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Getting far in life with a 2.2 class degree ?

Anyone with a 2.2 that's got a good job now ?

Im in losing hope since graduating. Wherever I read / hear people talk about degree classification , it appears a decent graduate job ( pays £20,000 or +) is not within reach.

Also, I know there are some jobs where the requirement is 2.2 like civil service ,unilever etc would they give priority with those with 2.1 or 1st.

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Reply 1

Bill_Gates

Original post by Rosewal

There is hope, you just need to lower your expectations look far beyond the beaten track and work yourself up.

Reply 2

suby123

It's hard to get over it tbh.I contemplated doing a second degree for a while...

Reply 3

Georgiina_Tee

What course did you do?

Posted from TSR Mobile

I've done law

Original post by Rosewal

I got a first in my degree and when I started my first job after graduating I was on £13,000. After a few months I was on £18,000 and then finally I managed to get a different job and break the £20,000 barrier. Too many graduates expect to get a job they want straight away - but sometimes you need to do a stop-gap job just to build up your experience and overcome factors holding you back. In my case it was a lack of work experience, in yours it might be your 2:2.

The key is once you get the stop-gap job, not to be negative or complacent in it even if it's mindnumbingly boring or all your managers are idiots and treat you like you're an idiot. The key is:

- Think 'which bits of the job do I enjoy?' and use it to identify possible careers you could jump into from there.
- Identify the job you DO want. Go on job boards, look at jobs you want to do and look carefully at what skills and experiences they are asking people to have
- Make a plan for how you are going to get those skills in your current job - be proactive, put yourself forward for extra responsibilities, seek to add value in everything you do, just generally do a good job
- Keep a note of EVERYTHING you do/achieve in your job. Don't leave writing your CV to when you actually want to apply for another job - writing it as you go along will help you identify what skills you still need to develop to write the things you want to be able to write on it.
- Be patient. You might have to do this job for a year or so just to be ready to move on into a better job. But you've got 40 years of working life... it's not a race. Do your time and your chance will come.

Obviously it would be nice if you could walk into your £20,000+ job and I wish you best of luck! But in case you don't, I just want you to know it's not the end of the road :smile:

Reply 6

Quady

Original post by Rosewal

Teaching...

Grad schemes don't give priority to those with 2.ii/1st but you will be competing against them. 90% of Oxbridge grads fail the civil service selection, higher attrition for other unis.

Reply 7

Matthew12

What about someone like me who obtained a 2:2 in his undergraduate degree and managed to get a pass in his Masters would the Masters albeit a pass cancel the 2:2?

Reply 8

AW1983

Here's an important lesson. A lower second class honours degree (or a third for that matter) is not a bar to a good career but it is a bar to your first good job. Once you find another way in to your first good job and build some experience, no one will care what your degree classification is but the challenge is how to get that first good job. What you need to understand is that graduate recruitment is very different to 'normal' recruitment. 'Normal' recruitment relies on work experience and demonstrated success; graduate recruiters can seldom rely on this and instead have to rely on more arbitrary information such as exam results. Graduate recruitment thus tends to be more arbitrary than experienced recruitment as a result. There's a theory that extra curriculars put things right but to be honest I think less than perfect results are often auto-filtered out before the CVs are even read to be honest.

So, what to do? The civil service is certainly one good option. They rely far more heavily on your overall CV, interviews and assessment than they do on degree classification. However, the civil service fast track is very competitive for everyone as a result so you'll need some other options. If you've done law, you might want to give Irwin Mitchell a try. They say in their graduate recruitment that they look beyond academic results; they're worth a go I'd think.

Failing that, you probably need to get into the mindset of a school leaver (with A-Levels) when looking for your first job. Your degree won't have been a waste of time (you'll find it easier to enter professional examinations in a range of fields without doing entry level exams first) but also won't be a ticket into a graduate scheme. In this mindset, you start at the bottom and work your way up. Options might include a bookkeeping role where you can study AAT and eventually do ACCA, CIMA or the ACA. Or maybe you could get a paralegal role and do CILEx, which opens the door to eventually qualifying as a solicitor.

The options are definitely out there but they will involve a lot of work and maybe a little longer at the bottom rung. But five years in, experience becomes king and no one cares about your degree.

Reply 9

Quady

Original post by Matthew12

What about someone like me who obtained a 2:2 in his undergraduate degree and managed to get a pass in his Masters would the Masters albeit a pass cancel the 2:2?

Not for an autofilter for 2.i+.

Or to put it another way, I wouldnt have got my job with a 2.ii and a masters.

Reply 10

AW1983

Original post by Quady

Not for an autofilter for 2.i+.

Or to put it another way, I wouldnt have got my job with a 2.ii and a masters.

True, although it might re-open the doors to firms who don't use autofilters.

Reply 11

Quady

Original post by AW1983

True, although it might re-open the doors to firms who don't use autofilters.

Agreed, but I would question the opportunity cost of doing a masters - fees, living costs and loss of earnings compared to just getting a different job.

Reply 12

ManifoldManifest

Original post by AW1983

So, what to do? The civil service is certainly one good option. They rely far more heavily on your overall CV, interviews and assessment than they do on degree classification. However, the civil service fast track is very competitive for everyone as a result so you'll need some other options. If you've done law, you might want to give Irwin Mitchell a try. They say in their graduate recruitment that they look beyond academic results; they're worth a go I'd think.

Expanding on this, as it's the path I've taken:

As long as you meet the basic academic requirements (2.2 for the generalist fast stream, 2.1 for some of the specialist streams like the analytical ones), your results will not impact on your chances. At no stage in the process do the people assessing you actually get to know which university you went to or what grade you achieved. Whether you pass or fail each stage of the assessment (of which there are 3 or 4, depending on your choice of streams) is entirely dependent on your performance at that stage.

So if you think it might be a career you'll enjoy then go for it, and don't worry about people with 2.1s or firsts having an advantage over you.

Having said that, some caveats:
-It is competitive. They publish quite comprehensive recruitment statistics each year and I believe the success rate is somewhere between 2-3 percent overall most years. It's also been getting increasingly competitive, due to public sector cuts and more graduates looking to the civil service as other prospects dry up.
-It is a slow process. The next application window will open this September, and if you're successful you won't be starting until September 2015 at the earliest.
-The scheme requires a degree of flexibility. It's expected that fast streamers will relocate at least once during their time on the program. So if you have strong reasons why you cannot move (mortgage, family) that might be problematic for you.

Those caveats aside it's a good scheme, and quite interesting work. Won't ever match the pay of the big private sector grad schemes, but it's definitely more than the £20k benchmark you set.

Reply 13

orange crush

Random idea, come together with a couple of mates of yours that have low degrees as well and start some kind of business. You should be able to get cheap government loans to get you off the dole.

Reply 14

Zenomorph

Original post by Matthew12

What about someone like me who obtained a 2:2 in his undergraduate degree and managed to get a pass in his Masters would the Masters albeit a pass cancel the 2:2?

NO especially not a pass

Reply 15

BeanofJelly

My boyfriend just got an 18k council job on a 2:2. It's not at all bad considering it's a graduate position with training, 2 years.

Reply 16

AW1983

Original post by Quady

Agreed, but I would question the opportunity cost of doing a masters - fees, living costs and loss of earnings compared to just getting a different job.

I would agree with you there. I know people who have done masters after a 2:2 and it has helped, although I do still think the best masters degrees are taken by people with some work experience.

Reply 17

Costalo

Original post by Rosewal

If you've got some kind of work experience that instantly puts you ahead of the 2:1 students who lack it. There are plenty of grad jobs that don't specify what grade you need. Most of them are sales/recruitment, but there are some business ones also.You just have to find them. Don't look on grad sites, look on TotalJobs and Reed.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 18

MUN123

I am a 2:2 graduate currently haven't managed to secure a grad job. Also I'm receiving rejections from ASDA, Tesco, McDonald's etccc....
The thing is just keep on applying and something will hopefully come along.

Reply 19

mynameisntdoug

Can't you do further postgrad studies to make up for it out?

A lot of smaller places won't ask for degree grades, you can just say you studied for a degree in Law, right?

Also, have you thought about some volunteering at Citizens Advice Bureau? It would probably look great on your CV.