Lucy Warren
Marketing Executive Milkround
The greatest barrier to a students’ dream career is not only the level of competition or limited amount of experience in a specific field, but also a lack of confidence.
We delved into the minds of students and recent graduates, and found that 55% of students are most concerned about competition from other candidates preventing them from pursuing their dream career, (57% of which were female and 49% male), which was followed by a lack of experience.
More concerningly, 41% of females and 28% of male respondents stated that a lack of confidence holds them back – this shines a light on the fact that businesses need to aid and support students and graduates, in order to encourage them to apply for their roles.
What influences career path decisions?
Looking at students and what influences their career path decisions, our findings show that personal interests and degree subject are considered as the greatest factors. Today’s students and graduates understand the significance of salary potential, with 34% of all respondents selecting this as the greatest influence on a certain career path.
Nevertheless, the same percentage of students state that their personal values impact their career choice just as much as the salary potential. This shows that a career path must resonate with a student’s beliefs.
Students’ expectations from companies
Our research shows that during the process of a job search, students want more than just a summary of the role on a job description.
68% of students would like a job advert to include more detail of day to day tasks, to get a better picture of what the job will look like, as well as more detail on career progression and future opportunities.
When talking about company benefits, 70% of students expect a pension scheme and 29% of students expect a subsidised food canteen to be included as an added benefit.
More interestingly, students place a lot of value on mental heath schemes, with 44% of respondents selecting this as a sought after benefit that employers should be providing.
Looking at salary expectations as part of a student a student’s job search, females have remarkably lower expectations than males. A third of women expect their starting salary to be £20,000 or less and 45% believe they will earn between £20,000 and £25,000. Whereas, only 22% of male respondents expect less than £20,000 and 42% would expect £20,000 to £25,000.
These insights were taken from the Milkround Candidate Compass Report 2018
