Oxbridge graduates in unemployment

wow :O i did not expect every single oxbridge to find employment immediately after graduation,but did not expect so many to fail in this aswell!
my neighbour has been an oxford student for about a month now - perhaps if i was to organise for her some thing to do for working experience at my place of work during christmas,easter + summer breaks she might have better prospects come graduation.......

My big boss also tends to hold that view, in fact if it is up to him he won't even interview oxbridge grads simply because he has the perception that :-

i) They tend to have bad attitudes. Actually this perception came about previously when they used to favour Oxbridge grads but usually ended up that they came with a certain degree of arrogance stemming from the institutions they attended.

ii) Difficult to train....... they had many who thought they were hotshots and knew more than our big boss.

iii) Poor team players, especially when you put them under a supervisor who is a rank & file or came from a redbrick uni. The air gets to their head that they went to Oxbridge hence they must be better than the supervisor who must be an idiot.

iv) Many had asked for higher salaries but the reality of it is they couldn't perform any better than someone who came from any other Russell Group unis. Hence they never found it necessary to pay the premium.

v) This is what my boss once told an interview candidate, if we wanted to know what your professor or what the author of the textbook said then we would have hired that person directly.... therein is the biggest issue why we stopped favouring Oxbridge grads and put them on the same level playing field as any other Russell Group unis.

Yeah, that's the entire ****ing point. We don't get to Cambridge and study hard for three years to end up flipping burgers once we graduate.

Another point is the relative decline of the UK and rise of other nations in economic and other terms, has taken the edge off how Oxbridge is viewed internationally. The UK establishment is still dominated by Oxbridge grads, politics, Whitehall etc, whenever people object to this dominance they get met by the dismissive claim of it being a meritocracy, "the Oxbridge grads run the country because they are the best and brightest". But are they really? I reckon the best and brightest are running their own businesses etc, the 'establishment' is more that class of mediocre Oxbridgers that have got where they are through their background and connections. Look at the leaders of the three political parties now, Cameron, Clegg, Ed Miliband, all Oxbridge grads, they don't inspire confidence that they are the top talent and I bet not one would be where they are if they had been to say Manchester or Sheffield uni. I would think if you view the UK through an international lens they probably see this as a peculiar jobs-for-the-boys culture that is partly responsible for the decline of the UK and not something they want to infect their businesses.

Even if you include further study within the definition of employment (which obviously favours Oxford) the University of Oxford doesn't have the highest employment rate for full time first degree students amongst universities in the UK. Indeed, it doesn't have the highest employment rate for full time first degree students amongst universities in Oxford!


Cambridge is somewhat better. It is right up there with Edge Hill and only a tad behind Huddersfield.

Of course the statistics change when you start looking at graduate jobs alone.

I can't find a link to any results showing grad jobs only. Mind sharing?

I've seen plenty of tables showing 'employment', but I've always known those figures are BS.

I am afraid it is a methodology rather than a link!

Go to http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/. Choose a university and a subject area. Search. Ignore the column "% of employed with grad job". From the results click on the relevant course. You will see 6 tabs. Select the tab, "Employment Prospects". Go down to the bottom pie chart and total the %ages of those working and those working and studying. That is your proportion of those in employment. Then multiply that %age by the proportion having a graduate job (out of all those with jobs) in the top pie chart. Then you know how many of the total cohort got graduate jobs within 6 months of leaving, by university and course.

Some of the figures can be quite shocking. Only 28% of people reading Greats at Oxford had a graduate job and amongst those 28%, almost 9% were tutoring ("teaching professional" but obviously not doing a PGCE) at some level or other.

Was your big boss from Oxbridge himself, or was he (as I suspect) a high flyer from another university? Because I have found that the Oxbridge effect works both ways - it's an advantage with Oxbridge educated employers but then it can be an active disadvantage with non-Oxbridge educated employers because of the reasons you have said. There is a certain chippiness from some people who know they are bright and get rejected by Oxbridge, they always have a bit of resentment towards it and towards the fact that their peers that were accepted by Oxbridge had an easier ride on the way up, so they are more likely to discriminate against Oxbridge grads and towards ones that they see had a similar environment to themselves.

As for whether those perceptions are true I don't think they are as a general rule but I know where they are coming from. In general most Oxbridge grads have the full package, Oxbridge helped them to get some opportunities but then they took them and they have great internships and very well rounded experience so they don't have to play on the Oxbridge thing, if anything they play it down because they don't want to seem like they are bragging about it. But you do meet a certain type of Oxbridge grad who doesn't have much else and they retreat into their Oxbridge background and become fiercely defensive of why Oxbridge is the best and why Oxbridge grads are a cut above anybody else. You see it on TSR as well, most Oxbridgers don't go on about it but there are one or two that are all over the forums arguing at every opportunity that Oxbridge grads are somehow different and a 2:1 from Oxbridge is better than a 1st elsewhere and so on.

I don't think Oxbridge has quite the golden ticket factor that it used to, I was talking to my uncle about this (who was Oxford PPE) and he reckons its due to globalisation, when he graduated in the 70s the financial services sector in the UK was very much a British Oxbridge thing, but now its a global market and people are working with Germans, Swiss, Chinese, Americans etc who are educated in their own country or at other international universities and they aren't in awe of Oxbridge. There will still be a lot of Oxbridge people in good jobs because they are bright but the international bosses and clients won't be kissing their backsides just because they see Oxbridge on the CV.

Another point is the relative decline of the UK and rise of other nations in economic and other terms, has taken the edge off how Oxbridge is viewed internationally. The UK establishment is still dominated by Oxbridge grads, politics, Whitehall etc, whenever people object to this dominance they get met by the dismissive claim of it being a meritocracy, "the Oxbridge grads run the country because they are the best and brightest". But are they really? I reckon the best and brightest are running their own businesses etc, the 'establishment' is more that class of mediocre Oxbridgers that have got where they are through their background and connections. Look at the leaders of the three political parties now, Cameron, Clegg, Ed Miliband, all Oxbridge grads, they don't inspire confidence that they are the top talent and I bet not one would be where they are if they had been to say Manchester or Sheffield uni. I would think if you view the UK through an international lens they probably see this as a peculiar jobs-for-the-boys culture that is partly responsible for the decline of the UK and not something they want to infect their businesses.

Once interviewed an Oxford grad that told me he had a keen interest in stocks and followed keenly the LSE. he couldn't even name 5 companies on the FTSE 100 but he knew how the indices were calculated and could calculate really complex stuff in seconds without a calculator.... well he made a good teacher.

I'm Cambridge and I reckon I'd find a 'normal' job too boring and not intellectually challenging enough for me. However, out of necessity/wanting a good salary I might have to apply for one at some point in the future. However, compared to someone more down to earth I'm worried I'd be worse at the job. I reckon that, instead of doing what I'm told, I'd be perennially coming up with new ideas on how to improve the company and challenging my superiors on the best way to complete various objectives.

I just think that certain types of minds work better in different situations. Someone who's excellent at academic work in Oxbridge might not be able to find an outlet for that talent in a real job, making them appear mediocre.

I'm Cambridge and I reckon I'd find a 'normal' job too boring and not intellectually challenging enough for me. However, out of necessity/wanting a good salary I might have to apply for one at some point in the future. However, compared to someone more down to earth I'm worried I'd be worse at the job. I reckon that, instead of doing what I'm told, I'd be perennially coming up with new ideas on how to improve the company and challenging my superiors on the best way to complete various objectives.

I just think that certain types of minds work better in different situations. Someone who's excellent at academic work in Oxbridge might not be able to find an outlet for that talent in a real job, making them appear mediocre.

Personally know of 7 Oxbridge grads who has been jobless for more than a year.

2 from Oxford, both in Law, 1 is a 1st and has outstanding results in his BPTC..... no pupilage until now. The other one is a 2:1 and did very well for her BPTC but also no pupilage.

The 5 from Cambridge, mixture of all grades, one thing common among all 5, they weren't from well off backgrounds and 3 comes from a scientific type background but not a single one had an interview since graduating in 2010 or if they get called for an interview they don't make it to the 2nd round.

Then one is an econs grad with a 1st, I tried to hire her but she failed at the last round, my boss asked her why she would make a better employee than the other candidates, her answer made everyone chuckle, she said she graduated from Cambridge. I thought she had potential but my bosses found her to be too academic.

The other one has a law degree but is hell bent on being an investment banker, her grades are fine, her CV is fine too but can't speak a sentence without S or F words coming out of her mouth and even in an interview she would say it. I marvelled her courage and cockiness, she would make a great investment banker if someone would give her the chance, but she has too much pride to change her ways and therefore she has been jobless for the last year.



Because they have behaviours that doesn't befit an Oxbridge grad.