Ever get that helpless feeling when it comes to your children?

[Yanto]

I desperately want to help my two sons.

 

youngest lad graduated in the summer with a decent degree, can he get a job - no!

 

Eldest lad has just phoned me to say that because he had heat stroke in summer 2012 ( he was rather ill with failing organs) that the Army have decided he is unfit for service so will be booted out next year after 6 months resettlement training.

 

They are both intelligent, tall, fit and good looking (they got the last one from me  ) but i just fear that life is kicking them in the crotch and there is nothing I can do, and very little they can do!

 

I'm just getting this off my chest and wondered if any other fathers feel the same way?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[s2rrr]

Keep smiling mate, thinks could be worse. So just do the fatherly bit and support them as necessary as we all have to. Something is bound to turn up or maybe a complete change of tack may be required, enjoy Christmas with the family and march on when you need to. Unfortunately us older peeps had a better run at work than todays kids and whilst the majority have degrees there is no work to be had anywhere.

 

Good luck and hope everything works out well for you all.

 

Bob

[SootySport]

I have 2 daughters that had setbacks on the jobs front and they are both in their early twenties.   Takes a little time to find their feet again, but they will.  Opportunities won't come in the way they first thought, so don't be surprised if they both find careers you thought they would not be involved in. 

They are both at an age you can't tell them what to do, so just have some faith in them and they'll sort them selves out.  One daughter took 6months to find work and the other 1 year, not a quick process but they are OK now.

[Cleggy the Spyder Man]

tall, fit and good looking, like their Dad

 

hope they get sorted m8

[Lyonspride]

I desperately want to help my two sons.

 

youngest lad graduated in the summer with a decent degree, can he get a job - no!

 

Eldest lad has just phoned me to say that because he had heat stroke in summer 2012 ( he was rather ill with failing organs) that the Army have decided he is unfit for service so will be booted out next year after 6 months resettlement training.

 

They are both intelligent, tall, fit and good looking (they got the last one from me  ) but i just fear that life is kicking them in the crotch and there is nothing I can do, and very little they can do!

 

I'm just getting this off my chest and wondered if any other fathers feel the same way?

 

Youngest may be suffering from the same thing a lot of students have, which is trouble integrating into real life and an unwillingness to "work up from the bottom", their expectations are often too high. They either take the easy route and stay in uni until they're in their late 30's,  bite the bullet and start from the ground level like everyone else OR get a break from a friend of the family. IMO Some dirty hands on work experience really brings them back down to earth with enough of a bump to set them on the right path.

Right now, just down the road there's a uni grad (the one I spoke to) wearing cardboard domino pizza signs, wearing a santa mask and waving at traffic in the freezing cold for 8 hours a day. It's funny, but at the same time fair play to the guy.

 

Your eldest, coming from an armed forces background will experience some discrimination on political correctness grounds, but he'll have that grit and determination to keep moving forward.

[Cleggy the Spyder Man]

in my experience ex forces folk make very good staff

[Lyonspride]

in my experience ex forces folk make very good staff

 

Absolutely!

[alexander72]

Yanto,

 

I am recruiting in the new year.  Need machine operators, cutters  and climbers - training given.  Can earn good money on piece work if fit and strong.  

 

Suits ex forces types.

 

my number is in my profile if interested. 

 

How good looking are they? Might influence my decision 

[M444TTB]

To generalise I'd agree on the expectations of graduates. They seem to have moved up in the decade or so since my peers graduated. I see the same with our graduate scheme members too. They all expect to be a level or two higher at the end of their scheme than those completing the scheme 5+ years ago.

[s2rrr]

I've seen the academic requirements go from Technicians Cert to HNC to Degree to Masters over the last 20 years. Its all relative but the comment regarding uni students being a little lacking in drive is a fair comment as they have no need or inducement to perform unless they see a position which they really want and they are few and far between. Maybe institutionalised or just wasted by too much beer. Excellent offer from James but a bit suspicious about requiring good looking lads, what bush pruning is he doing.

 

In all seriousness it is tough for the yoof and even tougher when they want to buy a house. But somehow we all survived. There is always light at the end of the tunnel but sometimes some b*gger switches it off.

 

Good luck

 

Bob

[Wile E. Coyote]

I've seen the academic requirements go from Technicians Cert to HNC to Degree to Masters over the last 20 years.

 

How much of that do you think is down to the way the number of people getting degrees increased?

 

I know when I last got lumbered with filtering through CVs / applications for entry level roles it was quickly apparent that you couldn't use "has a degree" as a differentiator.  Obviously it varies by sector but, given that attention to detail was one of the things we were looking for, the sheer number of applications to sift through meant that CVs ended up in the reject pile as soon as the first typo was encountered... no matter how good the rest of the application.

 

Yanto, has your youngest lad taken to LinkedIn to find alumni from his uni working in the sectors he's interested in?  Whenever I've been politely contacted by current students/recent grads I've always been happy to have a chat to them about what I do and - if they seem to have the right brain/attitude/genuine interest in the sector - help them along a bit.

 

Hate to say it, but in a lot of sectors, various people are capable of getting an application directly into the "right" pile.  It isn't necessarily about who you know already but who you can *get* to know.  Looking back, I wish I'd known this at 21!

 

As has been said already, wouldn't worry too much about your eldest.  Lots of employers look favourably on time spent in the forces.

[jim_l]

Graduate work is very much a supply and demand thing, if he has a degree and can't get work that will be because there are more graduates in the field than required and industry can pick and choose, or the degree is not very vocationally specific.  He needs to:

 

a) Research - see if with further education or training he can adapt his degree to something he would like to do for a living that there is demand for.

b) Do some work, voluntary or otherwise, or do something that distinguishes him from the thousands of other degee educated unemployed.

 

Two people in front of me after the same job, one watching tv waiting for the job to fall in the lap, the other actively seeking and refining skills and knowledge in pursuit of work....

 

As others have said son B should have less of a problem, plenty of industries seeking strong fit people with the kind of self discipline and confidence the army engenders.  Some good job groups too, oil rigs,power plants,  manufacturing,

 

Isn't if funny -  a mad drive to achieve a '50% of our school leavers go to uni' with no active matching of uni courses with commercial,industrial or academic demand.  Guy with a couple of years in the army has a better chance.