The reality of life after graduation

Hi, currently in year 13 and I haven't applied to university this september because i'm hoping to get onto an apprenticeship.

I just wanted to ask, with so many threads posted all the time about now being able to find a job after graduating university, what is the reality of life after graduation?

So many people my age, and people from the year above me seem to think that they can go to university, or have gone to university assuming that they'll come out and get a decent graduate job straight away earning £20,000, this to me seems extremely naive and I was just wondering if anyone can shed some light into how easy it is to get employed after you get a degree?

Also, i've seen many people post about "people with degrees' salaries increase a lot quicker" but how is this the case if graduates are being forced to take the same sort of lower paid jobs as other people who didn't got to university? surely people with more experience are valued better by an employer?

Just wondering if anyone could shed some light onto this...

Reply 1

FXX

19

It depends on the course. If you've thought a lot about what you might want to do after uni, and choose an appropriate course early on that will set you up on that career (ie. something with practical elements - a way of breaking into the jobs out there), you will have a much easier ride and better prospects than someone who has thought, "well, I don't mind Geography, I'll do it at university and see where it takes me".

I think it all balances out in the end, and people who know what they want will generally get it. The problem is the idea of going to university is thrust upon young people without really talking about the wider implications. The higher tuition fees have made some think twice but aside from that, you're told that doing any course at university is better than doing no course at all, and then you end up with a lot of disappointed/frustrated graduates with 'worthless' degrees or degrees in something they don't enjoy, and have no idea where to go afterwards.

Remember also that you will only see threads from people who can't get a job. Everyone else who manages to get what they want won't show off about it. While the situation is pretty bad atm, it's not as as bad as the forum might suggest, and a certain proportion of it is self-inflicted (ie. not researching properly and ending up with the wrong degree).

Reply 2

chelseafan

21

A degree from a respected institution will be very useful in life.

Reply 3

fastswift

12

Original post by _SussexStudent

Hi, currently in year 13 and I haven't applied to university this september because i'm hoping to get onto an apprenticeship.

I just wanted to ask, with so many threads posted all the time about now being able to find a job after graduating university, what is the reality of life after graduation?

So many people my age, and people from the year above me seem to think that they can go to university, or have gone to university assuming that they'll come out and get a decent graduate job straight away earning £20,000, this to me seems extremely naive and I was just wondering if anyone can shed some light into how easy it is to get employed after you get a degree?

Also, i've seen many people post about "people with degrees' salaries increase a lot quicker" but how is this the case if graduates are being forced to take the same sort of lower paid jobs as other people who didn't got to university? surely people with more experience are valued better by an employer?

Just wondering if anyone could shed some light onto this...

From my experience, the people who did a STEM degree at university leave uni with £25+. Some gets much more than that. For those who did subjects like Film Studies, English and History, with no valuable technical skills available, they struggle to find anything that pay minimum wage. Many of them jump from one unpaid internship to another. It has been two years since my friends graduated, (1yr for those with MSc).
Real life example:
Politicics from Durham- working in a bar

Sociology from Warwick - cashier

English- temp admin work

Film - unpaid intern, cashier

Early education - temp job in a nursery, not enough hours

Education - primary school teacher

Business - unemployed, unpaid internship

Meteorology - PA

Computing - in Banks earning £30k+; programmer; website design, all getting decent salary and satisfaction

Maths - grad jobs in finance/banking/insurance

Physics / Engineering - excellent career, opportunity to spend a year in another country, PhD, career in finance

Chemistry - petroleum mixing, fuel efficiency

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 4

M1011

19

Original post by fastswift

From my experience, the people who did a STEM degree at university leave uni with £25+. Some gets much more than that. For those who did subjects like Film Studies, English and History, with no valuable technical skills available, they struggle to find anything that pay minimum wage. Many of them jump from one unpaid internship to another. It has been two years since my friends graduated, (1yr for those with MSc).
Real life example:
Politicics from Durham- working in a bar

Sociology from Warwick - cashier

English- temp admin work

Film - unpaid intern, cashier

Early education - temp job in a nursery, not enough hours

Education - primary school teacher

Business - unemployed, unpaid internship
Meteorology - PA

Computing - in Banks earning £30k+; programmer; website design, all getting decent salary and satisfaction

Maths - grad jobs in finance/banking/insurance

Physics / Engineering - excellent career, opportunity to spend a year in another country, PhD, career in finance

Chemistry - petroleum mixing, fuel efficiency

Posted from TSR Mobile

Lol, good post. I take exception to the business one though, as in my experience business grads do well after graduation.

Reply 5

standreams

14

Original post by fastswift

From my experience, the people who did a STEM degree at university leave uni with £25+. Some gets much more than that. For those who did subjects like Film Studies, English and History, with no valuable technical skills available, they struggle to find anything that pay minimum wage. Many of them jump from one unpaid internship to another. It has been two years since my friends graduated, (1yr for those with MSc).
Real life example:
Politicics from Durham- working in a bar

Sociology from Warwick - cashier

English- temp admin work

Film - unpaid intern, cashier

Early education - temp job in a nursery, not enough hours

Education - primary school teacher

Business - unemployed, unpaid internship

Meteorology - PA

Computing - in Banks earning £30k+; programmer; website design, all getting decent salary and satisfaction

Maths - grad jobs in finance/banking/insurance

Physics / Engineering - excellent career, opportunity to spend a year in another country, PhD, career in finance

Chemistry - petroleum mixing, fuel efficiency

Posted from TSR Mobile

Not to negate your point in any way- as it is actually one I agree with- but surely 'Primary School Teacher' would be a good outcome for someone who studied Education (in contrast to those of your friends who ended up in more menial/less skilled jobs after graduating with Arts degrees).

Also, PA work can be very well paid. A good multilingual PA in London can earn well in excess of £35k and with lots of free travel, wining and dining to go with it (albeit while having to sacrifice a great deal of their personal life).

Reply 6

wanderlust.xx

18

Original post by chelseafan

A degree from a respected institution will be very useful in life.

This is utter *******s. I'm working in a fairly highly regarded finance company and most people have 2:1's from top 20-30+ or so universities. The likes of Exeter, RHUL, Cambridge, Surrey all come up.

Yeah, it isn't the actual institution anyone cares about... it's you as a person.

This is something that grads and students seem to find a massive struggle to deal with. It doesn't matter if you get loads of work experience if you're not the sort of person they're looking to employ when you go to the interview. It doesn't matter if you're a first class engineering grad from Cambridge, unless you can prove you have the mettle to work and interact with people.

In short, uni has little to do with it. It's the team you're placed in, how you interact with others, your ability to do the job, how much you enjoy the job, and so, SO much more.

Reply 7

Aramiss18

14

Original post by M1011

Lol, good post. I take exception to the business one though, as in my experience business grads do well after graduation.

This. A mate of mine about to graduate with a business degree from a university most here would turn their nose up has secured a £30k a year job.

There are positive stories out there- it's not all doom and gloom. On my course, chemistry, I would say about 50% of 4th year finalists have secured work of PhD positions.

Reply 8

Little Jules

12

There are positive stories out there, you just don't always hear them. I graduated from my Politics degree in 2008 and everyone I know from my degree has a good graduate job. I now am involved in graduate employment at my small firm and we are happy to take new grads. We look at universities and grades when looking at CVs but getting the job will be all about performance at interview. The only thing I would say is that relevant work experience and internship are a massive boost when you are applying for jobs.

Reply 9

Brevity

11

Original post by wanderlust.xx

This is utter *******s. I'm working in a fairly highly regarded finance company and most people have 2:1's from top 20-30+ or so universities. The likes of Exeter, RHUL, Cambridge, Surrey all come up.

Yeah, it isn't the actual institution anyone cares about... it's you as a person.

This is something that grads and students seem to find a massive struggle to deal with. It doesn't matter if you get loads of work experience if you're not the sort of person they're looking to employ when you go to the interview. It doesn't matter if you're a first class engineering grad from Cambridge, unless you can prove you have the mettle to work and interact with people.

In short, uni has little to do with it. It's the team you're placed in, how you interact with others, your ability to do the job, how much you enjoy the job, and so, SO much more.

What is your damage, Heather?

All chelseafan said is that a degree from a respectable university will be useful in life. I'm not sure how that's an objectionable statement. At your 'highly regarded finance company', it's great that Surrey and Exeter come up, but I suspect you "oh, yeah, actually I didn't go to uni" doesn't come up very often.

Whilst university isn't the determining factor for getting a job, you underestimate its influence. A 2.1 from Cambridge will never be a detriment: yeah, it might not get you the job, but in 75% of situations it'll get you an interview. After that, it's true, you're on your own: but getting your foot in the door--that's better than being shut out altogether, no?

Reply 10

ilickbatteries

15

Original post by _SussexStudent

Hi, currently in year 13 and I haven't applied to university this september because i'm hoping to get onto an apprenticeship.

I just wanted to ask, with so many threads posted all the time about now being able to find a job after graduating university, what is the reality of life after graduation?

So many people my age, and people from the year above me seem to think that they can go to university, or have gone to university assuming that they'll come out and get a decent graduate job straight away earning £20,000, this to me seems extremely naive and I was just wondering if anyone can shed some light into how easy it is to get employed after you get a degree?

Also, i've seen many people post about "people with degrees' salaries increase a lot quicker" but how is this the case if graduates are being forced to take the same sort of lower paid jobs as other people who didn't got to university? surely people with more experience are valued better by an employer?

Just wondering if anyone could shed some light onto this...

You'll do well after you graduate if you graduate with a degree that is in-demand (so, a STEM subject, really) with a good classification from a decent university.

If you graduate with a humanities degree or a 2:2, you'll find things harder.

That said, one of my best friends graduated with a 2:2 in applied biology but managed to get a job in a fairly niche industry and is now earning about 24k a year.

But on the whole - if you're not doing a STEM subject it'll be hard

Reply 11

ilickbatteries

15

Original post by Brevity

What is your damage, Heather?

All chelseafan said is that a degree from a respectable university will be useful in life. I'm not sure how that's an objectionable statement. At your 'highly regarded finance company', it's great that Surrey and Exeter come up, but I suspect you "oh, yeah, actually I didn't go to uni" doesn't come up very often.

Whilst university isn't the determining factor for getting a job, you underestimate its influence. A 2.1 from Cambridge will never be a detriment: yeah, it might not get you the job, but in 75% of situations it'll get you an interview. After that, it's true, you're on your own: but getting your foot in the door--that's better than being shut out altogether, no?

In what job, and do you have anything to back that up, or are you just one of those people who thinks that if you have an Oxbridge degree then employers will fall over their feet to employ you?

Reply 12

Annuhlees

13

Original post by fastswift

The PA role is paying less than £17kp.a. with no progression.

Primary school teacher is alright but she has to live in the school. The government headline of £20k is a lie. She gets much less than this.

For those who did an Art degree, they enjoyed 3yr of not doing much work. But they will struggle for the rest of their life with debt. And the job they are likely to get after graduation is likely to be very dull and repetitive. I would trade off 3yr of hard work with an enjoyable job.

Posted from TSR Mobile

My brother-in-law studied art and now is a creative director of a very well known magazine in NYC. My sister also studied art an gets paid a lot of money as a freelance graphic designer and sells very expensive paintings a long side. I'm pretty glad they studied art at university as they've got a 5 bedroom house, 3 trips to the UK a year and kids in private school.. If someone studies something they love and they're good at it they're more than likely to do well compared to someone who loves art but goes into physics because they didn't want to seem like a failure.

Reply 13

Brevity

11

Original post by ilickbatteries

In what job, and do you have anything to back that up, or are you just one of those people who thinks that if you have an Oxbridge degree then employers will fall over their feet to employ you?

The fields are typical City jobs (corporate law, investment banking, actuarial / accountancy firms, management consultants) and a smaller number of media-related graduate roles (publishing, film production, journalism). The only thing I have to back it up is empirical experience. It's true that you should doubt that, but in this case, I don't think there're official statistics available.

Put it this way then: I have formulated a bold claim. Do you have evidence that disproves it?

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 14

Clickers

17

i shall be an oil and gas engineer. 32k starting salary.

Reply 15

ilickbatteries

15

Original post by Brevity

The fields are typical City jobs (corporate law, investment banking, actuarial / accountancy firms, management consultants) and a smaller number of media-related graduate roles (publishing, film production, journalism). The only thing I have to back it up is empirical experience. It's true that you should doubt that, but in this case, I don't think there're official statistics available.

Put it this way then: I have formulated a bold claim. Do you have evidence that disproves it?

I don't, I'm just interested in whether there is actually any truth to the Oxbridge myth of getting interviews purely based on the university you went to.

There are probably some jobs (like what you've mentioned) that have a preference for Oxbridge graduates, I'm sure, but not all jobs will have such a preference for Oxbridge graduates, surely? I mean, they're clever but really not that special.

Reply 16

Brevity

11

Original post by ilickbatteries

I don't, I'm just interested in whether there is actually any truth to the Oxbridge myth of getting interviews purely based on the university you went to.

There are probably some jobs (like what you've mentioned) that have a preference for Oxbridge graduates, I'm sure, but not all jobs will have such a preference for Oxbridge graduates, surely? I mean, they're clever but really not that special.

Not only would I say that there're many Oxbridge graduates who aren't anything special, but I'd even go and say some of them aren't even that clever. Nonetheless, there're some valid reasons for employers to favour them:

1. Oxbridge is, I think it's fair to say, harder than other universities. It requires more effort to get through the term. People that get Oxbridge 2.1s can, at least, be expected to be able to handle a reasonable load of work with an acceptable level of efficiency.

2. Oxbridge graduates are meant to be pre-vetted (that is, they meet the minimum qualifications). This isn't so much to argue that they're the best, but more to suggest that there's a floor for them. An Oxbridge graduate might not light up your world, but s/he probably won't blow it up either.

3. A variant of the "no one ever got fired because they hired McKinsey / Goldman Sachs". If you hire someone from Oxbridge and they tank, you can always explain it to your supervisor by shaking your head disbelievingly whilst intoning "s/he was at Oxbridge" (much like people who believed in Jon Corzine before MF Global went bust: 'He was from Goldman Sachs').

I think for the majority of jobs that people consider desirable (obviously if you're serving coffee at Starbucks, different considerations apply) these 3 factors explain why it always makes sense to give someone from Oxbridge an interview.

Reply 17

Hanvyj

17

Original post by sharp910sh

i shall be an oil and gas engineer. 32k starting salary.

You shall be? Not confirmed then?

I wouldn't be 100% sure...

Reply 18

Clickers

17

Original post by Hanvyj

You shall be? Not confirmed then?

I wouldn't be 100% sure...

100% confirmed. I will be then..

Reply 19

Hanvyj

17

Original post by sharp910sh

100% confirmed. I will be then..

Haha, I don't think 'shall be' is incorrect but it gave me the impression that you could be someone in first year who just assumed that they would be getting the job they wanted, because they just know how amazing they are.

The reality of life after graduation

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