Thread 52 - Covid GCSE Cohort - Autumn 24 - Start of Uni Yr 3

[Oblomov24]

2024 Autumn, start of year 3 for those at Uni.

This is a support thread for our young adults post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting, and their results ( or life updates for those who went into work or have had results earlier). It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, uni vs employment please don't within this thread.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue. We were previously on the secondary board and then further education, now we shall be here in 'Parents of Adult Children' gulp.

Our DS/DD may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed). Experience is that everyone is welcomed wherever, whatever their child is doing we have some in work, gap years , apprenticeships etc too. Lots of contributors with different experiences and always sympathy and advice to be had.

51 Previous thread - 51.

The job scene has definitely moved on since my day. To be fair my first holiday job at 16 was packing cucumbers and I think they took anyone who would turn up at 7am. I was looking to change jobs in my late twenties (not from cucumbers by then!) and was asked to go and see a couple of people in another organisation. They were lovely, showed me around and said we can't interview you today because your line manager is on holiday. A couple of weeks later I went back to see the line manager who said no point in interviewing you as they've decided we're appointing you, and I hope you're not a vegetarian as I've bought us beef sandwiches!

@NCTDN Envious of a lovely trip to Austria.

@BlueMarigold Definitely hard to get jobs round here. DS got a summer job but it was through someone I work with.

@shimy Great news about the pub job. A real confidence boost too to be successful against those odds.

I was looking to change jobs in my late twenties (not from cucumbers by then!)
Really appreciate the parenthesis.

By the way it's not me whose ds got the pub job it is @Seeline . Congrats to her!

I think the change to more WFH coupled with online applications means a vicious circle has happened where applicants are applying for lots more jobs but that means each vacancy has hundreds of candidates for employers to consider and lower chances of success, so they have to apply for more and more and then the quality of each application probably dips through fatigue. Whereas in the old days of geographic limitations and paper forms you applied for relatively few with a higher chance of success. I got my first graduate job from the milkround as it was called then, I remember applying for perhaps half a dozen jobs. Then moved to another part of that company, got made redundant after 10 years, applied for a few and got one reasonably easily, two internal moves before another redundancy and then got my current job through a personal contact. I am worried for DS, he probably won't be driving by next summer and unlikely to be able to live away from home independently so very limited options. Also he simply won't be able to manage 100s of applications, admin is not a strong point.

Also the whole process has changed hasn't it, in the old days you did a bit of research about the company, filled in a form with all your experience, grades etc and off it went, if you got an interview you brushed up more on the company and job. Or tailored a CV and wrote a covering letter. Now there is all that but it is also all about matching all the job criteria which makes each application more individual and time consuming. I totally agree that more guidance is needed for this generation, I have found both school and college careers advice has been limited to getting as many as possible into uni as it looks good. Hoping uni will be better.

@EternallyDelighted I looked at a couple of DS's applications in the early stages and honestly the questions just got more and more baffling, before you get to click on 'Submit', you've lost the will to live and that's just for the supermarket jobs. I really feel for this generation, I found school's career advisory quite poor & limited like you said and my DS's are very lucky they had parents who've been through the system so we were able to advise them further but many aren't so lucky.

@Shimy You are welcome!

@Seeline Congratulations to your DS on landing a job.

@EternallyDelighted You've summed it up neatly there.

Adding to the jobs woes and wins. DS has a part-time job in Notts showing students round potential housing. The estate agent hires a whole slew of them and then when they book a house appointment they put it on an app or something (not clear on details) and the "show-ers" all jump on to claim the slot. They get paid an hourly rate to show the house, which obviously doesn't amount to much, then get I think £50 if the group they show to signs up for the house. So it's not much money but it's super flexible and at least allows him to add that to his CV.

He's looking for graduate jobs for next year but struggling to find time to do that along with prioritising third-year coursework, which is pretty demanding. Also finding the length of time each application takes is dispiriting to then get no response.

My older DD is also searching - she has experience but nothing too relevant to what she now wants (mainly hospitality experience whereas now she wants a "proper job"). I guess it shows she's employable but she's getting very frustrated. I agree it's hard to empathise fully - I don't remember it being this difficult back in the day but like @PhotoDad I mainly did temp work due to fast typing skills, to start with, which was easy to find.

My older DD did work in a call centre, phoning up people who hadn't paid the excess on their private health insurance claims. She did not enjoy it but it removed her fear of making phone calls! She even had to phone up a famous personage (a "Sir") who hadn't paid their excess. The rich aren't so different after all...

DD is also busy applying for graduate jobs. She’s not enjoying the recording a video interview that seems to be the first round at lots of places. I’m so glad I’ve never had to do that!

DS is back for reading week with all his laundry! He’s really appreciating having a fully stocked kitchen.

My Dd is applying for placements. . She did one that compiled a psychological profile, and it didn’t seem that accurate, but what do I know. I have no idea how much competition there is, but she has a video interview today. I told her that it’s not just about impressing with how great she is, it’s also about listening and showing you could fit into a team. She’s not a big ego, so I think that advice was quite reassuring. She is struggling with anxiety , although everything is going quite well. I’m trying to keep in touch better, sending little messages. I’m appalled to discover that such stuff is commercialised these days. I could send her a jar of affirmations! But then I think maybe she would like that. I dont know.

@Zebracat my DD has a November birthday and every year for the past few years (as she has become more anxious) I have given her an advent calendar of affirmations - she has one of those drawer-type advent calendars she was given as a child, which we used to put sweets in but now each year I handwrite some little sayings and roll them up and put inside. A mix of "you got this" type sayings, and jokes/riddles (with answer the next day) or just quirky observations. So she has a month full of positive thoughts. It can be quite hard to find enough now that I've been doing it a while, and I'm quite strict about not being too cheesy with it. I'm sure I've repeated several each year, but she always loves it. In fact you've reminded me I had better get searching!

Affirmations are a lovely idea!

I thought that some of my fellow teachers on this thread might be amused that I have two classes tomorrow, and the Inspectors haven't yet seen me. (It's the independent schools bunch so less scary than Ofsted, but still...) For reasons that I don't quite understand, the local Anglican Bishop is dropping by to watch a few lessons too (I teach RE amongst other things). I think we have sitcom-level potentials of chaos with a handful of sixth-formers plus me, a Bishop, a Dean, the Head, and an Inspector all in the same room.

That’s a hilarious potential scenario @PhotoDad 😂

On a serious note, good luck with achieving a positive report!

@blinkbonny thanks, I will try to live up to your example. Do they all have to be serious. Can I have the occasional Great Hair! Or best washer upper Evah! ?

My dd would love that job showing people around. Is it a national company?
Good luck tomorrow @PhotoDad

Dd seems to be collecting jobs! She’s got herself a third one as a SEN teaching assistant. Hopefully she will still have time to fit some studying in!

@Zebracat most of mine are not serious! I use quite a lot of Dr. Seuss. I'm going to add your suggestions to my rotation, thank you for the inspiration! (Though it is possible I will be accused of being sarcastic if she opens "Great hair!" when she first gets out of bed. She generally gets up looking like she's been fighting wildcats all night)

@NCTDN I can't recall the name of the company but I'm pretty sure it's just a local Notts one. He showed his first house this week and the group took it and paid the deposit right away, so he's pleased as punch with his commission and that he got a shout-out in the company newsletter.

We went to look at York uni with DD2 yesterday as she was invited to an interview. It was a really well organised day. Lots of information to process.

Did she like it @BlueMarigold ? Dd went to an offer holder day there three years ago and decided it definitely wasn't for her, but I liked it! I really like the city though, it's probably my favourite UK city.

@crazycrofter Yes she loved it!

@blinkbonny I called her cupcake this morning. Obviously worked because she rang for help with something later.I just told her she was brilliant at many things and that if it didn’t work out, never mind, they just wanted something else and she had got some more experience, out of it, so all good, and we would love her whatever. Seemed to do the trick.

DS and I pottered around Nottingham Uni yesterday. Not an open day, just getting a feel. What an amazingly green campus! He loved it. (At least until we came to the Science Area which is... umm... functional.) I can see why a lot of your DC chose it. We're now staying with my in-laws, who live in one of the satellite villages of Nottingham, and will head home today.

DD will be helping with a couple of A-level Art workshops that the museum is running, which is another string to her bow and all good for the CV.

And I did have a bishop sitting in my class alongside the students, but no inspectors to see it. 😀

Yes I was surprised at the campus and ds was the same, esp with the sports facilities. The engineering dept, like the scene one was functional but didn't have the wow factor of Sheffield.
No inspectors - lucky you! Though I would probably be more nervous with a bishop...

DS has returned to Newcastle after reading week. DD has arrived for free bed and board whilst she goes to a concert in London. They didn’t overlap - they were both on trains travelling in completely different directions yesterday.

DD and her 3rd Year Medics now have 7 weeks on the wards. Lots of debriefing evening chats at the moment. She certified her first death yesterday, a lady the same age as her beloved Granny 😢.