Grovelands Graduate Insights - Spring Summer 2016

Executive summary
Expectations vs realities
Students and graduates are open to a wide
range of career options, 20% of students say they
have no specific career path in mind and 59% of
graduates say they are working in a role unrelated
to their degree subject.
Respondents who began to consider and apply
for roles earlier at university seem to have better
success in finding work after university. However
the majority (53%) plan to wait until after graduation
before completing a single job application.
47% of graduates say it takes at least 6 months
to find a graduate role with 18% saying it takes
more than a year. The competition for roles is our
respondents’ main concern and reason why they
feel they are unsuccessful in applications.
57% of respondents say they did not use their
university careers services until their final year of
study and 15% did not use it at all, this suggests
that universities could be doing more to engage
with students earlier.
A good work/life balance is considered crucial
to graduate workers with 75% feeling this is more
important than salary.
Students feel a starting salary of between
£20,000 - £30,000 is realistic however most
graduates are earning between £15,000 - £25,000.
Looking to the future
63% of respondents feel further study will be
necessary in order to achieve the graduate role
that they want, suggesting an undergraduate
degree is of most value in conjunction with
other qualifications.
On average, graduates expect to achieve
lifestyle milestones (such as owning a home) by
age 30-35. However students expect to earn
higher salaries by age 35 than graduates.
Grovelands Graduate Insights | Spring/Summer 2016 | 5