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 of my DS’s works in the supermarket warehouse, so no customers, doing online picking and packing. He’s on a student contract, so works every holiday. He could have transferred to one near his uni, but he didn’t want to work while studying.

Another DS did holiday club work for kids with SEN. There’s a few different clubs like that round here. Maybe there’s something like that near you?

@Onthemoooove I thought you were looking for cv! Money - seasonal work - serving at events like balls, weddings, racecourses. Look at events and catering companies.

Yes, we know a few people who do that but she's reluctant as she doesn't feel her swimming is strong enough (I disagree!)

I was registered with several temp agencies when I was a teen (in the 80s 🙈) and got quite a bit of work, filing, envelope stuffing etc. I didn't think temping was still a thing but she's going to contact some local agencies, including one of the ones I worked for which surprisingly still exists.

Wow, he was lucky. She must've applied to every retail chain over the past year, many never even replied or she'd get rejected, presumably by a bot 😐

Yup, we're London too so I thought it would be relatively easy. I'm quite shocked how hard it's been, really thought she'd have found something by now, been trying for a year! It's definitely who you know.

She has trawled the local high streets with her cv, a few took it and said they'd call but didn't. All that were chains such as Costa, Wenzels etc told her to go online which is a minefield and either never respond or reject via bot!

Next normally take on people for a few weeks over the summer for the sales. Then again for Christmas.

Sign up with agencies, lots of theme parks, hotels and the tourist industry look for seasonal staff.

That's the wrong approach, you can't rely on handing a CV to a member of staff will make it to the hiring manager. It usually goes int9 the bin. She needs to email the CV along with a covering statement.

https://uk.indeed.com/m/jobs?q=casual&l=&from=searchOnHP&sameL=1

Local football and sports clubs might be hiring for casual hospitality staff too. Go on the website and look in the vacancies page, it really isn't that hard.

Another thought: local caterers might need extra bodies during the wedding season

@Onthemoooove how is the job search going?

Why does she need to earn money? Are you not giving her money for university?

My parents had no money to give me for university so I had to work two jobs for a year beforehand to save up and then carried on with 2 jobs all the way through to continue paying for it @TizerorFizzYABVU to assume that people can just fork out endless money for DC to go to Uni.

@Onthemoooove hotels are often a good option. Room cleaners, bar staff, wait staff and front of house vacancies are usually easy to come by in summer when they need to staff up and especially if she’s happy to do night/late/early shifts.

@pontivex The deal is that parents are assessed to pay - or not. Refusing isn’t what most do. Most pay their assessed share and they do the paid work they need to do. Others with a low income have dc with a full loan and don’t pay anything. Saying the student needs to work and pay isn’t what most parents do. Parents take financial responsibility for their dc at university as per the assessment. It’s not devolved to students other then the loan . So if no job, dc does not go to university? What parent does that? Is that reasonable?

If dc wants to work to kill time and get a cv started, that’s ok but it doesn’t have to be paid. If money was tight, how come no job already? Parents have always had responsibility for their student dc: for decades. Grants and Awards were always means-tested going back decades. Paying what you should is not new.

Yes, of course we're giving her money! She wants to work so she can afford extras and for the experience and CV. She doesn't want to graduate and never have done a days work in her life.

The lack of understanding sometimes staggers me. Students need to earn money because parents do not always have the extra cash to make up the amount needed to live. Rent is v expensive. And they might want a holiday. Most students work all through Uni as a necessity to live

And, I agree that never having worked before graduation is weird. Even if your parents are v v rich

I very much agree and as someone who recruits young graduates in legal it’s something I look for. Last year recruiting got an entry level role I was shocked how many had degrees (and some had masters) and not a jot of paid work on cv despite being 21/22 or older (they didn’t make cut for interview)
I pay well over required to fund my dc (Her rent alone is £9300 yr2) but expect her to work. She had a pt job from 16.
Good luck with job search.

It does seem like kids often get jobs through friends/contacts, which isn't very fair! Ds works at the local supermarket - his friend's mum put in a word for him - and dd works at Nando's in her uni town, with the help of a friend who already worked there. However before the supermarket, ds did have some luck applying online to a local hardware store and ditto, dd got a warehouse job that way.

Locally, I see youngsters posting on our town's Facebook page and they always get lots of responses, so this seems like a good way in.

Even if you give your children up to the amount of the maximum loan, I'm afraid it's not enough to live on in most places. My kids also have very busy social lives and like to go away with friends in the summer, which costs money. Good luck to your dd @Onthemoooove . And I agree, as someone who's looked at CVs when recruiting, we wouldn't go for a grad who's had no paid work experience.

DS19, works in the local McDonalds during holidays, but lives quite frugally so hasn’t looked for term time work yet. They’ve been very flexible. He and Ds1 have done kids camp work, tutoring, Ds1 has a lifeguard qualification. You can look up the swimming requirements - they’re not massively onerous.

Have you considered that not every parent is able to spare the amount of money required to top up the amount of maintenance loan funding claimable by their child to the actual level required to fund accommodation and living expenses ?

Kids holiday camps / activity camps are usually desperate for staff.
My eldest got a summer job in a pub / restaurant, she knew someone who worked there already which was how she got the job.

If there's an independent coffee shop/cafe talking to the owner / giving her cv over can work.

Any local events on? Theme parks nearby?

This is ridiculously (and typically) disingenuous. I'm sure you're well aware that the full maintenance loan amount, whether provided by parents, loan or a mixture of the two, is often not enough to comfortably cover all living expenses. And you have often berated DCs on other threads who go through school and uni without doing any paid work.

Some v rich, usually lawyers, whose own kids have never paid a penny for their education, have no idea what the real world is like. I don’t know any 16 year olds who have never worked 🤷‍♀️