Grads are calling the shots

Today's unversity graduates happily flit from one employer to another to gain experience

Companies which want to recruit the top graduates will need to be on the front foot and do the hard yards, says Steve Evans, principal consultant at Core Recruitment.

He says there are some great ways to capture the top students including offering them studying opportunities and projects which could lead into secondments. This has added benefits for the student as well.

"It often helps the graduate to get the really good grades and a degree if they are offered the opportunity to really work in internships."

But for employers, spotting the good talent at the universities requires a little bit of work, Evans says.

"Most graduates don't have a lot of tangible or relevant work experience to determine whether or not these people have the raw materials to succeed."

Evans measures the skills, attributes and abilities of recent graduates to place them in work. But he also assesses their ability to problem solve, work well with others, analyse and present well. He says top graduates will never have a hard time finding employment, but initiative is required from employers if they are going to find the good grads.

"The organisations which really do want to get the best graduates into their workforce then they put in considerable effort into their visits to the universities."

There are some obvious drawbacks to employing recent university graduates, but Evans says it should not be an issue.

"If you can hold onto them for say two, three, four years then you've probably done as well as most could expect anyway."

With the frequency in which people change jobs these days, hiring graduates is much less of a risk than it used to be.

"You can keep them up to a certain point. Once they've got that two, three, four years experience under their belts it's going to make them really quite attractive to bigger and better organisations and perhaps bigger and better places. Then you might well lose them."

Graduates these days belong to the Y generation which are not known for their loyalty. But Evans says this should not be a problem.

"The job market has changed to a point where people don't expect a longer-term job anyway. I suppose that becomes a two-way thing where employers aren't necessarily after long-term commitments and ultimately employees don't tend to want the same either."

Kim Richards is a consultant at OCG Consulting and has also had experiences working with generation Y.

"Their expectations are just higher, I suppose. I find that a lot of them are not willing to really do the ground work."

Richards says recent graduates are very much 'job hoppers'.

"More and more of the youngsters coming through these days all have an expectation to move through quite quickly and be promoted quite quickly. Graduates will stay in a role for 12 to 24 months and then be looking for their next opportunity."

This is having a huge impact on employers, she says, as recent graduates leave a company just as the employer has trained them up to speed.

"I think what employers need to do is understand this generation and look at different ways of keeping these graduates in the business."

Richards works in sales and marketing recruitment and says most companies will not take a graduate until they have at least one year's experience.

"There's not a huge amount of marketing opportunity as it is. It's really competitive getting into an entry-level marketing role. With good grads, I think before they even leave university they have a job."

Richards says marketing graduates can expect to earn $40,000 - $45,000 and that although smaller companies can offer a broader range of experiences, larger companies provide a more disciplined environment to give graduates a good grounding.

She says recruiters are looking for that something extra before they will hire a recent graduate whether it's part-time work relevant to their qualification, sporting or extracurricular activity or a demonstration of leadership skills.

But employers also need to put their best foot forward with savvy employment branding and a strong recruitment drive early in the year to find who they want.

Craig Shutt, director of Status Recruitment, specialises in recruiting accountants. He says the top firms will always fight for the top graduates but that these days top graduates can expect two or three job offers. With job offers in their pocket and an attitude to match, these recent graduates are playing the field. They're not just looking for the standard nine-to-five job.

"Their demands are certainly a lot higher. Graduates will want perhaps flexible working hours even. With generation Y, they don't just want a job. They want to know the salary and the benefits whether it's extra annual leave or health insurance."

Shutt also says that smart companies should come up to speed with ways of managing generation Y. He says that although the number of accounting graduates is meeting demand, employers should understand their mindset to manage their expectations.

"We would probably struggle recruiting graduates for very small firms, especially good quality graduates, because it is hard to promote a clear career path and training structure within a very small firm."

Large firms often invest a lot in recruitment drives for graduates and invest a lot in training.

"Some firms have clear graduate programmes where they take in a set amount of graduates on an annual basis. One of the advantages of hiring a graduate is that the aptitude is pretty good in general."

An accounting graduate stepping right out of school can expect to earn from $28,000 to $34,000 before sitting their professional exams.

"They've got to be keen and display the talent to be mentored in the firms as well."

The good ones can become valuable employees.

"You can mould them into the company culture. Salary might be a factor as well. You might be able to pay them a lower salary but obviously you're putting the investment of training in them."

Sometimes that investment will be worthwhile and sometimes not.

"The risk obviously with graduates is that they will get qualified and go overseas."

Depending on their experiences their first stop when they return home might be with the company they last worked for here. Someone who was a recent graduate is now a candidate with a couple of year's overseas experience and might turn out to be the ideal employee.