Would you reject a Graduate Job at a corporate firm because £24k was the basic salary?
It is surprising how many graduates are turning down offers because the basic salaries are too low (or not high enough to keep them in their relatively lavish parent funded lifestyle) and instead going on gap years or simply continuing their job search. Maybe they are not aware that we are amid a pretty tough recession and millions are unemployed. Maybe they chose to watch Sweet 16 on VIVA to get ideas for their next birthday party, rather than watching the news. Either this or maybe their parents are still bankrolling them and a graduate job is really not top priority.

You see the problem is that student night at ChinaWhite is on a Wednesday, or at least it was once, back in the day. Now this causes a big dilemma. They wouldn’t be able to party there if it weren’t a student night. For most, their pocket money won’t stretch far when confronted with cocktails starting at £20 and a club full of students with similar cash issues. Yes there are obviously a few caveats to this shortage of cash, but I am talking about the typical student, rather than the cohort that jet over under the title 'foreign students'. This bunch are notorious for partying in un-student-y ways and are the exception to the rule. Another magnum please sir! Nevertheless, it seems graduates are stuck in the their ways. They find it hard to move on from the affordable and silly students days into real life.

But partying is more fun than working. Depending on who you are and naturally your gender you will probably be bought drinks by an open-shirted, slightly slimy gentleman. He will have a business card and can explain what a mezzanine loan is and this will be enough to impress you. If you are lucky he will keep you fed and watered for a while, whilst he and his suited friends try to prise phone numbers and other things from you. However, your alcohol supply will begin to dwindle as you near the 1am mark as texts from his wife build up in his inbox, asking why his meeting is dragging on, yet again. Oh and for guys, you buy your own drinks. Maybe thats why there are more men than women at board level, because men have always had to work harder to fund the drinking habits of girls.

The office of choice for our recent graduates

Moreover, 7am starts don’t work after rolling in at 3am. Few jobs give Thursday mornings off to allow for mid week revelry. So what do the aesthetically pleasing graduates of today do? This thing called a job is quite a compromise, seen by some as an unnecessary burden - that is until their last loan instalment runs out.

So are they better off continuing to hang around London’s expensive nightspots hoping to snare a sugar mummy or daddy who can continue bankrolling their habits? Or alternatively should they pack in the gold digging dream, accept a job offer and join the career ladder?

With the number of graduates I have seen declining job offers over a few hundred pounds here and there, the answer is obviously not as straightforward as I thought. Ok maybe all graduates don't want to party all the time, so in that case what do they want to do once graduated?! Work? Rest? Play? They seem capable on the latter two, but unusually timid of embracing the former. Work! For more chat and news on graduates and their job market - please follow this blog!