Interns only, please

**Little could reassure Warwick students more than that recent _Telegraph_ piece, but this is no call for complacency. As encouraging as it may seem, a newspaper’s glowing endorsement is far from enough to secure the seemingly-diminishing number of graduate jobs.**

So what is, then? Most of the UK’s largest graduate recruiters dismiss job applications lacking relevant experience, often expecting students to have progressed from ‘spring weeks’ – or similar insight programmes – to full summer internships. No easy feat. Especially considering that top investment banks in particular heavily emphasise the need for first year students to complete spring week applications merely four weeks into starting university – a time when you would be forgiven for still not having unpacked, let alone completed such a demanding application process.

{{ quote Three in four first-year analysts have done internships in investment banking }}

But the labour market itself has tightened. Students – Warwick included – can no longer expect to fill top jobs with only a good degree under their belts. According to a Guardian study, “recruiters… expected a third of all jobs to be filled by graduates who had already spent time at their organisation.” This figure rises to a half, and three-quarters, respectively for particularly sought-after careers in law and investment banking. “This latest research confirms that taking part in work placements or internships whilst at university is now just as important as getting a 2:1 or a first-class degree”, adds Martin Birchall, of High Fliers, a market research company that conducted the study. Ironically, unless students strive for these internships from the get-go, a university education seems to close as many doors as it opens. And into the picture comes the very issue that university should seek to mitigate the elitist advantage. While university selection may be inclusive and diversely representative, some jobs are unquestionably dependent on personal connections, unbalancing the level playing field that a university education is said to create.

A veteran of the application process, Angus Taylor, vice-president of the Economics Society, has experienced the hot and cold of it. He describes it as “a long, dull process”, where “you can often be rejected from many programmes without interview”. Once successful however, he underlines the boost it gave to his future prospects. “Not only do I now have a great idea about the area I want to work in as my first job, but it has given me a platform to gain a job in this sector”.

This can only be beneficial to your future career: even if it’s not for you, it shows you are pro-active and can make decisions about the careers that interest you.
As tedious and daunting as the process for work experience placements may be, it is simply a necessity for a student vying for top jobs. And with expected vacancies for 2013 remaining eleven per cent lower than its pre-recession level of 2007, ‘top target’ or not, the value of an internship is not to be underestimated.