1.
Job Market
for Masters
Postgraduates,
Autumn 2013
Elizabeth Wilkinson
University of Manchester Careers Service

2.
What I’ll cover
• Today’s job market
– “Top” graduate recruiters
– Recruiters targeting University of Manchester students
– Global labour markets
• What UK employers think of Masters postgrads
• Which jobs to target
• When to start your job search

3.
Future?
• High Fliers Research
– Graduate Review, Summer 2013
– “Top” graduate employers – the big names
– Only accounts for ~17,000 graduate jobs
(around ½ million new FT grads in UK each
year)
• So, how bad is it …?

4.
High Fliers, June 2013
http://www.highfliers.co.uk/download/GMReview13.pdf

5.
What are the odds?
The vacancies
Accounting & professional
services
Public sector
Investment banking
Engineering & Industrial
Retailing
Armed forces
Banking & finance
Law
IT & telecommunications
Consulting
Oil & energy
Consumer goods
Media
3955
2988
2343
1343
1220
1212
793
785
610
609
556
353
294
High Fliers, June 2013
http://www.highfliers.co.uk/download/GMReview13.pdf

6.
The Good News …
• Over 670 ads,
for full-time
jobs on
CareersLink
• More than
Milkround,
Target or
Prospect
• 48% from
SMEs

7.
Global job markets?
Going Global
Details of local job market for 40 countries
• “Global mindset” – sought by half of large UK graduate
recruiters in recent AGR survey
• www.manchester.ac.uk/careerslink

8.
Why Should An Employer Want
A Masters Postgrad?
• 2010 CIHE report, 100 UK senior managers
• 7 out of 10 looked for Masters
Loved
Analytical skills (92%)
Specialist knowledge (80%)
Research/technical skills (79%)
Liked
New ideas & ability to
innovate (74%)
So-so
Maturity (54%)
Leadership potential (50%)
Not convinced…
Guaranteed high calibre
candidate (30%)
CIHE report: Talent Fishing
http://www.cihe.co.uk/talent-fishing-what-businesses-want-from-postgraduates

9.
Which jobs to target?
• “Masters/Postgraduate Entry Schemes”
– rare in UK, more common elsewhere
• “Graduate Entry Schemes”
– competitive, may be fast track to
management, generally accept Masters
– Sometimes a second step
• Direct entry
– where the majority find jobs

10.
When to start looking ...
• Large organisations,
graduate schemes
– Often recruit once a year,
often now
• Smaller organisations,
“one-off” jobs
– Recruit closer to when
they need you
www.manchester.ac.uk/careers/pg