Anyone else's grad+ kids struggling to find work

[NaturalBlondeYeahRight]

Maybe this is specific to London. DD went travelling recently after a year of working in a field she has decided is not for her. She has a 1st from RG in History, lots of work experience, very personable and bright but isn't even getting interview invites. Same with some of her friends.
She's temping and living in London right now. Her CV has been checked externally (but she's great at that side of things anyway). It's been 3 months now and nothing. Finds probably 2/3 jobs a week to apply to.

Yes, many of us. DD has got a first from an RG and got a temp job. She's hoping it will be extended. She got that after tons of rejections.

It's depressing to watch them all jump through hoops for the most basic jobs. Really, it's ridiculous the stuff she's been asked to do to get interviews: tests, discussions, interviews, sample essays....

Has she been applying to big grad schemes? Some want Science degrees and masters but there’s some where a Ba and no masters is fine, civil service for example. It’s the wrong time of year to apply to lots of them as they do recruitment a lot earlier for a September intake but she could research them in preparation for when they open usually in autumn.

Thanks for replies.
Her timing wasn't on for the grad schemes after getting back to uk but yes, she will for the new lot (if she's not too old already)
Glad to hear she's not the only one. And you are right about the effort - one application took her 6 hours and she barely got a reply. Another had a maths test that was incredibly difficult (I'd say they were after a maths grad but no mention of it in ad), she's good at maths but her mind was blown. The level of job/money that she's prepared to start at is not unreasonable at all.

It’s the wrong time of year to apply to lots of them as they do recruitment a lot earlier for a September intake

I agree with this. Completely the wrong time of year so any grad vacancies are going to be the occasional post where someone has dropped out - and the employer will therefore be even more selective about choosing their perfect candidate to avoid another dropout.

Spring is the worst time of year to be looking for grad schemes because there's almost nobody recruiting and very few spots with those who are.

Grad recruiting for next autumn is gearing up to launch vacancies and campaigns this summer from the biggest employers and this autumn from smaller employers. Some of the larger employers will allow you to subscribe for alerts when they launch. She needs to be ready to maximise this next recruiting season.

Is she targeting any particular field? (Or avoiding anything in particular?)

DD 1 ended up in an entry level government job as a receptionist for the department of justice (juvenile detention), after 12 months of applications for pretty much everything.
She wanted a policy position elsewhere.
That job lasted 9 months and the staff there were very supportive of her goals.
She got her current job because of this position. She now works as a policy officer for the department of housing.
Encourage your DC to look at other ways of achieving their objectives.

@atticstage she was in PR before travelling but found it didn't really suit her (I could have told her that beforehand but you know how it goes) She's an academic type and likes reading/writing/research/gov policy/ngo's) She'd love publishing but realises that's an incredibly difficult field to get into.
Doesn't like the idea of finance/insurance which is something that comes up a lot.
I'll remind her that the grad schemes are starting this summer and to prepare herself for them.
All I ever seem to see if I have a scan for her are jobs in recruitment- why are there so many?

@Weenurse Yes, I could see that happening and I don't think she'd mind going in that way. She's currently temping for a finance firm and they have already offered her the job but there is nothing for her to do- she literally mans the desk 5 days a week for about 1 guest a day and is slowly dying of boredom.

That jobs better than nothing and will look good on her cv, she should take it whilst looking for something else. If she likes policy/research she could look at the civil service fast stream Grad scheme.

All I ever seem to see if I have a scan for her are jobs in recruitment- why are there so many?

Because it's ruthless and they burn through people.

If she's not getting interviews then her CV/applications isn't right.

Lots of companies use automated sifting now which looks for keywords that match the job description/person spec. If she's not writing her CV in a way that's tailored to the role she's applying for then she will get sifted out.