Thread 55 - Covid GCSE Cohort - Autumn 25 - Yr 4 Uni and Graduates

[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 54:
Thread 54

That sounds really tough . Sorry for everyone with their ill parents. Apparently my DM's ashes are being scattered this week or next but I seem to be unworthy of communication about all of this. Families, eh?

Older DS is still working 16 hours a week at Dunelm. He must have had 100 rejections by now for better jobs. It's wild out there. I am sure AI is filtering him out. His CV scores low on various checkers but he changes things and it doesn't improve! He fails every sift or online test. He has had, I think, three interviews in total.

DS2 is back for the holds. He has been very busy and had lots of journalistic experiences but no success on being shortlisted for jobs. He has applied for the two big grad schemes (DM and The Times) . Rejected by the Telegraph (no loss!) and writing for CGP. I think he has a battle ahead for sure.

Happy Easter all!

DD home and working like a loon for 4 massive exams after the hols.

We had a very stressful 2 days when the software for her ANKI cards went down - these are a medical version of Quizlet and she has thousands of personalised revision cards which she couldn’t access! All sorted now, but a reminder how reliant we all are on ‘the cloud’ and its minions…

This time next year she’ll be taking her final prescribing exams.

@Piggywaspushed DS also struggled with AI sifting of CVs. He finally got an interview for an internship and once they could see him in real life they snapped him up and then offered him a substantive job. Really rubbish and dispiriting for them.

Happy Easter one and all 🐣
DD is home and working on her dissertation as well as applying for permanent teaching positions to complete the ECT part of her degree. She’s had the weekend off to spend with her boyf and seeing his friends but she’ll be back for our Sunday roast later and then be head down again in Uni work.

Snap, we are also off to Gran Canaria @EndlessDistractionbut going the week before you it seems. Sorry to hear about your FIL, what a worry esp as you’re going away.
Your DS is being fantastically resilient with all his job applications @Piggywaspushedand I’m crossing everything for him and hope he gets a breakthrough like @KingscoteStaffDS did.

Your DD’s experience @crazycrofteris what frightens me about schools and I am just crossing everything that DD finds a supportive school to complete her 2 years ECT. She’ll be living back at home so will have us to give her hugs and home cooked meals etc.
Your DH will be super busy this weekend won’t he - do you attend all services too? Do your DC when they’re home?

What awful timing on DS’s car @Aslocktonisn’t that often the way though. Hope he’s enjoying his new home. So exciting for him.

Lovely to pop back and read how your YP are all getting on. I hope you all have a lovely day.

Happy Easter everyone! I haven’t caught up but just wanted to wish everyone well.

@AnneOfCleavage i think it’s good that your dd is planning to live at home for her first teaching job - she’ll definitely need the moral support!

Yes, we’ve had a busy weekend, I go to everything (and play the piano!). The kids came today and dd was with us for the walk of witness on Friday, but neither came to the evening service due to work/dd being with her boyfriend.

Good luck to your two with the job hunting @Piggywaspushed ! I think 100 applications seems par for the course now! A girl who we met at the Loughborough open day had applied for 250 for her placement year - and got one eventually!

That ANKI failure sounds very stressful @KingscoteStaff 😬

Yes, the trouble is he is now 3 years out of uni , rotting at home, applying for non grad jobs and getting nowhere and therefore making less and less effort with the actual applications. I'm sure he doesn't look great on paper, really. It's ridiculous what they put you through if you even make a longlist as well : for quite basic jobs you can have various online tests, video interviews (which he will not do!) and further questionnaires.

Then when he gets to interview, he clearly doesn't have enough practice at answering questions. He can't stay at Dunelm forever - they only give him 16 hours a week.

Happy Easter to all.

I admire these young people going into schools. I hope they receive strong support going forward and find excellent mentors.

My fingers are crossed for those job searching. The soulless AI interviews are the pits.

Happy holidays to those heading for the Canaries. We've just had a few days on Malta. If you like good food, friendly people and a good dose of history I would highly recommend going. We turned a corner in Valletta and came across filming with Jason Statham and Babs Olusanmokun. DS played it cool but was almost excited!

Ds2 is busy with his dissertation and other work too. He will finish early May. No actual exams to go to, but he will have essays. He should finish in May. He has his usual summer job lined up at the start of July. Then is planning to do PGCE but in true Ds style, he’s not applied for any yet. He says he’s not bothered which uni as long as it’s not our nearest one as he says no point living round here. Hopefully he’ll apply soon.

Ds1 is busy with his assistant ecology job. All working from home so far.

Ds3 is now year 12 so he’s starting to think about university. Probably maths. But he’s not interested in visiting any. The school has suggested he apply for Cambridge as he’s one of the high achievers. But whether he will, I don’t know. He has always said he doesn’t want to go to university, but I think he’s coming round to the idea.

@icanbewhatiwant my DS was like this right up to year 12. He was very negative about going to university, he just did not see the point as he did not know what he wanted to do. He was at a top grammar: 110 early entry candidates out of 180, so the expectation was to apply to university. The turning point came on a trip away to Amsterdam where he moaned the whole time about wanting to be at home as the weather was great for flying. He explained about the clouds having great thermals that day and here he was sightseeing. It was that conversation/ moan that was life changing and lead to him applying for meteorology and having a career in forecasting. He only applied for one course at one university and only went to one open day.

Wishing everyone here a very happy Easter, I hope you're all having a great time and enjoyed today's weather in particular.
DS is preparing for his final exams and has a last stage interview for a job this week which we are praying he gets. Good luck again to all those doing dissertations, hoping there are no technical hiccups during submission and surveys etc all go smoothly.

Good luck to Ds @shimy!

@Aslockton i love your Ds’ story! Very inspirational!

@icanbewhatiwant ds didn’t decide to go to uni until Oct of his gap year and then changed the subject just before Christmas! They have to actively want to go I think.

@Piggywaspushed could Ds get some help with his interview technique? Would his old uni support him? Do you check his applications or won’t he let you? Do you have any contacts you could leverage for an internship - in anything really. Sometimes you just need to start somewhere 🤔 Good luck to ds2 too - journalism is a tough area to get into, with all the job cuts -but then the same is true in lots of areas. Someone has to succeed, which is what I tell myself when I see that there’s only a 15% chance of getting on a clinical psychology doctorate!

Thanks @crazycrofter.
The recruitment process is brutal and the use of AI for most of it does not lend well to selling oneself to maximum effect or showing personallity at all. Good for the recruiters, because they don't have to wade through 100s of CVs etc but they must be missing out on tons of great candidates. Not everyone excels at online tests & Ai interviews I think its counter productive how so much is now put in place to support neuro diversity at school & uni to access learning, exams etc then at the end of it, they're faced with a blank impersonable wall which is a computer that they can't speak with, who can't guage the applicant's emotional or mental state.

I have helped him with some applications, crazy. He hasn't had enough interviews (3!) to know if he needs help. I think he had a job coach but missed appointments. His depressive tendencies aren't helping and are getting worse, obviously.

I helped him with the sift for the Thames Valley Police. We sat together and did it. We scored 14%!! I look at some of the people in the police and I think 'How how did you pass that test?!^.

I am not saying he is even a very good candidate for a lot of the jobs he applies for , but he should be able to get a job that's more than what he has. Having said that I know of YPs who can't even get a shop job.

DS is frustrated by nepotism and privilege : but nothing he can do about those factors. Two examples, Trailfinders only recruit graduates who have already extensively travelled to one of Australia, Africa or Asia - so his rich friend who lives off bank of mum and dad got a job. His other mate -who is very similar to him academically and socially (in fact even more insular) and works in Tesco-has now managed eventually to get a job because his brother recommended him to his boss.

Sorry, you hit a raw nerve with the word 'contacts'. We have zero contacts!

We have zero contacts too @Piggywaspushed - it's hard! Even when the DCs had to sort Y10 work experience, we struggled massively.
Jobs are horrendous at the moment. Both mine applied for jobs they'd done previously, and didn't even get past sending in the application stage! DD applied for the museum job she'd done for a year at a different museum, and DS applied for both general and barista jobs he'd done for 2 years and had specific training for at the same chain! It's ridiculous.

Yes, DS2 applied for just your basic pub jobs/ shop jobs etc to finance his Master's and kept being told 'others were more qualified'.

As someone said in an article I read last week ' How can you ever get the experience if no one will ever give you the experience?'.

I was enraged last week watching the BBC news when they had some old boy CEO on who thought that young people just needed to try harder and wander about from shop to shop offering services and that they somehow weren't trying hard enough. It is years since I have seen an 'apply within' sign. Every shop has online applications. Even Co Op does a 'values sift' (which DS2 failed!). This might still work in some towns which still have independent High Street shops and cafes - but not everyone lives there!

Besides which when you do get your 'Saturday job' - it doesn't then seem to get you further. DS1 has worked in B and Q, Clarks, Dunelm, in a uni bar and in two schools : and none of this experience has helped. I don't think employers are looking for 'prove you can do any old job' as experience any more.

I was reading an article where an employer said they listed 4 graduate roles and within the day had had 16,000 applicants which they have no choice but to sift by AI but then you get to the interview and find they are unsuitable because they (probably) used AI for their application and it didn't reflect their actual fit for the role, frustrating for everyone. The contacts thing, we don't have any relevant ones through our work or families but (this sounds transactional but it kind of isn't because we are sociable), DH and I both volunteer and engage with various hobbies and encourage the DCs to do the same and that is where contacts can happen, DD got her first pub job because we had been going to the quiz there for a few months and got to know the landlord. Mind you she has got nowhere since going to uni. But she is volunteering and DS is too.

I don't think we have that many volunteering opportunities around here to be honest. DS2 did once ask a local foodbank and they had no openings! Nor did a charity shop. At then end of the day, volunteering is great but DS1 needs to earn proper money. Public transport round here is dire , too. My two have cars now but without one they'd be marooned.

Yes, it's very much a stopgap but keeps them occupied and they do gain some skills. DS does outdoor volunteering (conservation, there are loads of opportunities for that here) and DD volunteers in a small local museum. Transport is fairly dire here too but there is some, DD doesn't drive yet and that definitely doesn't help.

DS2 volunteered in a museum in year 13. But money is now required!

I agree that employers no longer place much importance on casual type work experience and I don't think most volunteering helps directly either, I can't remember the last time I heard of someone staring out volunteering in an organisation and then getting taken on because if they need volunteers they can't afford paid workers, but it does fill time, widens their social circle a bit and possibly adds some relevant skills.

Dd has had a similar experince in that despite working for 2 years for a national theatre chain and 1 year for a national coffee chain she could not get a job at the same companies in her uni city. It is madness.

Ds is thankfully going to be self employed as he cannot ever get past the online pre vetting procedures.

I genuinely wonder who can! I am highly literate (if I say so myself!) and have worked in a public sector job for nearly 30 years, wrangling 'difficult clients and colleagues' and scored 14% in an online situational judgement test,

Apparently the only people who get through the police test are gamers who have learnt how to game the answers.

The tests literally only have one 'correct' answer to a scenario and it's often not the one an actual human would ever do.

ED I have a still in college volunteer who creates content for our social media. Tomorrow she has an interview for another charity for a very similar but paid role (much larger charity).

I am convinced the casual type work increases the chance of a successful application but I think it needs to be public facing. DS did kids sports coaching and bar work. He was able to give examples of responsibility, tailoring communication style and reliability etc. We had zero contacts related to where he got his job.

@Piggywaspushed Am I right in thinking you are in Norfolk? Requesting old style CV & note at the bottom "We recognise that candidates may not meet every requirement, and encourage applications from those who bring strong relevant skills and potential."
www.norfolkcareassociation.org.uk/marketing-communications-officer-norwich-hybrid-30000-norfolk-care-association/

No, afraid we aren't! Thanks though!

Sorry. Lady of a certain age.