202 top tier graduate recruiters today announced their intent to recruit 22,000 graduates. The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) annual survey showed positive signs coming back into their graduate recruitment plans after the recent downturn. This represented a 3% increase in vacancies offered compared to last year plus the first increase in salaries by 2% to ??25,500 since 2008.
Naturally competition for these good starting salaries with blue chip employers has attracted higher numbers of applicants which now stands at 83 per graduate job. The reasons why the numbers have increased is that there are record numbers leaving university, easier online application processes and many panic-applications among graduates.
Our message is that graduates shouldn't be disheartened. This report doesn't reflect the big picture of the entire graduate job market. The survey is based only on vacancies on designated graduate schemes with the largest graduate employers, which is only around 10 15% of the whole graduate job market. Many graduates take on other graduate level work outside of schemes, go into direct entry roles with these employers or join SMEs and go onto successful careers.We understand the pressure on graduates but they really need to take a step back and consider all the options before jumping in.
We advise graduates to increase their chances of success by researching the employer and the job thoroughly and make sure you have what they are looking for and then tailor your application accordingly. It is far better to adopt the strategy of ready, aim, fire than fire,fire, fire!
