Man, I've had a crappy time since i finished my degree

Amp34 · 19 Sep 2011 at 16:32

sp1ke said:
Jesus christ...

What degree / jobs did they do? thats insane....

Geology/earth science.

The former are masters graduates and would expect to be on around £25-30k for a consultancy and £30k+ for an operator (both average industry graduate wages)

The latter are those that moved to Australia on WHV and went into mining.

exhashdotdot · 19 Sep 2011 at 16:54

Amp34 said:
Rubbish! While you are a little correct in your assumption that companies want experience as well as a degree the idea that a masters doesn't help is rubbish.

Lets put it this way, due to my masters the number of job interviews I have had during and after that (due to doing that masters) has been far greater than the entire year after my BSc.

OP I think the big question is if you want to do a generic job or something a bit more specialised. If you want to be generic it technician 57 or recruitment consultant 569 then the big recruitment websites sill do you fine. If you want to do something a bit more specialised then a Masters in that sector will probably help your job hunting a lot (even if its just for the contacts through the course), as will essentially ignoring the big recruitment websites and hitting the smaller specialised ones that are actually advertising proper "physics" jobs (for example). That's in my experience anyway.

I think that backs up my need to do a masters as I do have a passion for physics. I think working as a programmer for a year will be beneficial though - earn some money, gain some experience etc. It'll look good on my CV when I apply for PhDs.

crinkleshoes · 19 Sep 2011 at 16:59

sp1ke said:
Yeh i'm on JSA for a little while. F'ing hate it. Yeah have to start somewhere, I think i'm looking too high up at jobs aswell but hard to find decent baseline jobs which just arn't plain ******.

He's just lazy.

Yeah... and for some reason those of us under 25 can live on less than those over 25... where the hell did that difference come from?

VinceB1 said:
A friend of mine who has the same degree as me (BSc in comp science) really struggled after uni, me I had to work all the way through uni doing 38 hours a week during the nights and uni during the day. I found that I got a job within days of finishing uni, however 8 months later he was still looking for his first job so I got him in on a development role in the company I was working for at the time.

The conclusion I drew from this is that for students coming out of a degree that haven't worked previously seem to have a difficult time finding work.

I was pretty much the same... I wasn't doing those kinds of hours, but I was working... the first few years with the uni's in-house it and then my own web-hosting (ish) business in my final year (basically a reseller + support). I haven't stopped working in one form or another since I was 16.

Still had to start in a crappy job for ~14 months... love the new place though

Another thing I've found... most students seem to be completely ignorant to the interview process! Even with mock interviews etc... you seem to get dragged through how to improve how you answer questions etc, usually about you. What I never received was info on what to do before the interview... single main point... RESEARCH THE COMPANY!

If you go in unprepared... it's highly likely you will fail

Kmodo · 19 Sep 2011 at 17:03

It was the same for me when I graduated in last year. Just have to start at the bottom and keep applying for different jobs after. Now I am on 22k but I see little ways of it improving for a few years at least.

crinkleshoes · 19 Sep 2011 at 17:04

Amp34 said:
Geology/earth science.

The former are masters graduates and would expect to be on around £25-30k for a consultancy and £30k+ for an operator (both average industry graduate wages)

The latter are those that moved to Australia on WHV and went into mining.

I can concur that it's possible... I'm an example

£48k + car allowance + bonus + overtime

Not bad for not even 2.5 years out of uni...

... still further to climb

(I didn't start on that... I proved I'm worth more and have had a few increases already... with more to come

)

oulton · 19 Sep 2011 at 17:17

dude,

MOVE ABROAD!!!! I graduated in my masters in GIS (distinction but **** a levels) and now 2 years in I just signed a contract as a senior GIS consuntalk on 65k a year with great benefits... the british economy is so ****ed but europe, asia, australia are crying out for good physicians/comp scientists!

CHIN UP

Pawnless Endgame · 19 Sep 2011 at 18:27

Deep said:
I graduated last year.

Started applying for jobs in July, and until December I had only 1 interview

But in January I had 5! Received an offer for a job and started in February.

Apart from different year numbers, your interview timings are pretty much on par with mine! Graduated in Electronic Eng. in July 2002. Applied for some 120-odd jobs and absolutely bugger all came out of it apart from an interview in November which I of course failed. Come Jan/Feb 2003, and I had 8 interviews. 2 of them actually clashed because they were on the same day! I finally got lucky, starting my career in IT tech support in mid-Feb 2003. Ended up working there for nearly 7 years.

For those looking now, I found that voluntary work helped. It did for me in early 2003 and again last year. First time round in 2003 was doing some web design for the local council. Second time in 2010 was working with elderly as IT trainer at Age Concern (now called Age UK).

CREATIVE!11 · 19 Sep 2011 at 18:30

Amp34 said:
Geology/earth science.

The former are masters graduates and would expect to be on around £25-30k for a consultancy and £30k+ for an operator (both average industry graduate wages)

The latter are those that moved to Australia on WHV and went into mining.

I got tempted by geology, mainly cause oil is big bucks and BP pays a wack for grads in that area trolololol

crinkleshoes said:
I can concur that it's possible... I'm an example

£48k + car allowance + bonus + overtime

Not bad for not even 2.5 years out of uni...

... still further to climb

(I didn't start on that... I proved I'm worth more and have had a few increases already... with more to come )

Doing?

Reginald · 19 Sep 2011 at 18:35

What do you want to do?

Amp34 · 19 Sep 2011 at 19:12

oulton said:
dude,

MOVE ABROAD!!!! I graduated in my masters in GIS (distinction but **** a levels) and now 2 years in I just signed a contract as a senior GIS consuntalk on 65k a year with great benefits... the british economy is so ****ed but europe, asia, australia are crying out for good physicians/comp scientists!

CHIN UP

Where do you work? Although my masters wasn't GIS it did have a significant amount in it. One of the jobs I'm interviewing for is GIS but I'm guessing abroad will offered more money.

Amp34 · 19 Sep 2011 at 19:14

sp1ke said:
I got tempted by geology, mainly cause oil is big bucks and BP pays a wack for grads in that area trolololol

BP are about average for a major I think (around £35k)

The amount of money thrown around is silly. Small startups getting 100s of millions of pounds in investment. How many other industries get that?! But then it has to be. It can cost 100 million plus to get a field working and thats if you were lucky enough to drill in the right place. Heard the one about the company spending £400 million on a drilling program on one prospect that was dry... *wince*

CREATIVE!11 · 19 Sep 2011 at 19:29

Amp34 said:
BP are about average for a major I think (around £35k)

The amount of money thrown around is silly. Small startups getting 100s of millions of pounds in investment. How many other industries get that?! But then it has to be. It can cost 100 million plus to get a field working and thats if you were lucky enough to drill in the right place. Heard the one about the company spending £400 million on a drilling program on one prospect that was dry... *wince*

Still better than anything i'll end up earning probably.

Wish I had chosed my degree wiser I had the A level grades which weren't too bad but I just chose whatever i was somewhat interested in with no thought on career prospects etc.

Biology before you ask.

rexehuk · 19 Sep 2011 at 20:51

sp1ke said:
Still better than anything i'll end up earning probably.

Wish I had chosed my degree wiser I had the A level grades which weren't too bad but I just chose whatever i was somewhat interested in with no thought on career prospects etc.

Biology before you ask.

That's a bit negative. You'll never get a decent salary unless you're positive with the attitude that "You're the best". Why else would someone give you more money? Just keep cracking on knowing you're doing the best job possible and use your initiative where possible to go beyond the call of your job.

Wouldn't put myself down EVER. I can always improve, but never regret.

CREATIVE!11 · 19 Sep 2011 at 21:42

rexehuk said:
That's a bit negative. You'll never get a decent salary unless you're positive with the attitude that "You're the best". Why else would someone give you more money? Just keep cracking on knowing you're doing the best job possible and use your initiative where possible to go beyond the call of your job.

Wouldn't put myself down EVER. I can always improve, but never regret.

Agree, I am being stupidly negative.

Yosiah · 19 Sep 2011 at 21:54

Ideally, you should be have been applying for jobs at the start of your 3rd year, such as graduate recruitment programs, which takes many months of interviews and assessment centres to give you a conditional offer.

People are leaving it too late - at least that's the impression I get.

If you apply whilst still at university, for conditional offers with big businesses, you will also be getting a lot of help from the university to find work and muddle through the process.

I recommend you do what you already said, however, and work at Morrisons and then get a Masters!

Source: All my friends getting degrees and masters and landing jobs in IBM/Rolls Royce/National Rail Graduate Schemes whilst I dropped out of Uni

Berger · 19 Sep 2011 at 22:17

Amp34 said:
Geology/earth science.

The former are masters graduates and would expect to be on around £25-30k for a consultancy and £30k+ for an operator (both average industry graduate wages)

The latter are those that moved to Australia on WHV and went into mining.

Depends on where you go to work, I know a lot of consultants who get paid low to mid 20s up North and feel lucky to get that. In the construction game, not fossil fuels.

One of the major reasons why I am moving to Australia next month

Amp34 · 19 Sep 2011 at 22:48

Berger said:
Depends on where you go to work, I know a lot of consultants who get paid low to mid 20s up North and feel lucky to get that. In the construction game, not fossil fuels.

One of the major reasons why I am moving to Australia next month

I guess, was talking specifically about the O&G consultants though, although I should have made that clearer.

-Ad- · 19 Sep 2011 at 23:08

BP do give you business class travel if you leave the UK and their expenses policy is nice and lax.

Not sure if the work would be enjoying, but if you do well and climb their ladder then you will be set for life, should you want it.

ZombieFan · 19 Sep 2011 at 23:16

Bristol is probably your closest location for a decent number of IT jobs. I've just seached cwjobs.co.uk for c# jobs in Bristol and it's brought back 51 results. Plymouth brings back 1, and Exeter brings back 5. None in Cornwall

RickST · 19 Sep 2011 at 23:20

I might have missed it but where did you graduate from?