Help! Moving in with in-laws, need survival tips

Dreaming_debtfree_dreams

Thanks everyone for your messages.

It was sort of both parties idea. It had been suggested previously when OH was considering going back to uni to retrain but the course he wanted to do wasn't available at Brookes. So I did have this in mind when thinking where to apply to, and then the in-laws suggested it.

I definately intend to cook for them at least once a week and help with housework. FIL's unable to do any cooking and limited cleaning so MIL's does most things and I think she'd be happy to let us take some of the strain for her. We also tend to go out for walks and day trips when we visit as FIL's not always able to.

I think my main concern is annoying them, I'm not planning to become a mad party animal (did all that the first time around), but I just know I'm going to end up waking them up if I come home late than 10:30pm, especially if I'm squiffy :beer:

Oh well, I guess we'll just have to sit down and have a good chat about how we tell each other when things have bothered us and hope for the best.

Dreaming_debtfree_dreams

Dinah93 wrote: »

On a different note I worked 3 days a week in a planning office while training, voluntarily at the start until they found some funding for me. Up until about 5 years ago there was a shortage of planners (oddly enough I think they still offer the RTPI bursary on these grounds, and yet their magazine is crying out at the lack of jobs every week!), however by the time I finished in 2007 there were 2 planning graduates for every job, now hiring has almost frozen and the most recent number I heard was 5 to 1. Several private firms have gone bust, most have laid off people. My best friend with 2 years experience was made redundant in feb, she's insanely bright and eager, and it still took until June for her to get a job (she was even passed over for a maternity cover planning assistant job on 14k because a recently redundant consultant with 18 years experience went for it too!). I'm not trying to scare you off the course, but what I am trying to do is make you aware of what a difficult sector it is to get into. If you don't graduate with significant experience you could find yourself on a checkout in Asda (as another friend of mine did for 17 months after she graduated in planning). It is a very varied career, and there are some good opertunities for progression but you NEED to take a hit in terms of free time and social life now, get as much experience in as you can so that you stand a chance of getting a job at the end of it.

Dinah, thanks for your reply, it's certainly given me something to think about.

Did you do the 1 year or 2 year Masters? Luckily, I've been offered a bursary and with staying with the in laws should mean I get through debt free but I am worried about having time for volunteering as I'm doing the 12mth Masters and it's supposed to be very intensive, 60hrs per week study time in all. But I do get something daft like 5-6 wks off at Xmas so was thinking of getting work experience then.

The other thing is I could be tied to a particular region due to OH's work commitments for 2 years afterwards and planner jobs don't come up that often round here so I've prepared myself for working part-time and getting more work experience after graduating so I don't lose my skills whilst job hunting. I realize getting a job's gonna be hard given the recession and there might be too many planners now, but the reason they're still funding bursary places is because about 50% of planner's are over 50 and will be looking at retiring in the next 10 years.

Dinah93

I did the 1 year MSc also but at Newcastle, yes, it is intensive, I basically gave up all my social life and hobbies for a year, which was draining but a year isn't a long time. I wouldn't say its 60 hours a week every week, I basically treated the course as a full time job, doing uni work 2 days a week, going to work 3 days, then spending both weekend days and at least 2 evenings a week studying. I did a second planning job with a private firm in the Christmas break as well.

Please, please don't think I'm trying to scare you, but of my group of 12 friends the only 3 of us who got a job at the end of it were the 3 who had been working part time throughout the course. It's now 2 years since I finished the taught element, about 20 months since I got the final certificate, and of those 12 5 of them still haven't found a job in planning, 1 has gone on to do another MSc to try to get a job in another field as she got sick of pizza hut where she had been a part-time student type job for 5 years!

What region are you in? Planning Resource (google them) are a great place to keep an eye out for jobs, my personal barometer of the market is how thick the jobs section is at the back of planning magazine. Used to be over 30 pages, now down to about 8 and most of those are ads! Every region obviously has a council, which is where the best starting salaries are. I always thought I would be a private planner, but I got two job offers one at 14k and one at 16.5k and I laughed, and took a full time position in the council where I was doing work experience on 27k! I've actually grown to really love it, I specalise in listed buildings now which is fascinating. One thing to be aware of is that there is still a shortage of urban designers and conservation officers (conservation is VERY much still an old mans game, went on a conference last year, 128 delegates, 12 of whom were women, and I think there were maybe at most 10 under 30s there).

Are you going to be in a city? Rural authorities find it harder to fill their jobs than cities. A 'undesirable' rural authority might still have to advertise a few times to get a suitable candidate. I commute 50mins each way to my job, I've been waiting for something to come up closer to home but so far nothing.

I was at an RTPI law course less than two months ago where one of the talks was on reskilling as planning officers to tackle the glut we currently have, basically we'd make good project managers as these are skills picked up through planning. As your course is paid for you're not loosing anything by doing it obviously, and an MSc isn't exactly going to hinder you no matter what, but EVERYONE has a few weeks or a summer internship work experience, if you want to get ahead of the game and get a job you really need to show you've put yourself out and gone the extra mile.

Dreaming_debtfree_dreams

I'm likely to be living in the East Midlands when I finish, there's been a few things come up but not a huge amount of jobs. I am prepared for the fact that it's going to be hard when I finish. I'm likely to be living in a city but have a car so I can commute easily if I need to. Also have experience in social housing and debt advice to fall back on should I struggle to find something in planning straight away.

After reading your advice I've contacted Oxford City Council about doing 1-2 days work experience whilst on the course. I can't commit to 3 days, my OH would kill me as the job I have now has meant my work/life balance has been extremely skewed towards work for the last 2 years. Plus, It's been more my idea to move in with his parents, I think if I did as much work experience with study as you did, I would probably find myself single by the end of the course.

For the course at Brookes you have to pick your specialism in week 0 as your first lecture's in your specialist subject, which would very daunting if you didn't have a clear idea of what you want to do. I got interested in town planning from an environmental point of view so I'm intending to specialise in environmental planning. I'm hoping it will be in demand due to the need for environmental impact assessements to be carried out.