Did your son or daughter struggle to find work after university?

No - DS did a degree in Accountancy and secured an internship fairly quickly with a local authority who offered further training and career development opportunities - he’s now still working for them 10+ years later in a more senior role
DD dropped out of university in second year and found a rewarding career elsewhere - which has allowed her to gain industry specific qualifications in a niche field - she is currently on maternity leave but will return soon PT and will have many opportunities for progression

We have several friends whose children have graduated over the last 5 yrs. Id say less than ½ have gone into their chosen field but all have found work, all be ut on a lower wage than a job related to their degree would pay.

@Downsidesupside But vets nearly always get work don’t they! There’s hardly any vet schools. Theres over a hundred unis offering history. It’s no comparison.

Ds1 is a vet, he walked into his first job as soon as he graduated.
Dd graduated this year with a first in a fairly niche subject. She isn't following a career in her degree subject at the moment, but is working as a ta in a send school. It wasn't her first choice but she is finding it rewarding and is in no hurry to move on. Life throws curve balls sometimes.

@Wechsel Your stat is incorrect. Around 36% of school leavers go to university. It’s not 50% and never has been. There are around 50% of employees overall with HE qualifications and that’s a good thing.

It’s now recognised that around 8-10% of grads cannot get jobs. Many more are doing non grad work. This is the unfortunate situation that has arisen due to the huge expansion of the universities and they are delivering courses employers don’t value. Neither do employers have the money to take them on due to NI taxation and employee rights. Many sectors don’t feel bouyant.

It’s just ludicrous to only take dc with a masters as suggested above. Engineers need masters for the CEng qualification but many engineers are BEng and are valuable employees. Plenty of careers don’t require a masters and it is somewhat pointless for a history grad, for example. Who will value this?

Too few students can access placements in companies as they are very competitive. Many want them but don’t get them. These students are immediately disadvantaged. Others are on courses with no placement opportunity and they need to be very proactive in getting vacation work or volunteering in their chosen field. Getting switched on early is a good move - not after graduation, or worse, have no idea what career you want after 3 years.

The IFS has looked at what degrees pay the most and where to study for the best outcomes. There’s several non RG unis that might as well be RG. Eg St Andrews and Bath so they are hardly back numbers and any disadvantage to their grads. The important message is university does matter and so does degree. Best lifetime earnings - doctors. Some of the worst - art and theatre. But we probably could have guessed that. LSE economics grads out-earn economics grads from Wolverhampton uni, but that’s not surprising either. So choose uni and course wisely and have ambition. Do some work or relevant volunteering. Dont leave it until you graduate.

DD1 went straight from GCSEs to an apprenticeship and did her degree that way. She was in the company for 10 years and has just moved on a couple of months ago.

DD2 graduated from uni last year and has struggled to get a graduate job. She has applied for loads. She started working a few months ago in a job she could have gotten without a degree, but it’s a job. She’s still looking for a graduate scheme.

It’s not a good job market at the minute.

I regularly recruit for all levels of roles. One of the things that strikes me is the number staggeringly "over qualified" applicants I get for roles that have specifically asked for 2-3 years experience ("Essential Criteria" anyone?!)
Combining a degree with an internship is worth the investment. Or alternatively, regular volunteering.

Yep - old boys club. That's exactly why there was pressure to change that, but it all goes out the window somewhat when the economy is less robust.

Unpaid internships obviously reduce social mobility, nobody has ever pretended otherwise (at least not convincingly).

This is definitely quite a twisted way to stick the knife in whilst superficially pretending to be kind.

You doubtless know full well that it is not remotely the norm for a new graduate to earn 72k unless they are in investment banking or corporate law.

A trainee solicitor outside London is very likely to start on less than 24k in the first year because they won't technically be working full time (study time can be unpaid).

Of course most law graduates don't actually choose to continue with law, and look for general graduate jobs.

The average for big name graduate training programmes is about 35k, and only about 2% of graduates actually do big corporate graduate training schemes these days.

The average brand new graduate full time salary was 28k in 2025 according to https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/student-advice/careers/what-do-graduates-do-and-earn so as some of those will be junior (resident) doctors on 38k or dentists on similar, and some on big corporate schemes, or working antisocial hours in dangerous conditions on north sea oil rigs as someone mentioned, averaged out against others doing a dream job in the arts for barely minimum wage plus unpaid overtime, or a training wage, and others can't find a job at all. 24k is minimum wage if it's 39 rather than 40 (or even 37.5) hours per week full time, so nobody will claim it's riches, but it's not to be sneered at especially if it's a stepping stone not dead end.

Plenty of ambitious new graduates are actually working for less than minimum wage as an hourly rate, because they're unofficially working all hours and paid a fixed salary...

Only 8000 graduate jobs offered in 2026 in the UK? This sounds insane, I’d be interested to know the methodology that came to this figure.

So only the rich kids can get into anything that involves unpaid internships?

We are only in Essex ourselves Not up north

DS did a degree apprenticeship and graduated last year and as promised by the employer that sponsored him had a permanent job immediately. He had very good A levels and had already worked for 2 years before applying and also when in sixth form and before. The process to get the degree apprenticeship involved multiple interviews and tests over a long period, harder to get than Oxbridge apparently.

His GF has just completed her Masters. She applied for about 12 jobs had 5 interviews and starts a decent job with a national company next week. One of the applications she got to stage 4, last stage and the potential employer pulled the graduate scheme completely, a well known national company, that is worrying.

I've checked with DS. Starter salary was £62k, apologies. Not magic circle.

DD graduated last summer. She worked as a PA for 3 months, whilst applying for something more suitable. She got a sales and marketing role at a smallish local company, and has been there for almost a year. I don’t think a degree was an essential requirement, but it pays as much as many graduate jobs would (£35k). She’s very happy, although I imagine that she’ll want to move on in a couple of years.

No sign of the OP?

To be honest, that was often true years ago too. It's only recently that unpaid internships have become so frowned out. When I graduated, law firm pupils weren't paid at all. And loads of competitive companie would take on unpaid interns for a year or so to gain experience. That was back in the booming eighties.

Ds did unpaid iuntern work for two years while he was still at uni, so he;d have work experience in a very competitive field. I mentioned this on one thread where a mum was desperate to help her graduate son get work experience and was criticised for suggesting unpaid work experience. Yet DS is now well established in his field and doesn't regret it at all.

dd1 did for the first year, everything she applied for in her field (conservation) turned her down, so she got a job cleaning a school for a while just to get some money and kept applying.

did pay off finally, she got a job working as a an assistant research scientist in her chosen field and she’s now very settled.

Not hugely problematic, though both had to do various fill in jobs in supermarkets and Royal Mail for short periods before securing jobs in their field. DD1 did Zoology and wanted, and got, a job in Conservation (where she had done a placement year, though wasn’t a given, had to wait for a vacancy and apply, job didn’t follow on from placement as such). DD2 did Music followed by Music and Sound Engineering MSc and now has various roles, albeit freelance, in Sound Engineering. Neither of them will get rich from it but both are immensely happy. Guess it depends very much on your field.

Surely it depends on the degree subject, which university and personal attributes.
Then add grades and competition from other graduates.

My DD graduated this year and had a job lined up since end of April - unheard of in this current climate. But she networked at the university career fair - that secured her the interview. The rest is down to interpersonal skills and a good dose of luck!

Starter salary of £72k? That is seriously impressive. Was it with a Magic Circle law firm?

No. Neither of them struggled. One did a bit of freelance worked and interned for a few months then landed his first proper job. Now on his second. Competitive creativeindustry so the pay is rubbish, but he likes it.

The other one took a year out and worked in a bar while he decided what he really wanted to do, then worked it out, got a job in his field and moved abroad. Been there ever since. They both graduated in the last three years.

DS First Class UG from RG university, MA from KCL, this year. He's decided to train as a teacher, work in the sector for next few years, until job market recovers. I feel this is a good move. It really is slim pickings, currently

My daughter went to uni and when she finished she never got a job in her field, she now is working with autistic adults. She now says she is glad she went to uni for the experience but the goal of getting a job in her field was unrealistic.

That's a really low salary for anyone. DS started on 3 times that. We're in London, so that might be why. I hope your friend finds a better paid position soon.