Your experience of employing post-grads in first job

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I'm thinking of employing a 27 year old who has 2 post grad quals but no experience of work. It would be a full time role, quite emotionally stressful. What do you think? Appreciate it's not unheard of (I am old fogey who always worked and had to have part time jobs age 13 so this is an experience very different from my own). Candidate comes across well but I am worried they lack work experience. Any experiences of doing the same and how did it work out?

When you say they've never worked, do you literally mean that?? I studied until I was 25, largely due to graduating in the worst recession since '29, but in weekends and summers since my teens I had worked as a waitress/babysitter/office junior/school mentor/retail assistant etc...

Yep, no work at all. No waitressing/retail/cleaning/bar work, nada.

It's a supportive role, not admin, well supervised. But needs initiative and hard worker. Well over 100 applicants, most of them awful, no-one suitable from first round of interviews. Will probably re-jig criteria and re-advertise.

My Masters, though very hard and time consuming was not "work" or "employment".

Mine was - I had to submit time-sheets for my funding. I've never worked so hard, either. Full-time employment is a breeze in comparison (well, hours-wise. Even with on-call.)

You don't need to answer this, but you mention voluntary work and a gap year. Are they the kind of work which shows initiative or independence? That would make a difference to me.

Really variable -make sure you interview extensively and go with your gut.

I have an msc and a PhD but I've always worked any job I can get my hands on to support myself. I've cleaned, skivvied and bar maided my way through... I'm well aware that although I am very bright, I don't know everything and that any job is a learning curve. I'm also well aware that work is work, and my ego is in check enough to know that a high IQ doesn't mean you don't muck in and clean the bogs if you have to ;)

There is a significant minority of postgrads who have gone directly from school to uni to academia, in the process never really getting their hands dirty. Some have a rather over inflated impression of their own abilities.... You just need to screen them out ruthlessly so you're left with the normal but bright ones, who are truly an asset.

I'd be asking questions about part time work, and probing egoism in the interviews

We always use the "receptionist test" too. It is amazing how rude some people can be to the receptionist when they first arrive. I've also gone down to collect a candidate before, and not realising that I am the panel chair, they are not always terribly polite - eg with one candidate we were five minutes late starting the interview, I went down to collect him, apologised, and said I hoped it hadn't inconvenienced him unduly. He ranted about the stress of the situation, how rude it was to keep him waiting (and it really was only five minutes!) etc etc. His face, when I took my seat on the panel was a picture.

My favourite of all time had to be a new graduate who had applied for a job with us, which was absolutely not a first job. We'd had over 200 applications, and hadn't shortlisted her for interview. She emailed us a week later saying "I don't seem to have been shortlisted for interview? Hello? Which part of "double first from Cambridge do you not understand?" I responded, saying that the successful candidate had (strangely!) also got a double first from Cambridge and also a PhD from LSE, plus seven years relevant work experience. We didn't hear from her again...

Oh yes, it's amazing what you can find out about a candidate if a team member picks them up from Reception or takes them for a tour around the building...

[See] I do that! And would highly recommend others to do so too. At the very least, I ask the reception staff for their first thoughts.They have never guided me wrong.

code I've had to re-advertise a couple of posts recently. TBH I think we originally advertised for the "perfect candidate" which in reality does not exist. Perhaps, re jigging the essential criteria etc will help. It will open it to others with experience that may have been put off re expected qualifications.

I would certainly class voluntary work as 'work experience' if it were a genuine weekly thing, and not a 'do this for 3 months to put on my CV' - if it were relevant to the role..... things like people skills / dealing with or talking to other people are useful skills to have gained.
I too am pretty amazed someone can get to 27 without having done any paid work though.
Wouldn't necessarily rule them out, but I'd be asking about how they would do x/y/z (needed for the role) at interview.

Everyone has to have a first job sometime.

I worked for a big corporate and sometimes had kids on their first job out of uni. Most were very good and very keen. It varied, but none were disasters.

At 27, having never had paid employment would ring alarm bells.

Qualifications or not, you'd have thought most people by that age would think, hang on, I need to put something on the cv...it doesn't show a great attitude to be honest.

Rutalauk

I was just about to complete your survey, but wonder why there is no "Black British" under ethnicity, only African American? were you not expecting anyone black in the U.K to complete your survey?

Infact, its not just about Black British missing, all your ethnicities seem for an American audience. I think you need to revise before taking your survey any further unless ethnicity is not important at all. Do note that what is classed as 'Asian' in the UK is very different to its definition in America.

I have approached this by being very very honest at interview about the exact nature of the job. And I've had that done to me when I was over-qualified and under-experienced for my first office job. My interviewer asked me if I was sure the job was what I was looking for and if I felt I'd be happy working in the environment she'd described. IME the problems have come when someone's job turns out to be not what they'd expected.

My first ever interview for an office job went swimmingly until the interviewer heard what my commute would be and decided to make the decision for me that it was too long (about 1 1/2 hours). More fool her, frankly, because I would have been great! So I'd also be cautious about rejecting a good candidate for a worry rather than a concrete reason.

Could be worth interviewing to find out why no paid work to date - may be a good reason such as disability or remote location or requirements of funding bodies, or alternatively they are an entitled git who would be a nightmare. Can't tell without talking to them.

Equally good-looking work experience could mean "hung about in relative's business doing nothing".

And definitely get them to chat to someone casually - I had a terrible manager once who did do one good thing, which was to tell a potential gap year kid his offer was being rescinded for shouting at the receptionists and making one cry when his taxi didn't show up. Manager used to abuse them all the time, admittedly.

I'm another one that can't understand how you get to 27 without having worked... I worked in university holidays - I temped, worked on a switchboard, helped organise a conference, worked much of my gap year as well as getting a teaching diploma, then worked throughout my 2 year Masters degree (teaching violin) and got my 'first' job before I handed my dissertation in - I had to take my first week of work to complete it...

The company I work for runs a grad programme. We've taken on eight since I joined, and it's been a mixed bag.

3 - fantastic, doing really well.
3 - competent, doing okay. Not exceptional but no concerns about their work.
1 - too immature for the world of professional work, I'm surprised he got through a degree. He needed to be spoonfed everything, no initiative or common sense. Very nice lad but we let him go.
1 - didn't pass probation. He was good but the people in his team couldn't be bothered to guide a grad. This was a failing of the company - they needed an experienced person and shouldn't have recruited a grad.