Job hunting advice for a graduate with no confidence

herebeme

Some thoughts…

First a diagnosis is important, if he has a MHC, depending on what it is, there are charities that can provide job seeking support tailored to his needs. No diagnosis, no access to this. Also employers will need to know to make accommodations - otherwise he may well never get through probationary periods, his employers will get frustrated with what they see as procrastination and failure to deliver, and after a few rounds of that his confidence and employment chances will thin out even more. 

Is he applying for graduate entry schemes? Those are open to people that have had a small amount of experience not just recent leavers. Those don’t require a CV but bespoke forms. The schemes will be recruiting now. 

What about a retail job, even if not customer facing (warehouse, shelf-stacking). It shows employers you can get up and go to work. And if he works for a big company like say a supermarket he may then find it easier to get a foot in the door with their IT or development dept. 

Or perhaps several days a week volunteering, ideally with normal length work days (not an hour or 2 here or there). Some charities and non-profit orgs would appreciate IT/UX/coding etc help. If he has a particular type of charity he is interested in he could reach out and offer services - being very specific about what skills he has. It would give him experience in a larger company and working with someone that is not a friend. If he is good it may eventually lead to a paid job, or at least help him realise what type of work he does or does not want to do. 

There is no reason he can’t do the above and spend evenings or days off on job applications. 

My first interview question for him would be. “I see your job with FriendX ended in November. What have you been doing with your time since then?” Just “applying for jobs” is not an appealing candidate. For more appealing is “I volunteered to help charity X with setting up the IT supporting their new donor base and eCRM system, I learnt Xxx from this experience, with the rest of my time I stacked shelves at Asda to pay the rent here I learnt the importance of timekeeping and how important IT is to help employers manage workflow, I also learnt to dance salsa, and designed my own Xxx (IT related thing) that you can see by visiting myunique.url.com
On the other hand he may just be a massive procrastinator who will be unable to get or hold down the type of job you aspire him to. Some people are just not self motivated or organised enough and won’t take steps to remedy their behaviour. At which point you will need to reevaluate your aspirations for him. And he will need to decide if he is going to let that character trait dictate his life. 

Lorian

It's not surprising he doesn't know how to write a CV at 24 and it can be a little daunting when you don't have a long list of accomplishments to write about, so he may well.need help to write it. 

He's 24 with an IT degree,  look for local Helpesk Jobs as a way in to work without too many responsibilities and where it's OK to be himself (steer clear of courses/apprenticeships). In a Helpesk job the work is very task oriented, and gives a good grounding and is a good starting point to other better paying disciplines, but without too many responsibilities to start with.

CV can be a page long. Highlight the degree and some relevant experience.

Given the freedoms for IT people in the new liberated WFH era , I'd think he stands a good chance of landing something unless you live somewhere really remote.  There is a lot of demand for people at the moment.

The other possibly more lucrative start is to look for an internship, but that's a bit more of a stressy start possibly. Lots of shortages for people in data science and security roles.

Savvy_Sue

He should still be able to get help from his previous university's careers dept, both with finishing his cv and job vacancies in his area. If his uni is distant, he can also sign up to hear vacancies from any local universities. 

If it's any comfort, I expected DS1 to struggle with the world of work, for many of the reasons you give for your son. He got work through a uni friend, but after a few years and several reductions in hours, he jacked it all in to indulge in his passion. And travel. Obviously travel dropped off his radar, but he was by then in a position to buy a flat. I remain astounded ...

Sapindus

Thanks for all your comments - really helpful, much more than I expected. In answer to who is paying for his driving lessons, he is.  His logic is that he's come too far to give up now, but equally every time he comes back from a lesson and has made a mistake, he believes he's not ready for the test yet.  Curiously, the more driving he does the worse he generally becomes, because he has more time to worry about all the things that could go wrong.  His best drives have been when he's had a massive break from them, and the day after he had had a big crisis at work he'd had to sort out and was really not in the mood for a driving lesson - his instructor commented it was the most confident drive he'd seen from him in a long time!

I'm aware that autism is a spectrum not a scale - someone can function really well in some aspects but have big problems in others.  Also that it's not the only type of neurodivergence.  The wording about "being just plain weird" is his.  He'd like to have an explanation and help, but is scared he will just be told it's somehow "his fault" and there's no help for him.

He did apply for an entry level job in the civil service yesterday but may have shot himself in the foot by coming over all funny about being contacted by mobile...

GiantTCR

Savvy_Sue said:

He should still be able to get help from his previous university's careers dept, both with finishing his cv and job vacancies in his area. 

Yeah that's never going to happen. As soon as they're done grabbing your money, you're well forgotten. Universities barely care about students, don't care at all about alumni.

Savvy_Sue

GiantTCR said:

Savvy_Sue said:

He should still be able to get help from his previous university's careers dept, both with finishing his cv and job vacancies in his area. 

Yeah that's never going to happen. As soon as they're done grabbing your money, you're well forgotten. Universities barely care about students, don't care at all about alumni.

I'm sorry if that's your experience. I've just been clicking around the Careers Service page of our local Uni and there are various useful links there, if nothing else. 

Doshwaster

For a new graduate it is important that they are doing something - anything - rather than sitting at home. You never know what a temporary job will lead to in terms of contacts and doors opened, any job will help with transferrable skills, experience and confidence plus future employers will want to see that the applicant is prepared to get stuck in. Un explained gaps in a CV can be very damaging. 

There is still plenty of time for him. Many new graduates take a few years of temping and doing odd jobs until they find out what they really want to do with their life. I didn't get my first "proper" graduate job until I was 27 after a few years of doing postgrad courses, temporary jobs and the inevitable stint working on a call centre.

Emmia

GiantTCR said:

Savvy_Sue said:

He should still be able to get help from his previous university's careers dept, both with finishing his cv and job vacancies in his area. 

Yeah that's never going to happen. As soon as they're done grabbing your money, you're well forgotten. Universities barely care about students, don't care at all about alumni.

Over 20 years ago, and only months after graduation, still with a huge overdraft and a minimum wage job... my alma mater hounded me with calls begging for me to consider supporting them with a minimum £100 monthly "donation" to support students from poorer backgrounds - I only got shot of the calls by changing my mobile number. 

I repeatedly pointed out that as a very recent graduate I was unlikely to be a good source of funds... to little avail

Doshwaster

Emmia said:

GiantTCR said:

Savvy_Sue said:

He should still be able to get help from his previous university's careers dept, both with finishing his cv and job vacancies in his area. 

Yeah that's never going to happen. As soon as they're done grabbing your money, you're well forgotten. Universities barely care about students, don't care at all about alumni.

Over 20 years ago, and only months after graduation, still with a huge overdraft and a minimum wage job... my alma mater hounded me with calls begging for me to consider supporting them with a minimum £100 monthly "donation" to support students from poorer backgrounds - I only got shot of the calls by changing my mobile number. 

I repeatedly pointed out that as a very recent graduate I was unlikely to be a good source of funds... to little avail

I still get those calls now and it is quite depressing to be called by students who weren't born when I was there. 

Savvy_Sue

https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/

No idea how much help this would be, but has potential to help him decide where he'd like to try