Use your interests to identify a career

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The importance of starting salary varies enormously for different individuals. For some it is a key factor in choice of career, for others salary may be less important than, for example, the opportunity to travel, challenging work or feeling socially useful. However, it is an important factor for many people in both choosing a particular career path and when it comes to deciding between different job opportunities.

Figures regarding both expectations and reality concerning salary are problematical, as the graduate labour market is very complicated and fragmented. Still, there are some useful statistics, patterns and trends that are outlined briefly to help you in your decision making. You may also find this information useful later on when you come to negotiate your own contract of employment.

Several organisations, including the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), Incomes Data Services (IDS), CSU Ltd (publishers of Prospects Today) and Industrial Relations Services (IRS) all publish annual surveys that outline the range of starting salaries paid in the year of publication as well as estimates of rates that will apply the following year. These studies give a clear and pretty consistent picture of going rates in any one year.

The AGR survey tends to report higher figures than some of the other pay surveys because its respondents tend to be the larger employers of new graduates. By contrast, the CSU survey, based on large numbers of advertised positions from across all business sectors of the economy, invariably comes out with a lower average than the others.