Timeless Graduation Prank! Are you Awesome?

Graduation ceremonies are often long and drawn out. Depending on your role, you will either sustain repetitive strain injury and blisters from the unavoidable sudden bursts of clapping required from the audience as you attempt to congratulate his little Jonnie and her not-so-little Jonnie with equal vigour, or you will develop mild Osteoarthritis in your knees as you stand in a disorderly queue for hours, practicing a firm but friendly handshake, emotional as you worry that today is your last chance to ask out the girl you’ve fancied since Freshers.

However, back in December last year, an American girl was set on injecting some humour into this auspicious occasion. Her name was Kelsie Frick and she was graduating from Grand Valley State University. She said she had planned to “dance or do something silly on stage.” However, when she neared the front of the queue she realised she would have no time to pull off any moves as the names were being read so quickly.

In a bold move, she whipped out a pencil and added “en” and then “awesome” to the end of her last name on the name card each graduate handed to the announcer to read. She wasn’t sure her edits would be read out as the amendments were made in pencil and it hardly looked official.

However, as Kelsie Frick walked across the stage, the announcer loudly stated her name, “Kelsie Elise Frick-en-awesome!”

Frick said that everyone was cheering and laughing and applauding and the lady announcing the name after me, you could tell she was trying to hold back a laugh!

She was worried that her prank was going to be taken badly in what is a serious day for both students and lectures.

However, she did receive a few emails from school officials afterwards, congratulating her for graduating and thanking her for “lightening up” the nearly three-hour ceremony.

I am not suggesting this is a good idea; nevertheless, it’s amusing all the same! Story initially reported by ABCNews.com

Where Do I Find Work Experience? See below…

You won’t need me to tell you that work experience is so important for any graduate looking for a professional job, however, a question I am always asked is, which companies are likely to offer experience? It seems my time fielding these questions could have been saved if these proactive students had checked out the shortlist for the annual National Council for Work Experience awards.

Each company’s scheme is assessed on how much of the employer’s time and effort is put into helping students and graduates develop employability skills. The John Lewis Partnership and BP have been stand out firms, picking up nominations in more than one of the 13 available categories. Teach First was nominated in the best newcomer category, for schemes that have been set up in the last two years.

The best large firms offering long-term placements were judged, Fujitsu, GlaxoSmithKline, IBM, Intel John Lewis Partnership and Vauxhall Motors

Firms which offered the best short-term placement (up to three months in length) were, BP, Centrica, Emerald Group Publishing, Hymans Robertson, Infosys and Motability Operations.

So when stumped at whom to approach to gain some of that all important work experience, use these companies as a starting point. They will all look fantastic on your CV!

Boris Bikes, Good? Bad? Ugly?

Since their introduction to London in July 2010, has this nifty bicycle-sharing scheme helped burn weekend calories, helped remove some of our capital’s infamous congestion and offered graduates a viable and cheap way of commuting?

A Boris Bike’s real name is actually Barclays Cycle Hire; I bet you didn’t know that! The system works by having a number of docking stations dotted in and around London, to which people can rent and return bikes, free for the first 30mins, then you pay more the longer you keep the bike.

With Britain’s fabulous performance during the Olympics, cycling has certainly gaining popularity. In fact the Olympics saw the record for the number of Boris Bikes hired; 47,105 hires in one day, which may have been the cherry on the cake and confirmed that the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme was fantastic.

However, although it may feel like the start line for the Olympics triathlon at traffic lights across the City, as bikes, motorized and human powered, expensive and rusty, jostle for position, the Olympics have actually finished and the prices for bike rental have increased.

So on a rainy Tuesday morning, do people actually want to commute using these bikes? Its design is not the most sophisticated but at least that means no one would steal one. You do see plenty of people on Boris Bikes, but you see more tourists than suits making their complete journey to work, especially in the morning. Plus, it is a real pain if you arrive at a docking station and there is nowhere to dock your bike, you have to traipse to the next docking station. It can add uncertainty to your commute. Plus riding bikes make you sweat, which can play havoc with your new Super 100 Merino wool suit.

They do prove a handy and cheap way to travel a few blocks to a meeting, when there are no cabs and the walk to a tube doesn’t make sense. They are cheap, many people wouldn’t ride for longer than 30mins and therefore their journey is free, something which rarely happens in London! They are also handy if you trek into town on an overground train and just need to travel a few minutes to your office. Moreover, there is no doubt that cycling burns calories, poke your head around the door of your local Fitness First and you will see lines of bikes with people, who take the tube, pedaling frantically trying to burn off the weekend indulgences.

Nevertheless, on balance I don’t think Boris Bikes really kill two birds with one stone. Instead they make a decent stab at wounding both birds, but I doubt if either would die. In short there are better ways to exercise and more straightforward ways to commute.

Who wants to cycle in this weather?

Boris Bikes are perfect for those odd journeys you need to make whether at work, or visiting London. They let you see more of what is a very pretty city, something the tube doesn’t allow, whilst it is undeniably good exercise. There are a good addition to London's public transport, however, overall I don’t think many graduates will be using these bikes to make their daily commute!

Who cares about Maths? How Pound Shops help make you stupid...

As we have seen in the previous post, according to the government it has never been a better to get into teaching maths. I completely agree, simply because I see maths as arguably one of the most useful subjects in life, even if a certain leading Education Research Fellow at the Policy Exchange doesn’t agree. He and supposedly 55% of the public think there should be a greater emphasis on vocational and practical subjects in the educational system.

However, are they correct? Does the traditional academic subjects still have their value? Consider this situation; when this highly intelligent Education Research Fellow catches a suspicious looking pound shop retail assistant short changing him, he should thank his school for forcing him to learn maths, otherwise he’d be oblivious to this blatant con. Whilst he should not be surprised by this gaff as the poor chap probably didn’t learn maths. Unfortunately, his comprehensive knowledge of Welding Studies or Textile Design hasn’t helped him here.

I would say who cares about losing some pennies or pounds here and there, your sofa probably hides more change than this dim witted cashier unwittingly seized. Yet shops should return the correct change, no matter if you are buying a penny sweet or a Penny Black. Moreover, if shopping in a pound shop, you are probably trying to budget. But this attempt at frugality is destroyed if you get the wrong change.

This Education Research Fellow might think that suffering the budget surroundings might actually save him a few pounds, a claim which Channel 4’s Dispatches seemed to have dispelled. Whether or not their claim that pound shops aren’t actually that cheap is true, what is more significant is how these shops are affecting your mathematically ability. Ok you may save a few pounds, but is every visit essentially making you more stupid?

As long as someone can count, most could guess their bill as everything is obviously £1. However, what happens when they leave the store and are faced with decimals? Those awful things, with an annoying full stop stuck in the middle of them. With the ubiquity of the loose-change generating 99p items found in most other shops on the high street, or these days in out of town shopping centres as the high streets have supposedly died, what happens to these pound shop aficionados when mental arithmetic is required? They didn’t study maths, so short of whipping out a calculator in the vegetable isle, they may be stumped and just put there chosen items on the counter, hoping the total price in within their budget.

So if this leading academic does venture into one of these bargain busting hotspots and hopes to save a few pounds, the lack of mathematical dexterously will have backfired. If the poor retail assistant was forced to learn maths, instead of Pastry Studies, he might have given the correct change. Better still, he may have managed to get a more challenging and enjoyable job.

This poor guy is obviously one of the 552,575 pupils who were thought to have taken at least one of the so-called Mickey Mouse subjects in 2011. What is concerning is that the number of pupils taking the typical academic subjects - maths, a science, English, languages, history and geography, has halved under Labour to barely one in six. So looking to the future, check your change if living on a budget, whilst more importantly, be grateful you learnt maths!

So you think you can teach?

Although teaching is a vital career option to the future success of our country, it is often seen as the back up option. The thing you do if you can’t hack it in the City or if you leave university after multiple degrees and are frankly over qualified, yet lacking the passion to pursue a corporate career. With the steady and stable salaries, the role fails to capture the imagination of the typically avaricious graduate looking to make their mark in the Smoke.

Owning to this, teaching seems to have assumed the stereotype of a safe but cheerless occupation. I always hear that the UK is lacking good teachers and when indulging in my ‘blink and you will miss it’ holiday day’s allowance, I always wonder what it would like to have 5 months off a year and still get paid.

Good news for those planning on pursuing this fun and rewarding career and even better news for those wanting to teach maths. The government has introduced new teacher training scholarships for maths graduates in the 2013/14 academic year. First class degree graduates will receive a tax free bursary of £20,000, those with a 2:1 will get £15,000 and a 2:2 trainees will land £12,000.

According to recent figures released from the Teaching Agency, the proportion of maths graduates entering training with a 2:1 degree or better has risen from 51 to 62 per cent over the last year. The authorities are keen to keep this figure rising. Now has never been a better or more lucrative to teach maths!

The World's Helpful Bank? Surely this must be a typo…

Think you’re a budding entrepreneur? Want to be the next Dragon? Lloyds Banking Group's commitment to helping entrepreneurial students start and grow businesses, aims to support thousands of student businesses across the country. They are inviting plucky students to submit their businesses into a competition, which would see the winner scoop a £50,000 prize! This would obviously pay for many nights out and late-night Dominos, yet, rather more importantly it could give your fledging business just the boost it needs.

In order to apply, you need to be a current student or have graduated within 5 years and have run your company for at least a year. Of course, like with most things, you will also need to be 18 or over to apply.

There are two awards on offer, the ‘Best Start Up’ and the ‘Best Enterprise’. Should you get through your initial heat, you will be awarded a cash prizes of £1,000 for ‘Best Start Up’ and £5,000 for ‘Best Enterprise’ and will be automatically entered for the national final. The overall winner of ‘Best Start Up’ will be awarded £10,000, whilst the winner of ‘Best Enterprise’ will be awarded a cash prize of £50,000! Moreover, should you win either competition, you will be entitled to a two year mentoring program, which will give you access to senior members of the Lloyds Bank.

The deadline for award Nominations is 31^st January. Want to apply? Apply online by visiting Lloyds TSB - Enterprise Awards. What better way to kick start your business idea! For more of the same, please follow my blog.

Government Help...an oxymoron? 

Find the right key

It looks like the government is planning to launch Traineeships aimed at people aged 16 - 24. The schemes, likely to last 6months would help equip students and graduates with the life skills that they miss and employers cry out for. They would involve work experience, alongside interview skills sessions and tips on CV writing. These schemes would be directly relevant for those who for whatever reason haven’t found their ideal job after 3-6months. They would give you a non-work option which would keep you occupied and off the sofa, whilst increasing your employment chances. This initiative is thought to be launched in September 2013 - look out for it! Please follow my blog

Money: have graduates finally grown up?

Following on from my post dated Oct 24th which suggested that graduates were being too fussy about the basic salaries of jobs to which they were applying and therefore turning down opportunities, a report was very recently published declaring that graduates are now actually less selective about salaries compared to last year’s cohort. They seem to be finally happy with what they can get!

The recruitment consultant Hay Group ran a survey of 600 graduates and found that only 8% of them saw money as being a top 3 consideration when choosing a job, compared to 45% of graduates last year. Moreover, the importance of the potential to earn a bonus has become less crucial. This year only 7% of graduates saw the bonus potential of a future job as very important down from 37% in 2011.

Instead the most importance factors that graduates were considering, were 1) potential career progression, 2) the ability to make a difference, 3) the chance to use technical knowledge. The survey also revealed that employers had more jobs than graduates that they had.

I feel this is surely a win, win situation. Finally graduates have become more realistic and less demanding (for some this will never change) in their needs and wants when it comes to jobs. With lower graduate expectation and allegedly more jobs available than many believe there to be, the UK may actually begin to employ the glut of graduate that floating despairing around the job market. Lets hope this continues! For more relevant graduate news please follow this blog.

We know what you did last night?

This is less of a nod to the Sarah Michelle Gellar’s horror classic, but rather more about the rather chilling realisation that your social media profile could be hindering your chances of getting a job!

I admit this may sound outrageous. I never believed recruiters when they said that I should make sure my Facebook profile didn’t contain obscene comments or images. However, it seems making your particularly dodgy pictures and videos visible to the public may actually harm your job chances. With so many people applying for jobs, I guess recruiters and employers are looking for more superficial ways to reject you.

Hays, the recruitment firm ran a survey of nearly 800 people and found 36% did not think an employer would look at their profiles. Therefore they made no changes to their social media habits when job hunting.

Not the impression you want to give your future boss

Only one in ten admitted editing content and untagging photos when looking for a job. While around 55% declared they had changed their privacy settings, in a bid to ensure personal information did not compromise their jobs chances.

Regional Managing Director of Hays, Mark Sheldon, said: "While the majority of people are taking sensible steps to protect their privacy online when looking for a job, it’s worrying to see that so many people don’t recognise the potential pitfalls associated with social media use.”(Milkround, 2012)

With the extra competition for graduate jobs, it is the little things that are gaining more importance and relevance in the recruitment process. You may be a strong candidate and say all the right things in interviews, but if employers find out things they don’t like about you, they don’t have to hire you! I am not saying stop using Facebook or detag every photo in which you look like you are enjoying yourself, but just think what some of the more obscene photos say about you. This is probably more relevant to rugby boy socials! For more graduate news please follow this blog.

Should you accept your first job offer?

This is a typical question asked by graduates. There is not one correct answer so instead the following post just discusses the subject, letting you make a better decision.

After deliberating your future career for three or so years, most will have some idea of what they want to do and this will draw them to apply for jobs in particular industries. Others may just send off applications to jobs with a decent salary and an appealing job description. Therefore these people are likely to send several applications, seeing as I have found few job descriptions that fail to extol the virtues of the job, no matter if everybody knows it is a boring job.

In this job market, unless you are a particularly strong candidate who has honed their CV for a specific career, you will probably find yourself interviewing for jobs that were not initially top of your list; jobs you didn’t really know existed. This is no bad thing; interview experience will prove very useful.

The confidence you build from getting invited in for interviews and then a re-invitation to meet more senior people is quite addictive. At some point in the interview process, the penny should drop and you will suddenly think, someone other than my mum likes and believes in me. The ‘high’ you get from the belief these firms seem to have in you often helps carry you along what can be a grueling process. You will be busy applying for other jobs and preparing for interviews and therefore you may not pay particularly close attention to what the job entails.

The prospect of independence, money and the temptations of city life further helps convince you that the job you are currently interviewing for is a good one and the people who you have met seem friendly. If all goes well you will soon find yourself sitting in front of the boss. Suddenly you get a job offer and only then do you look closer into the job role and more importantly consider do you actually want it! This seems a silly question to pose after you have spent weeks interviewing; yet many graduates are scared by the fact there are a lack of good jobs and success in any interview process is better than being overly choosey and remaining jobless for longer.

Make sure you understand your motivations for applying for the job and what the job involves that will keep you interested. The promise of a salary and moving away from home is definitely not enough reason to accept an offer. However, graduates need to be aware that there are not a huge number of jobs available at the moment. They can’t dream up which job they really want and expect to get it. The typical 11 year old rock star/astronaut dilemma certainly does not apply.

To help to make your decision about if you should accept a job or not, consult people. Your family should be the first port of call and try to get the view of people from within the industry, either your friends who might be considering a similar job or older contacts. Recruiters you have worked with will also be able to help (they will be biased but will still give you an angle). Ideally you will have a mentor figure, who will be able to help you make these sorts of decisions.

You can always ask the employer from time to consider your options, but due to the number of people that will have applied for the role, you won’t be given much time, a week maximum, but normally just a few days. Remember the offer you have for a job may not be particularly lucrative, exciting or prestigious, however, it is a start. It lets you get on the career. Bare this in mind when looking at your options! For more information and chat about graduates and jobs, please follow this blog!

5 Fundamental Tips For Effective Networking

Networking can be a fantastic way to learn about an industry, build a contact base and make friends. For some reason I have found a stigma associated with the word ‘networking’. It’s the sort of contrived term that many relate to what people in faceless offices do, whilst wearing boring shirts and drinking cheap wine.

Yet these people might be well connected, they might be happy and successful in their job. Then again, they might have said they have been networking last night, because they were too embarrassed to admit they have no friends, so just went home for a pot noodle and warm Wispa bar.

Most people don’t consider themselves as networkers. Nevertheless, this activity can prove useful for job seeking graduates. You never know whom you are going to meet. Take a quick look at one of my older posts that explains the importance of coming across as being friendly and inquisitive. To further help rookies successfully tackle a networking event; I have listed 5 crucial things they must remember.

1) Smile: I appreciate this is not a dating blog, however, there is nothing more off putting than a moody facial expression. This will ensure people steer clear from you. A smile puts people at ease.

2) Save ‘fashionably late’ for dinner parties: If at an official event, there will be less people at the beginning so it is easier to meet more people, before the room form groups. Plus you have first choice of the nibbles (if offered) and they won’t run out of wine after your first glass - an ounce of two of Dutch courage has been known to help loosen the larynx.

3) Leave your sales chat at the door, along with your ego: This is a relationship building exercise, not a ‘who can sell the most’ contest. Keep your conversations informal and forget that you could potentially sell to the people to whom you are talking.

4) Talk AND Listen: Let others ask what you do, rather than boring everybody with a mini pitch as soon as you have shaken hands. People will be quick to move away if they think you just want to talk at them all night. Keep plenty of eye contact and nurture the conversation. Be a conversationalist, not a talker.

5) Follow up on leads: Any networking becomes a waste of time if you fail to follow up on leads or business cards you collected. I would get in touch within three days of the event and make reference to something you talked about, no matter how random. You now have a warm lead to chase! Choose to follow these simple but effective rules and you will gain the most from any networking event. For more graduate hints and tips please follow this blog!

What job should you do?

This is a particularly difficult question to answer, as there is not a correct answer. Naturally your degree course and grade will significantly influence your future career options/prospects. Although comprehensive work experience and a real passion for a particular career unrelated to your degree should be enough to get you into the interview process, unless the job has strict prerequisites, which you simply don’t satisfy.

If you are really unsure of what the future holds, the best way of finding out is by doing something. Doing something gives you experience. Experience is what tells you if you will like something or not. How do you know if you would like to climb Mount Everest, if you have never climbed a hill? How do you know you would like Las Vegas, if you have never been? If you haven’t experienced something, your opinions on the subject are created by what other people have said and what you have read. Vegas only sounds great because most rave about it. However, they are ‘other people’ and when it comes to choosing jobs, they might find a job enjoyable that you find impossible or irritating. In short, find out what ‘you’ enjoy and what you want to do! What is important is you understand what sort of environment you want to work in; a buzzy sales office or a quiet research based position. Do you want to work people, in team or prefer working alone?

Any temporary or permanent position will start to show you the environment in which you might enjoy working. Love partying, go and work in a nightclub. You will probably be shocked at how little you enjoy working in the same environment in which you revel, when partying. At the begging of your career, what you do doesn’t really matter, as it just gives you experience. This helps you make a better choice of career.

Doing something also means you open yourself to opportunities you would have not been exposed to if you hadn’t thrown caution to the wind and tried something in the first place. This is why I don’t see the unpaid internship debacle as so outrageous. As long as they pay for your travel costs, you are getting free, fantastic work experience. What more can graduates in this recession ask for? You never know who you are going to meet and what might happen. See my other post for the importance of making a good impression when meeting people!

Graduates forget they are just graduates and have little commercial experience that can make the company money. So in this economic climate, they can’t expect to rock up for some work experience and get paid handsomely for their time. This whole topic is hotly debated, so I will refrain from commenting further at this point.

However, to summarise, if you want to help yourself don’t hang around after university on endless family holidays. For those without jobs, your search has now become a full time job, so treat it like one! This may sound harsh, but I want to see you employed and getting on with your career. So if this means taking jobs for just a few months, to earn some cash and help you get closer to finding your dream job, so be it! For further info on graduate employment please follow this blog. Who knows what might happen...

Do you know who you are talking to?

People always complain their job search stagnates because they can never get in front of a decision maker. Yet, they assure me if they could only sit opposite the boss, they are confident they can be sufficiently compelling, exude a charming personality and plenty of gravitas and obviously have the skills to thoroughly impress the Managing Director. For many, getting a one to one opportunity can be tricky as you, a good but not outstanding candidate gets siphoned off onto the reject pile early on, before you have had a chance to sell yourself to a fellow human, rather than an online application form.

Provided you are not a hermit who finds solace in all-night stints on World of Warcraft, I am sure you will find yourself out for drinks or dinner. When out and about, especially in central London, you are surrounded by important people and by that I mean city workers, directors, people that own companies. In short, people with influence and the power to open doors. People that could potentially help you out.

Instead of thinking you must switch on a professional and enquiring persona as soon as someone that looks important enters the room, train yourself to always be like this, no matter who you are with or where you are.

This is crucial because you never know to whom you are talking. Come across like a hapless slob, before suddenly realising you are standing toe to toe with a CEO, and you have essentially compromised any chance of getting help from them. No matter how quickly you stand up straight, begin correctly enunciating your words or offer to buy them a drink, it is usually too late. Even a poor handshake gives an impression and can dampen things, literally.

You would be surprised how much business gets done over a pint/glass of wine. In this tough market, I suggest candidates have a more entrepreneurial approach to finding a job as the usual routes are clogged up with hundreds of other fantastic candidates. There is always an element of luck when it comes to building contacts and if any of them can be of use. However, just make sure you use and capitalise on opportunities that present themselves and by this I mean you give always give a great impression whoever you are meeting and always follow up on people’s offers of help. Whether at a birthday party, wedding, or drinks after work, you never know who you are going to meet! So get your game face on. For more job-hunting hints and tips please follow this blog!

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!

Hire or Fire? For firms, has this decision just been made easier?

As of yesterday, the government made it simpler and less costly for companies to get rid of employees. The proposed changes include; an extension of settlement agreements, where staff accept a payment for leaving to help reduce the number of expensive tribunals, imposing a time limit on claims of unfair dismissal and a reduction in the duration of redundancy consultations. Even if these changes threaten Clooney’s job as a corporate ‘downsizer’ in the film ‪’Up in the Air’, as a graduate, does this affect you?

This obviously depends if you have a job or not. If employed, this only serves to make your situation slightly more precarious. But this is old news. Until you complete your graduate scheme and someone asks you to join their team, junior positions in the City have always been notoriously unstable. Therefore, you may need to work a little harder to ensure you always make the cut. However, these changes can only be a positive for firms. They are less likely to have to carry deadwood or those who have lost motivation, but still cream off a salary of several figures. Companies can more easily be detoxed.

Maybe more 'little people' [graduates] will be saved with these employment reforms

If unemployed, the future surely looks slightly brighter. The retirement age is creeping ever higher as some people simply can’t afford to retire. Whilst many firms have little faith in graduates, so unimaginatively choose to retain their more experienced staff. This causes a distinctly grey hue to swathe the page of staff photos and can upset the balance of a company. What is a point of board of management if they have fired all the workers? The unwillingness for some companies to let go of people that have essentially stopped contributing, in order to allow new team members to join at the bottom, is one factor that has further reduced the number of graduate jobs. It looks like this will change.

So you could argue these amendments will make rebalancing company structures easier. The droves of underperforming middle managers can be weeded out, creating spaces for you. A streamlining of headcount and a general drive to make offices more efficient, should help increase the number of jobs open to graduates. Companies understand they need to recruit graduates; they are good value for money and work hard. But with top heavy company structures, firms have been unable to put this plan into action. So hopefully this policy change will open up a few more graduate opportunities! For more graduate focused discussion please follow this blog.