Use your interests to identify a career
Being clear about what interests and what bores you is an important part of job hunting for two main reasons. First, this can help you find the job or career you are suited to. Second, most employers are very keen to check that you know yourself well and that you are pretty sure you will be happy in the job if they decide to offer it to you. Many of you will have some general idea of the sort of job or career you are heading for, but some will not. Career indecision is very common and even those of you who do have a clue may still be nursing self-doubt.
Many career psychologists believe that your vocations/work can be viewed as belonging to one of three main types: working with people, data or practical/scientific. Many careers guidance tests and questionnaires are based on this approach.
This three way hierarchy is very basic, simple structure, but it should at least give you a framework for considering the general areas of work available. Of course, many students and graduates have work interests that fall into more than one of the main divisions. For example, you may be drawn to both caring for people and the practical/creative arts, in which case you could look at occupations that involve both dimensions, such as occupational therapy or teaching art. In a similar vein, you may be a chemist, but are interested in working with people, not just looking at test tubes, so you could explore the marketing and commercial aspects of product development.
Equally, many jobs today require you to integrate aspects of all three - people, data and practical - dimensions. The balance between them will depend on the type of career and on the organisational setting in which you work.
Working out which is the right career for you is not an exact science. Science can help of course, and your local careers advisory service may have several career/personality tests available. The only real drawback with these tests is that they are only as good as the information you provide. In order for them to be helpful, your answers to the questions they pose need to be as accurate as possible and this could be the tricky bit.
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.
- Organisations are aware of going rates in a particular sector of the economy and for particular jobs. Many appear to keep in line with other employers.
- The highest paid jobs are those in consultancies and agencies, such as computer and management consultants.
- There is a wider variation between top and bottom levels of starting pay in the non-industrial sector than in the industrial sector. The non-industrial sector includes professional services such as accountancy, training and IT at the top end of the pay spectrum and much lower average salaries, for example, in the public sector at the bottom end.
- Salaries vary by location, with the highest average rates in East Anglia and the lowest rates in Scotland, North and North West England. In a survey by High Fliers, the average expected salaries in the 25 universities the survey covered ranged from £19,200 in Oxford to £14,400 in Glasgow.
- Some jobs abroad attract very high salaries but these often relate to vacancies for technical specialists.
- The Inner and Outer London allowance paid by some employers can vary enormously, from a few hundred pounds to over £2000
- Graduates with degrees in mathematical sciences and informatics are likely to obtain jobs with higher starting salaries than graduates in other disciplines. Current research suggests the opening up of a bigger gap between salaries offered for scientific jobs and those that do not require technological expertise. Statistically, graduates in arts and humanities are likely to end up with the lowest starting salaries.
One final trend that needs highlighting is the pattern for new female graduates to be paid less than male graduates. Labour Force Survey figures reveal that the median figure for new male graduates in full-time employment was £14,768 compared with only £12,584 for new female graduates. This pattern reflects the fact that female graduates accept lower paid jobs and many work in traditionally lower paid occupational areas.
Expectations of pay progression
Starting pay is an important consideration, but you may also be interested in the speed at which your salary will increase - often called pay progression. Studies show considerable variation in the way that pay increases are handled. Think about what you expect and what different jobs or employers offer. If in doubt, ask. Some employers may agree to review your salary after six months while others may wait for a year or more.
As mentioned, one clear trend is the difference between male and female earnings. Women graduates, on average, start on lower salaries than males, they then catch up in the years immediately following graduation before steadily falling behind again thereafter. Male graduates in full-time jobs were earning an average of £30,000 after 13 years in the workforce, compared with a figure of £21,000 for women.
The extent to which this reflects the operation of discriminatory practices and obstacles preventing women from gaining access to higher paid jobs is unclear. IES suggests that this may be the case in part. Lower and slower pay progression may be explained by the proportion of women taking career breaks in their late twenties and early thirties, thus slowing down or halting longer-term salary progression. Whatever the reasons, the differential between average male and female graduate earnings remains substantial.
Your local careers advisory service is full of useful information about occupations and offers a range of services:
Most careers advisory services have staff dedicated to supporting students from specific disciplines. Advisers are specially trained to help you through the career decision making process - for example, by interpreting and discussing career test results and options available. You can use them in a number of different ways as a source of information, a sounding board for ideas and options. They often keep in touch with recent graduates and can be a fountain of useful information about careers and particular employers.
These are very good. They cover a huge range of occupational areas, tell you about the types of work involved, give examples of typical work routines and responsibilities, set out training requirements and some give an idea of pay and promotion possibilities.
A series of ten career publications that cover specific employment areas, such as IT, law, finance, engineering. Highly readable accounts of what people do and who the well-known employers are.
Many careers advisory services compile specific occupational files, containing useful cuttings, pamphlets and case studies.
N.B. Many lecturers and tutors have also worked outside academia and have first hand knowledge of careers or jobs you may be interested in. If not, they are very good at passing you on to someone else who should be able to help. They may have contacts built up over the years of student placements and work experience ventures, dissertations and so on. Be ruthless in exploiting your tutors!
This material has been taken from the Graduate Career Handbook, published under the FTPH imprint © Pearson Education Ltd 2000.
