The media,
broadcasting and publishing continue to be the most popular job targets
for graduates with computing and IT
close behind.
But the
news is bad for law enforcement, according to the Guardian newspaper’s Grad
Facts 2000. Nearly half this year’s graduates would hate working for the
police, armed forces or Prison Service. Other unpopular jobs include teaching,
building and construction, agriculture and forestry and hotels and catering.
The survey
concluded that this year’s graduates are increasingly powerful and demanding,
with little employer loyalty.
Newspaper
adverts topped the list as a source of career information (53 per cent),
although the Internet has shot up in popularity from 25 per cent to 49 per cent
since 1998. Only 3 per cent use the “milk round” with 18 per cent going for
personal contacts and for company brochures.
Half of the
graduates said they would be discouraged from applying for a job if it involved
doing a test and a quarter disliked role playing or presentations.
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Most want
security, preferring a larger company
to a dotcom for their first job.
More than
half of the 2,000 final-year students quizzed in the summer were looking for
jobs offering a graduate training scheme. Training scores highly in the
must-have stakes, mentioned by seven in 10. The same number were looking for an
initial salary of £10,000-18,000.
