What do your 18/19/20 yr olds do for work?

[gangan87]

What do your 18/19/20 yr olds who aren't at uni or on a degree apprenticeship do for work?

I have 2 teens one is keen for uni and the other has no plans after A levels and seems in no rush to get a job. She doesn't really go out or spend no money so in her eyes she has no real reason to get a job - her friends all seem the same.

We are telling her that she needs to do something but she wants a couple of years off to chill!!!!!!!!

I hope that she may get bored but she is quite lazy and is quite happy lying in bed all day on her phone to her mates and I worry as none of them apart from the two that are going to uni seem to have any inclination to work either.

My 21 year old works in the bar of a theatre. He got the job when he was 19 and in college. Loves it so much he stuck with it full time when he finished. My 24 year old daughter had an 18 month old. Before she got pregnant she was working in a clothes shop, but hated it. She went to a hospital admission job, 4 days a week, last year and loves it. Both still live at home and have no intention of moving soon. I'm quite happy about that as we have the gd, and do child care when she's working. Love spending loads of time with her, though come the end of the week I'm exhausted.

19 year old is a part time mechanic and part time at Maccies, 18 year old works in local chippy, and 17 year works for local removal company part time along side college.
I also have younger children who are very keen to get into work.

My 18 year old is about to finish college. She's not interested in uni. She currently works in a shop and will be going full time after her summer holiday.

I will be charging her rent so working is not optional. If she wasn't working I would expect her to do the washing and clean the house.

2 years to chill is just not an option! Even if one of my children wanted a gap year they would either be working or doing an activity that enriched their lives like travelling or a volunteer project or something.

She doesn’t spend much so has decided she doesn’t need to work?

surely as an A level student she understands people don’t live for free?

I’m interested how many do a couple of PT jobs. My 19yr old does 3 PT jobs. It’s kind of fallen like that as he had one already and picked up a couple more after A levels. He’s now decided to go to uni and I’ve struggled o think to get the balance between what I ask of him and what I asked of his older sister. She didn’t have a year off before uni and had mental health issues/ new diagnosis of autism so I didn’t put much pressure on her.

did those with several PT jobs struggle to find a FT one? I’m wondering if this is a new thing for our young people.

How long is she planning on living with you? 2 years without work won’t give a good impression when she finally decides she wants a job.

My DD is 18 and working 20 hours a week in a shop. Not being employed and ‘chilling’ was not an option. She was given her gap year to try to decide what to do and as she is not in full time work or education she will be paying us ‘rent’ from next month when she turns 19. It’s not a lot, £200/month to go towards bills and food, but I think it’s important for adult children to not expect a totally free ride and learn about budgeting.

She’s old enough to find out what she wants to do and do it.
Doing sweet FA will be bad for mental and physical health, look rubbish on her cv and she won’t have skills like mixing with people or working with people that are older etc. She won’t learn money management. It’s a big mistake.

Mine both took a gap year before uni. To work, to make enough money to live a bit at uni.

Dd(22) worked (covid year) in a school doing exam invigilating, volunteer covid testing, and office cover. Then went and did her degree, decided she didn't want to work in her (science lab type) field, so is now a teacher.

DD(23) worked (also covid year) in a call center helping keep people's broadband running during lockdowns. She hated it, but made enough to support her boozy, holiday lifestyle at uni. Now works as a private tutor whilst doing a part time masters.

If she wants chunks of time off, but also a bit of cash - min wage, but still adds up, I would strongly recommend exam invigilator as a job whilst trying to decide what they want to do in life.

Mine are at uni / college (both with part time jobs) but of the others their age that I know that aren’t:

21 year olds - two work in a factories, two are accountancy / finance apprentices, marketing apprentice, teaching assistant, garden centre worker.

19 year olds - apprentice electrician, self employed video editor, cafe worker, childcare (nursery).

Chilling at home is not an option, maybe for a couple of months after A levels but by the time the results come out some serious effort needs to be made. Perhaps she will get her act together when she sees others her age starting work and growing up.

she doesn’t spend much because she has her heating, electricity and board and also food all paid for!!

How has it got to now with no plans? No talks about your expectations? Are you wealthy as that’s the only way I can see that she thinks chilling for 2 years is even an option?

My almost 20 year old has been doing IT support for an NHS training company for 18 months. He did GCSE’s, then a 2 year cyber security college course and then it took him nearly 6 months to find a job. The first 3 months he applied to jobs he was interested in that were in his specific interests and skills.

After 3 months of applying for about 100 jobs and getting only 3 responses and one interview he opened up his search to include any job going. It still took another 3 months. He didn’t even get responses from places like Tesco or kfc. He was very VERY lucky to land the job he has now.

Not sure if it’s the same in other areas but the job market here seems to be pretty competitive right now and with cost of living still an issue even more people are going for second jobs etc. if she’s thinking she will “chill” for a couple of years then just get any kind of job with no work history or a big gap on her cv she might be in for a bit of a shock. employers don’t want 22 year olds who have done nothing but doss about for a couple of years. You have to explain any gaps on a cv now for most jobs and her explanation of wanting to chill is not going to endear her.

I've always made it clear to mine that "chilling at home" aka lazing around in bed on phone/laptop, is not an option.
DS went to Uni but dropped out at the end if 1st year. He was given 2 weeks off to decide what he wanted to do instead and then job searching began. I got the excuses "there's no jobs available". Funnily enough, I managed to find some which were forwarded to him pronto! He got a job in High Street retail for 12 months before deciding to return to Uni.
After Uni he was looking for a full time job in something he 'wanted' to do. He was told that the deal was he should take any part time job available immediately, which would still give him time to look for the job of his choice. He was employed in a supermarket within a week!

Chilling in his room was never allowed as an option - and he was also someone who rarely went out so didn't need money.

Parents need to parent and instill work ethics into their DCs.

My DC/their friends have tended to get retail or hospitality type or labourer type jobs. Some have started "proper" jobs e.g one is a police officer. Some have saved during sixth form and then travelled.

I agree with others - if your DC wants to "chill" for 2 years, even if you don't charge them any board, how do they intend to fund this?

A lot of DS's friends (they are 19/20) have several part time jobs. I think in retail/hospitality type jobs it seems easier to get part time hours/zero hours contracts, so they have multiple to keep their total income up.

My 18 year old is a bus driver. He likes it, though long term plan is to get into transport management/planning. He's just liking earning money at the moment.

Dd19 is a TA in a special school. She's saving to go travelling.

Mine do lifeguarding, it's quite well paid and flexible for students. Just have to be a proficient swimmer, do a 5 day course for around £300. Mine enjoy the job.

I agree about the problem of explaining gaps in your CV, particularly if at any point in the future you want to go into any sort of field where regulatory or safeguarding requirements apply, such as teaching, finance etc, I've been helping one of my DCs with proofreading applications recently and noticed this question popping up even on jobs where the above doesn't apply. Also the longer you leave it the more you are falling behind your peers whose CVs are getting better and better. Even if they start with some volunteering while jobhunting, anything is better than just chilling.

One is at Uni and the other is on an apprenticeship, not a degree apprenticeship but valuable all the same.

My DM made it very clear to me in Y11 tgat it was work fulltime or college. The other options were doing all of the housework and of o didn’t like those options there woukd be no money, I’d have to leave the house in the morning and there woukd be no house key to get back in with.

I hope you put her straight on lying in bed for two years. Who will pay for her lunch and phone?

I wouldn't be enabling this, how will she pay for clothes, her phone, make up, getting anywhere? When I was a teenager I had a few jobs, in retail, potentially washing, and then as an older teen worked in a bar which I loved

Thank you redsky that is interesting to know. I think I’d been feeling a bit down on him for not getting a FT job as that’s what I did in a gap year. But the job market is very different 30 years later.

My 19yo is at uni, but his friends who didn't go to uni are either doing apprenticeships or working. Two years off to chill - wtf!?!

Post college, my older son worked part time at a local hotel while using the other 'work' time to work on graphic design and other skills he wanted to improve.

He'd been applying for higher apprenticeships and not getting anywhere, was not in a good head space, so after he got his not great results, his father and I told him to go for a local part-time position to have something & we'd revisit future plans in 6 months. It was about 9 months before he was really ready to get into it, and went for a cadetship. Having the breathing space and experienced helped with that - and having the money helped him move onto his next thing.

My older daughter at 18 is an inclusion teaching assistant apprentice, it's a Level 3 apprenticeship with optional Level 4 additions.

I do wonder if it just the A level stress thet is getting to her but we have told her that she has to pay rent and she has to get a full time job.... but there seems to know so many people who haven't gone to uni who just end up doing nothing. Only one boy from her friendship group is going to uni. She isn't overly social so doesn't go out much and since she left her job in January she says she hasn't missed the money at all!!!

I think the main issue is she has no aspirations for any real career or job which in a way is odd because she is so bright and very hardworking and has been been predicted excellent A level grades. She could be very successful.