Thread 54 - Summer 25 - Graduations after Uni Year 3

[Oblomov25]

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.
Previous thread 53:
Thread53

I hope she has a fabulous year @Zebracat, very exciting. I am a huge fan of Copenhagen and the Danish view of how a decent society works. I know nowhere is faultless and changing, but at least they try…

Hope she settles well @Zebracat !

@NCTDN sorry - not from Bristol. DS was at UWE - he never saw the balloon festival - probably too early in the morning!!
London is supposed to have one - another of our Mayor's money wasting ideas. It's been proposed for at least the last 3 years, if not 4, and has been cancelled every time due to bad/inappropriate weather.

We’ve been a couple of times.
Parking and exiting at the end was chaos.
The weather meant balloons weren’t able to launch, but the night glow and fireworks were lovely.

We haven’t been for a few years, so hopefully the logistics are a bit better now, at least.

Maybe the wrong place to post but my dd graduates next week and there’s no work. She’s applied to 100s of jobs, we’ve tweaked her cv we’ve signed up to agencies. Nothing. She’s so stressed. I feel sick at the thought of being home with nothing to do. I think she’s going to end up signing in for job seekers and taking a low paid wage just for work and after all that effort when she was promised better outcomes for having a degree ( and a 1st!) where does she go from here?

It's tough out there at the moment 😞 My DS worked part time in a pub after he graduated, and really concentrated on applications for graduate positions once they opened up in September. He applied to loads, but the ones he had more success with were the ones where he really concentrated on his covering letter and/or the questions on the website application form. Making sure that his answers matched up with the aims and ethos of the company, referring to things specific to that company, and tying in his experience and qualifications.
Hopefully there will be more openings in September - what type of job is she hoping for?

@Seeline thank you that’s a really positive post! I have some hope for September now.
she’s done fashion marketing but right now anything would boost her confidence! Her two best friends have been offered roles with companies that have approached university but they already work for the company.
her careers service have been useless, never onsite and seem to leave her hanging. I’ve told her to escalate the complaints procedure. All this money and they won’t even help at the end with her CV etc. it’s a specialist fashion university so they are the best people to help her.
Im so worried about her and the effort of all this to end no better than the kids that just left school

Don't worry @socks1107 it's still early days. I've heard about lots of youngsters taking a year or more to get a grad position. At least she has some idea of the area she wants to work in - has she done any internships? Could she look for some in the meantime/approach companies she's interested in?

Thanks @Seeline@Alwaysplayspicc. There’sdef someone on here who lives in Bristol, just can’t remember who!!
Trying to decide whether to go there on the way back from our hols on Cornwall.

I think it was Monkey101 (?) @NCTDN

@socks1107 sympathy, it's a tough market for graduates. Mine did a vocational degree and is in minimum wage seasonal employment plus relevant volunteering at the moment but is applying for selected jobs (not grad schemes) taking great care over each application. He is resigned to it taking some time and will probably have to widen his search.

Hello @socks1107, I concur with others, hang in there, whilst it is tough, the new tranche of graduate roles are or soon to drop, if there's roles of interest for her, tell her not to wait until deadline but to apply as soon as she is ready (preparation wise).

Apologies if she's already signed up to all the recruitment sites, the one most effective for mine was (and still is) from a issuance and deadline perspective is Targetjobs. This is the period of signing up for some companies in advance, and then come september the application process tends to open. All sectors, so keep an eye on them all.

@socks1107 the state of the job market is depressing sadly a lot of graduates are finding things difficult at the moment. Some good advice above though about being prepped for the upcoming recruitment from companies who take on graduates. Also, worth thinking about their social media? My son is friends with someone graduating from St Martins this year and he has rally taken time to get his online profile looking amazing.

@ExtensivelyDecoratingdd lives in skinny jeans and hoodies. When I pointed out that the dress code for her internship specified no jeans, she said she would quit 🤦 thankfully we have found her concert blacks which will do the job for now!

@socks1107my DD has a gap year planned - she couldn't face applying for graduate schemes at the same time as final year exams so has decided to take some time out and apply in the autumn for roles starting Sept 26. She said few of her fellow graduates have anything concrete lined up and are planning the same.... All STEM degrees.

DD's last day on her 6 weeks' internship. As she was the only summer intake for the tech consultancy stream in her region (from university, vs school leaver/degree apprenticeships), they have won't be telling her on last day as per normal protocol if she has a returners offer, but to wait for a couple of weeks to be assessed with the wider pool to aid moderation/distribution etc.

Am hopeful for her as she really enjoyed it, got to participate on a couple of big projects and received very positive feedback, but if she doesn't, then it's work experience on the CV and scrum again for the graduate intake opportunities.

What is apparent is the substantial cut backs these large employers are making, and the uncertainty of future market places resulting in a more conservative approach to recruitment pipelines. The volume of opportunities tend to be in the Consumer goods, Fin Services etc lines of service, whereas she has picked a more niche area of Defense if she progresses, so she can utilise potentially, her ME background and interests in wider security.

Looking forward to seeing her though either way, she left this time Aug last year so Y3's been a long year of study/work before she heads back early Sept.

Good luck to her @ealingwestmum - but like you say, either way it's a great thing to have on her CV and useful in that it's helped her clarify what she wants to do. What exactly has she been doing during her internship? I don't think I really know what tech consultancy means!

Thank you @crazycrofter, me neither really :) I guess the usual way we think about consulting roles is in general management consultancy terms, these guys are just coming at stuff from a technology deployment angle, brought in and out where needed, more trained on proprietary and 3rd partner tech solutions, anything from Oracle, Salesforce, AI, Power BI etc. She underwent the same induction training as the MC hires.

She worked on 2 large civil service projects which I won't name, but we'll all be familiar with, so she's had a taster on how unwieldy government working can be, but also how she is ok working across functions. She appreciates not all clients or tasks will be interesting, but the access the company gives you (actively encourage you to harvest) across their network is valuable, as is the circa 5 years training to get you up to competency. She showed an interest in the 2nd project, so they granted her clearance to shadow, No one pushed her back on a meeting request no matter how senior they were, were very down to earth and then in turn gave further contacts within the org to snowball the connectivity across the period. I wish many businesses encouraged this approach. The final positive feedback was that the hybrid working meant she was physically in office 4/5 days, with summer hours on Fridays resulting in social downtime with other staff (just like the old days). I know this doesn't suit everyone, but for mine, it was perfect from a work/play perspective.

Most of the summer interns are audit/tax prospects, this part takes in a handful in comparison and I think generally, consultancy has reduced due to lower govt project spending and protection of company/partner profits, or paying hefty fines for past misconducts.

ps @crazycrofter I didn't re-mention the company name as I didn't want the feedback being picked up by a metrics bot trawling the sites for like they do.

@ealingwestmum ah, that makes more sense, we have consultants like that that we use. I assumed interns would need to be doing a computing type degree, so that's interesting that it's not the case.

Wasn't getting notifications for the thread - thought it had just gone v quiet! I need to read back. Glad your DD has enjoyed her internship @ealingwestmum .

I had my nerve block epidural thingy yesterday so am hoping that does wonders for slipped disc...we shall see!

DS has another fortnight at college summer programme. He has very much enjoyed it despite extremely long hours. He was marking research papers yesterday. I think it has been a good mix of supervision, marking, admin and looking after them. I think it's done him good. He starts archaeology job day after bank holiday so that should be interesting.

Thank you @craggyrat. I really hope the epidural procedure has worked for you to rid permanently 🤞. Your boy’s summer sounds really enriching re work experiences.

DD is now mostly home, although we'll need to do one more run to collect artwork from the studios. She has spent a lot of time and (her own, saved) money turning her room into a mini art-studio. We're away for a few days over next weekend, and when we return she'll start looking seriously for a "day job" while she also tries to make a go of getting freelance commissions, so watch this space.

Meanwhile DS will be getting his A-level results on Thursday; and still doesn't really know what he'll be doing for the first few months of his Gap Year. I'll nag him again over the weekend.

I always joke that if my home was ever broken into @PhotoDad, it would take a creative burglar to know the most value is in the loft. My art materials, from oil to brushes and more are worth an absolute fortune! Good luck to her on the promotion front, I know she’s a very determined young lady.

Hope Thursday goes 🤞 for you, and the others on this thread awaiting results both A and GCSEs in next 2 weeks.

Good luck to your Ds @PhotoDad and to your dd as she chases commissions. I’m sure she’s got a bright future ahead!

Ds is now adamant that if he doesn’t get one of Nottingham/Newcastle/Loughborough/Southampton in clearing, he won’t go at all. He’s convinced that there’s no point going to a less targeted uni like UEA/Leicester or dropping the Economics and going somewhere like Nottingham for Politics and Philosophy. I feel sure he’s wrong - but there’s no convincing him! I’m also sure he’ll be fine if he doesn’t go to uni, as he’s got a lot going for him and he’s thinking of looking to get into sales. I just want to know what’s happening now so we can make plans!

Hi all! Just wanted to wish 'good luck' to all those here with younger dc awaiting results next week. It seems like a bumper year for the 18-year-olds, so hoping most get their offers, if not, there seems to be loads of good Clearing courses coming out. Get your plans A, B,C & D ready.

I’ve come back to say good luck to all the others waiting for results next week too, I am starting to get nervous. DD phoned her uni to ask about clearing grades earlier in the week and felt somewhat reassured afterwards but she hasn’t got much in the way of clearing options as shew doesn’t want to go too far from home, doesn’t want to go to London and she could be in a funny sort of gap as she was bottom end grade wise for the higher ranking unis but much better than the typical offer for her subject from the post-92 types. Her DSA got approved yesterday so we need to get the assessment booked ASAP now. It’s all come round fast. We are making the most of our Fridays off together at the moment by going out sopping, for coffees etc together, it’s really nice and I will miss that.