This section is really important
for a job seeker, because false assumptions concerning graduate employment can prevent you finding a job you could enjoy:
Myth
1:
To be a graduate is to be a member of small educational elite. This may have been true fifty years ago, when fewer than 5% of school-leavers went to university. However, the figure now stands at 40% of school-leavers; a marked difference. Moreover, governments are keen to raise this figure to 50%.
Myth 2:
Most graduates find employment with large employers, with well-established
graduate recruitment programs. These are the sort of employers who still dominate the graduate careers directories that are distributed for free from university careers centers. They are
included the Civil Service, the NHS, and the Armed forces, together with the major institutions of the Bank/ financial, manufacturing and retailing sectors. In fact, these large employers of graduates now employ a small minority, less than one fifth, of the graduates universities produce each year.
Myth 3:
A graduate job is any job that is done by a graduate. There is a mistaken belief that
graduates can bring graduate qualities to any job and transform them into graduate jobs. This, simply, does not hold up to scrutiny; picking fruit, flipping hamburgers, or working in a call centre do not offer enough scope for the expression of graduate qualities.
Myth 4:
Most employers
place greatest value on the most up-to-date knowledge of an academic
subject. Almost
we have seen that most graduate job vacancies are open to graduates of any subject area.
Myth 5:
Most employers value critical thinking above all other graduate attributes.
Myth6: When you find any graduate job, you will be making a transition from the learning
stage of your life to the working stage of your life. The basic relationship between
university and graduate work is the acquisition of knowledge at university, and
its application in graduate employment. Whether you like it or not, you must continue
to learn throughout your job and working life. In fact, the pace of yours learning
may accelerate.
Myth 7:
If you have not studied for a ‘vocational or technical degree’, you are more likely to remain an unemployed graduate indefinitely. Again, this is a matter of contradicted by the fact that most graduate job vacancies are open to graduates of all subjects.
Myth 8:
For most graduates, finding a graduate job in the current market is hopeless. Even if you graduate in an economic recession, most graduates eventually find jobs; 5 years after graduating, approximately 85% are in graduate jobs.
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