in action, there!

Yellowtip -

You are obviously a woman in denial.

A lot of academic schools have moved to IGCSEs. They are obviously of the opinion that RG universities value these qualifications over GCSEs. Yet your opinion is that all those who say this are talking rubbish including ny friend who is in fact on the admissions panel of a leading London uni. Why? Because your DC studied GCSEs and now look at all her offers.

I mentioned that my City firm looked for certain things from their fast track graduates. Yet your opinion is that I'm talking rubbish. Why? Because your DC got offered a good job and she didn't match my generalisation.

I get it that you are proud of your DCs but just because they/you haven't experienced something doesn't invalidate the other person's point.

@Metab - I knew a head trader who would take a bunch of applicants to a wine bar and basically the job went to the last man standing.

(we in IT, on the other hand, are a much more civilised women-friendly lot :) )

Completely bizarre. I haven't any particular views on IGCSEs, nor mentioned any offers for any particular DD in relation to IGCSE that I can recall. It's certainly not a subject which excites me that much. Very !!!!!!!! Please enlighten!

Well Poosh it's plausible that some may see endurance as the defining characteristic on the trading floor rather than anything too cerebral?

Yellowtip - You are a bit behind the times. Technology has wiped out the East End Wide Boy dealer stereotype from the 80s. Dealers today often hold Master degrees and PHDs in advanced maths or similar.

The Head Dealer knew that these shining examples of Ivy League /Oxbridge grads were all more than capable of doing the job so it just came down which one he wanted to be down at the pub/wine bar with.

In Metab's case it was her knowing a passage from a book that landed her the job. Is being able to drink like a fish a less valid criteria?

Oh well. Another 'fun' day on MN has come to an end.

Instead of sparking off a discussion about how some pushy parents seek to pad their DC's cv with strategic activities and whether University admission panels attach any weight to this, we seem to have sunk into yet another bun fight.

Apparently I am supposed to be dumping on charities, people who volunteer at old people homes in Slough and poor students who fill shelves for a summer job. This came as a surprise to me because I thought I was dumpling on cynical parents who will do anything to get their DCs accepted into their prefered university.

Anyway, I've learnt my lesson. Back to AIBU and Geeky Stuff for me. Listening to a bunch of people complaining about their in laws will be a refreshing change after listening to a bunch of people going:

a) I didn't tutor my DC and look, she got into the local Grammar school at our sparsely populated Village so, no I don't think that you need to tutor your kid for your highly selective London GS/Indie. :o

b) We could afford private but we prefer the diversity of our village comprehensive where a lot of the families are professionals and predominantly white :o

c) Private schools are full of unpleasant people so I don't want my children going there. Enough of that. Lets bitch about the school gate politics at our local school instead :o

d) Although I can afford it, I don't believe in buying a better education for my kids. That is why I would not send my kids to a private school. Instead I am going to drive up property prices near this really good state school and edge out the locals. Its not my fault that I can afford to buy in the catchment and they can't. [This one gets a double :o :o ]

Please don't be offended if I left you out. I'll see some of you ladies in AIBU.

One of the key reasons for my 'has read a book, ever' gatepost criteria is that in my profession it is absolutely vital for people to be able to express themselves succinctly, in terms understandable by the layman rather than by the expert, on a variety of highly complex issues. I think we can all appreciate how frustrating and confusing it can be when someone who cannot do this is let loose on a keyboard. :(

The issues of what hobbies and information on a CV help graduates is obviously important. First of all they need something although even the absence of anything might be a good sign. If you want someone to work 16 hours aday for you and most weekends it can be a huge advantage if they have no hobbies, responsibilities nor personal life although I suspect as good health and fitness tends to enable people to work hard sport is seen as a plus point by many.

Rugby can just be a short hand for a certain class by some. Drinking can be similar (it tends to exclude many women, muslims and the like).

However if people are able to talk about just about anything in an interview and have very good exam results that really does help as does work experience. Those are the main things.

Maryz it's an argument with only one person arguing. I'm as baffled as you.

Poosh I've just read the ICGSE thread. It's the first time I've clicked on it, I'm that little interested (I've seen the arguments all rehearsed before). A poster there does seem to take issue with you along the grounds you said, but that poster has an entirely different name. Perhaps you should ask for your silly post to be deleted if your short term memory isn't strong enough for you to recall which poster said what before you start being rude. I notice too that you're as abrasive, antagonistic and aggressive on that thread as you have been on all the other threads that you've contributed to. I don't understand what your problem is, just that you appear to have one.

On the CV front at university level, the relevance of hobbies and extra curriculars varies significantly according to university, or tier of university and also between subjects. Thus even at Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial the admissions teams for the medical students need to know that any student they take on has a decent outlet for releasing stress - that's the key thing, more than what that hobby or interest demonstrates for team working (obviously kicking the hell out of an opponent on the rugby field ticks both boxes admirably, but any stress buster will do - though possibly best not to include those that Xenia listed above, however well they do the trick).

@yellow I did particularly enjoy the reference to the ''local' grammar in the sparsely populated village', and the comparison with the 'highly selective' London Grammar.

Coming to this a bit late! I volunteer for one day a week and all the adults I've come across who volunteer for the same organisation are doing it for some element of personal gain whether it is simply to met new people and be active in retirement or to help with our CVs in a more direct way. We all take our volunteer role seriously so the fact that we actually get a lot back from it isn't a problem.

Why is it ok for adults to do this but if teenagers are trying to improve their CVs its seen as a more cynical move? We get students who volunteer over the summer purely because its an organisation that helps on their CVs (particularly for law students) and its great to work with different age groups.

DD2 did some volunteering when she was at sixth form that was relevant to her degree choice but since it took up one sentence on her personal statement I doubt it had any bearing on her university offers. She is hoping to do a work placement year as part of her degree course and has been advised to have a "useful" summer this year to strengthen her application. She has some volunteering work lined up and hopes to get some paid work as well.

I'm not sure what DD1's plans for the summer are yet as she's been studying abroad but if they look a bit lacklustre I'll be pushing her in the volunteering direction.

Whether or not volunteering is useful for university entrance depends on the subject - for the potential medics and vets its essential but for a mathematician or biologist it makes no difference whatsoever.