Your degree and your career aspirations - how do they match up?

Yeah... no. It doesn't take a genuis to work out that there aren't enough high paying jobs in the country for everyone graduating with a great degree to be on high wages.

I'm doing civil engineering. It's perfectly reasonable for me to aim for a first and a great graduate scheme at one of the top employers in the country. That's called ambition. But for me to say i can REALISTICALLY expect 50k right away on the assumption that I'll get that specific job is deluded. There's nothing realistic about it. Chances are low but I'd want to work hard and aim high.

And your 2nd paragraph must be aimed at someone else. That's essentislly what the person I was replying to was doing. It was basically:

"Lol how can you expect 30k right out of uni? That's exactly what i was talking about. How deluded! You don't even know what job (Despite the guy basically saying a job)"

"Oh by the way. I expect 50k + massive bonuses. It's realitic because I knew what I wanted since I was X years old. Unlike you guys who decided late."

Ok mate. He sounds like one of those people who starts their CV with "ever since i was (insert age here), I've always wanted to do ______)"

What type of person puts people down for aiming too high then has the audacity to say their wages will be massive with no prior experience because a big company will hire them.

Then he makes himself look like a bigger dummy by saying it's because IB isn't broad so they're all focused onto that high paying job?? Which by the way isn't even true. Just like engineering, it's a versatile qualification. But if it was true then it'd lower his chances even more.

He has no idea what he's talking about. He just rambled because someone called him out and he got embarassed.

Pretty good list, but they've averaged wages across all seniority levels so not the most accurate for uni goers. Thanks for the link

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Graduate salary is less important than what you can hope to achieve at senior levels.
That's not the point you were making but probably worth considering on this thread.

hmmmmm great post

Either

Degree: Computer Science + PhD in Artificial Intelligence
Jobs/Careers of interest: Research scientist
Graduate salary expected: don't mind

Or

Degree: Computer Science
Jobs/Careers of interest: Cryptography
Graduate salary expected: dont mind

Very true. I feel a lot of people get caught up in early career pay, without thinking of what their potential upside is in their peak earning years. Although, most on here aren't super concerned with upside which is also fine.

I think money/'great benefits' SHOULDN'T even be the main reason you apply for that job!

What you gonna do with that 30,000K if banking/engineering/law/etc isn't even something you enjoy doing, not to mention having the passion for that subject?

+ the fact that you do it everyday 9-5 and you get a few weeks per YEAR to enjoy an expensive holiday to Miami that you bought by working the whole year.

Now for people disagreeing, I don't mean to say that you got an undergraduate degree to live on a minimum wage - no, but a decent, average wage should do, as a first proper job you get.

I'm really interested in seeing whether TSR users are actually in touch with what opportunities there are career wise for their degrees and whether they have accurate expectations of entry level pay. My experience on here has been that people assume that say, any STEM degree will lead to 'high pay' but they never really qualify this statement nor do they express which jobs they are talking about.So without further ado:Degree:Jobs/Careers of Interest:Graduate Salary Expected:

Degree: Business Mathematics and Statistics
Jobs/careers of interest: Accounting/audit/assurance, at a big4 firm hopefully or at a ftse100 company
Salary: £28000 or something like that

LSE?

yeah

Average wage is great and all (if you want to be average) but I won't personally be aiming for 'average' careers

What's an "average career"?

Medicine

Want to be a doctor with a career as clinician scientist too.

Just want to do what I love and get a pay cheque at the end of the day. Worrying about money as your main career aim is for losers. Think about how you will contribute to society!

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Says the person with a £200k apartment..

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That's not been my experience of seeing what's happened in major consulting and law firms. Far too many stagnate in their careers and very few are actually "accelerated" through the ranks. Many get stuck in fairly lower ranks and only the exceptional performers are able to truly accelerate. Even some of the exceptional ones don't manage it.

In contrast I've seen a fair amount of people in "average" jobs excel and gain more responsibility much earlier than the more structured career progression paths that comes from professional services. Their salary might be "average" in comparison, but if anything I think it's easier to progress outside of a structured career path than it is to do so in one.


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*250 actually

I'm not saying having money is bad, but being so money-minded that making money is your primary career intention is just sad.