What Do Graduates Look For?

Graduates’ Priorities

Current research shows that graduates’ priorities, when seeking employment are continuing to shift gradually. We wanted to understand better what graduates look for in an employer and a recent study by the Bright Network has provided some interesting insights into the work culture that graduate seek.

When looking at an employer’s reputation and image the most important factor was clearly Fast Growing and Innovative. This was followed by Financial Success and Inspiring Management. Prestige, Corporate and Social Responsibility and finally Exciting Products and Services followed in that order.

The people and culture of a business are very important and here the number one priority, by a significant margin, is Friendly and Respectable Work Environment. This is followed by Recognition and Reward then Creative and Dynamic Environment. Flexible Work Conditions, International Firm and Championing Diversity came in 4th, 5th and 6th.

Characteristics of the job had a strong front runner of Professional Training and Development followed by Job Security and Challenge. Opportunities for Travel/Relocation, Higher Level of Responsibility and Team-Orientated Work making up the lower half of priorities.

Priorities for remuneration and advancement showed that Clear Path for Advancement was ahead of Competitive Base Salary and High Future Earnings. Sponsorship of Future Qualification, Competitive Benefits and Overtime Pay ranking lower in that order.

Finally what is most likely to put a graduate off a prospective firm? Here an Unimpressive Meeting with people from the company was most likely to put them off. Negative Feedback from friends or family and Long Complicated Application Process ranked 2nd and 3rd. Negative Press, Lack of Information and finally Perceived Lack of Diversity made up the remaining top reasons.

What are the Key Findings?

So from this survey we can see that the most important things that graduates look for in an employer are:

The focus is continuing to move in the direction of finding employment in an environment that has a friendly, diverse, supportive culture that nurtures and encourages development.

How does this relate to the culture at Next Ventures?

For us culture is about the personality and character of the organisation, it runs through everything we do. We encourage and nurture creativity in individuals both working alone or within teams, collaborating with colleagues. A balance of hard work, social activities, generous rewards and a long list of benefits that all incentivise maintaining the highest standards of delivery for our clients and candidates.

We actively enable fast-track career development, ensuring the training and support is in place to make this possible. This starts with our industry-leading structured program of training, The Next Step Academy which guarantees the best possible start for our graduate intake.
This is followed by on the job mentoring and guidance so that career progression is as fast as possible and limited only by an individual’s ambitions. From the very beginning, the emphasis is on delivering the very best quality service, driving our new recruits to become true Consultants, trusted by their candidates and valued by their clients for the reliable quality of delivery.

Starting as a resourcer, a new graduate recruiter may quickly progress through to consultant recruiter, senior consultant and team manager in a very short period of time. As one of the industry’s fastest-growing niche technology recruitment agencies Next Ventures can offer the very best career prospects to graduates.

If you are an ambitious new or recent graduate looking for an employment opportunity that offers:

Find out more about the Next Step Academy here >
See the job post and apply here >