NEW ‘JOB-HOPPING’ GENERATION OF GRADUATES IS EMERGING – HOW MANY JOBS HAVE YOU HAD SINCE GRADUATION?
The average graduate stays in their first job after university for just a year and a half, new research has revealed. Of the 42% who left their job less than 18 months after starting, one in five quit after just six months.
The research — involving 2,000 graduates from the last ten years — supports growing anecdotal evidence suggesting the nature of graduate job hunting has shifted hugely in the last decade. No longer are graduates picking a career aged 21 and then just ploughing on with it (thank God — talk about dull). Today’s graduates are prepared to chop and change until they find a career that ‘fits’.
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And you’re an ambitious lot. The study – by The Marketers’ Forum – found that four in 10 graduates said they left their first job because they weren’t able to progress up the career ladder fast enough. Many used their first job to try out an industry – and found it triggered a complete re-think (15% said they realised they’d picked the wrong career entirely). You’re also being flexible about what job you take — only one in five said their current role was their ‘dream job’.
Don’t you fear being labelled a job-hopper? Apparently not. Although six in 10 graduates were concerned that quitting so soon would make them unattractive to future employers, the average graduate felt that nine and a half months was a respectable time to spend in their first job.
Until now, it has generally been believed that 18 months is the minimum you should stay in any job (unless something is seriously wrong). Could this change in graduates’ attitudes be a symptom of the new, so-called ‘flexible’ workforce, where young people are rarely offered permanent, full-time positions and instead start their career with short contracts, temp jobs and freelance work?
The research also found that many graduates admitted they’d made big — and expensive — mistakes with their choices about university. Only a third said if they had the choice again they’d pick the same university and degree course. Nearly a quarter said they’d choose a different subject — and nearly a fifth said they wouldn’t bother with university at all.
Quentin Crowe, managing director of The Marketers’ Forum said the findings about today’s graduates should warn prospective students to think carefully about their options when considering higher education:
“After spending several years studying for a degree, it can be daunting to suddenly be under pressure to do something with it and get a job.
“The research sends a stark message to young people about to finish their A levels. Be absolutely certain about your university and degree choices and, if not, explore wider options now to avoid disappointment three years down the line.”
He said he expected school-leavers to become increasingly shrewd about their choices as the price tag for university leaps this autumn. Options like their new flexible, part-time course, Professional Marketing and Management for Business are ideal “for individuals looking for a fast track, cost-effective head start into a rewarding career.”
*DO YOU WORRY ABOUT BEING VIEWED AS A ‘JOB-HOPPER’?
Or in today’s ‘flexible’ economy has it become more acceptable for graduates to do jobs for shorter periods at the start of their career? How many jobs have you had since you graduated? How long did you stick with each – and why did you leave?
I wouldn’t say this is true for me… I don’t intend on leaving my job, I love it too much.
Is this job hopping phenomena new? I thought this had been the case for a while. Maybe even more so back when there were more opportunities for the average graduate. I think graduates with stop-gap jobs might worry that its going to turn into their long term job if they spend to long in it.
In some ways I’ve had the opposite attitude. I’ve been in my job for just over two years and people are telling me that I need to move on or that I am too young to spend more than two years in a job. In these two years I have kind of realized that the career I assumed I would go into after uni is not going to happen and without going into detail I am looking at still using my degree but in a different direction.
I think you can get away with leaving a job if you can give a good and well thought out reason for why you made that decision.
I would be living in a fantasy world should I believe that my graduate career will begin anytime soon. I graduated in 2008 with a 2:1 in History – a very respectable degree, except now I was being told that you needed a Master’s degree to start on a good graduate career path. Graduate training programmes had closed their doors, postgraduate funding was not available to me. A recruitment agency refused to register me because employers would not even consider me because I hadn’t worked in the two years prior to my graduation. After fruitless jobsearch in my university town, I was forced to return to my hometown. After a few months on the dole, I took a temporary non-graduate job in a call centre followed by several months’ unemployment. This seems to be the pattern. I was told that a degree has a short shelf-life of two or three year. When I passed the three-year mark since graduating, it dawned on me that I was not going to begin a graduate career and felt paralysed for several months by this realisation. As a mature graduate from a poor background, I was accustomed to disappointments. However, this time I was determined to overcome my situation. I live close to the town centre where there is the local studies library containing microfilm of all the old town newspapers and the council archive department with original documents such as journals, diaries and minutes book. In a recent history book of my town, the author stated the need for greater local history research beyond the surface. This set me on my current course to write a local history book. I found my topic in the newspaper archive and began to research it further. My recent stint of non-graduate employment has, for the first time since graduating, provided me with savings to buy an initial bundle of specialist books to help me in my research. My career path is currently several months of employment followed by several months unemployment. So I do not worry about finding the time to do my research. My timescale is 5 to 10 years, realistically. But I have succeeded in overcoming the disillusionment of graduate life in this period of austerity. I’m determined not to let my degree go to waste. I know I have the ability to write a local history book and I’m going for it!
I think it all depends on the industry you’re in. For engineering and science graduates I think there is a greater amount of job stability. As a Graduate Engineering Geologist I am expected to work towards being chartered which takes 5 years and typically happens within one or at most two jobs. Also, a lot of job opportunities are with consultancies therefore you work within the same company but in a few different places on varying projects therefore it stays interesting.
I loved my undergraduate degree in Geology and Physical Geography from Edinburgh and realize now my MSc in Engineering Geology from Leeds has a lot of value ( I was the last year of NERC funded courses) and would do it all again the same way. I am getting interviews very easily now with the pre-summer job market boom and just need to nail the interviews.
I definitely agree that job hopping is both good for you and the employer providing your story makes sense.
I’d also caveat that it’s a lot easier if
You have a strong university(any subject however) and A-levels and essentially there are no red flags on your cv.
I knew commercial experience of any kind made sense straight away so I did a year in recruitment sales immediately after uni. I literally could not have worked harder- I was determined to at least have a competent record after a year to apply for grad schemes, different entry level jobs etc but take a similar salary or a pay cut.
After a good year I ended up on a grad scheme paying £25k… This was a fair increase on my base but less overall. I’m now 18 months into the scheme and whilst I love the company the scheme has been hit and miss. Some of the placements are great, others don’t seem to realise what a grad can do. I certainly feel people who worry that they need a grad scheme are (like I was) sold by the marketing… I learnt just as much in recruitment as I have here… Yes you become more rounded, appreciate varying levels of stakeholders, but essentially it’s about doing a ‘difficult’ job.
I’m now interviewing for internal roles on around £30k and will ideally stay at the company unless there isn’t a suitable role… If not id be looking in the £27-30k range. 3 years post uni it’s far from amazing but certainly not a horror story either.
So, in essence, I’ve job hopped to my advantage and it just has be a coherent and logical step to develop you whilst still clear what you can bring to them in the short and long term.
I’d be keen for graduatefog to run a story/survey on grads who have 2-5 years experience… What is the standard salary for us? Am I worth £30k and lucky or should be pushing for more? And obviously comparing industry to industry. Some of the headhunter calls have had are surprised I’m on so much whilst others try and blag to go for £35k+ roles!!
I have to tell all potential university students out there who haven’t started a degree, its very important to do something which leads to a good career these days. Brian, I’m sorry, but the idea you (and a lot of others) have that history is a good degree is exactly the problem with the current graduate labour market. You need to do something which has direct employability these days. This may be a science, engineering, maths, or economics, or, if your not into the quantitative side of things, law or business studies. I know you have to find a career you enjoy, but if you don’t study a subject like the ones i mentioned, then you’re not going to have any career. I studied economics, and went on to do a masters in it as well. Now i have my first grad job in finance and i hate it (boring excel all day) but I feel like I can leave after a year because I have a good degree background that many employers are looking for. Think hard before you spend a lot of time and money on which degree you will do.
I’ve had about 17 jobs since graduation in 2011 – mostly agency 😉
It’s not “job hopping” if you don’t have any real input on whether an employer wants you for a week’s sickness cover or a year.
Guys, I was wondering if you could offer some advice?
I just graduated this summer with a physics degree (1st) but I have no idea how graduate schemes work. I’ve read that most of them are closed now for this years intake? Is this true? Where should I look for graduate schemes or jobs?
I worked really hard for my degree but I feel like I am off to a bad start already. No one has told me anything.
Where are the best places to look for the remaining graduate schemes? Any help is much appreciated.
Hi Rich,
Try and stay positive! (Coming from someone who graduated 2013 and is still on minimum wage)
It’s a shame your uni doesn’t seem to have given you any idea of grad schemes but tbh all the information is online and a lot of them expect you to find it yourself.
Although I don’t know your industry, I can tell you that most head schemes have a January, July or September intake. September starts usually have applications in January and January usually the summer before.
So for example any applications you do find open now would be for a January intake, it’s a long process with thousands of applicants.
My advice would be to look at ones that have closed as well and if you like the look of them then come up with a strategy of what you can do to increase your chances up until the next intake.
Good luck!
Brian – good luck with the book! It does sound like an academic/research career could be good for you. I know Masters are pretty unaffordable, but from next year they are bringing in 10k of student loan (without big interest) for it, and maybe you could do it part-time and do a casual job on the side to pay for living costs.
Alex – I think it depends what your priority is. Personally I find job satisfaction more important than job security. I’m currently working as a waitress in the day and a telephone fundraiser in the evening, and in my spare time doing what I really want to do: writing for magazines and websites about sustainability. I don’t mind doing insecure jobs to pay the bills and building up my portfolio slowly until I can get a paid job doing what I love. Personally I would find it soul destroying to study something I have little interest in and work a full time job that I hate. But we all have different paths to different goals!
Ive just been in one terrible job after another with my degrees, a BA in criminology and an MA in criminology get you nowhere, in fact Ive probably had more rejections from jobs because of them. Overqualified is the new Underqualified, been in boring office jobs and customer service and I hate it and actually dont care in these roles it wasnt what I wanted to do so Im never going to find it enjoyable. Targets for some shameless company to laud over the next competitor is not my idea of fun and I really dont care for it. Im considering going back to uni to study nutrition, I’ll never pay off my student debt anyway so whats another 30 grand gonna cost me?
This country has it totally wrong and the interest on our loans is going up too, no chance we will ever pay it back, ridiculous!