Job hunting advice needed for 19yo

[TeenTimesTwo]

My 19yo DD is job hunting.

DH and I walked into jobs on graduation and worked for the same company all our working lives, so we are a bit behind on current expectations. DH did do a lot of recruitment, but that was for graduates in a technical area.

We have helped DD make the most of her limited skills and experience on her CV.
We have helped her with some generic covering letters that she can customise.
She has signed up to job sites like Indeed and is checking there for jobs she can apply to.
Is hitting that old chestnut - can't get a job without experience, can't get experience without a job

What more should we/she be doing?
How do temping agencies work?

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Further details for those who have the time:

• passed all her GCSEs, did a BTEC at college
• she was doing a apprenticeship but screwed up her back so had to leave having been off sick for 7 months - she still doesn't have full mobility. Cannot do a 'physical' job.
• has dyspraxia with poor organisational skills
• confident talking to people, and good with languages
• has experience doing front of house at local theatre
• currently applying for things like hotel receptionist

If she has the money behind her getting something like a telehandler ticket should open up half well paid agency work (£16 an hour round here) whilst she works out what she wants to do for a career and would allow her to fund internships.

Had no idea what a 'telehandler ticket' was, so looked it up - hydraulic equipment like forklift trucks?

I'm not sure she'd manage . She can drive, but only an automatic car. Generally her spatial awareness is poor, part of her dratted dyspraxia.

But that's a great idea and other similar suggestions welcome. (I've just put lifeguard training onto my mental list following this suggestion.)

Does she like animals? Something like a kennel or a cattery perhaps, I know everyone says this but dog walking or cleaning? If she's not doing anything else at the moment just one job a week could turn into a few more. Supermarket on the tills, I did that until I was 19 and LOVED it. Care work?

Supermarket could work. She's not great with animals (that's her sister's forte) but dog walking could work.

Cleaning & Care work will be too physical.
Cleaning she would be hopeless at anyway - her dyspraxia means she doesn't see mess, and even if pointed out she seems incapable of knowing how to tidy it (believe me I've tried), plus she would spill the products etc.
We have also discounted café work, the carrying full trays and not dropping them etc.

This is all helpful, so I now have 3 areas:

• are we missing anything when it comes to searching / applying
• courses she could do to make her more employable
• random jobs that don't really require experience or special skills

My nephew's gf was in similar boat, she volunteered in a charity shop to get till work experience and went on to a good job in a major store.

M& S don’t ask about qualifications and experice

With a temping agency she would need to go in for an appointment, they would have a good chat to her about her skills/what she is willing to do and she would do some online tests in the office (my DS had to do some basic maths/English/typing speed etc) then they rang him when something suitable came up. He did some office work updating a database for a few weeks, then some warehouse work, then working on a production line. There are lots of things they can end up doing and it's all good for beefing up their cv.

Does her old high school use TAs? I know a couple of people who contacted their school and did some volunteer work which led to jobs.

froom She could in theory do TA at a primary, though I know they are like gold dust. It would be working with children too.
DD2 is still at the secondary and tbh I don't think DD1 would have the skills needed to work with teens.

green Good to know about M&S.

year Thanks for the info on temping, will definitely get her going on that.

ariela Well, we certainly have plenty of charity shops in town!

Just thought I'd update.

We followed @yearinyearout 's suggestion and found a local agency and sent her down to see them. They tested her, chatted, and sent her for an interview at a call centre where she has now been working reasonably happily for the past 5 weeks. Also much better pay than her apprenticeship with better management so far too.

Maybe she should do some volunteering in a shop to gain experience. To be honest if I was interviewing her alarm bells would be timing (ie the 7 months sick) I completely understand it was a genuine reason but if there's two people up for the job both with similar back grounds I'd probably employ the other person in case DD hurt her back again and had long term sickness. So if she was to get a bit of volunteering work say in a charity shop this would help improve the look of her cv in my opinion and would be a good source for me to ask example questions from

Just read your last comment

Fabulous news!!!
Well done!