400,000 graduate jobs

[Strife212]

Well it depends, most english universities only accept three grades.

My first choice needs 400 points which is AAA at A Level and a C at AS Level.

 

[Amp34]

UCAS points are hugely important if you want a placement or a grad job with a large multinational. They place more importance on them than anything else including your degree classification, where you get the degree from, and what its in.

Don't waste time and screw around at A level. Do well. You need those UCAS points.

Depends on what type of multinational, I didn't have a problem getting an internship with DDE A-Levels in an oil industry multinational. They were far more interested in my degree, skills and how I conducted myself outside of academia.

 

[Amp34]

energy, oil and gas the things that people always need and can't afford to stop buying, making, selling etc

I am not sure that recession-proof is the correct term but yes, they do fare better it seems. Our parent company, which is from Scandivania and deal in energy and renewables mainly, are still turning healthy profits. Atm, even high profile engineering companies are having trouble and laying off staff: Arup comes to mind based on the last few days.

They are more attached to fuel prices, which can be separate from recessions, as long as fuel prices stay up they are fine. Unfortunately oil prices have crashed in the last few months in line with recession in the rest of the economy. That is going to cause a problem in the oil industry.

My lecturers are actually telling people to really consider staying academia for an extra year to wait it out as jobs could be very hard to find in the industry at the moment, although they are admitting they ( and no one) don't really know how this will affect graduates this summer.

 

[RandomTom]

Depends on what type of multinational, I didn't have a problem getting an internship with DDE A-Levels in an oil industry multinational. They were far more interested in my degree, skills and how I conducted myself outside of academia.

What things do you include in conducting yourself outside of academia, jobs or other things?

 

[Psycrow]

Vixen - You only count the highest you achieved in a subject. So if you did higher maths and advanced higher maths, you just count up advanced higher maths etc. You dont count standard grades unless thats all you have. I do agree with you though, 300 UCAS points seems stupidly easy but I guess thats why people also get the 2:1 or better stipulation.

 

[GarethSouthgate]

I've yet to see anyone who really benefited from doing an accounting degree. I mean, 6 exemption is about 5 weeks of college say and 100 hours of studying imo. So you spend three years to exempt yourself from 2 months of work, seems pretty pointless use of time to me.

I can think of two people who studied Accounting/Accounting and Finance. One is now a fully qualified chartered acc and the other is working at Goldman Sachs. I'm pretty sure if you asked them, they would say they benefited from having their degree.

Are you working at the same time as doing yours?

Chances are someone who wants to do it won't be able to find a company willing to take on people to start ACA ACCA quals in this current climate.

So even if you decide to do it on your own back, it'll take around 3(?) years to do all the exams (maybe longer) and then you'll need at least 3yrs experience before you are chartered iirc?

Now is really not a bad time to go and do a decent degree, in 3/4 years time there won't be as much unemployment as there currently is.

 

[yantorsen]

Not from experience of being an architect but from that of having a qualification in it as well as engineering and being familiar with the industry.

A few of my uni peers went on to work as architects whereas the majority went into structural engineering, like me. My arch tutor who taught me at uni is local, so I've actually been employed by him oddly to work alongside him, been to his practice, socialised. So generally, I am in touch with friends/colleagues who are on the other side. There are perks but it's not as glamourous as it appears when you keep seeing architects' names in papers aand working in exotic countries all the time.

Yeah, I realise it's not all glam, but I think I'd enjoy it, since I like designing and being creative, and it's the only profession that involves that which is well paid really.


Thanks for the insight

 

[Amp34]

What things do you include in conducting yourself outside of academia, jobs or other things?

Yeah, jobs, experience that may be useful, sports, interests, that sort of thing.

I guess it's the whole "are you intelligent but stupid in real life, or intelligent and sociable all round" thing.

 

[_dogma_]

If they did mediocre at A Level they have no place in an institution of Higher learning.

I don't think that's particularly fair. I did well at Standard grade, Intermediate 2 and then terrible at higher. I then spent 2 years at college to get enough marks to scrape into my degree course. I'm now at uni, loving it and getting First marks. Obviously, I can do the work even though I didn't do great at Higher level.

It's quite scary knowing that a job isn't guarenteed when I finish. I know that I will probably have to move abroad for a while to gain the experience I'll need but I'm willing to do that so hopefully that will make me more appealing to employers!

 

[Psycrow]

Yeah, I realise it's not all glam, but I think I'd enjoy it, since I like designing and being creative, and it's the only profession that involves that which is well paid really.


Thanks for the insight

Architects get excited about choosing interior finishes or coming up with a "feel", "theme" or "concept" for the building. When it comes to practically designing a WORKING building, they tend to just be annoying and get in the way.
Saying that they are needed, if it was left to just engineers everything would be square boxes probably.

The no good grades, not getting into uni comment is a weird one as it assumes everyone receives the same schooling which is massivly inconsistant accross the country. I've had friends who did awful at school, got into uni very luckily and then went on to do very well both at uni and then in their careers.

 

[panthro]

I dont get UCAS points at all anymore....when I was going through uni applications you needed 18-25 points to get into uni, obviously with 25+ being at the top end of the tier.

 

[Simon]

Most companies ignore UCAS points anyway and look at your degree if you are still looking for a job after your have your degree.

I only got 6 points (60 in today money) lol

 

[Cobertizo]

What's wrong with the Big Four? I don't see any of the graduates moaning who wanted to go in to IBs to find there aren't any jobs. I'd rather get a great wage and work 9 til 5 than a fantastic wage and work 16 hour days.

9 to 5 in the Big Four? You sure about that? More so than investment banking, though, I'll admit. But Corporate Finance can be one of the least 9 to 5 areas around.

Some people seem to have the impression that the Big Four are just audit, checking numbers. KPMG have one of the best Corporate Finance departments around.

Yes, there is a surprising variety... Including stuff like IT consulting/risk management which isn't always instantly obvious.

 

[Kemik]

9 to 5 in the Big Four? You sure about that? More so than investment banking, though, I'll admit. But Corporate Finance can be one of the least 9 to 5 areas around.

Tax is definitely 9-5, maybe 9-6 some times.

Audit will be a bit longer if you include transport time.

 

[Mad old tory]

And if you want to work for one of the Big 4 they care far more about what you did at school (ie, UCAS points) than your Degree. It's pretty much 'How many UCAS points did you get? Oh you've got a degree as well? yea whatever, now tell me, HOW MANY UCAS POINTS!'

Lol news to me

Degree was more important than A levels by a big stretch as they stuck a 2 year limit on every so-called competency or achievement used as an example in the interview or online form.

 

[Mad old tory]

Tax is definitely 9-5, maybe 9-6 some times.

Audit will be a bit longer if you include transport time.

Not at the moment it isn't!

 

[Mad old tory]

What's wrong with the Big Four? I don't see any of the graduates moaning who wanted to go in to IBs to find there aren't any jobs. I'd rather get a great wage and work 9 til 5 than a fantastic wage and work 16 hour days.

Some people seem to have the impression that the Big Four are just audit, checking numbers. KPMG have one of the best Corporate Finance departments around.



Yes they will, but the accounting degree gives you a big benefit. I feel sorry for the people who need to start from the beginning. Exemptions for me will help me loads. I have to learn the CA (ICAS) modules and CTA (CIOT).

I'm personally hoping to use secondments to get in to CF, try it out and if I can live with the work life balance, try and transfer.

They're cutting graduate jobs too. Loads of good, quality, students on my course are getting turned down at the application stage for the Big Four. I'm just glad I done an internship. Even then I had to fight against someone who done an internship the year before and took a year out.

Are you going to do the grad scheme at KPMG? If so, your exemptions don't get you out of any class time and you still have to pass your mocks in any TC exams you have exemptions for. You still have to take all the higher modules. The exemptions basically get you a weeks extra revision for the tax modules, which I guess is handy but not a massive gain.

 

[yantorsen]

Architects get excited about choosing interior finishes or coming up with a "feel", "theme" or "concept" for the building. When it comes to practically designing a WORKING building, they tend to just be annoying and get in the way.
Saying that they are needed, if it was left to just engineers everything would be square boxes probably.

Architects run the project though, and design all the aesthetics of the project, which is what I'm interested in, not the boring maths behind it all.

 

[Simon]

Architects run the project though, and design all the aesthetics of the project, which is what I'm interested in, not the boring maths behind it all.

The boring Math that holds things up your mean ?

 

[[TW]Fox]

Lol news to me

Degree was more important than A levels by a big stretch as they stuck a 2 year limit on every so-called competency or achievement used as an example in the interview or online form.

News to you? Look at the application process for any of them - 300+ UCAS points or go away.