Episode 82 – The Pros and Cons of a Graduate Scheme

February 10, 2019 Podcast

Hello and welcome to the 82nd episode of the Graduate Job Podcast, the UKs number 1 careers podcast. I have a very special guest today who will entertain you with their silky and dulcet tones…..Ok, maybe I don’t, as today you just have the pleasure of yours truly to take you through the pros and cons of getting a job on a graduate scheme. You know how it is, there is lots of money spent marketing the big graduate schemes, they come and travel round to your universities on the Milkround, they have the glossy adverts in the careers magazines and the Times Top 100 Graduate employers list, but are they worth all of the effort and energy it takes to get them?  I explore in detail the reasons why you should apply for a graduate scheme and also some reasons why they might not be the best place for you to begin your career. We delve into the advantages offered by companies on their graduate schemes and also the disadvantages you will face on them. At the end of the day it’s always going to be a personal choice as to what is right for you, but this will give you plenty of food for thought that you are making the correct decision. No matter where you are in your jobsearch, still applying, or maybe in a job which isn’t rocking your world, this is an episode which you aren’t going to want to miss. Now the only link you need to remember from today is www.graduatejobpodcast.com/graduatescheme, as that has all of the links to everything which we discuss and a full transcript which you can download, so make sure you head on over there.

And don’t forget to check out today’s sponsor who are our friends over at CareerGym.com. Career Gym is the number one place for you to undertake all of your psychometric tests which you will face when you apply for a graduate job. No matter what graduate job you apply for you’re going to have to face some type of verbal reasoning, situational judgment, and working style tests. You can practice these at CareerGym.com. Use code GJP to get 20% off all of their tests!

MORE SPECIFICALLY IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

  • The advantages of starting your career on a graduate scheme
  • Some of the pitfalls you could face on a graduate scheme
  • Why you should go into a graduate scheme with your eyes open as to what you will face
  • Which industries pay the highest graduate scheme starting salaries
  • How structured career progression on a graduate scheme could set you up for success, or hold you back
  • How working on a graduate scheme could be the most enjoyable time of your working life
  • Why you shouldn’t let the fact that getting on a graduate scheme is difficult stop you

Don’t forget, also make sure you check out https://www.graduatejobpodcast.com/subscribe which links to how to subscribe on Itunes, Spotify, Youtube, and by email. So something for everyone there.

SELECTED LINKS:

  • Assessment Day – One of the top providers of psychometric tests. Click HERE and support the show
  • Career Gym – Use code GJP to get 20% off all of their tests!
  • Job Test Prep – One of the top providers of psychometric tests. Click HERE and support the show

Transcript- Episode 82 – The Pros and Cons of a Graduate Scheme

Announcer: Welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, your home for weekly information and inspiration to help you get the graduate job of your dreams.

James: Hello and welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, with your host James Curran. The Graduate Job Podcast is your home for all things related to helping you on your journey to finding that amazing job. Each episode I bring together the best minds in the industry, speaking to leading authors, graduate recruiters and career coaches who bring decades of experience into a byte size weekly 30 minute-ish show. Put simply, this is the show I wish I had when I graduated.

Hello and welcome to the 82nd episode of the Graduate Job Podcast, the UKs number 1 careers podcast. I have a very special guest today who will entertain you with their silky and dulcet tones…..Ok, maybe I don’t, as today you just have the pleasure of yours truly to take you through the pros and cons of getting a job on a graduate scheme. You know how it is, there is lots of money spent marketing the big graduate schemes, they come and travel round to your universities on the Milkround, they have the glossy adverts in the careers magazines and the Times Top 100 Graduate employers list, but are they worth all of the effort and energy it takes to get them?  Because there is a world outside of the big graduate schemes. Did you know that the biggest 500 graduate recruiters in the UK take only about 10 percent of the total graduate market every year. This means that 90 percent of graduates end up in smaller companies that they might not have heard of before they started their job hunt. So for today’s episode we will explore some of the pros and cons of graduate schemes and whether a graduate scheme is the right place for you to start your career, or if you will be happier maybe at a start-up or a smaller firm. In particular in this episode we look at 5 reasons why you should definitely think about graduate schemes, and on the flip side, 4 reasons why they might not give you what you want. .

Make sure you check out the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/graduatescheme for a full transcript and links to everything which we discuss today.

Before we start let’s have a little message from today’s sponsor who are who are our friends over at CareerGym.com. There are some things in life you can’t escape, death taxes, and psychometric tests when you apply for a graduate job. The only way to get really good at them is to practice practice practice, which is where Career Gym comes in. Career Gym is the number one place for you to undertake all of your psychometric tests which you will face when you apply for a graduate job. The bottom line is that no matter what graduate job you apply for, from the global giants to that small company around the corner from you, you’re going to have to do some type of verbal and numerical reasoning, situational judgment, and working style tests. At Career Gym.com you can practice all of these and they come with detailed explanations and you can compare yourself against your peers or do them under time pressure. And as a valued listener of the show they will give you 20% off of all of their tests if you use the code GJP. So, head over to http://www.CareerGym.com that’s CareerGym.com and use the code GJP to get 20% off all of their tests and start practicing today. Now, on with the show.

So dear listener, today I’m going to take you through some of the pros and cons of a graduate scheme. Answering definitely once and for all, whether you should apply for one. Ok, it’s not going to be that clear cut, but let’s start at the beginning to make sure we are all on the same page and get our terms right so we know what exactly I’m talking about.

What is a Graduate Scheme?

So what is a graduate scheme? Strictly speaking, a graduate scheme is just another type of graduate job, although they tend to be very different in that they are a structured training programme run by an employer to develop future leaders of their company. They typically last between 1 and 2 years, are quite formalised in nature and tend on the whole to be offered by larger more well-known companies.

In comparison to this you have start-ups which are newly established businesses, and maybe more established but maybe smaller companies who still take on graduates but maybe more sporadically or in a less structured way. Today we are going to examine the pros and cons of graduate schemes and see whether they are worth all of the effort and energy to start your career on one. I’ll be you guide through this episode chucking in my two penneth having been on both sides of the fence, having started my career with a smaller company before then moving on to a big graduate scheme.

The Pros of a Graduate Scheme

So let’s start with some of the Pros of graduate schemes.

Training

The biggest one for me for why I wanted to get a place on a graduate scheme was….training. I had my heart set on a graduate scheme as I wanted a company who would invest in me and look to develop me. To give you some back story, after uni and working in China I worked for a low cost airline for 18 months. Great fun, brilliant people, ace perks (£25 flights round Europe) but…..no training. Since it was a small company at the time they had no formalised training and not much money for it anyway. If you wanted to go on training you had to really push for it yourself. This was in stark contrast to when I joined the graduate scheme for a management consulting firm, you started off with 2 weeks intensive training with the other new graduates in the intake, and then over the 2 years of the graduate scheme you had about 10 days training a years in a variety of different aspects, from public speaking to business cases, to core consulting skills, some in the UK, some abroad. It was very structured, lots of fun and really beneficial. I still use the things I learnt in my work to this day.

And this is one of the biggest advantages of a graduate scheme for me, bigger companies tend to have bigger budgets and bigger learning and development departments which are set up and focussed to improving you and your skills, and this is definitely a plus point.

Structured Roles and Progression

My next pro point for why to get a graduate scheme follows on from the issue of training. Now I’ve put this as a pro, although as you’ll see, it is also a con later on. The point is Structured Progression. Progression in and through a graduate scheme tends to be much more structured. You know what your role is within the team, and who you report to. This may be far too rigid for some people, but the structure means that progression is also clearer. For example on my scheme I knew that the graduate scheme was 2 years in length, and at the end of it you would be promoted to the next grade of consultant, (or shown the door). Between 1-2 years after that depending on performance you would then be promoted to senior consultant, with the next grade a further 2-3 years down the line. You knew what was expected of you to progress to these grades in terms of performance, and you knew that if you did what was expected where you would be and when. By comparison at the low cost airline nothing was defined so I had no idea how or if I would be able to progress through the ranks, or when the next role would be available. For some people this ticks the boxes, although for others as we’ll discuss later, it’s not ideal.  

Salaries

Pro number 3 for me is salaries, money makes the world go round and rightly or wrongly is a big draw for many graduates starting out from university. And….yes, starting salaries on graduate schemes do tend to be higher.

High Fliers’ The Graduate Market in 2017 report has revealed that the most generous payers from The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers – were investment banks, law firms and oil and energy companies. No surprise with the first 2. Apparently overall, a sixth of graduate schemes from the Times Top 100 now offer starting salaries of more than £40,000, with 13 of the UK’s best known graduate recruiters paying wages of at least £45,000 for their 2017 intake. You might not be surprised by the fact that the investment banks are paying high salaries, but you might not expect companies such as Aldi to be paying £44k and giving you an Audi A4. But they aren’t giving these wages out of the goodness of the hearts and you are expected to work….and hard. Don’t expect 9-5 hours and flexitime with starting salaries like that. As well as the pay you can also expect nice benefits such as private healthcare, pension and goodies like that. Not that you won’t get these at smaller companies, or start-ups, but on the whole again, bigger companies are known for paying the bigger salaries and having better benefits.  

Prestige

Next up in the pros is Prestige. Coupled with the nice pay packet there is also that prestige in working for a big recognisable company. Having a prestigious name on your CV will stand you in good stead for no matter where you go and what you do further in your career. You will be desirable for a couple of reasons, one is that companies know how difficult it is to get on a graduate scheme in the first place, so in effect you have been pre-selected, if you were good enough to work for famous and prestigious company X, you are probably good enough to work for smaller start up Y. Also, they know that your previous company has invested lots of money into you in terms of training and development so they can take advance of that. As a result, getting on a graduate scheme will open doors for you and help to get you the first interview if and more likely when you do decide to leave. There are also the intangible benefits of being able to link into the alumni networks of people from your prestigious firm who have probably gone on to do exciting other things. Finally it will also be easier to explain to your gran exactly who you work for if you’re at a big FTSE company rather than a small start-up. I jest, but this prestige factor is more important to some people than others, some people really like the fact they work for a big well known company, for other people, that doesn’t matter as much, but either way, having a big name on your CV can open doors further down the line.

Fun

Next up is fun. A big plus for me and one that is often ignored when you think about the pros and cons of getting on a graduate scheme, is that they can be really really fun. In many ways they are an extension from university, just with more work, and a little more money (make that a lot more money if you are starting on £45k a year). When you join a graduate scheme you will join with a cohort of people, you will be roughly the same age and will very quickly bond as you go through the induction and joining process and start working together. Depending on the type of work and location you could be travelling away together, or all new in a city together, and probably working very closely together. Either way, you will end up making very firm friendships with your colleagues. The company will probably have lots of social events on so you can get to know the people in the intake and other graduates in the years above, and then later intakes below, and after work drinks on a Friday, and maybe a Thursday as well can mean it is a really fun time. Not that I’m saying smaller companies aren’t fun, but you’re more likely to find people you click with in a bigger graduate scheme, than if you are the only person under 40 in an office, and everyone else is married and has kids..

So to recap, those pro of a graduate scheme were;

  • Training
  • Structured role and progression
  • Salaries
  • Prestige
  • Fun

The Cons of a Graduate Scheme

Let’s explore some of the cons of a graduate scheme. Now, as I caveated at the beginning, of course these are deeply personal, some of the pros I mentioned earlier will have sounded great to some people and a massive turn off to other people, so it really depends on your personal preference and what it is that you want to get out of a job.

They’re Difficult to Get

So con of a graduate scheme number 1. They’re difficult to get. One of the common complaints I hear about graduate schemes is that they can be so difficult to get on and very competitive. Yep, and yep, both true. But why let that stop you. But conversely the clue to a graduate job is in the title, they want graduates and they want to give you a job. It’s true that lots of people apply but most people’s applications are poor and they aren’t prepared. By the nature that you are listening to this means that you are type of person who is willing to put the work in, so don’t let a little bit of competition put you off. Yes, they have lots of stages, and it can be painful to do online applications, psychometric testing etc. But the reason it’s difficult and the applications are long is to put people off and make them drop out. You just need to keep going. I’ve episodes covering every aspect of the application process so explore them all at graduatejobpodcast.com/start and you will soon find that it is not as difficult as you first thought. Also, who wants a job that is easy? What does that say about you or the job, if it’s easy to get. Don’t let this first point put you off from applying, or sticking with it if you don’t get your dream job the first time around.

Small Cog in a giant Machine

Another con of a graduate scheme is that by their nature, since they tend to get offered by larger companies, it does mean that you will be a small cog in a very large machine. When you are working in a building with hundreds, if not thousands of people, it can easy to get lost, I don’t mean physically, although I guess that can happen too. It can be difficult to stand out and get noticed when you are 1 new graduate out of an intake of 100. If you were working for a small start-up with just 20 people, then this wouldn’t be an issue. If you did great work then the whole company including the bosses would hear about it. But if you join for example Accenture which has huge intakes of say 200 plus people a year, getting noticed is going to be far more difficult.

Difficult to Impact the Business

Linked to this is that in a big company it’s very difficult if not impossible to have an impact on the business. It can be difficult to see the results of your work and how your contribution is helping the business to grow or making an impact on the bottom line. Again, compared to a much smaller company or start up, where your work will likely have more impact, and have a better chance of being recognised by senior people in the business. On a graduate scheme due to the structured and hierarchical nature of the firm you probably won’t be interacting with very senior stakeholders. This won’t be the case in smaller companies where you will probably have much greater opportunities to interact with senior management and CEOs etc. and there is a higher probability of them coming across your work.

Structured Career Progression

As I mentioned earlier, one plus of a graduate scheme is structured career progression, while conversely, one con of a graduate scheme is…you guessed it. Structured Career Progression. If you are a real high flier, a super driven go getter you might find a graduate scheme with its formality and structured career progression inhibiting. Your progress might be determined not by how well you are doing but by the specifications of the graduate scheme. For example, you can’t be promoted until you have been X years in the role. This isn’t the case in all firms, but certainly isn’t true in smaller companies or start-ups where if you demonstrate your competency you can quickly move up the ranks or on to different and bigger pieces of work. It depends on what you are like as a person, would you prefer structure around you to help push you forward, or are you the type of person for whom structure would hold you back?

So those cons of a graduate scheme again;

  • They’re difficult to get,
  • Small cog in big machine
  • Difficult to impact business
  • Structured career progression

So there you go, a quick canter through some of the pros and cons of graduate schemes. Do I think they are a great way to start your career, yes. Do I think they are the only way to start your career? Of course not. They aren’t the be all and end all, but for lots of people they are a good place to start, maybe not finish, but definitely to start your career. Don’t worry It’s not one or the other. Like I said, I started with a smaller company, and then went to a graduate scheme. Friends of mine started with a graduate scheme and then moved to start-ups, either other peoples or created their own. There is no onesize fits all, no right way. You make your own way and as long as you are moving forward and learning, you will be going in the right direction. If you are unsure, listen to some of my earlier episodes with John Lees on how to find a job you love, or Scott Barlow on finding a career that fits, or Scott Mautz on finding an inspiring graduate job. I have 80+ episodes covering every aspect of getting a graduate job, so no matter where you are on your jobsearch, I have something for you.

If you are thinking of applying for a graduate job then boy do I have something for you. I’m distilling down all my years of knowledge into one brilliant online course, cunningly call. ‘How to Get a Graduate Job’. Now the course is still being worked, but if you want to be the first to find out about it and also to get it at a special discount never to be repeated price including some amazing special offers, head on over to https://www.graduatejobpodcast.com/course and leave your email. It’s a brilliant course which will take you through every step of getting a graduate job and it will save you years of frustrations and rejection, so head on over to https://www.graduatejobpodcast.com/course to find out more. That is everything from me, let me know if you liked the episode today. I hope you enjoyed it, but more importantly, I hope that you use it and apply it. See you next week.