Graduating in 2016. I don't want a "corporate job" (most grad schemes).....

Graduating with a STEM degree from a top Uni in 2016.

Pretty much all grad schemes seem to be corporate jobs where you wear a suit every morning and go to meetings and make small-talk by the water cooler and pretend you give a crap about your co-workers etc....

I prefer the idea of working in a small environment with only a few employees. Seems more personal, less robotic. Nom saying?

However, I don't want to spend my life making minimum wage.

Anyone else feel/felt the same way? Advice would be grand. Also not bothered about which sector I go into (bored of STEM).

I'm the same but I'm going back to do a second degree which leads to a career I want. I suppose you could find something niche at a small company. Graphic design is a good area for that but it depends what skills you have I guess. But yes, you're not the only one.

Graduating with a STEM degree from a top Uni in 2016.

Pretty much all grad schemes seem to be corporate jobs where you wear a suit every morning and go to meetings and make small-talk by the water cooler and pretend you give a crap about your co-workers etc....

I prefer the idea of working in a small environment with only a few employees. Seems more personal, less robotic. Nom saying?

However, I don't want to spend my life making minimum wage.

Anyone else feel/felt the same way? Advice would be grand. Also not bothered about which sector I go into (bored of STEM).

I felt the same way when I graduated - I didn't want to go down the grad scheme route, mainly because I didn't want to move to a completely unknown place which a lot of grad schemes seemed to require, but I wanted to move into a place of my own asap after graduating. So I looked for jobs in the local area which were asking for a graduate, but not a 'scheme' as such. And luckily I was in the right place at the right time. That was 4 years ago, and I've progressed in the company since then (the salary was good to begin with though), and it ticks all the boxes for me! It's the UK office of a much larger engineering company, under 10 mins drive away, don't have to wear a suit, only a small number of staff so it has all the benefits of a small company with all the perks and security of being a larger corporation. I also enjoy being part of a smaller team where everyone's role is a bit more jack-of-all-trades and no-two-days-the-same, rather than being in a huge team where everyone has a very narrow area of responsibility.

It really is a case of being in the right place at the right time though, so keep your eyes peeled...!

Sounds great. A lot more in line with what I'm looking at and similar goals with what I want soon after graduation.

Do you have any tips about where to look for the applications? For example it seems like every job on "TargetJobs" is just a corporate grad scheme.

Anyone else feel/felt the same way? Advice would be grand. Also not bothered about which sector I go into (bored of STEM).

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What degree will you have and what kind of industry are you interested in? Then people will be able to make suggestions.

All the grad schemes will be with large employers, but there's plenty of opportunities for graduates in smaller companies that can often be much more fun and relaxed but just as rewarding.

Paging ByEeek for more info...

Mine was through a local recruitment agency, and we only recruit through this one particular agency for any of the non-technical jobs as we've got a good relationship with them and they know the company well, so it's only by chance that I found it, rather than on the company's own site. However, I would really recommend using Indeed.co.uk to search for jobs as it pulls together vacancies from most if not all sources.

I hope so.

I haven't really looked at anything beyond websites like GradCracker and TargetJobs etc but they all seem to be massive corporations on there and I just imagine it would be horrible starting as a graduate in one of those types of companies.

the idea of working at a startup is one that has recently become more appealing to me, though I'm not sure how useful I'd be as a recent grad...

Can I ask what you're doing at the moment?

I remember reading one of your posts a year or so ago and noted that you did the same course I'm finishing up - only I'm not planning on doing the MEng.

Graduating with a STEM degree from a top Uni in 2016.

Pretty much all grad schemes seem to be corporate jobs where you wear a suit every morning and go to meetings and make small-talk by the water cooler and pretend you give a crap about your co-workers etc....

I prefer the idea of working in a small environment with only a few employees. Seems more personal, less robotic. Nom saying?

However, I don't want to spend my life making minimum wage.

Anyone else feel/felt the same way? Advice would be grand. Also not bothered about which sector I go into (bored of STEM).

Making new plans I applied for a PhD but they said no... but there should be some more accepting applications for 2016 entry soon, so I got over it pretty quickly.

In the meantime, I am looking at graduate schemes. The main problem atm is that the ones that are open now start in summer 2016 (I think), while I need something more... immediate. So I will need to look at SMEs, perhaps close to home. A friend suggested looking into startups a couple of days ago, and I really like the idea, but I haven't looked for any yet (like where do you even find them? )

Did anything in particular put you off the MEng?

Lack of ideas and dollar bills bro