Thread 53 - Covid GCSE Cohort - Happy New Year 2025 to our fab young people

[Delphigirl]

New thread! Looking forward to traversing 2025 with this fantastic group 🎉😘

Have a great party @OublietteBravo !
DD2 very happy as has got her accommodation offer for Exeter and it is her first choice (east park en-suite) which she didn’t think she would get as it is the most oversubscribed one. Makes it all seem very real now that I can dig out the correct sized sheets!!

Ps off to ascot royal encl tomorrow - going to be hot hot hot so will be glad of a hat for once!

So, DS has now announced he doesn't get results til Tuesday. He looked at 2024 dates...

Oh that’s annoying Piggy.

Dd doesn't get her results til July I think.

Have none of the Birmingham grads stayed around for the grad ball? They've been setting up this week around the clock tower - a stage, dodgems, marquee etc. I assume it's Friday night? Lovely weather for it!

Great news for dd2 @Delphigirl ! Enjoy Ascot !

Dd is in the Canaries. Ds is still changing his mind daily about his plans for September! He might now have another gap year and use it to apply for degree apprenticeships/ earn money / retake an A Level (I doubt this last thing will happen!). He's applied for a Tesco delivery job, as his store isn't giving him enough hours at the mo. We're also going to visit some open days at places which may be in clearing for PPE/Politics and Economics - Loughborough, Nottingham and Lancaster next week! He still hasn't visited UEA, where he actually has a place.... I think I'm veering on the side of another gap year being a good idea!

I don't think DS is a grad ball type. He went to the music ball and the football do and I think that was enough for him. They are all moving out on Saturday after the wreckage of thta Ball! A few hungover journeys home...

DS says it's tomorrow. actually!

Congratulations to All: @OublietteBravo, @sansou.

@crazycrofter UEA has an open day on 5/7 - I know as DD is going back to Norwich to work at it!

Thanks @Seeline , unfortunately we’re having a 21st birthday party for dd that day. We’ll have to visit when it’s deserted which probably won’t help its cause! Tonight he said he’s applying for a shift runner role at his Tesco, as his manager suggested it, and if he gets it he’ll probably have another gap year..

That makes sense, it looked nearly ready today. There also seemed to be a graduation going on today too?

No idea. Seems a bit early!

Maybe it was postgrads?

@25newernames and @Piggywaspushed thank you both.

DS has an interview tomorrow! 😮Please keep your fingers crossed, I can't bear how down he has been after applying for so many jobs and hearing nothing.

All the best to ds for tomorrow @JustHereWithMyPopcorn . It's such a hard job market out there!

The jobs market is so frustrating. DS1 either never gets shortlisted or doesn't make it beyond the entry tests. He had a numeracy test yesterday for a trainee pensions administrator (not a grad role) which he thought he did really well in but then heard he hadn't been called for interview. He has been turned down for every single grad job he has applied for, even in so called shortage occupations like social work and probation work.

He's really despondent.

I hope you get a better outcome just! These young people deserve a break.

Good luck @JustHereWithMyPopcorn He's done brilliantly to get to interview stage (although - I'm sure you area aware, there are often several rounds of interviews too. The process seemed never-ending when my DS was going through it).
As @Piggywaspushed says - the jobs market is so tough at the moment.

Fingers crossed for him @JustHereWithMyPopcorn

It really is a tough job market. I know my company has fewer grad scheme opportunities at the moment. And so many entry-level jobs seem to be asking for 2-3 years experience.

🤞 for your boy @JustHereWithMyPopcorn !

Thank you all! He's just been making me ask him interview questions - like I have a clue!

I'm sorry your DS is having the same problems @Piggywaspushed I shall keep my fingers crossed for him too, and for all of our young people. It really is awful out there at the moment. Just as @OublietteBravo says, everything that he has looked at wants 1-3 years for a graduate / entry role - how do they get this??

It's so hot i can bearly function. Anyone else?

@Piggywaspushed I pray your DS gets the break he so much needs. Its so hard being rejected again and again. DH used to have a massive folder of all his rejection letters and I had quite a pile too post graduation but 'diligence' which your DS has in bucketfuls, opens the door eventually.

Oh no, this is DS1. Diligence is not his stand out feature.

Thanks though!

@Piggywaspushed Okay, perhaps, 'Persevering & resilient' is the word I'm looking for, he continues to try, despite so that's something. The fact he applied for a non-graduate job is also a good sign, at least he's humble. Nothing more frustrating than a fresh graduate who thinks they should only apply for graduate jobs, anything less is beneath them. Lots of those about at the moment.

Just checking in from West Wales (had a lovely day in Aberystwyth yesterday @mummyinbeds and I have been swimming in the sea today for a full half hour, it was lovely). I was a bit nervous about how it would be with the DCs, the dynamics gradually shifting etc but actually it's been great, we have to stick together to some extent with all being in one car but we've all been able to go off and do different things in the places we've visited.

I saw a post in WIWIKAU today about jobhunting, screenshotted this bit about LinkedIn as I think it is sound advice