Spporting graduates struggling with unemployment and rejection?

[anotherglass]

Son (22) graudated last summer with engineering degree. Since then he has been applied for 100+ jobs, had interviews, but never got the job. He volunteers part-time in a charity store and works for a sustainability charity. He is learning another language, and playing in a band. In spite of this, he is steadily becoming demotivated and demoralised by the constant rejection.
Parents of l-t unemployed young adults, how do you deal with this?

It sounds like your son is doing a lot to help himself. Is there any chance of him being offered a job where he’s volunteering?
Can he access anywhere for help with interview skills? There’s a charity-run employment service near me that helps grads (and anyone) with skills to enter (or re/enter) the workplace. My son is going to use it when he comes bs k end of June.

He graduates this year from a high-ranking uni in a difficult stem subject, and I’m dreading all of this. I’ve already asked my friend if he can get him some work experience where he works but there are hoops to jump through of course.

My eldest did a creative degree and is going nowhere fast! Has a very part time retail job, zero hours contract. Opportunities seem to pop up of internships but then they go away again & she’s so fussy about things too.

My friend’s son took about 16 months to get a job in engineering so I would say take on the good advice here and keep going! Good luck!

I think that he just has to keep on and on and on applying. I understand how bad it is. My 20yo applied for summer internships and was very lucky to get one after about 50 applications. The time it took actually caused him to fuck up one of his modules. None of his friends from school or uni got an internship. I know several of my friends’ graduate kids are out of work and struggling mentally because it it. One with an engineering degree from a RG uni ended up taking an engineering apprenticeship as he couldn’t get any kind of grad job. It’s an absolute fucking mess and we are letting a generation down. Prior to getting the internship, my ds sent letters to places offering to work over the summer for free. Nobody even wanted him for free and he has loads of 9s and A stars and doing tough degree at high ranked uni.

I’m sorry your family is going through this- he’s graduated at such an unusually tricky time, I really feel for all the recent graduates.

you’ve had quite a lot of good advice on this thread, just wanted to say that while the military wouldn’t be right for everyone, it might be worth him speaking to someone in navy/army/raf recruitment/careers about officer training.

The good news is that he’s getting interviews, his cv must be good.

That’s understandable. However, can I suggest he does four things: applies for a Masters, applies for a Maths or Physics PGCE, looks into teaching English abroad and looks into working ‘year outs’ in Australia. I’ll bet he’ll be offered both Masters and PGCE places for this Autumn, and thinking about working abroad may give him a bit of a spark.

Having two solid options for the Autumn, and possible a couple of fun options too will do wonders for his MH, and quite possibly how he comes across in interviews.

I hear you op. We are in the same position. My eldest son is stuck in a shit zero hours contact and has applied for so many jobs (he is a graduate)
My youngest son (at college) took 2 years to find a Saturday job. There aren’t even any supermarket jobs going at the moment- this was a standard first Saturday job at one point.
I agree with you about an apprenticeship and I don’t think people realise the competition for those. You can be over qualified to get one and there is an issue with funding by the government if you already have a degree.
It is extremely sad to see young people trying so hard and willing to work but not getting anywhere. The job market is brutal. Knowing my sons are unlikely to move out before 30 is soul destroying.

It’s a bit depressing that it’s being normalised how difficult it is to get your first career job. Even entry level jobs are asking for experience. I actually don’t think it matters if you have a degree at this point and I would like to hear from the press how young people who didn’t have further education are managing to find work. They will surely be having the same issues.

Anyway - hold on in there. There are lots of us in the same position.

Have you considered procurement as a career option? He could get a job buying parts for engineering companies. Rolls Royce, Boeing, BAE systems, Heathrow have huge teams of people buying the parts to keep the show on the road. With his engineering knowledge, he’d be at an advantage. Google procurement apprenticeship (I know it’s an apprenticeship, but he’ll need to learn the procurement skills from scratch) or procurement graduate scheme

I don’t think you can apply for a degree apprenticeship if you already have a degree anyway. It is a worry as my son graduates next year with a stem degree (also in engineering) and I’m already getting a bit anxious as he hasn’t even secured a casual job. It is so different to year’s ago when his dad (engineering degree) was being sought by companies before he even graduated and had several job offers before he’d left uni, that just doesn’t seem to happen now.

Has he thought about doing a project management graduate scheme? Not sure what it is exactly but my son has mentioned considering it.

I think the grad job thinking has to go. I get it but it’s not realistic in the current market. I had a degree, some work experience at middle management level and went right back to entry level after being off with the dcs and relocating.

I’m now in a C suite role due to internal promotions and gaining professional qualifications. It can be done. Pick a decent company, get in via any route and work bloody hard to move through it.

Some other advice - tailor your job application and cover letter to the role you’re going for. Do not rely on ai - it stands out a mile. show enthusiasm for the job and company.
And - do not ask for a raft of special adjustments (disability excepted obviously) or mention remote working at interview unless it is essential. Do not give them any reason at all to reject you. No employer is taking a risk on potentially difficult employees. I’m sorry to say this but it’s the reality of it. The new employment rights act is making it a nightmare for employers to do the wild card hiring that used to happen. It’s strongly disadvantaging first jobbers.

And write to the companies you like even if they aren’t advertising!

@BunnyLakeSome apprenticeship qualifications are done as part of a grad scheme

Most people in life have problems, your rudeness OP screams out from the page .

Yes true, but in her defence, this situation is destroying her young person.

My daughter is in exactly the same position.

Don't know if anyone has suggested the Civil Service and in particular the Fast Stream. Just saying in case it might be of interest. It's a lengthy process and competitive but over the years I have worked with people with all sorts of degrees.

Everyone is a graduate now. Certainly loads of young people are, which means it doesn't really confer the advantage it used to I'm afraid. When you consider something like 20% of all young people are NEET, of the remaining 80% probably half are graduates. There aren't graduate jobs for all, so plenty are just in bog standard white collar office jobs, working their way up organically.

Not sure if you’ve seen it @anotherglass but someone has said her firm is recruiting. Apologies if you’ve answered, I didn’t see it. My ds is in this position which is why I’m reading. No advice sadly but good luck to him

Would be considered a reservist role with the RAF if he doesn’t want to join up. You can do full time postings as part of this too but he will get training and paid for it, lots of connections to gain there too. There is also Space Command within the military that there are opportunities in.

@anotherglass

Which region of the UK do you live in, approximately, OP?

My enormous sympathies OP. Mine (STEM, RG uni) understood the way the wind was blowing when in first year and applied for literally hundreds of internships. Succeeded in getting internships at end of 2nd and 3rd year. Both actually led to grad job offers. But the horrible process of applying, and understanding what these grad jobs actually means in reality has led to an enormous burnout and her 'year out' to take stock has been followed by not going back to uni to finish the degree. She can't see the point, and is utterly demoralised and exhausted. She continues to get leads via her previous network for start-up roles (don't need a degree). I would LOVE for her to have the piece of paper but she sees this as the sunk cost fallacy and is hard to argue with.

I don't have a single friend whose grad children have been able to find grad jobs. Including an Oxford engineering graduate. (Except the one, who rapidly jacked it in as it was terrible, to go and work for a start-up). A couple have been told to take their degrees OFF their CVs to be considered for jobs.

People do not realise just how hideous it is in the grad job market until their kids are at that point. It isn't about qualifications anymore, but about hard-won experience (which is as hard to get as a job - DDs internships were each a minimum of 5 rounds), ability to network and (probably) who you know. If you have money to help them get set up or take a low paid role in the city with opportunities, that helps too.

My DH was an engineer and he always maintained that without a masters, he wouldn't have been too employable, so possibly an MEng might be helpful if he really wants to continue engineering. If not, then perhaps looking like my DD for start-up type jobs (not very secure, not always well paid, but at least experience, and sometimes pretty interesting) mostly via networking the hell out of LinkedIn?

I don't know what the future holds for my DD, but I sympathise with the difficulty of having an increasingly hopeless adult at home. I understand your prickliness and get it. Good luck.

Has he looked at becoming a patent attorney? They’re keen on engineering degrees.

It's a horrible situation to be in - I have three DCs in their early 20s, so I've seen first-hand how tough it is right now. Not just them, but their friends and partners too.

For us, the difference has been networking and using contacts. Not just the traditional networking events and LinkedIn, but making use of everyone and anyone around you. Family friends, people who know someone who knows someone, people in connected industries. DS got his first job through his GF's father putting him in touch with someone. DD2's came via someone she met while working in a pub. My friend's daughter got chatting to someone while on a train. These weren't grad scheme jobs, but they were the first rung on the ladder, and the roles have each led on to good things, or been essential experience.

Your DS putting himself out there, talking to people he meets, will build his network. I also like the idea posted above about approaching smaller engineering companies directly. Even a small step in the right direction will do wonders for his confidence.

So concerning.

A 2:2 is not great in the current market, esp when you don't have much relevant work experience behind you.

A masters is just delaying things even more, plus wasting money at same time.

As people have said above, the army/RAF is a more realistic option for your son at this point in time.

If he lacks confidence (which I think you said the feedback was from interviews) then I'd suggest PGCE for teaching rather than Teach First. Teach First is great but it's a throw in the deep end programme, whereas PGCE breaks you in to teaching more gently. Both are fully funded.

So much sympathy OP. My DS is in a very similar position. He has currently got a 6-month contract doing an engineering-adjacent coding type job but I dread to think what he’ll do when that comes to an end. He feels like pouring effort into applications for grad schemes and even basic jobs is just utterly wasted time. Mostly they don’t even acknowledge. Or they get him to jump through incredibly lengthy hoops and then eventually drop him.

My DS is considering applying for engineering with the RAF. Would your son consider this?