My degree educated daughter finding it impossible

[mnk303]

My daughter like many I am sure who is nearly 23 with a degree in psychology (2-1) and who has an amazing job ethic always working in bars or restaurants to earn money to live, is finding it impossible after spending every waking hour on the web calling and networking , nothing , 160 applications, some taking 2-3 days to answer fully the application and only one reply of declining.

I really feel for her, She has even registered on temp agency books to try and find away in to a job, but again no work. She done loads of intern experience free of charge for no salary.

Ok I hear you say "what does she want to do "
Answer something, social services, law assistant, HR, admin support , prison services, police services, quite broad but working where she can meet people and have a career.

Her problem , is she has learnt having a degree s not a ticket to a job,
She thought a degree would help, but the recruiting businesses get 100's of degree applicants for even basic jobs and set recruiting filters so that even GCSE's are relevant.

All she keeps getting offered is telesales in recruitment , and the opportunity to go back and do a masters or a PhD, which is really last resort.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received. I am 53, no degree night school educated and I found in my younger days jobs were there if you had the right attitude now how do these young people do it even with the right attitude, I suppose there is just too few jobs and this recession is here for a long time.

Edited by mnk303 on Wednesday 29th August 04:11

[mnk303]

Thank you all so much, I am with respect letting my daughter read your support and if I may will ask her to pm any of you if she can see that you may be able to advise .

Thank you

Martin

[mnk303]

rhinochopig said:

There are lots of jobs for Psych grads at the moment but... A few questions:

• Where's the degree from? If it a good uni? CANTERBURY
• Is it a BSc. or a BA? BAs are the poor relation. BSC
• Did she do a lot of stats? If she did this is good, a lot of Psych grads end up in finance / banking because of their maths skills. YES SHE FOUND THAT QUITE HARD
• Can she do pysch testing - did she get her lvl A, etc when on her degree? If she did this is good and will help find a job. NOT SURE WILL CHECK

[mnk303]

[quote=iphonedyou]

OP, is your daughter willing to move at all? Obviously if she's still at home that would be salary dependent, but it could help if she doesn't rule the idea out altogether.

quote]

Yes of course for the right position,

[mnk303]

Thank you everyone been some fantastic advice , she is at least able to stand outside the box and see some issues with her cv.

Edited by mnk303 on Thursday 30th August 01:48

[mnk303]

Thank you, your comments and support is helpful and she is reading them, a little update for you all,

She has taken on board that a cv with a photo does not help especially if you are very attractive as she is.
She has visited about 20 temp agencies in Sussex and Surrey with sadly no jobs, ( or they don't for her skill set)
She has removed much of the bar and restaurant work experience and added more office short term non paid work she has done.
She has applied for some temp police work ( a bit like a paid interm)

Some of you have pm me and I have passed on this to her and she is responding to your comments on her cv, thank you.

Sadly it's still a very grinding up hill task and so far being hit by negatitives all the way, rem some of these jobs take a whole day to complete just an application.

Sadly she has missed the chance of going back to do a msc or phd ( and I am not 100% sure she still wants to ) Unless no choice and it would be a years time anyway.

To pat her on the back she worked all the way through uni and managed to support herself without a loan all the way for 3 years while still getting a 2-1 , I of course paid her fees .

She is applying to do some volunteering work, but of course this has to work round applications.

I have seen her cry most days, she feels useless and very unworthy and I have to say very draining on my wife and I.
So plan tomorrow visit Brighton temp places and see if there is any office work,

The biggest problem and I am embarrassed to say is that she still does not know what she would love to do! ( and we tried to bring each of our kids up to work out a plan before they left school). I think its boiling slowly down to some form of legal, prison service, police, civil service type industry work.

However saying all this she realises she must get some office admin work to at least get life work place experience. Bar and restaurant work does your cv no good at all.

Once again thank you, she also now really understands that having a degree is no right to a job. Too many youngsters think it is !

Edited by mnk303 on Thursday 30th August 20:36

[mnk303]

Again thank you all, I must says it proves us car geeks are just "normal " people with the same problems of trying to be a good dad, I am just standing by her, trying to say the right things and doing the rights things and not tripping over my big mouth.

I am listening in too all the comments and not one has been incorrect,

NB:1 Just a note though for others reading this to be a Praticing Psychologist you have to have a PhD these days they moved the bar about 5 years ago and to be honest I think my daughter did this degree as it was respected as a the 4th science being a BSc


NB:2 Many of you are correct it seems now unless you have like my son a degree from one of the top 5 or 10 Uni's the degree is not that special, he got a 2-1 from Warwick in Medical Biology and that got him in to several high paid teaching jobs

[mnk303]

Odie said:

Degree's imho are a pointless waste of money.

She needs to start at the bottom and work her way up.

Show initiative, if she doesnt have a job at all she needs to do charity work or something perhaps run a project for them or find a need within the charity and do something about it.

Valuable experience = everything

Edited by Odie on Tuesday 4th September 14:18

Ok let me answer this as its a statement is without knowledge , my god boys ask before you make a statement please!

1 she has worked from tha age of 15 in bars! Cafes and restaurants, or cleaning
2 she never asks for money from her parents
3 she buys her owns cars and all but her bed at the family home she pays for,
4 she cleans the toilets at the local restaurant where she works and don't moan,
5 she works at present in Aldershot as a temp travels 60 mie round trip leave at 6.45 get home at 18.00 then goes to her evening work at 19.00 till 23.30

I think if anyone is willing to work from the bottom she is the one .

She has now been offered some term work in two big businesses " at the bottom of the food chain with a possibility of maybe a full time job if she shows the right attitude"

So bottom line she knows where the bottom is, she is at it!

[mnk303]

Condi said:

Or maybe its the fault of the employers who wont consider people unless they have a degree?

One of the most valid points made here, it's some of you people here that set the standard and IMO a degree is not a licence for a job. Too many teachers, parents, kids, employers, and society feel no degree you are worthless, yet the economy is built by the majority without degrees and by those who like me attended night school for 7 years while working and feeding the family.

Bring back apprenticeships, bring back the poly and bring back on the job training .

[mnk303]

crazy about cars said:

There's plenty of apprenticeships out there but we find most graduates expect 25k+ starting salaries these days...

Where , what industry, I could not research any, is 18k too much to expect starting salary? Maybe ?

[mnk303]

Update for you all, she has had a few buyer internships M and S excellent and very kind towards her, the white company also, she finally was offered a job in sales support leading to an account trainee, in wine sales, not commision based fixed income, with lots of training courses. The company seem very fair and proactive in training. Bottom line IMO it's a sales position and I really doubt you need any degree for this, you need a good confident manner, good speech, excellent comms skills and a knowledge of the product you are selling.

I am sure her degree may come into use, but my point is for this position I don't think you need it. I felt at the end she was leaning towards buying , but she needed a language in the wine industry.

I personally feel sales people will always find work all businesses need sales staff and its the fastest way to make money if you are good.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart most of you we're positive and supportive, I had secretly hoped they may of been some jobs on the forum but its hard out there and most of us have helped family or mates into what jobs we knew of.

Thank you Martin

Edited by mnk303 on Sunday 30th September 22:07

[mnk303]

BlackVanDyke said:

What part of the country is she in?

Near gatwick is where the job is , home is Horsham West Sussex