Lack of jobs for new grads?

[Emmastig]

Hello. Has anyone noticed that new university grads (despite applying for dozens and dozens of jobs) are not even getting an interview? How does a young grad get experience if no one is willing to give them their first job? My son just graduated with a 2:1 from a Russell Grp Uni.🥲

What sort of work experience does he have to date @Emmastig ?

Does he have a clear idea of what he wants to do / which geographical location he wants to be in? How flexible is he on those requirements?

It's often true that any job is better than no job. Work exoerience brings value even if it's not in the exact area he wants to work in longer term.

I am not seeing this. My DS and his friends have all got into grad jobs within a couple of months of graduating

what work experience does your child have? What have they done to put themselves in a strong position eg volunteering / leading societies / youth work etc?

my DS has a good job lined up after a placement year. Of his friends about 6 are joining big 4 accountancy training, 2 law school with training contracts, 1 bar school, 2 or 3 pharmacy training schemes with bio med bio chem degrees, one paid internship for marketing with a prestige brand, numerous girls working in social media marketing and 2 on actuary grad schemes.

I think nowadays you need internships and good work experience during the summer and springs of university, because when I look at most grad jobs they want a 2:1 or more great but then doing those internships is what normally gets an offer from that for a grad job at the same company. Or even just having that and a good degree, leading societies or other leadership examples, research during university for some degrees shows a well rounded person. I do there's now more successful competition, so people are doing it all which makes it harder and we know that companies aren't employing that many people at all, plus many only have bases in London and perhaps in Manchester and Scotland if you're lucky, so people all over are applying for them it makes it more tough both for internships and the final grad role.

What sort of work experience does he have? I’ve employed a few grads recently and a lot who applied only really talked about their studies, which didn’t compare to the examples given by others of a similar age who had balanced studying with work. Eg job involves managing their time and dealing with competing priorities. Someone giving an example of managing priorities in a restaurant or barista job alongside their studying tended to come across
better than the ones who used writing their dissertation as an example!

Doesn’t have to be a major job, it could have been volunteering with Scouts or organising an event with a student society.

What sort of field do you work in? Surely doing your own research for a dissertation, planning out your own study and conducting it well shows quite useful skills. Different ones to a job which are also good, but if a student couldn't work for a reason would that discount them?

Does he have a part-time job already? This will help.
If no job already, volunteering might be a good way forward.
Employers want work ethic which you don't really get at university

Bear in mind that by definition a graduate job means they all need to tick that box of having done a degree just to meet one of the person spec points. So they will all have done a dissertation or major final project. So it’s the bare minimum to expect. And when there’s many applicants, that’s not going to make them stand out.

Plus showing they can deal with competing demands - getting that dissertation done whilst still turning up and completing the shift at Burger King shows a lot more than if all they’ve done is planned the dissertation research.

The job also means they’ve got examples of teamwork to give. Which comes across a lot better than a set of three students being given a one-off presentation to prepare (an eg in application forms I’ve seen multiple times!).

Doesn't have to be a job. I’ve seen impressive answers from people
who’ve volunteered with youth organisations, or a charity, or a mature student going to university and balancing caring commitments.

What I want to know is they can work at degree level, can work with others as part of a team and won’t get overwhelmed if multiple people
make demands on them.

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