Dd wants to take a year out but expects to land herself the ideal job…

[Lovemusic33]

Dd is in her final year of A levels, she’s alway been a high achiever and is expected to get A,A,B in her final exams. Over the past few months she has struggled a little, time off during lockdown and 2 weeks off last month with covid has put her behind a bit. Dd is also on the autistic spectrum and has some physical disabilities (dyspraxia and HMS), physically and mentally I don’t think she’s ready for uni. We have discussed options a lot and she has decided to defer uni for a year and to get some work experience, I support her fully with this but I do worry she won’t go back, I have mentioned a few places she could work for a year but she disagrees with all my suggestions saying “that’s not the area I want to work in”, the area she does want to work in is impossible to find work in because it’s mainly freelance (journalism) and she’s not done anything to push herself into gaining experience despite many people telling her too (with local papers etc…). Also we live rurally and she can’t drive, public transport isn’t great and she would be anxious using it. Dd dismisses any of my suggestions and seems to think the perfect gap year job will land in her lap.

I have asked Dd to consider going to our local uni, meaning she can live at home, get public transport to uni (or I could drive her occasionally), this would mean she can continue her education without being away from home. Dd isn’t happy about this suggestion as local uni is not a top uni (she wanted to go to Exeter after a gap year), she thinks people with low A level results go there 🤨.

I try not to get too involved with her choices, just gentle suggestions but in side I’m starting to feel a little fed up that nothing anyone suggests is good enough. I have a feeling she’s going to end up not going to uni and not finding work, she doesn’t seem to realise that everyone has to start at the bottom and sometimes we have to do jobs that we don’t really enjoy, just to get to where we want to go.

Am I expecting too much from her? I do feel for her, she does struggle with a lot of things and life hasn’t been easy for her so far. I just worry that like a lot of people on the spectrum she will end up with no job and turn into a recluse (she would happily just live in her room for the rest of her life with no social interaction).

Tizz is right. She should go to Exeter and get a good degree and then do post grad journalism - eg my son looked a London School of Journalism course for post grad but decided on the open day it was just too competitive.

Look at the people you want to be (whatever career) and look at where they went to university - their linkedin profiles will help with that and work backwards from that.,

If she might change her mind no a career then get into the hardest to get into university you can get into - Exeter would be good on this basis.

@Xenia

Tizz is right. She should go to Exeter and get a good degree and then do post grad journalism - eg my son looked a London School of Journalism course for post grad but decided on the open day it was just too competitive.

Look at the people you want to be (whatever career) and look at where they went to university - their linkedin profiles will help with that and work backwards from that.,

If she might change her mind no a career then get into the hardest to get into university you can get into - Exeter would be good on this basis.

That’s a very good tip! LinkedIn I a valuable resources. And you can often reach out to people to they will be happy to help. Especially as your daughter is SEN and many places have diversity on the agenda.

@clary

I'm not really a journalist any more, and I have certainly come across some who are, who are not super intelligent. But I would say that grabbed, scored, stol a goal, while they have a different tone, are all true, if a goal was scored. If you report says the truth, that the result was 1-1, then that's good. If it says we won 4-0, then it's not the truth and it's no use.

Journalists, especially those working locally
which is most of them, need to stick to the truth or it will bite them in the bum. That's all I wanted to say really.

I don’t think you quite get it but the thread isn’t about this… so I’ll leave it here 😂

If she gets good grades and goes to a top University she will keep her options open until she finds out what she wants to do. A gap year will help that as well and it is probably a bit much to expect a gold plated internship given her circumstances and the wider world at the moment. Focus on helping her achieving her grades. Exeter would be great but she can re-apply anywhere once she has her grades, during her gap year .

Apologies OP, the thread is indeed not about truth or otherwise in journalism. Please excuse the derail.

@clary
But the derail opened the lid on what some people think of journalists!

Tractor, yes and I would to that to look at younger not older people who have been hired by particular companies as what someone did 30 years ago is not so relevant (although those people might be interviewing you so no harm to look at where they went to university). With barristers it is even easier as the websites tend to give full CVs, so not just a linkedin profile.

I did a lot of writing in my teens, even wrote a 50,000 book a year (never published those ones) and had some writing competition prizes of a very modest kind. However I decided at around 14 that journalist did not pay very well so went into law instead (but like someone else posting above I have done loads of technical writing too, write law books etc so in a sense am a writer of sorts).

@Skysblue

Journalism doesn’t sound a natural fit for her. It tends to suit very confident extroverts with a flexible approach to the truth, and while I don’t want to offend anyone, it isn’t a job usually chosen by top academic students.

As an academic introvert with great writing skills who is happy to be in her room alone for hours, she sounds like a novelist or book editor to me. Personally I’d steer her towards a creative writing course, the best in UK is at university of East Anglia. Or maybe a 1 yr diploma in creative writing somewhere? Or maybe publishing / editing?? She actually might make a fantastic editor and I know one freelance editor who earning £4k/ month to read books and point out plot holes… Maybe some publishing internships?

I wouldn’t push her towards Bournmouth, she’s right it isn’t a highly academic uni, my friend went to a v v similar uni and was disappointed how little work they did - there was a lot of focus on the social side.

Good luck it all sounds tricky!!

She would make a good editor. I have tried to get her to do proof reading for people but again she lacks the confidence to offer her skills (she does proof read for me). She’s always wanted to be a writer but has never completed a book but has got awards for short stories and poems. She’s struggling at the moment with staying focused and she wants to push for a diagnosis of ADD/ADHD in hope that she can get medication to improve her ability to stay in task and her short term memory, I think the stress of covid and exams has made this worse. Maybe taking a year out with help her decide what path she actually wants to go down but I think it will be English related as it’s always been her subject.

When she took her A level options she was set on doing computing due to the fact it’s easier to find work in that area, she’s hitting a A* on her computing exams but says she doesn’t want to work in that area and doesn’t want to do a computing degree.

She got mainly 9’s in GCSE, she wanted to do History as a 4th A level but school was unable to offer it to her due to it classing with one of her other choices, she now wishes she took History instead of doing maths.

[quote TizerorFizz]@clary
But the derail opened the lid on what some people think of journalists![/quote]
It’s not just what ‘some people’ think - journalistic bias is a hot academic topic.

oxfordre.com/communication/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228613-e-853

And despite what I said above - an article from the Guardian with some good links.
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/10/media-bias-is-ok-if-its-honest

The point being that it’s not as straightforward as reporting the facts. And relies a lot on a strong sense of self and values at every level. More so than other professions. Because journalism isn’t mainly about ‘writing skill’, it’s about the power to influence. And it’s very personal, reflecting on the journalist. That’s why you can identify style from articles.
Like being a photographer- the event can be taken from different angles. It’s not mainly about lenses, technique and whatnot. But the vision.

The point being OP - what is your daughters driving force? Does she want to influence, to tell stories that matter? Does she want to make her voice heard? Or has she just decided on this because she’s a good writer?

Sorry X posted OP!
An ADHD diagnosis is good (for some reason I thought that they do an all round assessment for children!)
She is only 18 after all.
It’s not wrong to only have a vague idea, but just don’t lock Into something like a journalism undergrad degree …a general humanities degree from a good uni would be better

@TractorAndHeadphones

Sorry X posted OP! An ADHD diagnosis is good (for some reason I thought that they do an all round assessment for children!) She is only 18 after all. It’s not wrong to only have a vague idea, but just don’t lock Into something like a journalism undergrad degree …a general humanities degree from a good uni would be better

She hasn’t been assessed since she was 3 (was diagnosed with Aspergers very early), she wants to be assessed again due to the concentration issues which often get worse in the teen years with ADHD, she missed a lesson at school this week because she was daydreaming in the library (revising) 🤣.

I think she does need a bit of time to mature to be honest. I’m sorry to hear about the maths instead of history but I can see why she needed maths with the idea about doing computer science. Writing, as required by history, might have been a better idea. She can write for pleasure as suggested above.

I think the other aspect to this dilemma is that many DC don’t decide upon careers prior to university. Especially if several avenues appeal. The main thing is to choose a degree she really likes. She will get careers advice at university and careers fairs. She will meet far more people who have ideas about what they want to do after uni which could get her thinking about other careers too. She will mature and many humanities students have to be flexible about careers. However if she still wants journalism, then she will know to apply for a post grad course.

Here's the thing, journalism isn't really about writing skills. Well, it is up to a point but equally important are first-rate research, persistance, a real genuine interest in people (what they do and why they do it) and the ability to find a story, or an angle to a story, which others haven't. Summed up by the Hearst quote that 'journalism is something someone doesn't want printed; all else is advertising'. You don't have to be a confident extrovert, but you have to curious. Hope that makes sense.

Lots of good tips and advice already from the likes of clary and tizerorfizz. DH is a sports writer, he is older obviously but would echo the suggestion that your DD does an English degree rather than a journalism one (he did and English degree first). Nearly everyone of his generation went down that route and although some of the journalism and communications degrees at university are now excellent, doing a more general degree will keep a broader range of options open to her.

One suggestion he has which I don't think has been mentioned on this thread yet is to do a course on In-Design. It's the Apple Mac software package which most media groups use for editing and layouts and would be a very valuable skill to have. Also you mention that you think she'd make a good editor, familiarity with In-Design would be almost essential for that role. HTH.