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.

Fabulous results for Lightsabre's niece and Eatyourveg's son! 1🥂🍻
DS2 is on his way home. His flight from Adelaide to Melbourne was cancelled, presumably because of C19, so he flew to Canberra and then onto Melbourne.
His flight to Melbourne was on a small propeller plane with only about a dozen passengers. I don't suppose many people are wanting to go there at the moment with the latest lockdown.
He's currently on a flight to Doha. Getting excited now! 😁

Well done to all those getting results. I just paid the law school fees today for next year so I suppose I am assuming my twins get good enough degrees for that! Hopefully I am not wrong.

Good news today that the Bristol hotel is refunding in the next 14 days the £600 for the graduations bookings (the graduations not now happening in July).

EatYourVeg - excellent news about the 1st.

LateDecember - remember when they couldn't even get to school without us? 🤣

Xenia good news about the refunds.

ds has just had an email from the company who withdrew his graduate position - apparently they are giving those who were offered jobs, first pick at any vacancies and some part time positions have appeared doing something else there. Part time hours won't pay the rent but if he says no, I wonder if the original post came up, would they look less favourably on him for having rejected this role? A job is a job so something better than nothing?

No idea what advice to offer. Any thoughts?

Part time (if it is a hard to get and good opportunity) might lead to full time in due course so unless he can get a full time in just as good a role he may be best to take it. it depends what the something else is.

Think I'd be encouraging him to take anything they offer @eatyourveg (wish both mine DID eat veg, btw 🙄). It's a foot in the door and a chance to prove himself.

Can't remember if I congratulated you on his First, very well done to him and you. 🙂

Great news about your refund @Xenia.

I am slightly concerned about DS's mood; had a bit of a pep talk with him last night and we're going to try and engage him a bit more as I feel he's sliding into a routine of doing not very much. At all. 🤨

Yes, I agree with Horsemad, it’s a foot in the door and shows he’s keen.

Horsemad. - I too am a bit concerned about ds. He doesn’t want to do an MA - the two he investigated have switched to fully online and he says he couldn’t bear that. There are zero casual jobs about and all holiday plans are off of course.

It is certainly difficult for lots of people. Some offices are reopening. My daughter's boyfriend went back in last week in London full time - first in the door at 7.30am apparently. but it is the lack of predictability that is hard for people trying to make plans about whom to hire and for graduates if they can travel etc.

As my twins know what they are doing next academic year I don't really mind what they do until early Sept when their course starts but it certainly won't be exotic foreign travel. I just hope it's not an entirely dull summer although I have masses of domestic jobs they are welcome to help me with but everyone always disappears when I suggest anything like that......

Lol Xenia, DC disappearing when jobs/chores need to be done sounds about right! 😆

If he's nothing else promised, I'd advise taking the part time work, Eat yourveg. Since January the school I work in could only offer me a few hours a week due to finances but from September they've offered me 3 days a week. He can always be on the lookout for a job with more hours if he gets bored.

Hope your lads are ok, Horsemad and IrmaFayLear. It's been such a weird experience over the last few months. On the whole I've been quite content, but I have had the odd "slump" day for no apparent reason. I know they're grown ups now, but the uncertainty about future plans are bound to catch up with them at times.

DS2's home! He's had a shower and some lunch and is now unpacking. He's clumping about upstairs and DH just asked, "Was he always this elephantine?" Lovely to have him back! 😍

I hope he’s brought you a lovely big pile of festering washing, latedecember1963...

DS told DD he still has a basket full of dirty washing from before lockdown that he moved from halls into his new house the other weekend. He is here!

Thanks @latedecember1963, I can remember how depressing it was re the job situation in the early 80s and I was one of the lucky ones.

He needs to be the one to work out which path he follows next but it's hard watching him...

Bet it's lovely to have your DS2 home. 😃

@bigTillyMint, DS has still got all his stuff at his house that he didn't wash before he came home, so that'll be stinking when we collect it. 😬

Ds collected his stuff last week which had been in a locked chest for four months. It included a bathmat and his gown which had a mouldy gravy stain embedded down the front.

@Horsemad at least we don’t have to collect it - he’s only going into second year! So was DSs stuff (locked under his bed for 4months!) - no idea about gravy stains @IrmaFayLear

DD was fairly exemplary about not bringing dirty clothes home, but as she has millions, I guess she just rotates them

Horsemad I graduated in 1984 without a job, without a clue about what I wanted to do. Eventually got a place on a PGCE for the following year and went to work in a pub and do some voluntary work in the meantime. The voluntary work led to me meeting someone who encouraged me to apply for an IT traineeship in the Civil Service and I met DH while I was working in the pub. Never did do the PGCE, still married to DH and still work in IT.
Things have a strange way of working out.

Things have a strange way of working out.

Thank you @BestIsWest, you're right and I have to be patient.

He's a lot chirpier today, quite chatty & came food shopping with me (flippin' trolley loaded up!) this evening. 🙂

I know @Horsemad, I have to keep reminding myself too. DS opened up a bit about his anxiety today. He’s very much one to keep things close to his chest and on a superficial level and has been a bit quiet the last few days. We went for a walk around a local gardens and I managed to get him talking over tea and scones. He also met up with friends yesterday evening, all keeping their distance, but I think that helped a bit.

Yes my DS keeps things close to his chest too. It's good you managed to get him chatting. 🙂

I graduated in 82, jobs situation poor; fortunately I was able to do a PhD and things were better by the time I'd finished that in 85 - and I found my niche while doing it. There's obviously a lot of luck involved but a setback or rethink can work out in the end.

Ds was a bit at dinner last night, worrying that the future will have no offices and no communal working. Several places which offered hope for an internship or even a job have replied to him saying they are now all home working. One said this is permanent. And of course everywhere says recruitment is on hold.

Of course it’s not so bad for some sectors - health, engineering to name two - but in “creative” areas the ladder seems to have been firmly pulled up and the hatch bolted.

Ds’s friend who started last year as a graduate trainee at a big accountancy firm is also miserable as they are moving to wfh. The professional training is online, audit files emailed etc. He did not sign up to work forever in his bedroom!

That aspect is so hard for youngsters. I've WFH for 25 years, but it would definitely have been difficult and not nearly as enjoyable in the early years. Both social aspects and getting integrated into teams and just working out how to communicate effectively will be impaired.

But I think quite a lot of companies are/will reopen offices - hopefully with more optional wfh where possible.

I said on another thread that the thought of an office party now fills me with horror, but in my 20s...

yes 1982 for me too - it was dire. There were 3m unemployed - the highest level for 50 years in the UK., I was just about the best in my year on my law degree winning prizes etc and I still had to apply to 139 law firms and have 25 interviews in London before getting the first job which I did manage to find in year 3 at university before post grad law school but it was very hard to get. Almost a whole generation of graduates didn't get graduate jobs in those years until the 80s boom started.

One of my sons is hoping law school will be mostly on line [he has never been a participator - even when he was aged 9 his teacher at parents' evening said he might well be good as his exam results were good but he never spoke in class so he might as well have done the class by correspondence course.... mind you he chats all the time to friends and at home so must be frustrating for teachers. I have given 1700 courses and I hate it when no one has a question and they just sit there passively - harder work for me]

Hopefully we can go back to the time like my last office in a law firm - office all to myself 100% me, door that fully shut (no glass on the door), you could not see in. No air con. looking over a London square. Window could open. Today it would be very Covid 19 safe - the single office you don't have to share with anyone. Perhaps CV19 will see off awful open plan no privacy offices.