The truth behind the Statistics

Recently a University (From now on label this university x) recorded that they had an 96.1% of graduates employed after they graduated, that is startling figure especially during the current graduate unemployment crisis.

But what does that statistic actually mean, does it mean that university x is a great university to go to if you are looking for full time job after you graduate or is that number extrapolated to justify that university x is a great university for employment. In my opinion it probably means both.

Students looking to go to university now should be weary about the future job prospects after they graduate. This might seem a strange thing to say, but by the time you have got through your first couple of years, you should have a mental and physical picture of what you want to do when you graduate, therefore the statistics of people employed should be a very useful guide on which university you want to go.

However there is more to these statistics that originally first thought?

What you have to consider is what the statistics do not take into account, is your job entirely related to your degree. Is this job part time / full time or even is this casual work, just to stop the annoying people who conduct the survey to stop bugging you.

Css-tricks conducted a survey based on how related is degree to current job. Of 5,500 votes casted online, 40% (2,187) said that it was not related and only 37% (2,011) said it was directly related. This suggests that graduates leaving university are most likely faced with going into a job which isn’t entirely related to your degree. Would you say this was money well spent?

It would also be interesting to see how many of the students were actually employed on graduate schemes? Obviously these figures would reveal the naked truth of our education system. Furthermore whether there are enough graduate schemes for the number of students coming through. Of course research organisations would be scared to release this information and the detrimental impact it could have.

Why Graduates need to be dimensional

Every year the media, universities, colleges are telling you that you need to become dimensional. In today’s job environment and climate this is becoming more of a major strength in securing that dream job.

What do they mean by Dimensional?

Being dimensional can mean a number of things; firstly don’t just apply to one job. Just because you have applied, doesn’t mean you automatically think you should get an interview. There are millions of graduates out there all looking for the same thing, you need to be dimensional, just because you have had dreams of working at the organisation you have applied doesn’t mean that they will take you on. The minimum average for graduate’s applications is 35. This shows that not only do you have to apply to more than one job but there is a lot of competition within this industry.

Don’t just apply to one industry. Just because you want to work in marketing, doesn’t mean you won’t be good at finance or HR (Okay, so maybe you really hate numbers and this would be a bit of a problem). Marketing encompasses a broad range of industry sectors, including Market Research, Advertising, PR, Social Media the list continues as you would imagine. To cement your position you should apply to a broad range of industry sectors, you should not just focus on one specific industry you should also be aware of other sectors and companies in this industry too. Use your degree to the best of your ability, you may have done a module in consumer behaviour or marketing research and you may have enjoyed it, this opens up your career options and makes you become more dimensional in your job search.

The best graduates are those that are commercial aware. To be dimensional and improve your chance of securing your dream job, you need to make the most of the knowledge around you. Applying to a finance role? The importance of being commercial aware is crucially highlighted here. How has the recession affected the company you are applying too, what are the major strengths and weaknesses of the industry you are applying too maybe just a few questions that could come up in a typical job interview.

In summary then, the key to securing a graduate job or job then is you have to be dimensional. To be dimensional you need to expand your career options, the phrase ‘You never know until you have tried it’ is never more so in today’s environment, just because you haven’t dabbled with social media, doesn’t mean you won’t be any good at it. It is about taking your piece of the cake and eating it.