Starting salary for a recent graduate - is it a good salary?

[lovelysummersky]

This is about my brother who recently graduated from university with a postgraduate's degree (master's).

He does have relevant work experience, lots of internships and summer jobs and speaks two languages fluently, but obviously no full-time work experience as he was a student until recently.

He got a job offer and the job is interesting, 38 hours per week, 24000 pounds (before tax). Would you consider this to be good, okay or low for someone who just graduated?

We don't live in London, but in another big city that's not super cheap either.

YABU - it's fine for a recent graduate
YANBU - it's too low

I'm just a bit worried with inflation and everything and it's not a cheap city.

Council?

Sounds about right. His experience and salary will grow. Right now he has nothing to bargain with.

If it's a first full time job then that seems reasonable.

He should take the job and keep applying. He must have an idea of what the salary range is for his field through all the job searching he is presumably doing.

Almost choked on my at that one!

I’d say it’s low to mid end for a graduate. Mine was £18k and that was nearly 20 years ago.

The job pays what the job pays. Regardless of being a graduate, PhD, whatever.

What are you going to do if we say it's too low - tell him to jack it in and find another job...?

This is a base graduate salary, so it'd be hard to get paid less unless not going into a graduate role.
Might be worth taking regardless though and work up which is potentially better than waiting 9 months to land something on £30k for example.

Also if this is a profession with qualifications then the true salary is post qualified. Big4 accountancy audit in London for example start at 27K and finish on 50K 3 years later, with an increase for every exam you pass.

Unfortunately, as I know from my own experience, speaking languages fluently doesn't command a higher salary. If it's not needed for the job, it won't be taken into account when deciding on the salary (which is fair enough, as why should it be). But even for jobs where it is a requirement, the salary will often pay the same salary as someone doing the same job but without a language.

That said, it's very easy to get your foot in the door of a lot of certain companies if you speak one, so it's still worth putting the effort in to learn one.

He didn't ask me to "work it out for him", I'm asking here without his knowledge because I'm concerned.

Most people in this thread were lovely, no idea why you feel the need to be snarky and rude but please take it somewhere else.

There usually isn't much room in negotiating for entry level roles anyway. If it's a 'graduate role', or in a 'graduate scheme' the salary might be set centrally anyway.

It really depends on the industry as others have said. We have Masters graduates where I work who are on £23k, but their Masters isn't needed as far as we're concerned (we're in marketing) and we don't see much difference in their quality of work. I had a regular degree and went straight into a minimum wage, relevant job (about £15k at the time).

When it comes to languages however, we really need that and we're likely to pay over the odds regardless of education level.

He didn't ask me to "work it out for him", I'm asking here without his knowledge because I'm concerned.

Most people in this thread were lovely, no idea why you feel the need to be snarky and rude but please take it somewhere else.

Not sure why you're having a go at me over laughing at a joke that somebody else made?

Our grads usually start at 25k in London, but are moved up to 28 or 30 after probation/ or the six month mark.
it really depends on the progression of the role.

DD graduated with MEng in civil engineering last year, earns around £32k, has a company car, housing allowance of £1200/month and annual bonus.

My DD started on similar after graduating last year in product design but it was seen very much as a starting point. She received generous bonuses twice in the first twelve months, and got a hefty pay rise this year. Had she been employed in the London office starting salary was £29,000.

It’s not great but not terrible either. For comparison our grads start on £30kish outside of London but we’re a big global company and pretty competitive. Has he got other options? If not then he should take it as there’s less decent grad jobs around in related sectors at the moment because of the economy.

When I first graduated in the late 90s £18-£24k was the average non-specialist grad scheme entry level wage. I’m quite surprised it hasn’t improved much but sadly you have to take what you can get right now.

I think it’s decent, my two DC started on
salaries of 25k a year and a year and half ago. One has an arts masters and the other a first in
economics. The economics DC earns 30k now and works hybrid in the South East of England and the other DC earns 26k and WFH.
They are both very happy and the jobs are a good fit for them.

He sent lots of applications at the end of last week/beginning of this week so he hasn't heard back from the other companies yet.

They were very quick to answer, invited him for the interview and then offered him the job. I'm just a bit worried the other companies won't decide quickly and that he won't have the opportunity to really choose. Not sure if he should say no and wait or take the job and take the risk that a better one will be offered a week or so later.

It's difficult to ascertain what is, indeed a graduate level job, and where a degree is used solely as a filtering mechanism.

'Graduate scheme' where top talent is recruited and groomed to be the future leaders of a company are different from graduate jobs (entry level roles that specify a degree). Are you referring solely to the former?

My sons, both recent graduates, one with a PhD, the other with a BSc. PhD son £32k. BSc son entered graduate scheme on £36k and has now been headhunted and will earn £42k two years out of uni. North West England. BSc son’s friends are earning £21k and above but none match him.
PhD son has BSc and MSc. BSc son has an engineering degree.

When does it start?

I just remember my economics graduate DC got a 5k bonus when it was his last review.