Heading towards 4th year or post grad/jobs

[Xenia]

Continuation of the previous thread for those of us with children who are just finishing their 3rd year at university (so either "graduating" in 2020 or going into year 4 in Autumn 2020)..........

My twins' degree results will be out in late July. Good luck to everyone else waiting for finals results.

Congratulations to your DD, En0la!

Just had a nice phone call with DD. One of her housemates was off for a CV19 test, she'd sat next to someone in a lecture (an actual lecture) who was asymptomatic but had tested positive in the general uni monitoring.

Her university's attempt at an online careers fair has apparently been hijacked and pretty much rendered useless by students from elsewhere flooding the system to complain to the various companies about every possible sort of issue, environmental 'crimes' or whatever.

Fingers crossed that if he does get it he only has mild symptoms.

Sorry, I hadn't spotted page 24!
Well done to your DD, EnOlagay.

That's a pain, Errol. I'm sure the activists think they're being very socially conscious, but I bet they wouldn't like their careers being hampered. Hope your DD and her friends get another fair soon.
DS2 attended a careers fair a couple of weeks ago and was quite interested in social care/ social work. I think he'd do a post graduate year that included placements if he decided to go ahead and was accepted on the course. It sounded a bit like the PGCE I did after my degree.

That is so unhelpful for activists to interrupt an online thing. I had not thought of that. It is certainly much easier to "attend" things online than otherwise.

No sign of covid 19 in my negative tested Bristol son so far and just cannot understand why not when he and his housemate cook and live together and they both saw her friend who then developed it. he is obviously isolating with her and his flat mate is feeling better now which is good as I think she wasn't feeling too well to start with. He said in another house of friends one got CV and none of the rest of the house caught it - they were really surprised as they all lived so close together. I suppose it is like a cold (although much worse) - you don't always catch one someone at home has. He says clearly he is invincible.... laughing as I type. If he doesn't get it he says they may need to write a medical journal on him. I think that is going a bit far but hopefully he will remain well.

Some people seem to be immune to it or get a very mild case.
Thanks for the congrats for DD, she's thrilled to bits.
Errol that's not on, activism has it's time and place and a careers fair is neither the time nor the place.

@Xenia, he may well have already had it, symptomless. Or as @en0lagay says, immune.

@ErrolTheDragon

DD and her housemates have found a new recruit so onwards and upwards hopefully!

Good point although all this year he has been really careful and no one else we know or were in contact with had it but it is still possible. He had a negative test this week (but not an antibody test). Today he still has no symptoms he says.

Still no sign of covid19 in my student son and he is soon out of quarantine with his housemate who has it. Although sadly lock down on Thursday is very shortly after his quarantine ends. I sent a hamper so he has been sending nice photos of the foods so at least that was appreciated. Some people downstairs in other flats have emptied all his rubbish out into the street from the brand new wheelie bin he ordered for their flat and stolen the new waste bin he ordered. They seem to be so bad and messy those people around them. He has had to order yet more bins (free) from the council. Even worse the people who put their waste in his new bin then did not even put it out for the council which he normally does so massive back log of waste now.

Meanwhilse his twin (who lives at home) is at his girl friend's until very late on Wed - he is staying until the very last lock down start minute and will be back when I am asleep apparently which is fine by me and he is in my good books as he's applied for his September 2021 one year law course tonight. He just called me so I could pay the £25 initial fee. Now I just need to get his twin to do the same (who is planning to do so at some point) so that will take us up to summer 2022 all sorted out and 2022 will be the first year since 1987 (when daughter 1 went to nursery school) that I have not been paying some form of school or education fees..... My twins will both live at home in London for that 2021/22 academic year.

I hope everyone else is doing okay. It is a very difficult time for lots of people for all kinds of reasons.

That's interesting he hasn't caught it Xenia. My sister worked alongside someone who has had it and didn't catch it, yet we're told it is very infectious. 🤔

Sorry about his bins, why can't people just do the right thing? It would make life so much easier!

I have spent the weekend reminding nagging DS2 to tidy up after himself. I live in hope that the tidy gene will kick in at some point... 🙄

My older daughter is not tidy or wasn't as a teenager at home anyway. Her sister even aged 3 would pack a suit case with everything folded better than I do now even... she is lovely tidying. They are all different.

May be my son had it earlier in the year. He has good friends a few houses down who are flat sharing and I think 2 of 5 didn't catch it when the whole house had it and had been at very close quarters.. I suppose we might have had it in March and not known.

I feel increasingly curmudgeonly about anti social behaviour. My MiL occasionally gets rubbish from the neighbours in her bin. A few weeks ago it was an outer safety net from a trampoline. Just the sort of thing an 88 year old would be getting rid of! The trampoline in the garden next door has coincidentally gone. The daft thing is if they had the manners to ask first she'd happily say yes.
Our house is on a quiet cul de sac with a mostly older demographic for neighbours. Once DS2 has settled permanently elsewhere it would make sense to downsize but we are wary of moving to an area we don't know well.
Hmm, the tidiness gene. Our 2 lads are like chalk and cheese even though we've brought them up the same. 🤣

It never fails to surprise me how different my two are, despite being raised in exactly the same way!
Although saying that, they are BOTH untidy, as is DH so maybe they've inherited that trait from him...? 😉

Yes, some of how they are seems to be there at birth and I notice that perhaps more than most as have non identical twin boys.

This may be obvious, but had he labelled his bins, Xenia?

DD was always vey untidy/disorganised but she seems to have acquired the ability to be tidy and organised if it matters to her. When she was here in the summer, she didn't really unpack her big suitcase and the floordrobe reappeared - but her desk, and then the places she was using for her internship work were exemplary.

OTOH I have a bad tendency to the 'vertical filing system' approach. DH cleared out a couple of drawers in a filing cabinet which he no longer needed, and today dumped the dividers on my desk and chair to nudge me into sorting my stuff out ... mainly because the under desk pile was in danger of avalanching onto the power blocks. I'm excavating all sorts of useful papers I'd forgotten I'd printed out.

Apparently he has a white marker on order and when the replacement comes he is going to mark it. I did say when the new bins came may be other properties thought they had come for them hence why they emptied out his flat's rubbish on to the floor.

..on to the street I meant...

.Although some people Errol know exactly where things are even if they look messy.

One twin has had his offer today for his final law course starting Sept 2021 in London. I just need to get his twin to get on with his application next not that there is any real rush. I just like to get things going and applications opened on 1 Oct. I wonder if it will be all on line in which case picking the London more expensive course rather than a regional centre might have been foolish; although had he picked eg Leeds which is £5000 a year cheaper per twin and it was then not online by Sept 2021 the rent would means that is more expensive I suppose than living at home (but only just).

Had a good chat with DD. They seem to have got the online lectures working well (either 'live' via Teams or recorded and then the timetabled lecture slot is used for Q&A). One of her housemates is doing mostly the same options and their lab projects are complementary projects for the same supervisor, so that works well.

Joining in on the hope of getting advice for ds applying for graduate jobs

ssd mine would have a better chance if they actually applied for them..... (although one application has gone in; but given I applied for 139 in 1982 I am not impressed so far. You have to be in it to win it.) In my sons' case this is for 2 or 3 years' time though as law recruits on a set programme 2 years+ in advance so not normal graduate recruitment.

Ds says the forms are so long winded and intense and he's doing a masters and working part time, think he's finding it hard going.

I think the system is very unfair on the applicant and far too time consuming. I even heard of one applicant to a design company once who had to do all kinds of drawings and designs for an interview and noticed then being copied (illegally as they had not consented to give up any copyright) when they went to the bathroom. My son's friend who is applying now for quant type jobs and graduated in the summer spent so long on one application and nearly got it (would have been on the Continent) but didn't so is back at it again.

The problem seems to be that the processes HR have put in place to ensure lots of people are considered and that there is no bias mean graduates have to put hours into the tests which actually puts off some of those who have fewest advantages because they tend to have less time, less parental support and more likely to be working night shifts in a care home just to get by.

Also if you know you probably won't get a job it seems a bit pointless to put in 10 hours going through an application process and for most of these good jobs there are loads of equally as well qualified applicants.

Of potential interest- you&yours on R4 today is going to be talking about graduate employment (I think new grad recruitment) - the trailer said it's down 23% this year.

xenia what is the one year law course they are applying for? DD needs to get her skates on i think...

DDs had a further discussion with the chap from the company she worked for the last two summers - sounds like it's a serious job offer, lots of work on their books, they plan train her up and pay the going rate, all good it seems. So, unsurprisingly she's very much on the page of accepting.