Graduates struggling to find jobs

doddsy105 said:
Im studying computer science, now thats a proper degree. none of this drama, sports science, art, socioligy rubbish. If your going to uni do something proper or just accept that working in asda is the rest of your life.
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While I agree the 'degrees' you mentioned (arts, sports science etc.) are all useless and should be scrapped, computer science is oversaturated and unless you go to a prestigious uni computer science is just as worthless. There is just no demand for comp sci graduates.

Many unis offer 'comp sci' but they're nothing more than computing courses. I have a few friends that graduated from Warwick/Bristol (not very prestigous) with at least 2.1 at comp sci and are still struggling to find a job.
 
I've just graduated as a mature student with a 2:1 in IT. I've over 20 years work experience with BT, though not in the IT sector, and I'm currently looking for a job. I'll be interested to see how they rate my work experience against my age, I'm not sure of companies attitudes towards older applicants.
 
twoblacklines said:
Anyone can get a media degree, which is why im doing one! lol
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Mmmm nice, media degree :p

Never had a problem and I was lazy after uni, but then again these days the number of recruited graduates has gone down, especially in the company I currently work for (currently being the important word of the moment).
 
Business Studies degree. People think they will do that degree and then land a nice little earner in a office. I did Town and Country Planning Masters which is specific to my job. But I would advise against doing one now as there are no jobs for Graduates in town planning.
 
Here is my experience. Graduated with masters in late 2007. Spent 6 months job searching and landed an entry level job in marketing in late 2008. Was in that role for over a year then decided to travel aboard in China. Did TEFL course in Beijing and taught English in Beijing and Tokyo for a total of 5 months.

After teaching, I went back to University in Beijing to improve my mandarin for one semester. Currently working for a foreign company in the marketing department in Beijing.

My point? Working experience counts a lot to getting a job especially as there are fewer jobs available but having a degree does increase your potential to earn more in the future once you have secured a job. Also I found out that having a Masters means more aboard than in the UK as it usually takes 2 years to complete a masters in other countries.
 
support_bae said:
Many unis offer 'comp sci' but they're nothing more than computing courses. I have a few friends that graduated from Warwick/Bristol (not very prestigous) with at least 2.1 at comp sci and are still struggling to find a job.
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Lolwut? Bristol and Warwick are top notch unis!

Unless you want to be a support monkey, do CompEng/ElecEng its probably a lot closer to what you really enjoy.
 
The missus is in this position - OK she has a job but only a few days a week. Graduated last year top of her course in a health/nutrition/consumery based course but no jobs at all. Now completed a post grad diploma with excellent marks and still nothing.

She has applied for numerous rubbish paid jobs which are semi related to what she has done but no luck. I am guessing she is overqualified and they know she won't stay.

Very frustrating and she feels bad that she can't really contribute towards a significant joint income but we have still got mortgage approval with what she currently earns so it's not critical. Many people in worse positions but it is thoroughly depressing for her at times.
 
Chris1712 said:
Lolwut? Bristol and Warwick are top notch unis!
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They really arent. Better than a lot, sure, top notch? Nah. My job involves spending time in most of the uni's science departments and you see a very different world to that prescribed by the top 10 Uni lists that the times and others publish.

Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, UCL and maybe Manchester would be my reccomendations. with LSE for econimics/finance.

I dont understand why people do comp sci/computing/IT tbh - maybe i'm just ignorant? Surely an MCSE, CCNA etc are far more valuable than a degree?
 
As above, if you have finished your 3/4 year degree on David Beckham studies or Media then you will struggle to get a job as every Tom, Dick, Jane and Harry will be in a similar boat.

I doubt the people who are graduating from Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, Bath and Red bricks with degrees in Medicine, Law, etc are struggling to find work.

Most people who I know who graduated with a degree that would land you in a related profession, e.g, Architects, Doctors, Developers, Pharmacists, etc have all found work in their desired job market. People with aimless degrees or "ten a penny" types find it a lot harder to get work or have even gone down a completely different route to the degree they originally took.

I'm a half way house doing business and I.T effectively. I don't do much business but I'm in I.T working for a business. Good enough :D
 
vaultingSlinky said:
The fact it the jobs market works on leg ups and nepotism. Its not what you know, it is who you know
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I don't think that is specific to the current economic climate. However if you want to view it like that then it's a case of needing to play the game as well as you can.

I got my current graduate job without any influence from anyone I know (as far as I'm aware) and the progression I make will be largely determined by how I perform which is as it should be. With that said it's probably a good 2-3 years now since I was going through the application process so I don't particularly envy the people coming into the job market now.
 
Pug said:
They really arent. Better than a lot, sure, top notch? Nah. My job involves spending time in most of the uni's science departments and you see a very different world to that prescribed by the top 10 Uni lists that the times and others publish.

Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, UCL and maybe Manchester would be my reccomendations. with LSE for econimics/finance.

I dont understand why people do comp sci/computing/IT tbh - maybe i'm just ignorant? Surely an MCSE, CCNA etc are far more valuable than a degree?
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What does your job entail? Do you audit? :)
 
vaultingSlinky said:
Graduated from a red brick/russell group uni in Biomed - under/un -employed for 2 years after graduating. over the last 2 years ' prestige' has counted for very little. I'm only just finding my feet, and fortunately the future is looking very bright...but the last 2 years have been somewhat demoralising.
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It's a shame that a good degree from a good university is undervalued because there are many degrees from many other not as good universities saturating the market in terms of graduate employment.
 
AcidHell2 said:
Probably means UWE.
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I very much doubt he'd bung them in the same sentence, Bristol is in the top 10, UWE might squeak into the 50's at a guess? I'm only here to delay the real world anyway, but I'm still going to get a good job out of it because I'm doing a real course.

Pug said:
They really arent. Better than a lot, sure, top notch? Nah. My job involves spending time in most of the uni's science departments and you see a very different world to that prescribed by the top 10 Uni lists that the times and others publish.

Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, UCL and maybe Manchester would be my reccomendations. with LSE for econimics/finance.

I dont understand why people do comp sci/computing/IT tbh - maybe i'm just ignorant? Surely an MCSE, CCNA etc are far more valuable than a degree?
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So you consider only 5/6 of the entire countries universities worthwhile? I'm sorry but that's unbelievably elitist, can you really say a degree from Bristol is considerably worse then Manchester!?

Also pegging comp sci/computing and IT into the same bracket, what are you on about!? I agree mostly with regards to computing/IT, they are absolute noddy courses regardless of the institution and most probably support monkey qualifications an experience will be of more use.

But Computer Science/ElecEng/CompEng are vastly different subjects. If anyone doing these courses aspires to plugging in ethernet cables and being a Exchange sysadmin, they're doing it wrong. People on this course will be heading towards proper development roles, hardware verification and embedded development, ie real computer stuff.
 
When I gradutated all those years ago it took me about 6 months to find a 'proper' job.

This was due to a few things, one being the geographical area I was wanting to work in, as well as the field of work I wanted to go into. Although the latter wasn't set in stone as I still wasn't really sure what I wanted to do which didn't help!

However a god job came up at a large employer in Devon and Cornwall (was FTSE 250 at the time, now FTSE 100) and they hired me. Wage was ok, around 16.5k in 2003, and if I had not have had a degree I wouldn't have got past the initial sift due to them only wanting people with degrees.
 
Off-topic: Chris1712, what are you studying at UWE? That's where I'm going in September.


Spot on about computing/IT though. They're more support monkey wheras comp sci/software eng are the ones if you want to be a developer (and those two have common first years IIRC).

I always find it funny how many people refer to UWE as "Bristol", but drop the "polytechnic" bit :p.
 
Knubje said:
As above, if you have finished your 3/4 year degree on David Beckham studies or Media then you will struggle to get a job as every Tom, Dick, Jane and Harry will be in a similar boat.

I doubt the people who are graduating from Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, Bath and Red bricks with degrees in Medicine, Law, etc are struggling to find work.

Most people who I know who graduated with a degree that would land you in a related profession, e.g, Architects, Doctors, Developers, Pharmacists, etc have all found work in their desired job market. People with aimless degrees or "ten a penny" types find it a lot harder to get work or have even gone down a completely different route to the degree they originally took.

I'm a half way house doing business and I.T effectively. I don't do much business but I'm in I.T working for a business. Good enough :D
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I go to Bath and most people who tried to find a job and had a decent grade/degree (and didn't leave it to the last minute) got one. Then again a lot of courses at Bath offer the opportunity to do a placement which really helps when job hunting.
 
A huge amount of chat about the "best university" or "best course" is completely bogus.

Higher education is a market where there are no set standards in teaching and comparing undergraduate degrees (apart from in very broad terms) is more or less impossible.

Some of the criteria used to produce the various ranking systems are frankly (from an undergraduate perspective) ridiculous and are completely arbitrary.
 
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