In May 2007, The Irish Times reported on a graduate survey of students in their final year in higher education.
It makes for eye-popping reading now, given the economic collapse that was lurking just around the corner.
“Final-year students in our seven universities are hugely optimistic about the future. Most believe they will own property by the time they are 30.
“Many expect to purchase a buy-to-let investment property within the same timeframe.
“And they are optimistic that the jobs will fall into their lap . . . By the time they are 30, most envisage a comfortable, settled life with plenty of money and a dizzying array of travel and lifestyle options.”
Asked about their career options, they mostly said they would opt for a healthy work-life balance with a preference for jobs with fewer working hours.
Graduates soon felt the cold slap of the recession – without a buy-to-let in Bulgaria in sight.
Ten years on, the climate for graduates is warming up again as employers jostle to secure the attention of the best and brightest.
But graduates’ aspirations are a long way off the lofty heights of those during the heady days of the economic boom.
Modest starting salaries
Editor of Grad Ireland Ruairí Kavanagh says the majority of today’s graduates are prepared to work for modest starting salaries.
“Most employers are saying graduates are a lot more realistic with salary expectations than they used to be. The average salary is between €24,000 and €26,000,” he says.
Kavanagh says that, overall, the power balance is started to shift in favour of graduates rather than employers, as more jobs come on stream.
“Over half of the companies said they will have difficulty filling roles because of competition from others in the sector and outside the sector,” he says.
“Obviously employers still hold the cards, but they can no longer cherry-pick. That said, there may be more opportunities, but employers are more demanding.”
Recruiters nowadays are no longer focused on millennials. Instead, they’ve moving on to “gen Z”, “screenagers” or “centennials’ – or, in plain English, the generation born in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Sinéad D'Arcy is Jameson graduate programme manager with Irish Distillers, which runs one of the biggest graduate programmes in Ireland.
Entrepreneurial spirit
“We have done a lot of research on gen Z to make sure our workplace is ready for them. It is important for us as employers to adapt our way of doing things to embrace their way of working,” she says.
D’Arcy says their research indicates that graduates nowadays are defined by their entrepreneurial spirit and desire to turn their hobbies into full-time jobs.
They they are also, she says, self-starters who want to show their worth and make an impact early on.
“When we are attracting them or recruiting them we have to make sure our campaigns are mobile-first and that the content we use is relevant for them.
There are 200 million pieces of content uploaded or created every minute on the internet, so it’s very difficult to cut through that and get their attention.”
She says they are natural content creators and like “multichannel” approaches.
"Years ago we just used to use Facebook to recruit but now we have Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, You Tube," she says.
“The research indicates centennials have an eight-second attention span online, so you have to cut your cloth to measure.
“Platforms like Snapchat and Instagram are really popular with centennials because they are short and snappy, engaging content.”
“Because gen Z are only joining the workforce now, we are relying on the research so we as employers can attract them in the right way.
“They’re very socially conscious and believe they can make a difference in the world – they look for companies with corporate social responsibility.”
Increased competition
Employers may have increased competition from other companies for graduates, but they are still choosy.
Kavanagh says while a 2:1 honours degree is expected, this isn’t enough to land you a job.
“Join societies, volunteer, shadow someone on a job that you want – don’t just show up with your degree and think that’s it. A 2:1 is not enough anymore.
“Things might have improved, but it always pays to bring more to the table than your degree. Employers want all-rounders,” he says.
On the issue of skills that are lacking among new graduates, more than half of employers cited communication skills. Poor leadership and writing skills were also noted by more than one-third of employers.
“They want rounded, sociable, confident individuals,” says Kavanagh.
“They think, ‘hey – if I’m not around can this person hold the fort for a while or can they communicate with people at all levels, not just their peers’.
“You would think these are simple things, but you would be surprised. Some employers say that while graduates have good tech skills, their personal or social skills can be lacking.
“Employers want you to have the degree and the skills, but ultimately they want to see if you’re someone they would want to sit opposite a desk with,” he says.
Today’s graduates’ starting salaries: in numbers
€28,461: average starting salary
€40,000: average salary for best-paid graduates in areas such as law or management consulting
€23,000: average lowest-paid graduate jobs in accountancy and financial management
Source: GradIreland 2016 survey on graduate salaries and recruitment trends
Case studies:
Melissa O’Sullivan:
“Owning a house isn’t a major concern . . . we are more career-focused”
Melissa O'Sullivan (21) from Kerry is in the final year of her law degree at University College Dublin.
She says career prospects for law students are bright, with law firms visiting the college on a regular basis with job opportunities.
“For large commercial firms in Dublin, the average starting salary for a trainee is around €40,000.
“This makes these firms very attractive and makes them quite difficult to get into due to high competition.”
For Melissa, career progression is at the front of her mind – and owning a home before the age of 30 is not high on her agenda.
“In making plans for the future I tend to focus on what career I would like to have by the time I’m 30 as opposed to thinking about whether or not I will own a home,” she says.
“When discussing future plans with my peers, owning a house doesn’t seem to be a major concern.
“People seem to be more career-focused. I don’t know where I would like to be living when I am 30 and I think I would like to travel, so I don’t think I will own a home by then,” she says.
Despite being at school during the economic downturn, she says she has never fretted about unemployment.
“There seemed to be a general consensus when I was doing my Leaving Cert that the worst of the recession would be over by the time I completed college, so I wasn’t worried about there being a lack of employment opportunities in the field of law,” she says.
Alice Kiernan: ‘I’d rather do something I love and earn less than do something I despise and earn more’
Alice Kiernan (20) is a final-year student of media studies at Maynooth University in Co Kildare.
She often wonders whether she has chosen the right career to secure a well-paid job, but adds that doing something she loves is more important than how much she will earn.
“Nothing in the world is really certain any more, and if I love my course and what I’m doing then hopefully something good will come of this,” says Kiernan.
“Ideally, I would love to work as a director of music in a radio station, and maybe also live my own music career on the side.
“I think we’re living in a world where there’s no such thing as someone with just one job. You need to have multiple titles in your Twitter bio.”
She says graduates of her age are mainly focused on their degrees or simply getting a job, rather than worrying about salary levels.
“I’d like to think I will own my own home by the age of 30. However, I think people’s priorities have changed. We’re less worried about marriage and kids than the generation before us, and more focused on education and careers.
“I think that’s a good thing. Even if this generation is settling down later and having kids older, I think it’s great that we’re prioritising the development of ourselves and who we are, and creating a more educated society.
