Graduates now 'more likely to end up as cleaners', official figures show

flexrider

gadgetmind wrote: »

I have never had to write a CV or have a job interview. Sweet!

Nope i wrote a business plan and took it to busines link who advised me a few years ago how to start my businesses which is more harder to do finding parters and investment business loans back then.

as for never writing a cv i have done that before in the past before i came self-emloyed so your point is?

Imelda

vivatifosi wrote: »

I'm with Callie here. What does it matter if people are cleaners? The reason a good cleaner can earn £15 p/h has nothing to do with how good someone is with a bottle of bleach. A good cleaner (who will have excellent references and probably a waiting list) is far more than that. They are discreet so that they never talk about what they may find out. They are reliable so and trustworthy and will never take anything from the house. They are able to work on their own, without supervision. They get the job finished on time in order to earn their pay and get their money in. On a small scale, these are the sort of skills people need to run a business.

If people start out as cleaners, postmen or anything else mentioned in the article and it gives them a start, fair play to them.

I agree, I think someone who has shown resourcefulness when finding work will stand out from those who have sat on their backsides.

I have a friend who has just finished a law degree. As a student she cleaned for several houses in Clapham and got work experience in many City law firms and ended up with a well paid training contract as a result- it's who you know afterall :cool:

Loughton_Monkey

Lokolo wrote: »

See I find that really odd! Whenever I've been to interviews they've been more interested in my soft skills rather than my technical experience. I usually explain my programming experience at some point during the interviews but they tend to just ask questions about what I've done in previous jobs in terms of team working, leadership, why the job, why the company etc.

Bloomberg were the only ones who gave me an actual programming test.

In the 70's and (I think) most of the 80's, a degree was valued in 2 ways. Firstly, there was some reflection of the 'technical' value - in other words a Chemical Company would employ Chemists and Chemical Engineers, or a Museum might have recruited History graduates.

The second [and probably the more frequent I would imagine] attitude was expressed as "We want to employ a graduate of any discipline. This is because we want to take intelligence and ability to learn as a 'given', and are not particularly interested in the discipline. We want the candidate to learn 'our business' rapidly, and respond to the training that we will give.

The latter was relevant in my own case [Chemical Engineering degree, but career in Financial Services] but my experience was that 'graduate status' applied for no longer than about 3 years.

After 3 years, promotion [plus being headhunted or switching to a new employer] was based partly on 'what you have achieved' and partly on 'personality/soft skills' etc. Plus a small bit on Professional Exams.

Rather ironically, I had a total of 5 employers (4 International 'Blue Chip') and not a single one ever asked to 'see' my degree. But to obtain my Chinese work permit, I needed to produce the original degree, and originals of all my FCII certificates too!

Londonsu

Last week I went to a family reunion and was talking to the younger generation of my family about their jobs
24 yo Plumber
22 yo Purchasing Manager
21 yo Estate agent
17 yo Car Mechanic

Not one of them went to university, not one of them have crippling student debts
and the 24 yo bought his own home two years ago and the 22 and 21 yo will be buying next year

My family have proved it can be done

gadgetmind

Lokolo wrote: »

Bloomberg were the only ones who gave me an actual programming test.

Odd. If you were seeking to employ a juggler, what is perhaps the one thing you might ask them to do during the interview process?

Of course you seek a rounded individual, and someone who can fly high, but most of all you need someone with ninja programming skills, who can make the computer sit up and do tricks.

bendix

Im with Loughton, as usual.

This result is an inevitable part of the dumbine down of society that Labour presided over during the 90s. It's absolutely farcical that everyone gets huge A level results now, and the value of a degree has been completely debased. In our day, a degree meant something - today in this lovey 'we're all special' UK, it's a right.

What do people expect? There are only so many good jobs around; do people really think their degree in football management studies from Great Yarmouth University is going to have any real value in the real jobs world?

gadgetmind

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Rather ironically, I had a total of 5 employers (4 International 'Blue Chip') and not a single one ever asked to 'see' my degree.

Really? We need to see originals of all certificates for relevant qualifications claimed on the CV, and we take copies. I recall one example of blatant grade exaggeration (job offer withdrawn) and one where someone declined the role when we made it clear that presenting the certificate wasn't optional. Other than that, I'm please to say that all the hundreds of others have been honest, or at least good at forgery.

LilacPixie

Both my husband and I are graduates. I got a job pretty much straight away but over the years my role has changed quite a bit as my employer has expanded so now my job description and my degree don't really match. My husband just couldn't find a job for his degree within a reasonable commute so he now drives a lorry. He opted to not apply for any of the 'graduate' recruitment schemes as they did not interest him in the slightest.

I'm actually studying with OU, funded by my employer, for a 2nd degree that is a bit more relevant to what i'm doing now.

I really do thing that his degree has just been a particularly expensive piece of paper, he still has about 3k of student loans to clear and his HGV licences were another expense but he at least uses them.

lostinrates

gadgetmind wrote: »

Really? We need to see originals of all certificates for relevant qualifications claimed on the CV, and we take copies.

I've NEVER been asked to see copies of certs that I can remember (I have a very dodgy memeory so its possible I'm wrong)...just as well...I haven't kept them all. At university when I applied for a scholarship for post grad I think my results were checked via a phonecall.


This so intrigued me I asked DH this morning. He has not been asked for copies of anyting proving his academic record either. His employers checked his professional qualifications though, and the nature of sualification is that there is some communication with Law Society duting a training contract.

IronWolf

It's i2010 and were recovering from a recession. Pretty pointless comparing figures now to 1993 it's hardly normal circumstances