Mummy in the foothills

My Poor student son has been applying for summer internship jobs in the financial world. Turns out there's not much available within commute distance of the middle of nowhere. Poor kid (not really he's 20 almost 21)
He has one last application going in this week, with some stock trading company or other, plus it's finals week, I think he's stressed just a little.
If he hasn't found anything by June I'll buy him a ticket and drag him off to UK for the summer with us.
He was leaning more towards Business accounting departments but that's not working so he's applying to all sorts.
Any tips from the business types here on the board? What to say/not to say during interviews. the only jobs he's ever had were Longs drugs and the Uni grocery store as the evening manager.

md95065

To be honest, I think it's really hard to find jobs in the financial sector *anywhere* right now and I imagine that internships are also pretty scarce.

MsElui

when i graduated Uni in 1993 there was a large downturn in graduate jobs available of any kind. Everyone therefore applied for anything. I managed to land a place on the M&S managment scheme but i was the only one in my class who had a job secured when we left. He may have to accept ANY internship in this climate.

I stayed with M&S for 3 years. NEVER want to work for them again - or even do retail again if I can help it. BUT I learnt a lot, and it has stood me in good dtead in my other varied careers since.

lisa67

Tough times unfortunately. IMO instead of dragging him off to the UK with you this summer wouldn't it look better on his CV/resume if he did some volunteer work through the summer...it would show future potential employers that he took it upon himself to do "something" rather than have an extended holiday ...like I said, just my opinion

Deedee13

trouble with this is can he AFFORD TO do volunteer work. Getting to and from paying for gas, lunches etc. We sat down and worked out when hubby retires at 55 (someone please send me truck loads of valium) how much he will be saving just not going to work. $600 just on gas a month!!! he breakfast and lunches coz there is no donut shop in flint anymore schucks. Made me sit up and take account of how much money u need just to work in the first bloody place.

lisa67

fair point. Perhaps his Mum can give him the money she was going to spend on his flight to the uk to help out ?

Mummy in the foothills

Yeah that is a problem. We are an hour from anything here. So gas money is a big deal. It's one reason I haven't done home health nursing in a while, the reimbursement for mileage couldn't keep up with the miles I was doing so I cut my hours and my district down.
Much as I'd rather he take an unpaid volunteer internship this summer we couldn't afford to pay gas and lunches, but taking him to UK also costs money.
We do have a retired friend in UK who was in the Internal revenue, I wonder if she could get him an unpaid couple of weeks shadowing someone, just to see what it's like there. He can get the bus to town and I'll send him a sarnie for lunch
Well a couple weeks to try till I get him a ticket.
He's seen one last trading company an hour from us that does two semester internships, 15 hrs a week during term time. It's 5 minutes drive from the college dorms, so fingers crossed.

Rete

I have to agree with MD on that. It is difficult here in Manhattan, which is one of many financial centers. Perhaps he needs to look in a more cosmopolitan city in the outer limits of your state or in Virginia, itself. Should not be an issue with finding an apartment with a short term lease for the summer months. Even those are going begging these days.

Jerseygirl

That was my reaction when my daughter spent the whole of summer 07 and 4 months last year doing unpaid voluntary work. My husband however looked at the broader picture.

Just before she graduated business school last year she was headhunted and was the first in her class to get a job...only a few are working 9 months later. What impressed her employers? One of the main factors was that she had the work ethic to work for two 4 month periods without being paid.

md95065

Indeed - good training for the modern workplace ...

Jerseygirl

Yep...turning up before 9 every morning...working until after 5 each night...Monday to Friday...unpaid instead of enjoying the long hot summer months certainly seemed to impress prospective employers.

Bob

If he's willing to move out, perhaps with some friends, he might have more chance...there's a few going around here but unpaid donkey work means he'll need a good wedge of cash to survive...

Edit: to add...got a mate in Jamaica Plain splitting the rent with a few folks, without utilities it's $2300 a month...and it's a dossy apartment in the shit end of town, but the plus, it's a two min walk to the Orange line, 10 mins away from Boylston St and downtown. When it's not shit out, he skates it to save money as it's $2 a trip on the T...but he's doing a internship at a music place and working at a Apple store in between. He's mentioned a lot of internships going, it's seen as free slave labour and there's massive competition for it to get a foot in the door.

Bob

9-5? I'd kill for a slackers day like that

Jerseygirl

I know looking after kids is no part time job is it?

Mummy in the foothills

What kind of work did she do Jerseygirl?
I'm going to have him look again at the unpaid internships and see what comes up. The Uni has a pretty good job site and careers center that help them a lot.
Nice thought there Bob, Thanks, but $2300 a month (by the time you add food/utilities and transport it's be about $2500 or more), is almost as much as my poor Dh earns in a month Us being poor folks with no degrees of our own, thank goodness for scholarships and cal grants or he wouldn't be getting any further education at all. Good job he keeps up all those A's he's doing us proud
Home for the summer he could eat for very little, I'm a super thrifty shopper and feed all 5 of us on pretty much nothing.
Flying to UK for the summer, was going to cost me an extra $1000. My saintly mother will feed us, and we will spend time at the beach and the zoo etc and a few days at the relatives in Barcelona thanks to easyjet cheap flights. I'll stretch out the bit of spending money to cover food at Mums and Spain. We are bare bones kinda family, but we have a lot of fun.
It's be ideal if he got the trading company job in September and came with us to UK, and got some sort of shadowing experience in UK.
Fingers crossed it all falls into place and the flights don't go up any more.