Interview on Thursday !

[Provost Harrison]

Explain your standpoint - after all national insurance just goes into the government coffers like anything else...

[Solly]

Well I'm not 100% on how it works, but there are benefits you receive when unemployed if you've paid enough of it..

[Tingkai]

Re: Interview on Thursday !

Originally posted by Park Avenue
Still it's £16.5k which isn't bad for an entry role.

You should consider yourself extremely lucky if you get a job that pays that salary.

You have an average degree. You have no work experience other than two summer jobs. You have no extra-cirricular activities that will make you stand out from the crowd. In short, you have very little to offer an employer.

A recent British study found the average salary for a university graduate in 2003 was £12,659.

You really need to lower your sights to something more realistic.

[Drogue]

Yes, but the average graduate salary for an Economics 2:1 is an awful lot higher. Economics pays second only to dentistry for early salaries in the UK. £16.5k is quite normal for an early role.

For example, the Home Office economics department stated, with regards to the home office graduate employment: "The average starting salary for new graduates is around £23,000 in London (slightly lower outside London)."

More importantly, looking for average graduate starting salaries:

"The average starting salary for a graduate is about £18,343"

link: http://www.universityoptions.co.uk/s...1.asp#salaries

16.5k is under the average.

[Solly]

The studies need to define how they are carried out. Are they talking about avergae graduate earnings, average graduate earnings excluding those unemployed, averate earnings of a graduate who goes into a graduate-type role, etc?

[Drogue]

I have no idea. All I know is that what I want to do at the moment - go into the government economics service fast track - pays well, get's me training, will pay for me to do an MSc and get's me a technical, economics job in 2 years Though I'll probably need a 1st, and to have got my grades, to do that

[Solly]

Ah right, good luck..there's always a LOT of competition for those placements..

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Drogue
Yes, but the average graduate salary for an Economics 2:1 is an awful lot higher. Economics pays second only to dentistry for early salaries in the UK. £16.5k is quite normal for an early role.

Really? Maybe economics degree means something different in Canada than in Britain.

In Canada, an economics degree is just another Bachelor of Arts degree. Nothing special.

But in Canada, we also have undergraduate business degrees which are different from an economics degree.

Originally posted by Drogue
For example, the Home Office economics department stated, with regards to the home office graduate employment: "The average starting salary for new graduates is around £23,000 in London (slightly lower outside London)."

I was citing a BBC study:
"But the figures compiled by the Cardiff and Lancaster researchers suggest the figure is based on "blue-chip" companies, taking on just one in 20 graduates.

"Average starting wages were actually falling, with last year's average of £12,659 down from £13,422 in 2002, they found.

http://newswww.bbc.net.uk/1/low/education/3808111.stm

Anyways, my point is that PA doesn't have much in the way of qualifications so he shouldn't expect to get paid much in his first real job.

If he lucks into a good paying job, that of course would be great.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Tingkai
Really? Maybe economics degree means something different in Canada than in Britain.

Yes. In the UK, an Econ degree can be BA or BSc, depending on where you take it. But that doesn't really matter. The subject of your degree does, and economists usually have one of the lowest unemployment rates and highest salaries. Something like ~£35k average 5 years after graduating, IIRC.

Originally posted by Tingkai
Anyways, my point is that PA doesn't have much in the way of qualifications so he shouldn't expect to get paid much in his first real job.

A 2:1 in Econ is quite highly sort after by employers, especially with out low unemployment. He can, IMHO, afford to be a bit picky.

Obviously not expecting the earth, but it's not unusual for people to go into investment banking or somesuch and have starting salaries of £30k+, especially with Econ or Maths degrees. Competative, but doable, if you really want to.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by Park Avenue
Well I'm not 100% on how it works, but there are benefits you receive when unemployed if you've paid enough of it..

Yes... but the money raised doesn't go into a seperate pot to pay for that, it all goes into the central coffers.

[Tingkai]

Employers in Canada would be much more selective. Someone with only two jobs after graduation would be seen as odd and undersirable.

Of course unions are stronger in Britain which would explain the higher salaries.

[MikeH]

Cost of living is much higher which explains a lot of it.

[Solly]

First, "Anyways, my point is that PA doesn't have much in the way of qualifications so he shouldn't expect to get paid much in his first real job."

Erm..around 40% go to university, and of those roughly half get a 2:1 or first. So I'm already in the top fifth of acadmeically qualified. It's not unusual at all here for people to leave uni with six months or less work experience.

Mike "Yes... but the money raised doesn't go into a seperate pot to pay for that, it all goes into the central coffers."

You pay your car insurance to an insurance firm but that goes into its coffers too to pay for payouts in addition to wages, overheads, other categories of payout, speculation.

It doesn't stop it being insurance. You can have insurance without hypothecation.

[MikeH]

I was explaining PH's point of view.

[Solly]

Can he not do it himself?