After graduating, finding a job can be hard. It can be extremely overwhelming, as for the first time, you can’t depend on your teachers. It’s not only the first time you are out of education, which can be scary enough, but there is also lots of competition. Most employers like to employ graduates because they are qualified, due to having obtained degrees. However, there are many graduates every year, therefore the job market can be tough to infiltrate.
Sadly, it is getting tougher and tougher as a young person to get a job. There is no exact number of graduate jobs available in the UK. However, the numbers of graduates are increasing at a faster rate than jobs are available. This depends on the type of job you are qualified for, of course. The graduatecoach states that in 2020, there were approximately 30,000 graduate job vacancies advertised per month in the UK and each year is pretty similar. However, there were also 2.3 million graduates searching for jobs! More on these statistics can be found here.
If you want to find out more about graduate jobs and how to get them, carry on reading!
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How hard is it to find a job after graduating?
Sometimes it can be quite tricky to find a job. The statistics on this article from the Graduate Coach website emphasises this. This is because sometimes there are more graduates than actual jobs going around.
Every year, approximately 800,000 people graduate in the UK. These graduates not only have to compete with each other but also with students who graduated from the years before.
For example, this article from the Graduate Coach website stated that in 2019, an additional 1.2 million students were still looking to find a job. These students had qualified two to three years before!
Also, there are many international students who may also want to get a job in the UK. As a result, each vacancy receives hundreds of applications. This leaves many newly qualified graduates very disappointed, as there is only a small chance they will get a job.
Most jobs require you to get firsts in your degree, before you are even considered. Check out this article from Think Student for tips on how to get a first-class degree.
Not only do you need good grades, you need lots of work experience too. This means to get a job after graduating, you need to tick a lot of boxes and this can be very difficult.
However, don’t worry! You are able to get help. For example, the Graduate Coach is a company which helps students who have just graduated get jobs. You can sign up to get coached on their website, if you click here.
How long does it take to find a job after graduating?
How long it takes to find a job is different for everyone. You may be very lucky and get a job very quickly after you graduate. However, you may aspire to have a career which is already over saturated. If this is the case, then you could be waiting a while before you get a job.
This article from the StandOut CV website stated that it can take anywhere between three and eighteen months for a graduate to get a job. For example, in 2021, it was found that 80% of the UK graduates from 2019 were in employment.
However, it can actually be useful to look at individual university websites. Universities normally offer statistics. These can show what percentage of their graduates is employed within six months.
Check out the websites of the universities you are interested in and try and find out how long it usually takes for their graduates to find jobs.
How many graduates work in their field of study?
It might surprise you to hear that more graduates are actually shown to get jobs not in their chosen fields, compared to graduates that do. For example, a report by Pew Research found that only 36% of jobs achieved after two and a half years from completing the student’s degree, were related to the chosen fields.
Most of the graduates who got the jobs related to their degrees had studied medicine and dentistry. 87% of graduates who had studied these subjects had a job related to this field. For more information like this, check out the Department for Education report.
There was great concern about STEM graduates, who were shown to end up with jobs not related to their chosen field. This could have been due to not being taught ‘soft skills’ during their degree.
Soft skills are not usually taught in degrees, for example, having a good attitude, being good at team work and adaptability. Therefore, employers look for candidates who have more experience. This makes it even harder for newly qualified graduates to get jobs!
More statistics and information about this can be found on the Department of Education report, if you click here.
What happens if you can’t find a job as a graduate?
Graduate schemes are fantastic ways to earn money once you have graduated. These are schemes which last between one to three years and are an entry-level job.
They are used to train graduates specifically for jobs in the company and pay for the graduates at the same time. When you have finished the graduate scheme, hopefully the company will then offer you a job. More information about this can be found on this article from the Top University website.
However, if you don’t want to do this, there are plenty of other options. You could apply for an internship, allowing you to gain skills which will impress potential employers. If you’re lucky, you could even be offered a job at the company you do the internship in!
Alternatively, if you want to stay at university even longer, you could prolong your time there and do a postgraduate degree. You never know, doing a further degree may actually increase your chances of becoming employed.
You could also do a placement year, where you will gain even more experience. More information about this can be found on Think Student, if you click this link.
If you decide that you don’t want to do any of these things, you might want to consider working abroad. There are plenty of jobs overseas, where employers are looking for graduates!
For more tips on what to do if you can’t find a job as a graduate, check out this article from Save the Student.
Which universities have the highest rates of graduate employability?
It is extremely useful when deciding which university you want to go to, to check out the university’s employability rates. The top ten UK universities for producing the most graduates who are employed can be found on this article from Save the Student.
The top two universities for graduate employability were shown to be Oxford and Cambridge. This was followed by University College London and Imperial College London.
It is no surprise that these esteemed universities have the highest employability rates. However, you don’t need to worry. Most universities have high employability rates. It is just that these universities happen to have the very highest in the UK.
As you can see, being a graduate can be tough. However, don’t lose hope! There will always be a job waiting for you, as long as you keep looking and don’t give up.
You need to be proud that you are a graduate, due to all of the hard work you have put in. Check out this article from Think Student to find out more about graduation days.