CANDIDATES AREN’T GOOD ENOUGH, COMPANY BOSSES INSIST
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To many job-seeking graduates, it seems unbelievable – but a new survey suggests that many employers are struggling to fill their graduate vacancies for this year. With nearly nine in ten graduate employers admitting they have positions that they can’t find suitable candidates for, there could be hundreds of good quality, well-paid graduate roles currently lying vacant.
The poll – from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), which sampled 68 of its 750 member organisations – found that 87% of graduate employers said they can’t find suitable applicants. If the remaining members report similar problems, there could be hundreds – maybe even thousands – of graduate vacancies. Employers claim it’s because the candidates simply aren’t good enough – but one recruiter told Graduate Fog that bosses should share the blame.
The poll found that the highest percentages of vacancies were found to be in the areas of IT (26%), Electrical/Electronic Engineering (23%) and General Management (18%). Employers also reported vacancies nationwide, and urged graduates to think about opportunities outside of London and the South East, saying there are a great many positions still available across the UK.
When asked to cite why the positions remained unfilled, 67% of employers also said that the applications they have received so far have been of insufficient quality. Stephen Isherwood, Chief Executive of the AGR, appeared to back this claim 100%, pointing the finger at careless graduates who submit sloppy applications:
“Much is being made at the moment about the ‘value’ of a university degree in the job market, but we know anecdotally from our members that most candidates fall down at the application stage — so often graduates are not taking enough time over their applications and thus not representing themselves in the best possible light.
“First impressions really do count, and in most cases the first impression an employer receives is a CV or job application. I’d urge all graduates to really research sectors and roles that they’re applying for, tailoring each approach to show why they want that particular job and what relevant skills they can offer an employer.
“There are graduate vacancies out there and making fewer, targeted applications rather than taking a scatter gun approach to finding a job will pay dividends in the long run.”
But Cary Curtis, founder of graduate recruitment agency Give A Grad A Go, suggested some employers should share the responsibility for the scale of the graduate vacancies problem as poor recruiting strategies and processes – and even low salaries – could be partly to blame. He told Graduate Fog:
“Personally I am surprised that so many vacancies are not being filled. There are still more graduates around than there are jobs available – and a large proportion of those graduates are extremely high quality candidates.
“Quite a few applicants could definitely be more focused in their search, and sending out blanket applications is never a good idea.
“However, we speak to a lot of companies who haven’t given enough thought to what they’re going to offer a graduate. There’s a tendency to see if they can pick up a candidate as cheaply as possible, just because there are so many candidates out there, but this obviously restricts the supply chain. They offer a low salary to see what they can get away with, rather than offering a salary to entice the very best candidates.
“Every company has the right to choose who they’re going to hire and how they would like to bring new recruits on board, but we find that the companies who hire exactly who they’re looking for have put a lot of thought into how they’re going to secure those people and how they’re going to help them to develop. They also, usually, have the more structured and friendly hiring processes.”
Graduate Fog has been aware for some time that there are problems with matching up graduate employers and eager jobseekers, particularly in some industries and locations – but the scale of the problem suggested by this poll is startling. What’s going on? Are employers being too picky? Are they using poor recruitment strategies and processes? Are the salaries too low to entice the best candidates? Or do graduates need to take more care over their applications? Whatever the truth, more discussion and investigation into this issue is surely vital. When so many graduates are desperate to get their careers started, it is madness to have any unfilled roles at all. It’s in everybody’s interests to find out what’s going wrong here – and to fix it, fast.
*ARE GRADUATE EMPLOYERS BEING TOO PICKY?
Are bosses’ recruitment strategies to blame? Or are graduates really sending applications that are of poor quality? How do you explain such a large number of unfilled positions, when thousands of graduates claim they’re desperate for work?
Employers no longer want to invest training in new recruits. They want them work ready without any investment on their part. If they can’t find suitable candidates moulding a new recruit into “what they want” is one solution – just one they are unwilling to undertake.
I agree with the above response by “A Graduate”. This is just the beginning of the problem, which often continues throughout the early career of graduates in a relevant graduate position. For example, Further Education and Higher Education lecturers often struggle to get their first full-time teaching job, even when they have excellent relevant skills in the field they want to teach. Then there is job insecurity which is undoubtedly very discouraging. A career in the private sector probably looks more appealing.
The increase in undergraduate intake means students are piled up to the rafters. Yet, there hasn’t been a proportionate increase in recruiting lecturers over the past decade.
Career progression seems to be carefully controlled in a joint action between industry and education, eg in Engineering, with employers firmly in the driving seat. In my opinion, the decision to recruit or not is driven solely by the shareholder, by profit and risk. The poor graduate and his or her qualities is a low priority.
Universities receive funding from the government, which should mean that Parliament has an input into university recruitment strategy.
Sadly, the Association of Graduate Recruiters has always imposed a biased view of employer recruitment expectations, rather than try to persuade potential employers that University Graduates all offer potential of fulfilling employer expectations. However, given that it is only the taxpayer which picks up the tab, providing subsidised Student Loans, and Students taking out Student Loans, with very few employers making a tangible commitment towards training (including providing sponsorship and placements), perhaps the key issue to address is not whether Graduates are Qualified to adapt to the roles, but rather that employers are too naive and myopic in trying to recruit Ideal Candidates. Conversely, if employers are not part of the solution where Graduate Training is concerned, they remain part of the problem, and must either put up or shut up.
Employers could not care less. The cheaper the better, educated to degree level a bonus…irrespective of the level of debt and the struggle to survive with rent, food bills etc..
I remember when I started work for a broker in a non-graduate fund-administration role in 1999 with 2 degrees (yes, 2!), the employer could not have cared less about training, there was none.
Graduate training exists for those on Graduate Management Programmes (GMPs) positions, the majority of us fight for the meagre leftovers….
University is ABSOLUTELY pointless, 15 years down the line and non-graduates have had a significant career headstart, final salary pension schemes, a foot on the property ladder…
I am still renting @ 40.
Sounds like BS to me. I bet most of these unfilled positions aren’t willing to take a chance on somebody without industry experience. It’s a vicious cycle for grads of no experience -> no job and vice versa, well if few recruiters are prepared to give grads a shot without experience then it doesn’t take a genius to work out that there won’t be many with experience. I guess they all think somebody else is going to provide grads with the opportunity to prove themselves and develop experience and then poach them. If that’s the case then they deserve to be struggling.
I think a lot of employers have amnesia regarding what they were like as inexperienced 21 year olds which makes them really picky.
Hand up. I recruit grads frequently. By and large most fall down at application stage. When the application form says “please state why you believe you have the necessary skills, knowledge and behaviours for the job by matching them against those outlined. It means just that. If you haven’t got them then you probably aren’t what employers are looking for.
They further fall down at interview stage often being unable to transfer academic examples, knowledge and skills to a business background.
As for training, there is plenty of professionally orientated, employer funded training available provided its in line with business needs.
Don’t believe that for a second. 90% of employers have unfilled graduate vacancies? Probably want them to work for free…
I think the problem is one of unreasonable expectations and our increasingly divided and grossly unequal society. Graduates and the young in general are trying to survive in depression style conditions. My experience of many other people is that they generally don’t have a clue about people who are not ‘like them’. This leads to expectations without solutions, other than it being up to someone else to sort out.
I wasn’t ‘work ready’ (in the sense of being able to fulfil all the particular expectations of a particular employer) straight out of university. It was only by relentless application and actually managing to claw my way into work that I began to develop the skills and experience required. My advice is to be reasonable and invest in people. Don’t expect a cake without being willing to help make it.
I don’t know where all these graduate positions are… I don’t see many advertised! My problem in finding a new position is the same as it has ever been – competition. Of the last three jobs I interviewed for, the first had 180 applicants, the second had 160. The third time I was beaten by someone with 20 years of experience on me, someone who had basically had two careers already (while I don’t even have one). I really wish I was making this up. What on earth are we to do?
Hi Guys,
I applied for a job at “Meridian Energy” the biggest energy company in New Zealand. I want to tell you guys of my own experience for applying for jobs.
130 people applied for 5 positions. I had a phone interview,then a 3 hour HR interview (which involved group activities, role plays, and 30 min individual interview), then I had to do online testing and have my references checked.
I have received a job offer of a starting salary of $38,000 a year. I got the job because I ace all the tests and smashed the competition. When I have an interview all I talk about is how my skills and qualifications can be utilize to generate more sales; thus, more profits for the company.
Even when I am at work I never talk about my personal problems to my co-workers. All I talk about is making the company more efficient,increasing sales, and increasing profits.When I speak to my boss all I talk about is how we can make more profits for the company or what I can do to generate more profits.
You guys have to realize that what you’re teachers and family have told you about how the world works “do what you love and the money will follow”. Is bullshit. That is exactly what it is, bullshit!!!
Capitalism does not care about your dreams or what you want to do with your life. Capitalism only cares about making profits. It sucks but it is the cold hard truth. You guys must learn to accept reality or else you’re toast. If you guys choose not to embrace the truth and ignore it and live in a bubble of ideals. The end result will always be suffering. Because this view is based on “fantasy” not “reality”.
I know because I learnt this the “hard way”. When I was younger I lived in a world of ideals and had these unrealistic dreams like everybody else e.g.career,family,house,and kids.
This was my first lesson in capitalism. That world does not exist and clearly you guys are leaning this the hard way and are suffering because the blue print in your mind is not matching with reality.
Capitalism has made me as “Cold as Ice”. I have literally abandon all my my morals for the sole purpose of generating profits. Sadly, this view of life has made me progress more “financially” than the view “Do what you love and the money will follow”.
I hope there is a god because this world has made me cold, angry, and bitter about life. I hope the sun explodes; so, I can take all you guys to heaven with me.
I don’t want to be a cold, angry, bitter person whose sole purpose in life to make profits. But I am forced to because if I live in a world of ideals. I will only feel pain and suffering.
This world sucks period and I hate it!!!
Thanks
Chris Wells
Wow! So many people looking for someone to blame.
They can’t fill them or they don’t want to fill them?
Some employers find it cheaper to invest in skills training for their existing staff, which is all well and good for their employees as it adds job security, but terrible news for those on the first rungs on the career ladder!