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!

You know that accommodation costs can take up the majority of the maintenance loan? Dd is paying easily over £200 week. Some uni towns and cities are expensive.

My son signed up with STINT - it's an emergency hospitality staff website which pubs and restaurants sign up to and then post up when they have a unfilled shift. This gave him experience and from that he got a restaurant job and then worked in the student union bars. It all comes down to having some experience.

I don’t think you understand. I went to uni with all tuition fees paid. Both parents were unemployed (both worked in shipyards that had closed), I got a full grant but that only paid for a third of my accommodation. No loans then.
They didn’t have a penny to give me. I wanted to go to uni so I worked for it. I had no option. Many are the same. My parent didn’t ‘refuse’ ffs.

Incidentally I am now a partner in a law firm and I recruit graduates. I don’t interview any who haven’t previously had a customer facing job. I need them to relate to clients and have a modicum of EQ.

Farms sometimes put adverts out for fruit pickers around our area.

Mine did childcare. Mostly at home with children while parents did home working. So kids were safe but parents could concentrate. Lots of playing in gardens with under 10s.

I don’t think people realise how high accommodation costs are unless got a child there now.
My dc gets min loan £4915 and I am expected to top her to £10,544 so expected contribution of £5629.
Yr 1 she picked cheapest halls and isn’t in a particularly expensive city so we paid halls (£6500ish) and phone, contact lenses, train homes and a few big shops plus fully kitted her out. She lived off min loan.

Yr2 her 52 week rent is £9300 again very much norm nothing fancy. If I only pay required top up she’s living on £1200 for a year not doable. So again we are paying rent and some extras.
I’m fully supportive of her and very generous but there’s no way I’m working all summer and her lying in bed.
Summer after A levels she worked in her fast food job she’d had pt since 16, went on hols with us, went on hols with friend, went to 2 festivals and volunteered. Working a pt job doesn’t preclude them having a nice summer.
Getting some money saved in long summer before go to uni gives them a financial buffer for uni and great experience for cv.

McDonald’s. Very flexible.

@Pinkfluffypencilcase Those fees are high but thats nowhere near the minimum fee at every university. Very easy to find cheaper than that. So 42 weeks at £200 is £8,400. Max loan outside London is £10,577. Parents pay the difference between min loan and the max loan. You don’t need 4 months of work to top up £10,577 if you choose wisely. London students get nearly £3000 more, so again choose university and accommodation wisely and don’t expect all mod cons!

Yes as PPs have said - lifeguarding to work as a pool lifeguard you need to do the NPLQ course which takes a week and costs around £300. Look on the RLSS website for courses in your area.

DC2 is a student and has 2 lifeguarding jobs - one for termtime and one for the holidays.

She is wise.

She really needs to have a job or two by the time she graduates. Grads with a work history are more likely to get interviews than those who don't.

PP's suggestion of seasonal catering is a solid one, as is the temp agency suggestion.

All of my DCs worked all through university (in the US) and in fact all through high school. I didn't have a spare penny to offer them. They all knew the score from age 13 on.

Their solid work history stood to them when they graduated.

@Onthemoooove As I said earlier if she cannot get paid work she can get a decent cv elsewhere. This problem isn’t new. She could try her uni city and make better enquiries at home as it’s very late now. Also getting work isn’t always good enough. Getting internships and work related to a career matters a lot too.

DD worked at a local climbing centre prior to starting uni and did everything from serving drinks in the cafe, children’s parties to cashing up at the end of the day. Her ballet teacher also paid her to help out with the little ones at ballet summer school.
DS had a weekend coaching/hitting practice job during term time and was able to increase his hours over the summer.

Ask at the local Royal Mail delivery office if they have any summer work available. I spent a couple of summers delivering mail when I was a student. Remains the best job I ever had. 😂

She could also try FestivAll Staff - dd signed up with them at the end of sixth form as she couldn't find anything where we were living at that point. She did a couple of festivals with them and also a Christmas lights show near her uni in December of years 1 and 2. The pay was decent and it's something on the CV, which will hopefully then help her get something more permanent. The other benefit is she'll get to hear a lot of music, if she's a music fan, for free!

My son works at the cafe at the National Trust nearby. The great thing is that the keep his job 'open' and give him shifts when he's back from uni on holiday!

But otherwise, like pp have said, there's lots of festival work available (DH works in that area, so DS gets to work at a few festivals over summer too, which is great!)

The festival work sounds interesting!@crazycrofter

@Onthemoooove In addition to Stint as mentioned previously, the following agencies also do ad hoc hospitality work in London -

https://www.atyourservice.co.uk/

www.high-society.co.uk/

Find a job in a chain that they can transfer to at uni. My DNephew is using the summer to earn money working at a supermarket and hopes to transfer to a local branch in his uni town.

Sounds like she’s doing all the right things. I’d suggest looking at specific websites rather than Indeed - as they get hundreds of applications.

I had a friend who job searched for DS (she used to be in careers but is now retired) and she found him several good ones on small independent places.

What does she want to do for a career? DS got 2 of his jobs because it was in the field he wanted to work in and because he was enthusiastic about the place (like a NT place).

This.

My ds 15 went into local cafes and asked about a weekend job.

Suggest supermarkets cafes restaurant hotels. Go into all these on Saturday morning. Suggest they will do anything dish washing etc

I help out at our local National Trust property and we are desperate for young people to work in the cafe/coffee shop. There are lots of hours available and there's always a turnover of youngsters as they go off to university or college.

Our local hotels are always asking for housekeeping/F&B staff, and our nursing homes are crying out for assistants - no care qualifications needed, just a willingness to take the drinks trolley round, clear up the day room, run errands round the place. Depends how much she really wants to earn money.

If she can manage to get a supermarket job, she can transfer to her University town when she goes. My daughter worked at ASDA and they offered her a guaranteed job at the local ASDA once she went to University which was the other side of the country, at the time.

I would also recommend her turning up to places in person and talking to staff/asking about jobs and asking to see the manager. Initiative and the personal touch really counts.

Lol.

The op is probably encouraging her daughter to be a responsible adult and start earningʻ money. Not just relying on mummy and daddy. Credit to op and her daughter.

Is it any wonder young people have no idea when they enter the workplace with parents like you who obvs don't want their previous babies having to soil their hands in the workplace

My Dd is a barrister. Obviously had no idea about working! She works very hard and what she did or didn’t do at 18 is utterly irrelevant. The work place for her didn’t care two hoots about working at a supermarket or similar. You know nothing. Students have holidays every summer from university. Plenty of time.

Nobody gets a summer job while at university these days without a reference from a previous job. Interviewers for internships will also want to know what you learned from your previous work experiences.

@mathanxiety Not necessarily true at all. DD managed well enough. Not all firms require a reference from a previous employer. They are happy with a volunteering reference. I agree dc should do something but it doesn’t have to be paid if that’s simply not available.