I am a decade on but DD read Medicine and DS read Econometrics (EME at LSE). Once they had their places it felt as if I had successfully navigated parenthood but it seems that parenting never ends.
The job market has completely changed in the last five years. Finance, especially the quant side, seems very affected by AI. A tenant of mine who works as a data scientist has seen her responsibilities grow, her salary remain the same and many colleagues losing their jobs and not being able to find others. DS, now with a strong academic CV including a PhD from a good US University, is seeing the academic job market disappear and alternatives such as consultancy become far more competitive.
Medicine is a nightmare. 50% of those finishing Foundation 2 in August were unemployed. The national debate so far has been about training places, but only a small proportion of UK graduates were ever going to be able be accepted for the very limited number of specialist training places. (What was more shocking was that over half of those training places were then given to people from outside the UK who may have no intention of staying once qualified. This is the issue that Wes Streeting has just addressed. )
The real problem is that other entry level staff jobs including designated F3 roles, the ones that 90% of the cohort would be aiming for, are open to full international competition. So several hundreds of applicants per place and appointment having to go to the best qualified, often someone with several years experience motivated by relatively high UK salaries and the prospect of expedited family settlement. Some Trusts are now adding experience of the NHS as a desirable attribute which is allowing some of the newly qualified doctors to get onto short lists, perhaps recognising that UK resident doctors are more likely to first turn up and to then stay. However the big pool of unemployed and under employed doctors is having a major impact on salaries and working conditions. And to be honest I can't see how the NHS, which has become very reliant on exploiting this, can change things in the short term.
(They could and should add go back to applying resident priority which would mean that new visas would only be issued for overseas doctors if there were no suitably qualified UK resident applicants, but that is not something that sits well with various lobbies including some within the Labour Party.)
At the end of F2 and after six weeks with only four shifts, DD landed a job covering for a Specialist Associate Doctor. Four previous locums had apparently failed, the last only lasting a day, so a decision was made to select someone who knew and was known to the hospital, even if they were more junior. Google suggests that a specialist associate is an "experienced, senior clinician in the NHS who work permanently within hospital or community teams, operating outside of traditional training pathways and below the consultant level. They will have at least four years of postgraduate experience (two in a specialty) and focus on direct patient care". Haha. 25 very sick patients, on her own for 50% of the week with just some F1s for/to support. A short term contract that is only ever renewed at the last minute. No scope to take more than the odd day's leave. Regular crises that mean staying late. And only paid as an F3, half the salary of the post holder. She learned a huge amount in her first three months, but is now close to burnout. As a locum, there is no support, no training, no pension, no sick pay, and with no access to or time for research, very little chance she could compete successfully for a training number. There appears to be a whole army of doctors in a similar position, often recruited on limited term contracts from overseas, but increasingly home grown graduates. They keep the NHS running - just about. Though DD is still bright eyed, motivation generally is grim, something she understands and something she expects would happen to her if she stayed.
Luckily for her she has landed a great F3 rotational job in Australia in the city and speciality she wanted. She knows 15 others from either F1/F2 or from medical who are headed for the same hospital. After a year she gets the chance to apply for training there, and should be able to do the same here. (I am not sure after yesterday's legislation prioritising UK trained doctors for training, whether those living overseas count.) In short she should end up working as a doctor but probably not in the UK. And with a lot of soul searching during the past few months she has realised she loves working as a doctor and that she is good at it, but the NHS is an awful employer.
It is such an uncertain world. Advice is that breadth will be increasingly important. Study for your degree but also run a University society, do paid or voluntary work, take part in team games or activities. Be the applicant with more to offer than just technical skills. As the quant world becomes more competitive the candidate who offers broader interpersonal skills and adaptability will be at an advantage. Equally a significant part of DD's job is discussing DNRs. Not something easily taught at medical school but a task others are increasingly passing to her.
It might be worth considering that medicine is not a one direction career path. A senior finance person told me that they are increasingly hiring medics for finance roles because of such candidates will be bright, have good communication and leadership skills, and be able to cope in crisis, and obviously have an understanding of how the healthcare market works. It is worth looking at intercalation options. For example this is very sought after amongst students wanting to pivot away from medical practice. www.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/study/undergraduate/intercalated-bsc-programme/management/