Warwick is in employers’ sights

**Students face a bleak future. The jobs market is overloaded with graduates. Competition is high. Employers received 52 applications for every graduate vacancy they had during the 2011-2012 recruitment season, and the latest research suggests that the application rate could be even higher in 2013.**

For Warwick students however, the horizon seemed to shine a little brighter when the Telegraph published an article claiming that our university is the “top target” for graduate employers. But what exactly does this mean? And what does this bode for those universities who aren’t targeted to the same extent?

For the UK Graduate Careers Survey 2012, 18,000 final year students from 30 leading universities were asked which employer they thought offered best graduatesopportunities. Over 1000 different organisations were named, and the top 100 formed the Times’ Top 100 Graduate Employers for 2012. These were then used in research for ‘The Graduate Market in 2013’ report, including banks such as J.P. Morgan, law firms like Clifford Chance and multinational corporations such as Apple.

These firms were asked which UK universities their organisations have been formally targeting for local graduate recruitment promotions this year. Warwick topped the list of those attracting the largest number of top graduate recruiters for campus careers fairs, local presentations and other university promotions during 2012-2013.

In a university statement, Stephen Ward, Head of External Relations in Student Careers and Skills, welcomed the news. “As the majority of this group [of employers] recruit from all degree disciplines and offer placements as well as graduate opportunities, this is great news for every Warwick student.” The targeting of Warwick University by these top employers puts Warwick students in a good position to seize these openings.

But we need not feel too sorry for the students of Oxford University – who placed seventh in the list of targeted universities – or indeed those other universities lower in employers’ affections. A quarter of the employers said they targeted 11 to 15 universities, a fifth said 21 to 25 and 11 per cent said 26 to 30. Thus Warwick hasn’t been singled out as the most desirable university to recruit from. Most employers target a range of universities. Undoubtedly it is preferable to be at the top of the list than anywhere else on it, but being on top does not necessarily make it easy for Warwick students to secure available graduate vacancies.

Furthermore, there is still hope for students at universities that did not make the top 25. Information about vacancies is increasingly available online. The Graduate Market report showed a shift in the ways employers are promoting graduate vacancies towards the use of social media. 71 per cent said they planned to increase emphasis on this approach.

As such, it would be wrong to conclude that those students attending universities not targeted so heavily will not get a look in when it comes to the graduate jobs market. Warwick students will have a fortunate chance to meet recruiters in person. But for those who don’t have such opportunities, there is still light out there. It just might be a little harder to find.