Monday 22 November 2010

Graduate Schemes or Jobs or a mixture of both?

My friend recently attended an assessment interview for a finance leadership graduate scheme. When he got there he was startled to find out that the company had over 30,000 applications for all graduate positions within the company he was applying too.

This statistic proves that it is increasingly difficult for perspective graduates to get their foot on the career ladder.

I am in the process of submitting applications for graduate programmes, although this is still my main focus; I am applying speculatively to other companies too, just because they don’t have vacancies on their website, doesn’t mean they don’t have vacancies at all. In some cases they will have vacancies and want people to fill.

Furthermore there are loads of companies out there who don’t have graduate schemes, but have vacancies for jobs instead. Yes graduate schemes are impressive and if you are fortunate to land yourself on one then congratulations, but what’s really the difference between a normal jobs in the industry, than a graduate job? They both still pay equivalent or near enough the same amount. They both allow you to progress within the company.

It seems every article these days in the media is centered on how many graduate jobs there out there for prespective graduates. What is a reality however is that you are probably better off just applying for a normal job in the industry such as a sales executive, marketing executive. These roles aren’t specifically graduate jobs, but the process in which you apply for these may be shorter and may lead you to less competition with other prespective graduates all in the same position as you.

Moreover I am concentrating on finishing my degree. Your degree is one of the most important elements, without a good degree these days you will find it difficult to get on the career ladder. Whilst graduate programmes are important and after you graduate you want to be able to work in several big organisations, the foremost and most important element should be your degree.

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