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.

DD1 got a a 1st and then spent the summer getting a practical qualification associated with her area of interest and then volunteering in the field that she wants to work in,plus sub contracting in the same industry.
She's had very positive responses from every interview she's had,one wanted her to relocate,which she didn't want to do,another wanted her to start next year, and the one that has asked her to apply for their grad scheme said that the reason that they were so keen on her was that she'd actually gone out and got practical experience in the field.
She's currently subcontracting for another company while she waits for the grad scheme applications to close.
I'm really surprised how much work is out there,as she did a Zoology degree and I did wonder how useful it would be. Turns out very!

Well that's what she needs to brush up on. My dd got a first and a distinction in her humanities masters from a Russell group uni and has started a graduate trainee scheme. She's learning and refreshing skills on the job.

DD has done a 3 month contract gig in the summer and has just started working with a former professor, but only a few hours a week.

@ChimneyPot Both DC have been building their CVs right throughout but the difference from the US is that there are much fewer internships and much more competition, I think. DS didn';t get an internship in investment banking as there was so much competition, though he made it to the interview stage. He did get an internship with a think tank.

can I ask what the practical skills course was ? A colleagues son did biology degree and struggling to know what to do?

Similar experience here with ds and a numbers game. Applied for a few in final year of UG - sometimes made the first cut but got no further. Did a Masters and applied to more - this time round mostly made the first cut and the second cut (numerical reasoning, situational judgement etc) for some. Third time around, while working in retail, applied to lots more. Pretty much always made the second cut after learning from previous applications what works and what doesn't. Had a few assessment centres, only offered from one, but is enjoying it so far.

He also had a big spreadsheet and was ghosted a lot. Which is crap - it doesn't take any time at all to set up a global
Email to those that weren't successful.

This is a good question @AliceInWonderland24 ! So one DC did them in her final two years - worked some (paid) summer internships and also spring internships. These were competitive! But the resulted in job offers. In her final year she also applied for other companies and her internships were, I think, part of the reason that she was a good candidate. She also did voluntary work during covid in the NHS which she said was mentioned in every interview! (She was really young when that happened.) She was offered 3 jobs.

Other DC has a degree apprenticeship. She applied for loads of these during her final year of A-Levels. She was actually hauled in front of her tutor who said she wasn't concentrating enough on her work - the college had no idea of the time that she needed to put into the applications. She was offered two jobs/degree apprenticeships in the end.

It was really intense @AliceInWonderland24 and some days there were more than two virtual interviews (some of them were obviously scored by AI - the processes were very odd). DC was practicing late into the night for weeks on end. It's brutal. I didn't encourage any of it - other than always talking to them about household budgets and cost of living to make them aware how brutal life can be economically - I think this really drove them.

@AliceInWonderland24 Bit of a leap there ? Not sure how I said anything that was offensive at all. I was agreeing with the OP that it is tough out there. Very odd response from you tbh.

I think you've misread, that poster was offering empathy because when they went to uni it was expected it was a golden ticket for them - in reality it's always been difficult, as evidenced here.

It was similar for me, I was the first person from my family to ever go to uni (I went in 98 so a long time ago now) and my parents thought I'd walk into a 30k 'grad job' immediately, without any idea of what that might be - because I'd had opportunities they couldn't imagine.

Ultimately I ended up working in a bookshop for a year and reading The Bookseller every week until I got a job at a book publisher.

It is very hard. My 5 graduate children are all in work now (4 are solicitors - 2 - the twins - qualified this year). Even in my day it was hard - I graduated in 1982 when then we had the worst unemployment for FIFTY years and I applied to 139 London law firms and had 25 interviews in year 3 of my law degree before getting the job at interview 25 in about February of year 3 of my degree (I scanned my diaries and papers recently so have all the information). I still regard that as the biggest break of my career.

All I can say is people have to keep trying and also broaden scope - I would have started looking at firms outside London if I had not succeeded in getting the first job there.

We also in 2024 have our highest population ever in our history and 1.2m a year coming in and very large numbers of excellent candidates from abroad so although people don't like to talk about the immigration elephant in the room of course it has an impact.

Have pm'd you.

The employers are being foolish to ghost applicants because at some point the market will move in favour of applicants and then their behaviour will be remembered. I'd love someone to do a cross check of poor treatment of applicants versus having a lovely statement about how people centred the organisation is on their website/in the annual report.

DS (graduated ‘23) applied for 70 - 100 internships and got 1! But it was the first one where he’d fought his way through the hideous algorithm stages and actually got himself in front of a human being!

That internship was extended twice and then turned into a proper job.

BUT we live in London so he could live here for free while he applied and interned. How on earth is that fair on youngsters whose parents live in a small village outside Shrewsbury?

This sounds brutal.

Is anyone looking into public sector? There are plenty of professions eg Economist, Statistician, Social Researcher, Operational Researcher, Data Scientist, they all have their own entry routes but there used to be jobs for everyone who passed the selection. I think you just went on a list across civil service and were selected by whichever department fitted your skill set.

They do still have the fast stream for graduates too, DN is on that.

I wonder if applications up there too?

DS1 from a state comp graduated with a 2:1 in Geography from a RG uni this year. He applied for about thirty grad jobs in total, got one interview (he declined), and did two assessment centres. He got down to the last 60 out of 5000 nationally with one, and was lucky to get offered a place on a grad scheme after the second one - business management. They took on 7 in total out of several hundred applicants.
DS is massively personable, a great communicator and very but not over- confident. A real people person. He's also quite striking iissm (6ft 6 and good looking). He had very good (but not outstanding A levels). He said they weren't interested at all in his degree, more his life experiences, his part time job of five years, ten years in the scouts and experience as a qualified football referee!

@KingOfPeace My DDis looking at public sector. Some of the schemes have had good offer rates in the past (suspect this year will not be so good with cuts) but others very low rates (2%
or lower). Some degrees eg economics or STEM open up more opportunities. DD wishing she'd kept economics past 1st year.

@Ohfuckrucksack "Having posted on a similar thread I basically got told that they should accept anything - care work, warehouse work etc.
I don't agree - I think 1. Employers won't take them as they know they will leave asap and 2. Once you're in this role graduate employers wonder why you've accepted it.
I also feel so angry for someone who has worked so hard against difficult personal odds to note be given any chance."

I really know what you mean. DS took a "fill in " job in the CS just before lock down and now appears to be really stuck. He has a good humanities degree and Masters from a Russell Group. He also has dyslexia and is being assessed for ADHD and found returning to a noisy open plan office really difficult. Despite the CS proud boast of being disablity friendly they are reluctant to make any adjustments. Apparently, according to his Manager, he can't be dyslexic as he has degrees- so obviously the Ed Psych knew nothing.
He would be happier in Policy not OPs, but finds the CS promotion process overwhelming at the moment.
My fear is that he is too useful in his current role- acts as a resource for the department. An ex CS friend warned about useful people getting passed over for promotion.
If anyone can recommend a data skills course available on line please PM me. I know there are lots on line- but also lots of scams.

Looking at Facebook the other day I couldn't believe the bile and nastiness directed towards young people because they couldn't find a job,apparently there are plenty jobs but young people and the disabled are just too idle to work, even those that are severely disabled could work if they wanted to, one woman even criticised someone without arms.
People in social housing are apparently the scum of the earth and get everything free, even their furniture, carpets and wallpaper and paint as well, children who get free dinners at school were also slated by the I've worked all my life crew and the women were the worst.
I know that there are people that play the system but not everyone, some people are just vile and I hope they choke on their own poison.

How are your DC coping. Mine has stopped applying for the moment as she has midterms (plus works part-time plus her dissertation ethics/data collection to get sorted).

Feedback from the pre testing has been brutal for one particular scheme. Although despite the scathing feedback on my DDs SJ she got thru to the next round. Whereas the other 2 where feedback was more positive (even the negative parts was framed positively) she's not heard so probably on a hold list.

I think the fact that many graduates concentrate on large, well known companies and defined graduate schemes may be part of the problem.

Last year I tried to recruit a graduate marketeer. £35k starting salary, within a small high-tech co. growing at 70% a year. Based in London, great opportunity for advancement, loads of training and good experience on offer. Nice offices, friendly team.

I struggled to find anyone. In the end I recruited someone from Worcester, who was prepared to relocate.

One of mine has got through to the third round of interviews for a job. Incredibly brutal and persnickety process. She won't be done until end of month probably.

Just got rejected at a 3rd round assessment task with accompanying interview with senior staff for something they really wanted. Head is down.

@Meadowfinch They have deliberately sought out the smaller firms as they hoped they would have a better chance but the downside of this is that there's usually only 1 role whereas bigger companies have several.

I'm not sure whether my combination of fake optimism and gentle nagging alongside supportive measures to keep going (taking out for lunch etc because they're utterly broke and can afford nothing) is working.

We've tried temporary Christmas work but the applications are disappearing very quickly and M&S declined instantly - wondered if it was because they are a graduate and likely to be looking for something different soon.

It's causing family tension because my DH wants to go for the brutal approach. - think forcing them up at 8am to wander the city with CVs or go for the 'apply for anything' approach all day. Both of us are quite worried it just comes out differently.

I think this thread just highlights that there are too many people in this country and the fact university can be a huge waste of time and money - sadly.

When my children reach this age, I will certainly not be encouraging them to go to uni unless they want to do one of the very few jobs that actually requires a degree. There really aren't that many of them

Both my DC found it relatively easy to get jobs, but neither applied for any grad schemes. One DD, who has a first from an RG uni, started off as a teaching assistant in a SEN school, then moved to the charity sector. Other DD, who didn’t go to university but trained as a dancer and worked for several years in national companies, also found it straightforward. Three rounds of interviews and offered a job.

@Greenfingers37 DD might be interested in this, would you be happy to DM the name of the company?