‘My wonderful son wants a job in film, but would consider working for TV’

was amazed to get a letter saying: ‘My wonderful son, Jimmy, 24, is looking for a job in the summer, preferably in the film industry, although he would consider working for a TV production company or an investment bank.’

The CEO wondered who this pushy parent was and how come their adult son was happy for his mother or father to be advertising so brazenly his astonishing sense of entitlement? She threw the letter in the bin.

If helicopter parenting is rife, nowhere is it more in-your-face than in jobseeking. In fact, so bad has the phenomenon become that, a few days ago, another employer I know was forced to send out a plea.

He diplomatically said applications ‘are so much better written by the applicants themselves’ and added by drafting their own, which anyone should, it would save their parents a lot of bother. Only youngsters who do it themselves need apply.