Why we decided on an Employability Day Will Jodrell of Graduate Works who run graduate training programmes for Sainsbury's: “These days the gun goes off when you leave school. Students should be interning or volunteering in their summer vacations before they even get to university, if nothing else showing that they have the ability to get off their a****. Many graduates say they have received no careers advice whatsoever about the importance of holiday work schemes. They have cottoned on too late, learning from peer pressure..”

The Challenge Katrina Borrow - 21 years old. Degree 2.1 in modern languages from Cambridge. Runs 8 miles every day to stay focused Has coxed rowers from the age of 13 Choral scholar at Cambridge Had four internships in communication and PR agencies Unemployed, signing on in Kidderminster. “Monday I spend trawling through the job vacancies on various websites. I then make a shortlist. Tuesday I start sending off applications, many of them are to recruitment agencies. Normally you just don’t hear back. In the last month I have applied for jobs in PR and communications and heard back from one. It is so frustrating. One recruitment agency told me I was the next best thing to sliced bread; I never heard from them again.” (The Times)

High Fliers Survey 2012 – the Bad News One third of this year’s entry-level positions are expected to be filled by graduates who have already worked for their organisations – either through industrial placements, vacation work or sponsorships Graduate recruitment at the UK’s leading employers remains below pre-recession levels (still 6% below that recorded in 2007) An extra 50,000 new graduates are expected to leave university in 2012, compared with the numbers who graduated five years ago Starting salaries at the UK’s leading graduate employers in 2012 are expected to remain unchanged for a third consecutive year – at a median of £29,000 (+7.4% in 2010 and 5.9% in 2009)

More bad news 2011: 263,845 UK graduates from UK universities. 9% of all graduates were unemployed 6 months after graduation (50% increase since before the recession) 715 graduates ended up working in factories, 13,485 were in basic admin. jobs, 9,070 were in low-starting ‘elementary’ positions Number of applications soar to an average of 83 per vacancy (69 in 2010) (AGR Survey 2011) 1 in 10 students failed to get a job after university last year. (H.E. Service data)

2011: 263,845 UK graduates from UK universities. 9% of all graduates were unemployed 6 months after graduation (50% increase since before the recession) 715 graduates ended up working in factories, 13,485 were in basic admin. jobs, 9,070 were in low-starting ‘elementary’ positions Number of applications soar to an average of 83 per vacancy (69 in 2010) (AGR Survey 2011)

High Fliers Survey 2012 – the Good News The UK’s leading employers are expecting to increase their graduate recruitment by 6.4% in 2012 (+2.8% in 2011) (+12.6% in 2010) Public sector employers are planning to expand their graduate intake by 21.9% in 2012 Will be a substantial rise in the number of graduate jobs available at engineering & industrial companies (up 22.4% compared to 2011), IT & telecommunications firms (up 31.6%), High street banks (up 16.0%) and retailers (up 11.5%). Armed Forces recruitment have been reduced further Graduate vacancies at the leading accounting & professional services firms appear to have peaked after three consecutive years of significant increases The largest individual recruiters of graduates in 2012 will be PwC (1,200 vacancies), Deloitte (1,200 vacancies), the Teach First scheme (1,000 vacancies), KPMG (800 vacancies)and Ernst & Young (740 vacancies).

Try to avoid 22 year old Orlando Barley: 2.1 in Geography from Durham. Wanted a job in insurance. In his best suit he stood outside Lloyd’s Insurance building in London holding a large laminated placard with the words: “Just graduated from Durham and looking for a job in insurance”. He was armed with 70 CVs, handed out 67, received 22 business cards, offered 3 stint of work experience on the spot, received several s, received 4 interviews, received 3 job offers. (The Times)

Awareness Otegha Uwagba 21 year old graduate ‘Not to have interned is basically not to have existed in world of graduate employment, especially in areas such as law.’ ‘I realised that I had missed the boat in building up a ‘portfolio’ of experience before I had even graduated. Other students had 10 times more experience.’

Be aware (USA) Google receives a million job applicants a year and hires only 1 from every 130 people interviewed. Every candidate is said to be the subject of a 50-page dossier, detailing their history and their ‘Googlinness’. Google has asked applicants “Why are most manhole covers round?” USA – ‘extreme interviewing’ in a very crowded job market: Campbell Mithun (advertising firm) require applications in the form of 13 Twitter messages (“it finds digitally savvy, creative thought leaders”) A marketing company asked applicants to “ just entertain us for five minutes”.