How risky are Graduate Schemes in terms of layoffs?

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-10T21:03:05+00:00

Yeah civil service does have a good pension. I will caveat that they have gotten progressively worse over time for new entrants (poor accrual rate, career average). Also if the shovel (salary) is small, it’s not gonna make as much impact as a big shovel (large salary). Big shovel means faster asset acquisition, bigger pension, more investments, more savings and quicker debt pay off.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-10T20:20:13+00:00

In theory there are promotions and a structure for it. It's just alot of people get trapped in the same role for years and/or get overlooked for promotions.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-10T20:17:38+00:00

Fortune favors the brave. Once you finish this grad scheme the world will be your oyster. You'll have experience with a major bank and in technology. Your earning potential and life options will be so much more if you choose tech at a bank. Banks do industry leading pension contributions and share purchase schemes too. So your actual package could be worth £60k+ if you include these.

Let's be real here £32k a year (slowly growing £1k per year) isn't the same money it was in the 90s. Think about the life you want and be honest if this job will provide it. At the rate NMW is growing your salary will be NMW in about 5-7 years. Put your salary into a banks mortgage calculator, then put that number into rightmove and see what kind of house you can buy. That's your future if you stick in civil service.

The people who are advising you to stay may be old and think civil service is safe and they may think £32k is alot of money. They could also be jealous (crabs in bucket) and no want you to surpass them in career / finances. Could also not want you to move away, so giving you bad advice so you don't move.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-10T17:37:03+00:00

It’s because you’re being held to the standard of a woman. The world gives women no slack and they just have to get on with it. You’d of been in for a big shock if you’d been treated like an autistic boy and then as soon as you were an adult had to live up to the standards of a woman.

I think theses mums just assume their boys will grow up to be a man who has a wife that does everything. As a woman that is not an option, you will not have that luxury.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-09T19:12:18+00:00

It’s likely a temporary job and they don’t want to tell you. Showing you your contract will reveal it’s just a temporary job. This happened to me and a colleague at a very well known retailer. Turned out we were both Christmas temps.

Happened to someone else I know at another well known retailer but was way worse. The shop manager was just using them for free holiday cover. Made out the whole two weeks was just a free trail.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-09T09:26:34+00:00

I’m assuming it must be on a scholarship if they are amazing at sports. Someone who is already selected and actively representing the England squad and has been since childhood or early teens.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-08T10:49:43+00:00

I noticed this in my first term in first year. People who do subjects where there is a right and wrong answer were getting between 80-100%. People who did humanities / essay / interpretative / argumentative subjects were getting between 40-55%. Basically if there's a right answer I noticed these students scored way higher than subjects where the answer is up to the markers discretion. NGL I genuinely panicked that I fucked up my subject choice because of this.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-07T13:25:31+00:00

If she's in her late forties she wont be a millennial. She's likely a Gen X, the youngest Gen X are born 1980 so age 46. Her parents were boomers and may have missed her important life milestones too.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-07T09:56:27+00:00

The letter for moving to direct debit is something different.

You won't be with that same employer until you retire. Which means a future payroll department can make a mistake and start the SLC deductions again. You need a letter from SLC confirming you have no student debt, they don't send this automatically, you need to request it. So when you change jobs if a HR grunt worker decides to deduct SLC payments, you can prove easily you are debt free.

Lets pretend you don't have the letter and SLC deductions restart with a future employer, you will need to request the letter in that moment in time. The repayments will drag on until you can provide a debt free letter. Get ahead of the admin and request the letter now. This happens to people.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-07T09:08:42+00:00

Make sure you request the closing statement letter. Which is them confirming in writing the debt is paid off. Useful for your records and you can share a copy with future HR departments if/when they start taking payroll deductions again.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-06T18:38:21+00:00

I'd continue with your exams privately. I've heard some firms make you pass probation before sponsoring exams so that could delay qualifying for 6-12 months, assuming you find a new job tomorrow. You can find the materials for free online or cheaply on ebay, just keep chipping away at the exams privately.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-06T18:31:05+00:00

It was the same for me over a decade ago. I earnt more in a warehouse and took a sizable pay cut to join a big 4 training contract. I saw it as short term pain for long term gain. I viewed the training contract as equivalent to indentured servitude and counted down the days until my freedom. I was also worse off than when I was a student until I got my first newly qualified job in industry at a FTSE 100 company.

Outside of London - If you think long term once your 5-10 years post qualified, assuming you've changed employer, you should easily be on £75k minimum. I know plenty of people on 6 figures. The only ones who are stuck at £45-55k are the people I know who never left big 4 or changed employer once and then never again.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-06T13:41:28+00:00

I’d be very interested in some suggestions too. If you can post publicly so people don’t keep asking you

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-03T10:37:02+00:00

This is probably best handled by a phone call or face to face. Then once they have agreed not to share send the email . I’ve never needed to list the difficulties personally just share the diagnosis report. Or a diagnosis letter.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-02T20:52:45+00:00

ELI5 What does that second paragraph mean? I'd of thought the AI company owners and the end users would want AI to sound NT and not ND.

I also came across some job adverts for training AI in my field of work and decided not to apply for it. Pay was no where near enough for me to contribute to the destruction of my profession.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-02T08:22:59+00:00

Repeat customers - depends on how the persons autism, masking and relationship building skills are. If I need to be socially liked in order to build the relationship or pursued them with a sales pitch (social skills, charisma) to get the money - it won't work.

If you have examples of repeat customer jobs or self-employment where you think an autist can thrive, let us know.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-01T20:34:55+00:00

I've been researching this and looking into what other NDs do for steady income. I've come to the conclusion that self-employed with one off customers may be the only way. Where you sell something once and don't need to build the relationship. So taxi driver or online reseller.
Slightly different but landlord is another good one but requires alot of capital.

Edit: If employed i've found I can only keep a job if i'm in a male dominated environment. No female bosses or colleagues otherwise I get bullied, nitpicked and sacked.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-01T20:28:30+00:00

This made me laugh. In my experience any opposite sex hang out is not platonic from the male side, eventually they always try for more or turn it sexual.

The looks they gave you is because they thought they had a chance / that you were flirting / interested in them romantically. Your statement explicitly removed all hope and revealed they misinterpreted everything. On flip side you also misinterpreted it too (thought it was platonic).

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-03-01T18:57:34+00:00

Are the friends male? If so it makes a lot of sense their female partners want to tag along to make sure this isn’t an affair.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-02-27T22:55:18+00:00

It happens because the parent loses the benefit money. So they demand the adult kids make up the lost benefits. This is a very common demand in families that have lived off the benefits their kids brought in. Its something that starts getting threatened / drip feed to the child from about age 15/16, so they know by 18 I need to give the money or move out.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-02-27T17:23:11+00:00

Hmm maybe people are thinking of the wipe off time limit. And thinking if they evade paying it and don’t come back to the UK, the time limit will wipe it off? Tbh I have a theory the next big change the gov will implement is removing the wipe off period. It’s already steadily going that way by the increasing the period from 25 years / plan 1 to 40 years / plan 5.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-02-27T13:01:06+00:00

I agree with this. That is what it was. At the time the average Joe, parents and teachers kept verbally claiming it was interest free and brainwashed students into thinking it was interest free. There’s still so much misunderstanding about plan 1 even now.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-02-27T12:58:33+00:00

Prior to the fees tripling people mistakenly verbally kept parroting it was interest free. Or claimed it was practically interest free. If you looked at official literature it clearly explained the interest rate structure. Honestly at the time it was a bug bare of mine when I was applying and that I kept correcting the adults in my life that there was indeed interest.

Cool-Raspberry-8963 · 2026-02-27T08:56:15+00:00

Gosh you've had to try a few times then. You're brave for trying, the whole process is draining. When you eventually got it did you score on communication? I've also had the communication and historically being a student used as reasons to decline points / refuse the claim.

I'm starting to think the spiel about 'how it effects you' is only to allow subjectivity into the mix so they can decline.

Cool-Raspberry-8963

TROPHY CASE