How are you helping your DC deal with the terrible job market?

[Holluschickie]

Posting here for some emotional support. Not practical tips. Are any of your DC suffering in the brutal job market?

Interview after interview and rejection after rejection? Mine are and it is very hard to keep good cheer and motivate them to keep applying.

In my DDs case, I think its just a numbers thing (the last 3 schemed she's applied for have 1-2% offer rates with 10-20k applicants). Her uni has been good in helping her develop useful quants skills and she's had a relevant internship and placement year. Sure there are things she can improve on but I think its just the numbers of very able graduates compared to jobs in her field.

On the plus side she's an offer from TeachFirst (offer rate v high with them - they must be desperate).

@summer555 great that placement turned into a job offer. DD wasn't so lucky only 1% got offers from her placement year (which is similar to non placement rates). The cynic in me felt the placement was a cheap way to staff.

Why is it so difficult? I thought the UK was struggling with not enough people in work due to early retirement and long term sickness? Is it the economy? Or are there just a lot more graduates than there used to be?

I work in social research - assuming she has tried all the agencies like IPSOS? They have a lot of trouble getting good new starters, so it's a shame that she's struggled to get a place.

Is there a particularly area she is interested in? If she's interested e.g. in health then entry-level patient engagement/involvement jobs (e.g. PALS officer/admin) might be a different route in.

That’s where I struggle with too! What is this about record numbers of economically inactive people and graduates finding it near impossible to land a graduate job? What changed vs last few years? Economy doesn’t seem to be in a recession, stock markets are at all time high and this…

Mine have both started jobs this month. They were utterly brutal in putting together spreadsheets, applying for grad roles (70+ applications each) and attending all interviews offered. In the end they are both in well-paid roles. They were utterly determined though.

I applied for 300 jobs when I graduated nearly 30 years ago (with a first - but in an arts subject). In the end a family friend offered me a job. The grad market has always been hard IMO. You need to be utterly relentless in applying. And these days you need a good Linkedin presence too.

My son did a degree in Real Estate and was disappointed with his 2:2 but has managed to secure a grad job with a big national company who provide surveying services to estate agents/mortgage companies.

It's a one year training programme which he will have to pass-once qualified, the prospects are very good.
Apparently there's a shortage of valuation surveyors and, from what I gather, not all the trainees have a related degree/come from different backgrounds.
This company recruit regularly throughout the year so it might be worth a look for anyone who might be interested in property/surveying.

Because the humanities graduates want lovely jobs in their chosen area. There are plenty of jobs around, they just don't want them.

@GinnyPiggie thanks for the pointers she hasn't got patient engagement roles on her list so I will suggest.

She's got a list of contract social research companies and will send her CV around in the new year to see who is hiring. She worked with 2 during her civil service placement and would happily work for either (although salaries were very low - she would need a 2nd job to manage the rent in London even in the outer zones).

Dcs have got jobs in medicine and retail respectively. Retail as in buying. The medical job had 600 applicants for 4 roles. It's insane.

My youngest dc wants to be a professional athlete and tbh, he's probably got more chance of doing that that getting a place on a graduate scheme!

well done to your determined DC. You should be very proud!

My 19 year old son spent a year applying for apprenticeship and jobs. . Out of the 50 plus he applied for he had three interviews. No response after the interview either. Really made him depressed. He's now back at college doing his engineering course part 3

Worth thinking about places like Healthwatch too - it's really just social research! They are usually run by charities. Make sure she's got some voluntary stuff on her CV too. Healthwatch is ideal for voluntary work in social research! They are gagging for young people to help as well.

CQC also have research teams which is worth looking at for entry positions.

I am! More impressed really: they sort of approached it like they were going to war! Relentless and methodical, with hours and hours of research for each application.

DC3 is struggling to find anything, 3 years after graduation, but they are still really vague about what they want to do - so tend to apply for generalist jobs where the competition is really high. I think they need razor-sharp targets (and particularly looking at areas where there are shortages like @Greenfingers37 son - a very wise approach).

My son and daughter in law both applied for tons of jobs before getting somewhere. My son has a good degree in economics but wasn't so confident on the influencing and self-promotion side. He wanted to go into data analysis so he did two things:

He put a lot of time into showing his interest in the subject: so he set up his own data analysis on a hobby; he did a lot of on-line courses on Linked-in related to his subject area; he started learning programming languages related to his subect area.

He applied widely and not just to top 100 companies. He ended up getting a job working for a charity, starting as a fixed term contract. He's now being sponsored to do a masters in data analytics and has a lot of exposure to senior management as they find his skill-set so useful.

He doesn't earn as much as he would do working in the city but he is gaining fantastic experience and regularly presents to the Board etc.

The point of this is that you have to demonstrate that you're really interested in your subject area. So if you want a job that involves writing, then set up your own blog, self-publish, join or set up a writing group. Your degree is not enough any more to differentiate yourself from the crowd. And then you give yourself a much better chance if you apply more widely than just the obvious big companies.

All wise words @spicysugar but wow what a lot of work.

It is but you could probably manage it if you sacrificed one day of applications a week to doing the upskilling side. I think he also found it less soul-destroying than putting all his energies into the applications because at least he was doing something positive.

I agree with all the comments about what appalling practice it is to not even contact you to tell you you haven't got the job when you've actually had a face to face interview. That happened to him too. I really feel for young people.

They were utterly brutal in putting together spreadsheets, applying for grad roles (70+ applications each) and attending all interviews offered.

That was the approach my son took for his internship, apply for everything and keep track on a spreadsheet. He also asked for feedback where he got to the final stage but was rejected.

Also he'd started applying with a fancy format pdf CV and someone told him to keep to a bog standard Word CV as some companies use AI to filter and apparently pdfs aren't as good for this (not sure whether that's true).

I feel for them as it's very time consuming writing personalised applications/cover letters etc as well as studying for your degree. Some companies also scrapped internships halfway through their process last year which was frustrating.

My DDs found it was a numbers game. Just keep applying, but also practise as much as they can the logical/verbal reading type tests.
now is the time a lot of companies start advertising for next September’s graduate schemes. And then just apply for any jobs to keep them going - even if it’s part-time in a shop or something, giving them time to apply for the graduate schemes.
good luck to your DCs

This is interesting to read.
Many people assume a degree is enough and that you can do anything you want. I was the first person in my family to get a degree and I have never lived up to expectations. My grandparents and parents in particular all thought and still think that having a degree is like a gold card which means you can do anything. The reality is often very different. Too many graduates and not enough jobs.

My graduate DC went through the charity route and has benefited from it hugely, as well as working his way into a paid role he enjoys by being on the ground to spot openings and by being available. He still volunteers as well.

@GinnyPiggie @Greenfingers37 @spicysugar @summer555

thank you for posting your DC’s positive outcomes. Gives some hope that if DC are determined and persevering, it should pay off in the end.

@GinnyPiggie, have your DC done the apps in their final year or after graduation? I just can’t see how you can study and do 70+ apps in what is effectively 6-8 weeks. And many of these schemes are rolling deadlines so they encourage you to apply early. If you add additional skills development (eg taking a data skills course) where does one find the time? Mine has done about 10 since they opened in mid-September and I worry they are already close to burn out. But that was from a position of very modest prep so effectively from scratch. I don’t won’t to put a downer on it, but I will encourage them to view this as practice round and be prepared to do this again next year and the year after they graduate (assuming they do end up doing a masters).

This is unfair and unnecessarily provocative on a thread where people are looking for empathy and support. No one expect a degree to be a golden ticket - the posts are not “my DC rolled out of bed the day after graduation and is shocked a job hasn’t fallen into their lap”. These are DC who are bright, hard working and determined, who apply for tens and hundreds of jobs, work their asses off to go through multiple assessments rounds, to not even get a rejection email, and many of whom also work in part-time/non-graduate jobs to support themselves.

Interested in this.
2 of my DDs are in university in the US. Building C.V.s, doing internships, joining clubs that are relevant to their future careers, doing extra relevant courses, are things they are encouraged to do from the beginning of their degrees.
Is it the same in the U.K. or is looking at careers something that only happens in the final year?

My DS just started grad scheme , I was shocked when he said they were told they had 20k applicants for 90 places.

he did his internship with them & was offered the grad position from that. He does have a degree related to the industry from a Uni with a good reputation in the subject.

he didn’t go to the ‘right’ school or have any contacts in the company or parents in London. 🙄

I think what helped him was that on his cv he did work experience in the industry when at school and had a number of part time jobs where he gained skills & handled situations that he could talk about on an application.

eg give evidence of where you handled a stressful situation - he was able to talk about another staff member stealing from the till at the pub he worked.