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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

2017 seems so long ago, now .....

516 replies

Xenia · 13/05/2022 16:34

Continuation of our previous thread.

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Xenia · 31/08/2023 22:05

Looks like one of the twins has had a job offer (not yet signed the contract, though, so I had better not tempt fate) for when he qualifies as a solicitor (where he is currently seconded).

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readsalotgirl63 · 01/09/2023 07:24

Great news @Xenia - fingers crossed

Carriemac · 06/09/2023 13:05

ooh that exciting for him @Xenia he must have impressed them!

Xenia · 06/09/2023 16:16

I am certainly relieved as training at your mother's firm may not go down very well. I think his job offer for a year is going ahead (they just need the HR paperwork) and I spoke to his twin's boss too who wants him to stay until he qualifies (on the same basis as now in his case so he will still need to find ajob when he qualifies early next year).

This does mean my time of finding them work, checking it etc which is over which is a bit of a relief as it has taken up quite a bit of time.

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Carriemac · 07/09/2023 12:20

DS2 has had a couple of job offers , still waiting to hear about the one he really wants but fingers crossed . His twin started her PPC today , 460 of them baby trainee solicitors apparently it's a great dating pool 🤗

Needmoresleep · 08/09/2023 12:07

Congratulations to the Xenia DT. I hope the other gets a similar offer soon. They both seem to be doing very well. And Congratulations to both Carriemac DC.

Law as a career is really tough to get in to. Medicine, once you have your medical school place, is much more straightforward. However F1 is proving tough. I don't think DD realised that shift requirements varied so much from one deanery to another. Hers is pretty brutal. There is a lot to come to terms with. Her hospital has a huge bedblocking problem, and she is currently on a ward where there are a lot of (expected) deaths. But I think she is enjoying it. Or would if she caught up on sleep.

2017 seems so long ago, now .....
Xenia · 08/09/2023 16:12

My father did all the night feeds with us as babies when bottle fed because he had had so many years of having to be up all night as a young doctor so he said he was used to it. So I certainly remember tales of long shifts for young doctors.

The twin looking for a newly qualified solicitor job should probably start looking now although he says he might wait a month or two. At this career stage it is up to them as my work is done.... other than I still house them (and we are on holiday this week abroad which is lovely particularly because of the very sweet one year old of my other child who is here - who is so cute at this age). It is back to the work grindstone for all of us next week.

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Haffdonga · 08/09/2023 20:14

Fingers crossed for those job offers - sounds positive Xenia and Carriemac!

Ds has just been home for a flying visit, relishing the new-found concept of annual leave (being paid while not working - what's not to like?) He's settling well in his job, building a social life and much more confident than his first week/ baptism of fire. The dept he's in seems to be used as an overflow general med ward by the hospital so he's dealing with patients with everything and anything including mental health problems, so getting lots of experience. He's already been told his Christmas shifts and will be getting Christmas and Boxing Day off which is great (and surprising) news. Apparently Father Christmas is still expected to visit grown men who are home for Christmas! Both ds are now back to their own lives elsewhere so it feels quite back to schooly for dh and I this week.

Xenia · 22/09/2023 22:09

Interesting to hear about the young doctors.
Usual full house here as older son is staying so all 3 boys until today when one went away for the weekend plus another friend of theirs here. I had a client here for a meeting today so we had 4 people working from home here today in separate rooms whilst my older son who has 2 days off was out on a walk.

We are probably coming to the end of this being a university etc thread but I going to keep it going at least until January when the twins qualify as solicitors and they have 4 cousins who are students - one who just started this term so the wider family is certainly not finished with higher education as yet....

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bettbburg · 24/09/2023 06:28

We start again with university next month too

Xenia · 24/09/2023 09:00

Good luck to the bettbburg family university starter - and do the cycle goes on, hopefully this time without covid lockdowns and lecturer strikes..... (we have a wider family member still waiting for summer 2023 degree/results due to strikes).

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Whyhaveibeencutoutofmamsnot · 26/09/2023 19:15

@Haffdonga a medics career path is not straightforward. Yes you are guaranteed an fy1/fy2 place but it is bit of a lottery where and in which specialties. And if you have a partner getting work in the same region is not guaranteed.
Again same process two years later and possibly again three years after that for higher training.
One more year and our time as parents of students will be over unless DC decides on a PhD🙄

Xenia · 29/09/2023 21:18

That's true and in my father's day he had to so a period residential in the hospital and my parents had tales of when they were first married in their 20s and my mother had to sneak through a window into the hospital just to see him.

All well here. The twins' secondments continue with one extended until he qualified - the company signed that extension last week and the other is getting the paid job (a year's maternity cover where he is currently seconded - - we are awaiting the draft contract bt it sounds definite as an announcement just went out to his colleagues that he was staying for a year so it would be unlikely if HR put a veto on it. My work is nearly done for them in the studies and career sense. One has been working on an AI legal thing today which always interesting as that overlaps with my own copyright work so we can have interesting discussions about the legal issues. The other one has a day off today and has driven to his previous university city with friends for the weekend.

Meanwhile the gorgeous one year old grandchild (my youngest gc) continues to thrive. She and I had a nice time at the park last weekend.

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bigTillyMint · 30/09/2023 09:50

What kind of Law are your boys doing Xenia?
My DS has started on his Law Conversion course - he’s really pleased with the teaching so far, but it’ll be hard work!

Carriemac · 01/10/2023 14:04

DS 2 is loving his new job and his twin sister really enjoying her training contract so far, 9 months of college for the professional practice bit and it's very sociable .

bigTillyMint · 01/10/2023 15:40

That’s good to hear @Carriemac - hopefully my DS will be doing that next year!

Xenia · 01/10/2023 17:30

Lots of lawyers..... I don't want to say too much to identify the twins but the one who has the maternity leave cover job is in an area to do with commercial law / copyright type law. He did enjoy 7.5 months seconded to a law firm's employment department but never planned to practise empoloyment law when he qualified, although it gave him useful experience across a range of things from writing policies to court/ tribunal work.

I have had 4 children do the law conversion course so am glad to see people's children doing it on this thread too (although I did an LLB back in the day).

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Whyhaveibeencutoutofmamsnot · 01/10/2023 18:31

What is the competition like for law conversion graduates getting training contacts?
A family member said not that many from their cohort (decent university) got training contracts apart from those with family contacts or language skills - plenty of paralegals with very vague unwritten promises for the future

bigTillyMint · 01/10/2023 20:18

@Whyhaveibeencutoutofmamsnotno one in our extended family (aside from DH and I) has even been to university, never mind become lawyers, so DS (state comp) has IMHO done exceptionally well to get a Training Contract (corporate law) and we are so proud of him and all the work he put into getting it.
His experience (going through the application process for many firms) echoes what your family member said.

Whyhaveibeencutoutofmamsnot · 01/10/2023 21:14

That is good to hear littletillymint has achieved a training contract.
It is not good that the universities producing law graduates take on so many students knowing that there aren't places for them to become qualified (unlike the medical schools where with few exceptions every graduate has a training post to go to)

Xenia · 02/10/2023 08:32

Even back 20 years ago many who did an LLB do not want to be lawyers so it is not the case that they are being misled about jobs. However for the postgraduate law exams for those with an LLB, they did used to ration places to number of training places available and then about 15 to 20 years ago let anyone who could pay get a place on the course instead. I support that change . I know it may seem people's money is taken at post grad level with no hope in some cases, but at least they have the freedom to take their own informed risks and some do obtain the training contract during their first degree (which tends to be issued 2 or 3 years in advance of application) are then sponsored/paid for during their law post grad year.

The most recent change to SQE exams rather than LPC exams, means more people can qualify as your training could even be done in 4 different periods of 6 months of voluntary work at the CAB. However, although it removes the log jam of getting a training place, it probably means it will be harder for people who did not train in a reasonably good law firm to get a job. So there are pros and cons to the new system.

Also 50% of lawyers do not do a law degree first and those ones also have the law conversion year to fund which is no longer compulsory in theory but in practice law firms like people who either have a 3 year LLB or the law conversion. So we have a complicated new system with many different options now, but the reality is the traditional training and intense competition remains. It is just market forces - students want a job where when they qualify at 25 or 26 they might be on £80k - £100k in London (less if they are in-house) rather than £30k so the higher the pay the more people want to go after those higher paid jobs. It will be no different in banking and those other kinds of careers.

Anyway good luck to anyone on this thread who has a training contract. I am the worst person to ask about how to get them as I had 25 interviews before getting my own in year 3 of my LLB so must be the worst candidate at interview in history presumably.... laughing as I type.

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Xenia · 07/10/2023 11:19

I hope all the 2017 children (adults) are doing fine. It seems to be the time of qualification for my sons and their friends (my twins early next year, their friend _ dentistry just qualified, their other friend - last ICAEW accountancy exams in November; no medical students amongst their closest friends though but that would probably have been similar timing too).

They have had an email from the regulator about the steps to be taken to be admitted as solicitors so it seems more real now with the end in sight (or, rather, the very beginning). Both are in house (seconded) to companies with lots of US contracts/links so that can mean some end of the day calls but nothing like the until 9pm every night of big London law firms.

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Needmoresleep · 08/10/2023 09:25

It is good to hear that the young lawyers are doing so well. Getting that first step on the ladder is tough.

The F1 position for young medics is much more automatic, though the crunch will come further down the line when they start applying for specialist training. Some training is very competitive and it is normal to move to access it. Who knows when DD will finally settle in one place.

She seems to be enjoying where she is, and working life, even though the latter is seriously demanding. Up to 10 days on the trot. One weekend in 3. Nights. 13 hour shifts. Initially they were so short staffed that leave requests were being refused, till I assume that someone realised they were only storing up problems for the future. To get home DD swapped a weekend with someone else, which meant two sets of 10 days either side. Luckily since then she has been able to get some leave approved, which she used to catch up on sleep. There is seems to be good comradery and the consultants are apparently very supportive, whilst there are some real characters amongst the patients.

DS graduates next summer. He was vague about graduation dates, till I insisted, at which point hotel prices were shocking. Over five times what we had paid before at one of Hiltons cheapest brands. American friends reassure me that this is normal. you apparently put the date that the graduation dates will be released in your diary, and book straight away. Prices are already extortionate but you get a room. This is our last graduation, and something American Universities do well, so we will go. We are intrigued at the prospect of a "hooding ceremony". In the meantime he is "one the job market" and was reading us a list of places he might apply to. He will probably apply for more than 100 jobs worldwide, competing with new PhDs from all over. He seemed quite excited at some of the more exotic options. Lets see. I am selfish and would like to see him close to home.

Xenia · 09/10/2023 19:07

Thanks for the update.
I am glad your daughter has got some leave, as it sounds exhausting work.

The US graduation sounds fun too. I don't know yet if we will go to the twins' formal solicitor admission ceremony. I took my husband and 1 year old to mine all those years ago and he had to take the baby out who had fun crawling up and down the Law Society carpeted stairs. We have certainly arranged a family lunch for January to celebrate however which will be lovely.

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bigTillyMint · 09/10/2023 19:45

Well done to your DD, @Needmoresleep - it is very tough as a young doctor. And I hope your DSs US graduation goes well, especially at such cost!

My DD finishes her Grad scheme and starts her “proper” job next week. She is pleased to have got the position, which will be great experience with lots of transferable practice for the future. And more money!

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