I had my AC for Towers yesterday! They make it a pretty relaxed day to be honest. Tip; don't be the guy that answers everything with perfectly prepared responses. If you get to have lunch with employees; don't ask the stupid cheesy questions, be a little more personal, make them laugh etc.

Academically I was nowhere near the strongest candidate, but had an offer within 20 minutes of leaving the AC.

Reply 263

Pride

21

Original post by matinthehat

£1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

I will work for nothing less :smile:

thanks for separating out the 000s, I think you'll probably need one more 000 though.

Reply 264

jellybeanjen

16

FWIW, I graduated from my first degree just before all the sh*t hit the fan with the economy. My first full-time permanent job was in local government admin for £21k. Most of my friends didn't get much more than this, apart from one or two lucky sods or those with either vocational or quite specialist degrees. Generally, we took arts/humanities/social sciences degrees. The majority of us, not through lack of trying, still aren't hitting £30k in London 5 years down the line, even those who've taken Masters courses or professional qualifications (e.g. CIM or the HR equivalent whose name escapes me at the mo). The jobs just aren't there and nor is the money to promote people within companies.

My sister graduated in 2010 with a 2:1 in Fine Art, but no real work experience, and the only full-time work she could find earns her under £15k a year. A few of her friends can't find jobs at all; another few are doing Masters or PGCEs to add a string to their bow, and another few have been the lucky ones on £20k +. For those of you who think you'll be on £30k + as a new graduate, you're in for a bit of a rude awakening!

Reply 265

Ella Bella

It depends what uni you went to and if you have done any work experience. In my gap year I did paid work experience at GS and since we have ridiculously long holidays I reguarly do paid work experience at UBS, to be completely honest good paid work experience is hard to come by, you need connections or to be really determined (My uncle works there). Has anyone else received what their teacher expects you to get paid for in your first job? (It's based on your CV and academic achievements.)
UBS are notorious for taking on people who have done a lot of work experience and starting salary varies from a pittance to £85,000. Personally would aim for middle to high ground and I think, if you went to the right uni, have no gaps in a really full CV, you could easily be looking at £45,000 which sounds like a lot for starting salary, but it really depends how much you're worth.

Reply 266

happydinosaur

15

I'd love 20k plus but I don't think its going to be easy in my line of work.

Since I left uni 3 years ago I've not had a job paying anything close to 20k. Not great money but enough to live comfortably up north if you houseshare and maintain a student attitude to money.

A lot of you might have to be more realistic but of course it depends on your sector and line of work.

Reply 267

Intriguing Alias

16

Really pisses me off when people ridicule others who say they want to earn 30k out of uni. It's not unreasonable at all. It's difficult, and you'll have to get through competitive procedure, but it obviously can be done. Almost all accountants, strategy consultants and middle/back office bank jobs pay around £30-35k. The front office bank jobs, as well as management consulting pay £45k+ out of uni. It's not only in finance that a lot of money can be earned straight out of uni. Petroleum Engineering, Pharmaceuticals (though usually need a PhD, not always), technology/r&d, software engineering etc. all earn over £30k a year starting.

Anyway, I don't really know what I want to do for a job, I find the idea of developing software interesting but I haven't started to practice programming yet so I don't know if I'd really enjoy that - definitely a possibility.

I'm gonna aim to do something I enjoy, and if something I enjoy earns megabucks, great (and if you want a figure, probably £30-35k would be nice but if it isn't possible with the line of work I want to go into then fine)!

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 268

niels-bohr

Original post by jellybeanjen

FWIW, I graduated from my first degree just before all the sh*t hit the fan with the economy. My first full-time permanent job was in local government admin for £21k. Most of my friends didn't get much more than this, apart from one or two lucky sods or those with either vocational or quite specialist degrees. Generally, we took arts/humanities/social sciences degrees. The majority of us, not through lack of trying, still aren't hitting £30k in London 5 years down the line, even those who've taken Masters courses or professional qualifications (e.g. CIM or the HR equivalent whose name escapes me at the mo). The jobs just aren't there and nor is the money to promote people within companies.

My sister graduated in 2010 with a 2:1 in Fine Art, but no real work experience, and the only full-time work she could find earns her under £15k a year. A few of her friends can't find jobs at all; another few are doing Masters or PGCEs to add a string to their bow, and another few have been the lucky ones on £20k +. For those of you who think you'll be on £30k + as a new graduate, you're in for a bit of a rude awakening!

if you studied for a proper degree, you wouldnt be in this predicament.

Reply 269

Magnanimity

14

Mine was £30.5k. I was very happy with it.

Reply 270

Regent

Original post by danzino

I had my AC for Towers yesterday! They make it a pretty relaxed day to be honest. Tip; don't be the guy that answers everything with perfectly prepared responses. If you get to have lunch with employees; don't ask the stupid cheesy questions, be a little more personal, make them laugh etc.

Academically I was nowhere near the strongest candidate, but had an offer within 20 minutes of leaving the AC.

Thanks for the advice! Well done on the job offer to. In keeping with the theme of this topic, what's the starting salary and which office are you working at (if you don't feel comfortable disclosing here PM me)?

Reply 271

Jake22

18

A generic degree with little to no work experience?

I would say that £15k is a good starting salary.

A large proportion of university leavers don't have anything more to offer than school leavers.

A degree isn't an investment; just because you paid fees it doesn't entitle you to a big salary.

Think about it - you can spend a few hours doing assignments and studying for exams and get a good degree but that really doesn't demonstrate that you are particularly valuable as an employee.

There is an attitude that having a degree makes you special and you deserve money and training from an employer.

What happened to working your way up by proving yourself? Surely that is the acid test?

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 272

username775235

11

Umm £20-24k imo. Even apprentice's get 10-15k in training and about £20k+ when they complete training.

Also depends on the degree you did I guess. It'll probably be easier to get a better job with something more specialist or vocational like Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science or Accounting degree compared to something Generic like Psychology, English Lang/Lit or History I guess.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 273

jellybeanjen

16

Original post by niels-bohr

if you studied for a proper degree, you wouldnt be in this predicament.

Define "proper degree" - I'm pretty sure that the subjects I studied at undergraduate level (politics and law) are considered academically challenging by most people. My degree got me a place on a competitive graduate scheme that paid the fees for my Masters, gave me a large bursary while I studied, and guaranteed me a job afterwards. I can assure you I'm in no predicament at present earning £29k a year from that job, apart from possibly that posed by some of my more difficult service users!

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 274

Zubrowka

If I could get a job which paid actual money, I'd take anything.

Reply 275

Regent

Original post by niels-bohr

if you studied for a proper degree, you wouldnt be in this predicament.

Incredibly naive statement. There are still students graduating from top unis in strong subjects who haven't found graduate employment.

Reply 276

Procerus

danone is looking for any degree who want to do accounting graduate scheme they pay £26500

Reply 277

Quady

20

Original post by Jake22

What happened to working your way up by proving yourself? Surely that is the acid test?

Well thats never really been the case anyway.

Whats wrong with it is that being an awesome checkout assistant doesn't mean you'd be a good logistics manager and being a crap one doesn't mean you wouldn't be.

Reply 278

niels-bohr

Original post by Regent

Incredibly naive statement. There are still students graduating from top unis in strong subjects who haven't found graduate employment.

maybe it is because of their lack of extracurricular activities, a 2.1 from a top university by itself means nothing.

I am in my second year (at a mid ranking uni) studying chemistry, yet i have managed to secure an internship at an investment bank; with the hope they offer me a place on the grad scheme in sept 2013.

If i can do it, so can anyone, even those studying fine arts, or communication studies.

Reply 279

infernalcradle

15

30k+

What do YOU consider a good starting salary for a graduate?

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