A Fresh Perspective

It's time for the next instalment of acrimonious grumbling on the state of the graduate job market. I've decided to take a different approach with this week's post, responding to the excellent feedback provided by a former schoolmate of mine, Damien Jordan. He provides a useful and alternative approach to the nature of graduate employment. From within the comfortable bubble of university or facing the grim reality of repeated rejections, it is easy to lose sight of the issues facing employers in tough economic times. Below is Damien's response to 'Wasted Potential' (13th May 2012) verbatim:

"In a lot of ways I agree with what you're saying. I know that it is hard for many graduates to find positions within reputable companies and that investment in graduate development is minimal at best, but i do think think that graduates need to except a few things as well.

Luckily for me I never had a problem finding a job; admittedly i didn't work very hard at uni, didn't have any relevant experience and ended up getting a 2:2 in business from Durham University, which is basically worthless as no employer outside of the North East is really aware of Durham's reputation. But i managed to find a graduate role in Manchester selling commercial property within 1 month of me leaving. In my interview my employer stated that my university degree meant nothing and that they were more interested in the fact that I had managed to blag myself flights to Iceland on a charity jail break.

I think when it comes to graduate roles competition is greater than ever, you now have a pool of at least three years worth of graduates competing for a decreased amount of job roles in a dire economic climate. Graduates need to understand that businesses are looking at the bottom line and reinvestment is a big thing when many companies are struggling to cover their current overheads.

I also think many graduates set their hopes too high and need to be a bit more realistic in their aspirations, just because you get a 1st doesn't mean you will work in Canary Wharf.

Also when you say there are many talented graduates, what is this talent based on? I would describe talent as a proven ability; 95% of graduates have no proven ability in anything but studying which in the wider world is a pretty useless skill. I appreciate that it demonstrates a capacity to learn but given time anyone can learn anything especially with money as a motivator. Some of the most successful people in my office have a shocking academic background.

 I feel that the role of university has now changed it shouldn't be looked at as a way to increase your average earnings by 15k a year. Instead, I feel university offers a place for people to study something they are interested in and develop as individuals in a social sense. The lessons I learnt at Uni have certainly helped me in my current job roles but none of these lessons were learnt in lectures.

Employers value skills such as the ability to sell, confidence, professionalism and drive. I don't feel university fosters any of these skills. I really think now that before someone goes to university they need to ask themselves what the realistic outcome is, unless you go to Cambridge or Oxford there are no guarantees regarding work. In most cases any role you get as a graduate could have been achieved through starting in work after GCSEs, 5 years of relevant experience will always trump 5 years of non-related education and that's just the way it is."

Damien raises some very good points. I am in complete agreement that graduates need to accept a few home truths in an undoubtedly torrid economic climate; the world certainly doesn't owe us a living. Moreover, I agree that university teaches us far more than what we learn in our lectures and seminars. In terms of personal development, I feel I am a completely different person to the spotty faced fresher that arrived at Sussex almost five years ago now (that makes me feel a little old...).

However, I do not think the role of university has necessarily changed. They have always been institutions that foster knowledge, learning and facilitate the pursuit of individual interests. What has changed is the attitudes of big business and the government to the role of higher education: there is a demand from certain sectors for universities to produce the finished corporate article. Employers seem to demand graduates with skills that university does not foster while failing to recognise attributes that it does; this article from May 2011 summarises the nature of the issue well. For example, the CBI has emphasised skills such as 'business and customer awareness' or 'the application of information technology', skills which my history degree has done little to foster. In contrast, 'communication', 'self-management' and 'problem solving' are intrinsic to the role of a good historian, yet are apparently lacking in today's cohort of graduates in the eyes of employers.

Moreover, I do believe a successful academic performance at university is indicative of more than simply the capacity to learn. It takes drive, dedication and professionalism to achieve the best results. Unfortunately, there is an overriding perception in popular culture of students as drunkards, layabouts and freeloaders. That's not to say I didn't spend a good amount of my student days drinking, sleeping and scrimping but I also worked hard. It's frustrating to hear these kind of accusations levelled at me in my local pub by middle aged alcoholics over their copies of the Daily Mail.

In short, I know that when I do manage to land a graduate job I'll be utilising skills I learnt at university, both socially and academically.

Once again, many thanks to Damien for his excellent response. I encourage you all to keep reading and keep commenting!