The graduate jobs that receive the fewest applications

If you can’t find a graduate job this year, maybe you should ‘pivot’ your application into something different? 2020-2021 is proving to be a dire year for student hiring, but some sectors are easiest to get into than others.

As we reported earlier today, Goldman Sachs apparently received 19,000 applications for 440 jobs (43 per role) in Europe this year, and 100,000 applications for 3,000 jobs (333 per role) globally. This sounds like a lot, but it’s actually surprisingly modest compared to applications per role elsewhere.

The most recent data from the U.K’s Institute of Student Employers (ISE) there are an average of 51 graduate applicants per graduate job in the U.K. this year. However, the number of applicants varies by sector.

As the chart below shows, the ISE says the sectors with the highest number of applications per job this year are the retail and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors and the health and pharmaceutical industry. The broad banking and financial services sector is the third most difficult sector to get into. The fewest applicants per job are in the charity and public sectors. 

If you’re a student who can’t find a job this year, you might therefore want to rethink the industry you’re applying to. – All the more so because the ISE says charities and the public sector are actually increasing graduate recruitment while other sectors are cutting.

What if you’re determined to work finance and professional services and you really don’t want to work for a charity? As we’ve noted before, there’s more than one way into the banking industry and different types of job attract different quantities of applicants. Figures for applications last year from High Fliers research suggest only 27 graduates applied for each graduate job in accounting and professional services in 2019, vs. 41 applications each job in an investment bank and 118 applications for each graduate job in consulting. You can always use accounting as a back door.


Sarah Butcher – Read more on efinancialcareers.com


 

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