Graduate Entry Schemes

ka7e

My son (21) graduated this Spring with a 1st class degree in Computing, from a mediocre uni. Since then he has applied for quite a few jobs locally. When he applies for run-of-the-mill admin jobs he is told he's over-qualified, yet the better-paid jobs all require up to 2 years experience. He has applied for positions as Network Admin. and designer, database designer...all sorts of IT and non-IT positions.

Although the idea of working/living in London does not appeal to him at all, he is considering applying for various 2007 Graduate Entry schemes. Mainly the IT divisions of large banks, possibly Sainsbury's (he's worked p/t for them for 5 years). Has anyone any experience of what the application process entails? He is particularly concerned about a telephone interview!

Do employers help arrange accommodation in London? Is the basic salary of £22- £25k sufficient to live on in London?
Anyone with first-hand experience, or recommendations as to which firms he should apply to?

Thanks, ka7e

Sarahpuggy

Hi there,

Im on a graduate scheme at the moment, its not IT related, but my boyfriend got a 1st class degree in computing from the university of northumbria a few years ago and he did have some difficulty getting his first job. He had to move 300 miles away from home, but once he had that first job its gone from strength to strength. He started on 17k, now hes on 32k in just under 3 years working, so tell your son to keep at it!

Graduate schemes are notoriously hard to get onto. They have thousands of applicants and not many places. If he has relevent work experience, this will set him apart from the rest and is always a good factor. I would say my work experience was what got me an interview, even though i got a 1st too.

They usually consist of first a telephone interview as like a screening tool, and then usually an asessment day where you will have group interviews/task and teamwork task etc, and then if you get through all this, perhaps one or two more interviews one on one, and there will probably be some sort of tests to do, like a verbal reasonsing test.

Most of the grad schemes i have ever seen definately didn't have a starting salary of 22-25k! More like 16-19k, and thats in London where we live now! It probably is higher for the big banks and things though.

I would really urge your son to keep applying for jobs. With IT there are alot of small companies that are great to gain your first year of experience with. I remember some of the websites that my boyfriend used when he was job hunting..

Google these: CW jobs (they are really good, IT specialists) and totaljobs, monster.co.uk.

There are loads of agencies that specialise in IT. He needs to just get his CV out there, get it circulating through all of the agents and they will help him immensely. if his CV isn't up to scratch then most of the above website have advice about that, or again, people at the agency will help you with it.

The most important thing for him to do is not give up. hes obviously very intelligent and there will be lots of employers willing to employ him, he just needs to be really proactive and get his CV out to as many people as he can! he will get a result eventually im sure.

Good Luck, sarah x

dmg24

A good starting point for graduate jobs is https://www.prospects.ac.uk, and also https://www.doctorjob.com. I found my graduate job on Prospects, even though I did leave only one year into the four year scheme!

One thing to be aware of with the above two websites is that they can make out graduate schemes to be the be all and end all. They are not. Whilst they certainly have their place, there are plenty of other good jobs out there.

My application did not involve a telephone interview, but did have online testing and an assessment centre.

Some employers do help to arrange accommodation in London, but the majority don't. Springboard (https://www.springboardurban.co.uk) specialise in graduate accommodation, and may act as a good stepping stone between home and the big wide world.

Very best of luck x

Steve122_2

Well - I m a grad and I m getting 49K in my first year working for a bank in Canary Wharf

Funny thing is I am thinking that a lot more money then this could be made dpoing property buy to lets or various other business ideas.

To be honest 49 K after tax is about 2.5K a month which for people in London is not much

Maybe I am being greedy but who knows

ka7e

Thanks for the comments!
We do have "grad" jobs advertised in Bristol and Exeter at £20-25k, but they actually ask for 2 years experience . If he could stick a couple of years in the City at that pay scale, a return to the SW would seem quite a good option.
The sort of jobs where he could gain some general work experience only pay £14-16k and he could have walked straight in to one of those from school!

Astaroth

I applied for the Graduate Scheme with my current employers (a UK bank)... with my employers you apply for a division (insurance, banking, private banking etc) and then do 2 years on 4 different assignments within the division and these can be anything from IT to HR to call centre etc.

Our application process 3 years ago was:

1) CV

2) Online tests including:
a) maths/ logic - whilst it was considered by many as a maths test it was much more logic as all the answers had the options 1) answer cannot be worked out from given data 2) answer not in the list 3) 5 different possible answers
b) comprehension - read a load of text and multi choice answers again with the 2 additional options of cannot say and answer not in options
c) personality - lots of say which is most like you and least like you

3) Telephone interview - very basic, lots of questions like what do you want to get out of the scheme, why have you applied to work for this company, what have you read about us in the news recently, what do you see as the biggest challenge for us at the moment etc

4) Assessment centre - 2 days
a) Interviews (2)
b) Written paper - another maths/ logic test and a business case where you had to write a SWOT analysis on it
c) Presentation - 15 mins to prepare a 10 min presentation (mine was on why I should be the successful candidate)
d) Group exercise - 3 hours, ours was on the idea that we were the management team for an international company that had "found" some additional funding and we had received 5 "bids" from different directors for blocks of the money and we had to prepare and deliver a 20 min presentation and 20 minute Q&A session on our recommendations - needless to say that through the 3 hour session we had a number of emergency updates (eg a 6th bid, political instability occuring in the region of one of the bids area etc)
e) Evening dinner & drinks - was claimed not to be part of the selection process but it was


Graduate schemes are almost always under paid but then again it gives a great opportunity to learn the skills needed and more importantly really, to network. They are looking for people that have long term thinking and so dont generally want to give £60k jobs as this shouldnt be the driving factor for someone with long term plans, the ability to get the £100k job within 5 years should be much more important.

I personally was offered a job by our then head of strategy at a higher level than anyone has achieved after the 2 year scheme and so didnt actually go on it so cannot give first hand experience of what it is like.

Steve122_2

Grad schemes are well overrated - Dont believe for a second that getting onto a grad scheme means you get a 100k job after 5 years.

I think about it like Univesity - Its up to you

Savvy_Sue

Has your son tried signing on with any agencies? I'd say that was worthwhile: it will still take persistence and perseverance but it's another entry route.

Astaroth

Steve122 wrote:

Grad schemes are well overrated - Dont believe for a second that getting onto a grad scheme means you get a 100k job after 5 years.

I think about it like Univesity - Its up to you

Very much up to you... and also down to you.... with our graduate schemes a significant number end up being team leaders in our call centre, something that they could have achieved simply by working as a call agent for a couple of years but also one of our former graduates became a senior manager on a total reward of over £100k within 3 years - now 18 months on he is a director of a division on a basic salary of over £100k

It is important to look at the scheme carefully and work out what your game plan is. None of the ones I have ever heard of assure you of a job after finishing. In addition to this some companies I have worked for use, abuse and then discard their graduate people where as others invest a lot of time and effort in them and will actively help them find jobs in the company at the end of it.... this isnt necessarily the best anyway as with 2 grads I knew who did go to a use and abuse type company ended up with outstanding jobs with another company at the end of the scheme.