Summer job prior to going to Uni

[Onthemoooove]

DD has now finished college and has 4 months ahead of her before starting uni. She's desperate to earn some money but accepts most employers won't be interested in someone who will be disappearing in September. In fact, she's had no luck finding anything all year, has tried local hospitality businesses & shops and applied for numerous jobs on indeed with no luck, so will be even harder now. She has been volunteering in a charity shop for months in an attempt to boost her cv.

Does anyone have any ideas?The only idea we had was summer holiday clubs but they seem to be few and far between.

Would be grateful for any suggestions!

Thanks!

One that’s always recommended on here is to do lifeguard training.

Has she tried a temp agency? One of my kids friends got a temp data entry job and earns over £500 a week. Not sure how much overtime he did though. He worked the whole summer bar a week or so.
Also, what about festival work.

Where are you based?

Theme parks? Tourist attractions? Event staff agency?

Agree - if she can get lifeguard training that might be good. My DD’s gf did hers and works regularly in a lessor centre. School holidays she works at the holiday club they run.

Try all the sporting events and festivals.

My nephew worked for a supermarket for the summer season. He then was able to transfer to the local store of the same chain for his time in university.

My niece did temp at local council
School uniform shop
Get her to ask on local facebook or jobs page where are hiring.
Other thing is no need to say only wants a summer job. Just apply and see.

Hospitality/ holiday parks typically won't be recruiting summer staff until the end of June / early July. I say this both as someone in charge of recruiting in these industries and a parent of a uni student!
Peak season is just around the corner so try and encourage her not to give up just yet!

There's very little temp work here. But dd did eventually get a retail job. I'd advise to stop looking at Indeed. Everyone looks there. Look at individual websites of shops or local businesses. Early morning sandwich making eg Greggs or picking for supermarket orders come up here quite often as nobody sticks at them. That and rural pubs.

@Onthemoooove We live near a small town with a few cafes and shops. No supermarket. DD had the same issue. Friends of the owners got their dc in but most couldn’t get anything.

DD did get a volunteering role with the National trust in a property not far from us. She was a meet and greet, trained to be a room guide and give a special talk on a specific topic at the house. It was very good for the cv and she helped redesign the quiz for young visitors and helped update the inventory for each room. NT are always worth asking. The manager wrote a reference for her. Although not paid, she undertook the volunteering as someone would a job and went back when at university too.

We also have a local volunteering web site. Do you?

DD1 had a part time job from aged 16 after GCSEs with a national restaurant chain. DD2 will start in a few weeks' time. DD1 had a year out, worked FT in her job and saved thousands of pounds before going to university. She got a term time job straight away at university with the same chain and also works in the holidays.

Does the college employ young people to help
with enrolment? Mine does. It’s well paid and finishes as uni starts.

Thank you, I have sent her this thread.

Thanks, she's been volunteering in a charity shop for months & also helped in the labs at college but, although good for the cv, she needs to earn money.

It is quite difficult. We are in London and we thought there would be lots of jobs but actually not. Dd eventually found a job through someone we know and among her friends it seems most have got jobs the same way.

When she started looking we looked at all the supermarket websites and were surprised to see there were no suitable jobs (only manager, IT type jobs or too far away from where we live).

I saw this website recommended on another post, for ad hoc hospitality work, but it's only helpful if you're in or near a big city

stint.co/en-gb/for-stinters

Much more likely to get work at that age if she's bold and goes into cafés and pubs with her cv and asks to speak to the manager. Some will be looking for cover for regular staff's summer holidays soon.

If she has worked in the labs in college can she apply to some local labs? Is she going to study science?

It's years ago now but I worked in a lab for 3 months before going to university. They had a few summer students because they did have more work on over the summer and they also used some of us to work on an extra project they were working on at the time (trying to solve a problem about a specific part of the process where they needed to do a lot of experimental batches).
No harm in phoning or sending a speculative CV to some local labs.

School leavers are not always mature enough for customer facing roles that require physical dexterity (eg serving in cafés), interpersonal skills and good self-presentation. Maybe think about how to meet the expectations of the roles a bit more?

Events! Racecourses, concert venues, sporting venues, festivals etc

DD has done a tourist related sporting tours role for 2 companies who both operate on zero hours contracts but pay is good at c £150 a day plus tips which can bring it up to £300 a day on the best days.

Also worked for local university which runs events over the summer, that was £11 an hour ish plus a meal.

If you don't live in an area with seasonal work try and see if there's a recruitment agency taking on temps - its what I did and it still seems to exist, both mine were in banks.

One of my college friends applied for regular jobs and implied she wasn’t going to uni. When she got her results, she told her employer that she’d changed her mind and was going. It’s not ethical, but she got paid a lot more than the rest of us in summer jobs.

Bubble app if she’s good with kids

The job market for young people is nowhere near as buoyant as it was when they finished their GCSEs two years ago. There are several reasons for this including increased employer NI contributions/lower threshold and much higher minimum wage for 18+. DS and his friends all walked into jobs with relative ease at 16 but those who’ve been looking for work in the last six months have really struggled.

As you have recognised, looking for a job for just a few months will be a problem. She can either look for temporary or seasonal work or just say she is taking a gap year to earn money so will be there for at least a year.

I would definitely recommend actually going into places and asking about work rather than just relying on websites.