Brutal grad jobs market

[anotherglass]

Hello, my DS 22 graduated last July with an BEng from a Russell Group uni. Since then he has applied for around 60-70 jobs with no success. The whole process of online assessment, video interview and then rejection / ghosting is starting to grind him down. It is even tough to secure a part-time job in our area - such as a coffee shop or retailer - as he is considered over qualified and a risk, due to the fact he is searching for a full-time role.
I am finding myself worrying more and more about his mental health and future.
He is already less enthusastic about applying for jobs.

Any suggestions on what to do from here? Is it worth considering a Masters to try and ride out the horrendous job market?

Thank you

I agree it’s awful. So brutal.
thoughts…for what there worth!
review cv / cover letter
check local small firms for a non grad role, I don’t know about engineering but is there something vaguely similar to his core interests/ knowledge who might have a junior role?
look at part time driving like supermarket delivery roles & don’t tell them he is looking, just say taking year off?

What jobs is he applying for? The graduate market is tough at best! What type of engineer is he?

What jobs is he applying to? I work in engineering and the majority of our applicants have a masters, often the integrated engineering masters.

Thank you, these are very good suggestions. The key issue at the moment is confidence is being crushed. I can see it in his demeanour and hear it in his voice which is lower. It is such a grind and as hard as this is to say his close friend getting a job recently has increased the pressure, even though he was very happy for him. I am wondering if a short break off the jobs treadmill might help.

Thank you. Aerospace engineering which is a very tight market. I am encouraging him to pivot to renewables, which is a growing area and a compatible leap.

It is really difficult out there . He just has to continue to apply , he will eventually get a yes My goddaughter had been applying for jobs before she even graduated and has had many rejections . Last week she received two job offers within a week, so there is hope .
She was really down at one stage but kept herself busy by doing online courses. She would go to the gym regularly which helped with her mental health and she did a bit of volunteering with her local church
Op, just keep on encouraging him

Yes, Op
I think that it would be a great idea to take a short break from applying for jobs , that is exactly what my Goddaughter did .
When she returned to job hunting she reduced the number of jobs she was applying for

There is more growth in the defence sector at the moment- could he apply for roles in this field?

@anotherglass I would really recommend defence - especially if he is willing to relocate depending on where you live. I work in the industry and there’s a good amount of roles available with employers around here (either with the manufacturing companies themselves or the defence contractor).

Yes, there is more money going into defence in light of the increasing threat from Russia and because it was previously so underfunded.

Is he making by use of the university careers service? They can give advice, help with cvs, interview prep and more.

Also is he posting on LinkedIn and connecting with firms / industry events/ papers / people? Network as much as he can, even with ex uni staff - do they have connections? I know it’s tough, my dd took a year to get a role but it will happen.

Would he consider soemthing like the military? Great way of getting varied experience, additional qualifications and generally maturing to get into the sector at a higher level down the line.

I’m sure it’s sector specific but my organisation seems to have just eradicated the bottom 3 layers of grade the last few years, I’m not sure if it’s because we are putting more pressure on the middle grades, or things like AI are helping with the admin type stuff, but it means we are only really hiring people already well established in the workplace.

Mine has managed to get a part time retail job (through family connections) the business of the retailer is vaguely relevant to his field. It has taken the pressure off, he still applies for other jobs but is filling the rest of his time volunteering which helps keep him occupied and can go on his CV. I'd agree networking is key, both for non-grad and grad roles, LinkedIn, talking to family and friends.

As someone who runs a small engineering business, I would encourage him to look at the thousands of little firms, mainly based on industrial estates that do fantastic work, but hardly ever advertise, jobs are had by word of mouth - and most of us are stuck somewhere in the mid 20th century and need young modern folks to not only bring us up to date but potentially take over in years to come - on my road there is:
Me and my operation, make electrical control gear
A firm that design and make exhaust systems for performance cars
A firm that makes hydraulic equipment for adjusting motorway bridges
A firm that make prosthetic limbs for the NHS
A firm that makes hospital furniture
An old school general engineering firm
A structural steelwork place

of those, only 2 have moved over to CAD, and those 2 are the only ones with websites.

All are successful businesses with about 20 employees each.

Door to door is the way forward...

Linked In is the place to be - be active, connect with relevant people in the industry. Recruiters regularly scrape LinkedIn for potential candidates for positions.

Getting a foot in the door in an entry level not necessarily “graduate” job is often the way these days - is he searching industry publications/websites/agencies for these types of roles?

This is so worrying. I feel for grads atm. Gov policies aren’t helping.

I'd agree - I think sometimes, many graduates (and parents, me included!) only think of big household names, and 'directly related' jobs/careers. Might there be local chamber of commerce meetings/networking things that he/you can attend and see what might come about? Also, often through volunteering people get connections and leads for other roles... ?

I'm sorry he's having such a hard time - it's brutal and job creation needs to be on the government's agenda. There can't be growth without job creation!

I feel for your DS, OP. It is a brutal time.

There are many good suggestions above. I think the ones about using the uni Careers Service, investigating smaller employers and considering defence work and the military are particularly good. Smaller employers, in particular, don’t loom large in the eyes of many students and this can be a missed opportunity.

Is DS willing to relocate? I think that may be a necessity these days.

Is DS’ degree BEng or MEng? If the former, another possibility is to consider an MSc. Yes, it is more debt so a careful cost-benefit analysis is necessary. In some fields if engineering the MSc will open doors, in others not so much. I don’t know very much about Aero, so DS should discuss this with someone who does if he is interested.

I also agree that he probably needs a break! And that he needn’t feel obliged to say much about his plans when interviewing for jobs to tide him over. The types of jobs where you say his future plans are being held against him have very high turnover anyway. Why should DS penalise himself? He can just say he wants to decompress for a while or something.

Very best wishes to him

Can he go abroad?

Why didn’t he stay for the MEng year? That’s a bit of a red flag I’m afraid, if he’s fixed on engineering then a Masters is the way to go. Plus aiming for less competitive areas than auto and not the big firms who’ll have their pick of MEng grads.

It sounds like a really brutal market at the moment but even 20 years ago when I was a graduate (Russell Group, with a first) going straight into a degree-relevant professional job wasn’t the norm, or at least not amongst my peers who like me weren’t ‘well connected’. Encourage him to look for jobs in anything that could be even vaguely engineering focused (it sounds like he’s cutting down his options quite a lot at the moment), join temp agencies (find out which ones engineering consultancies locally use, but be open to ANY office based work particularly), look more widely at graduate programmes beyond what he might think is a natural progression for him, apply for jobs that will help him develop important skills even if they seem completely left field to what he wants to do e.g sales, civil service etc., and in the meantime get whatever work he can (preferably full time) even if he feels wildly underqualified.

There are loads of graduates and not many jobs, but he can increase his chances by developing competencies that you need as part of the working world and accepting that career paths are very seldom linear progressions.

I know it's tough out there. My son has a master's in engineering but is on his 3rd job in 5 years. Even if you get a foot through the door, lots of established places are making redundancies and new start ups are finding it tough to survive.
And yet there is supposed to be a shortage of engineers?
Has your son signed up to a specialist engineering recruiting agency in your local area?
They may be able to get him some kind of short term work that might enhance his chances. They can also advise on interview technique and look over his CV with a particular emphasis on engineering.
There might be particular job areas they can identify that he hasn't even thought about.

I was going to say this. Would he consider applying for roles overseas?

Hello, mechanical lecturer here (though weirdly... I'm originally a medic...)

Two key questions

1. Is there a reason he didn't stay on for the MEng? Unfortunately he's competing with those who did, and I'd say they're some of the strongest cohorts I've seen these last couple of years. He will need to be more flexible to outcompete them (move areas, fields etc).
2. Is he being realistic on what he's applying for? for his field he's really competing with straight A MEng with Industrial Project experience graduating from places like Imperial and Edinburgh.
3. Look for smaller companies, like @DeftWasp says - they don't tend to advertise online though. Approach with emails directly. (though I'm shocked to hear about the lack of use of CAD!)
4. Go over his CV and covering letter with him. We see so many terrible CVs. If you don't feel confident doing this direct him to someone who is, or his Uni careers service
5. Apply. Directly. Sending enquiries or applications via jobseekers type websites is just spam to the recruitment managers. Go directly to the company OR sign up with specifically an engineering recruitment agency (but this tends to be more applicable to more senior roles)
6. Write his references himself. Specific to each role. Big up any practical experience. Email them to the reference and ask them to edit as they wish, sign and submit. Be clear on deadlines for this. If you do not do this they are submitting generic references, or forgetting completely - I guarantee it, especially if they are one of his lecturers.

Good luck to him! It's brutal out there