It’s true, I graduated and thought damn can’t wait to get a proper job, but I didn’t know it was so hard to get into a grad sceheme, and they don’t reply back.
GayWolfey on
As I always says to my son. Uni now should only be used if the jobs you want is degree dependant. I will never understand people willing to go get generic degrees that come with a lifetime of debt.
It used to be a good life experience but it’s ridiculous how little value is now associated for having a degree. They are like cheap crackers. Everyone has one.
And the laugh of it is it will be the admin job she is now doing that will help her far more than a French degree. Obviously the English is a good degree. She should go be a teacher.
Harmless_Drone on
My wife is trying to get back into the workforce after we’ve had kids and its just impossible.
irtsaca on
It happens when the vast majority of degrees are almost worthless
Independent_Tour_988 on
It’s always hard getting a job after uni. Try graduating in 09, now that was a bloodbath.
Im_Basically_A_Ninja on
Job market as a whole is a shit show at the moment. Companies want multiple years of experience for entry-level roles with entry-level pay and wonder why all these open roles never get filled.
The team I’m on had has an open spot they’ve been interviewing for for four months so far and another spot about to open up as one of our devs is leaving.
TarrouTheSaint on
A postgrad degree helps. Everyone and their dog has a Bachelor’s these days, but having an MSc will still trick people into thinking you’re clever.
Colourbomber on
Back in the day, really only wealthier kids went to university, that’s obviously not a steadfast rule, I’m sure quite a few working class kids made it to uni as well back then and there is anecdotal evidence of that but, it wasn’t like it is now 53% of females and 40% of males so close to half of all school students….up from about 14% in total in 1980.
If you went to Uni, you came out and you were guaranteed a job really because you were only competing with another 7% of people in the job market for higher skilled roles at your age.
But nowadays we have less opportunities due to a bigger population and way more university educated candidates in the job market.
I mean clearly if you want a higher level higher skilled job, University is obviously the way to go, but there are no guarantees you will be successful, I mean there were no guarantees back in the day but your chances were far higher because of lack of competition.
University education isn’t what it used to be, which was almost a golden handshake, the right university tie could have gotten you a serious position….but that’s not the case now.
There are other routes into higher paying jobs, funny thing is a lot of the kids who dossed their way through, school, broke the law, were cheeky and struggled to read out loud well and had the piss took, are out earning them in construction and never went near a uni or a college…..I know some kids who you though were guaranteed to go into prison or be in the dole.queue, now make 70-100k a year as electricians or scaffolders or roofers etc by eventually moving on to their own business….but a lot of trades are 40k plus a yea just employed . There are high paying industries and jobs that’s academics just don’t suit.
ig1 on
The funny thing about these articles is they’re always anecdote based, because if you look at the historical data graduate employment is higher now than it was the three years pre-covid.
What it is however is people complaining about not being able to find their dream jobs.
For example the English student (who has a full time job) complaining about not being able to get a job in publishing (which has always been brutally hard because it’s tiny) or the modern language student complaining about their job in hospitality (which has always been the largest employer of foreign language skills). Care industry and teaching are also major employers of foreign language skills and have big shortages too, but I’m assuming they’re not interested in those either.
Goose-of-Knowledge on
Degree in humanities/arts etc provides no skills of any kind so when compared to someone who spent 3 years by working somewhere, fresh graduates are literally useless but in a considerable debt.
This repeats every year. New hordes of useless graduates are surprised that nobody us really interested in them. 100% Guaranteed to see the same article the next year and the next year …..
throwawayyourlife2dy on
Wish I had just got a apprenticeship or gone into sales
refugeefromlinkedin on
The problem sounds pretty self evident. Every employer wants someone with pre-existing skills but no one’s willing to offer any training.
TheLordCampbell on
My ex has a photography degree, a load of student debt and a job stacking produce at Morrisons, ngl, it’s kinda hilarious
Original_Success3895 on
It’s no harder than when I graduated 15 years ago. There was a cultural shift in most skilled jobs some time ago where a degree stopped being enough on its own.
Too many people have them.
You need to:
* Do hundreds of unpaid hours on pet projects building up a portfolio if getting into software.
* Do hundreds of unpaid hours across multiple internships if getting into most anything else.
* In some job sectors you have to do a masters and specialise to get a sniff.
Also do lots of extra curricular activities to prove you are a go-getter extrovert who will happily do all the roles not labelled in your job description but very firmly covered by ‘and all other duties’.
There are very few roles where employers want to hire an introvert because basically everything in business revolves around talking to people to convince them to hand over their money and pay everyone’s salary – prove you aren’t one.
This worked for most people I know and it will work for you too.
mao_was_right on
An inevitable result of globalism and the post study work visa. Immobile graduates from working class areas are finished as they’re competing against the rest of the world.
UVmonolith on
Took me years to feel like I can navigate the job market.
Started out in Media and moved to Comms.
Shockingly difficult even with experience, it must feel near impossible for grads.
IndelibleIguana on
The Establishment.
“Lets sell the working classes degrees, then they will be in debt to us forever and the degrees will be so common they’ll be worthless and the plebs will not only have to carry on doing all the shitty jobs, but they’ll be so concerned about their debt, they’ll take even less notice of the evil stuff we get up to.”
CustardFilledSock on
Hey, that’s me!
Bachelors in Sports Rehabilitation in addition to a MSc in Physiotherapy, so decently educated and set up for working in the field.
And yet I’m still here struggling to get a job as a physiotherapist because there’s a recruitment freeze in the NHS, meaning I’m using none of the skills I trained for in the job I’ve got currently. It’s frustrating and feels like a massive waste of 5 years of studying.
Perfidious0Albion on
The apprenticeship levy has killed a lot of grad schemes off – they really need to look at how that works or allow grad schemes to be eligible for the reimbursement.
mumwifealcoholic on
I regularly deal with graduates as part of my job. Too many are entitled, sorry. Too many have never held a job and believe their degree lets them skip the shite jobs. I note the ones who’ve held jobs prior to or during Uni are much more employable. One girl told me she didn’t go to university to make copies.
PrincePupBoi on
I got a level 2 in horticulture and I earn more than most my graduate friends lol
NotMyFirstChoice675 on
Im a recruiter, it’s scary how many non Brits we have in this country on grad visas who overwhelm applications. I’ve been filtering out non British / Irish applications from my current vacancy.
I want a young deserving person from my country to get an opportunity for the very trainable job I have.
Anxious-Guarantee-12 on
This is a consequence of rising minimum wage faster than median salaries.
Let’s say you have £100 for a project. You could:
– Hire an experienced worker with these £100.
– Hire two inexperienced workers and pay them £40 each.
If there is no difference in quality. You would chose the option 2 since it’s cheaper.
Then UK sets the minimum wage is set to £60. Now it’s cheaper hiring the senior worker than hiring two novices.
I know it’s an oversimplification. But it’s an example for illustrate how a high minimum wage can have a detrimental effect to youngers.
EmbraceDelusion on
As the parent of a recent graduate who is struggling to find a job but has literally done everything right – first class degree, excellent a-levels, top ten university, relevant extracurricular experience – this is just so depressing.
And in the meantime I watch my company outsource entry level jobs to ‘low cost’ countries and it all becomes clear why.
Globalisation is hollowing out the middle classes for the benefit of the wealthy and our governments are totally complicit. This will only get worse until we see past the gaslighting and propaganda and demand a system that works for 99% and not the 1%.
24 Comments
It’s true, I graduated and thought damn can’t wait to get a proper job, but I didn’t know it was so hard to get into a grad sceheme, and they don’t reply back.
As I always says to my son. Uni now should only be used if the jobs you want is degree dependant. I will never understand people willing to go get generic degrees that come with a lifetime of debt.
It used to be a good life experience but it’s ridiculous how little value is now associated for having a degree. They are like cheap crackers. Everyone has one.
And the laugh of it is it will be the admin job she is now doing that will help her far more than a French degree. Obviously the English is a good degree. She should go be a teacher.
My wife is trying to get back into the workforce after we’ve had kids and its just impossible.
It happens when the vast majority of degrees are almost worthless
It’s always hard getting a job after uni. Try graduating in 09, now that was a bloodbath.
Job market as a whole is a shit show at the moment. Companies want multiple years of experience for entry-level roles with entry-level pay and wonder why all these open roles never get filled.
The team I’m on had has an open spot they’ve been interviewing for for four months so far and another spot about to open up as one of our devs is leaving.
A postgrad degree helps. Everyone and their dog has a Bachelor’s these days, but having an MSc will still trick people into thinking you’re clever.
Back in the day, really only wealthier kids went to university, that’s obviously not a steadfast rule, I’m sure quite a few working class kids made it to uni as well back then and there is anecdotal evidence of that but, it wasn’t like it is now 53% of females and 40% of males so close to half of all school students….up from about 14% in total in 1980.
If you went to Uni, you came out and you were guaranteed a job really because you were only competing with another 7% of people in the job market for higher skilled roles at your age.
But nowadays we have less opportunities due to a bigger population and way more university educated candidates in the job market.
I mean clearly if you want a higher level higher skilled job, University is obviously the way to go, but there are no guarantees you will be successful, I mean there were no guarantees back in the day but your chances were far higher because of lack of competition.
University education isn’t what it used to be, which was almost a golden handshake, the right university tie could have gotten you a serious position….but that’s not the case now.
There are other routes into higher paying jobs, funny thing is a lot of the kids who dossed their way through, school, broke the law, were cheeky and struggled to read out loud well and had the piss took, are out earning them in construction and never went near a uni or a college…..I know some kids who you though were guaranteed to go into prison or be in the dole.queue, now make 70-100k a year as electricians or scaffolders or roofers etc by eventually moving on to their own business….but a lot of trades are 40k plus a yea just employed . There are high paying industries and jobs that’s academics just don’t suit.
The funny thing about these articles is they’re always anecdote based, because if you look at the historical data graduate employment is higher now than it was the three years pre-covid.
What it is however is people complaining about not being able to find their dream jobs.
For example the English student (who has a full time job) complaining about not being able to get a job in publishing (which has always been brutally hard because it’s tiny) or the modern language student complaining about their job in hospitality (which has always been the largest employer of foreign language skills). Care industry and teaching are also major employers of foreign language skills and have big shortages too, but I’m assuming they’re not interested in those either.
Degree in humanities/arts etc provides no skills of any kind so when compared to someone who spent 3 years by working somewhere, fresh graduates are literally useless but in a considerable debt.
This repeats every year. New hordes of useless graduates are surprised that nobody us really interested in them. 100% Guaranteed to see the same article the next year and the next year …..
Wish I had just got a apprenticeship or gone into sales
The problem sounds pretty self evident. Every employer wants someone with pre-existing skills but no one’s willing to offer any training.
My ex has a photography degree, a load of student debt and a job stacking produce at Morrisons, ngl, it’s kinda hilarious
It’s no harder than when I graduated 15 years ago. There was a cultural shift in most skilled jobs some time ago where a degree stopped being enough on its own.
Too many people have them.
You need to:
* Do hundreds of unpaid hours on pet projects building up a portfolio if getting into software.
* Do hundreds of unpaid hours across multiple internships if getting into most anything else.
* In some job sectors you have to do a masters and specialise to get a sniff.
Also do lots of extra curricular activities to prove you are a go-getter extrovert who will happily do all the roles not labelled in your job description but very firmly covered by ‘and all other duties’.
There are very few roles where employers want to hire an introvert because basically everything in business revolves around talking to people to convince them to hand over their money and pay everyone’s salary – prove you aren’t one.
This worked for most people I know and it will work for you too.
An inevitable result of globalism and the post study work visa. Immobile graduates from working class areas are finished as they’re competing against the rest of the world.
Took me years to feel like I can navigate the job market.
Started out in Media and moved to Comms.
Shockingly difficult even with experience, it must feel near impossible for grads.
The Establishment.
“Lets sell the working classes degrees, then they will be in debt to us forever and the degrees will be so common they’ll be worthless and the plebs will not only have to carry on doing all the shitty jobs, but they’ll be so concerned about their debt, they’ll take even less notice of the evil stuff we get up to.”
Hey, that’s me!
Bachelors in Sports Rehabilitation in addition to a MSc in Physiotherapy, so decently educated and set up for working in the field.
And yet I’m still here struggling to get a job as a physiotherapist because there’s a recruitment freeze in the NHS, meaning I’m using none of the skills I trained for in the job I’ve got currently. It’s frustrating and feels like a massive waste of 5 years of studying.
The apprenticeship levy has killed a lot of grad schemes off – they really need to look at how that works or allow grad schemes to be eligible for the reimbursement.
I regularly deal with graduates as part of my job. Too many are entitled, sorry. Too many have never held a job and believe their degree lets them skip the shite jobs. I note the ones who’ve held jobs prior to or during Uni are much more employable. One girl told me she didn’t go to university to make copies.
I got a level 2 in horticulture and I earn more than most my graduate friends lol
Im a recruiter, it’s scary how many non Brits we have in this country on grad visas who overwhelm applications. I’ve been filtering out non British / Irish applications from my current vacancy.
I want a young deserving person from my country to get an opportunity for the very trainable job I have.
This is a consequence of rising minimum wage faster than median salaries.
Let’s say you have £100 for a project. You could:
– Hire an experienced worker with these £100.
– Hire two inexperienced workers and pay them £40 each.
If there is no difference in quality. You would chose the option 2 since it’s cheaper.
Then UK sets the minimum wage is set to £60. Now it’s cheaper hiring the senior worker than hiring two novices.
I know it’s an oversimplification. But it’s an example for illustrate how a high minimum wage can have a detrimental effect to youngers.
As the parent of a recent graduate who is struggling to find a job but has literally done everything right – first class degree, excellent a-levels, top ten university, relevant extracurricular experience – this is just so depressing.
And in the meantime I watch my company outsource entry level jobs to ‘low cost’ countries and it all becomes clear why.
Globalisation is hollowing out the middle classes for the benefit of the wealthy and our governments are totally complicit. This will only get worse until we see past the gaslighting and propaganda and demand a system that works for 99% and not the 1%.