Here's an interesting article with plenty of eminent quotes.

"Graduates face lessons on market economics"

The message is that the landscape is a little more nuanced "a generally tighter market for graduate jobs", as our "recent feature" argued.

This article gets off to a shoddy start: "In accordance with the unwritten rules of job cutting, graduates, as the last in, should be the first out when the finance sector is struggling"

Conventional wisdom in graduate recruitment actually dictates that graduate analysts are relatively less likely to fall foul of a cull simply because they are cheaper (at least in finance and consulting sectors).

Anyway, we learn some interesting things: UK graduate recruitment numbers at Citigroup and UBS (two banks heavily hit by the crisis) are in line with last year; the retail and commercial wing of Barclays has increased target recruitment figures by 48% for 2008. They rightly point out that "A degree in economics isn’t essential as most banks look for graduates from a range of backgrounds." Furthermore, students might think about starting in non-convential areas, while: "Targeting small stockbrokers could be more fruitful than applying only to better-known companies."

Despite this, we get a long narrative of conventional graduate recruitment: careers fairs, campus presentations, summer internships, online application and tests,etc. etc. While some of these will always have a part to play, it almost a word-for-word description of the 'one size fits all' approach. Large employers with hefty budgets spend their money trying to convince you that they are the only option or that theirs is the only process. Candidates need to know that this is not the case. The second half of the article is like a propaganda piece for the big-guys, complete with testimony from a couple of graduates (no mention of the sour atmousphere many have experienced at these firms). We're then told that an alternative to a job this year could be an MSC or an Associate Chartered Accountant qualification (did we go to Loughborough or something?). No mention of doing these things for their own merit, or working in a different niche sector.

This article has some good analysis of the effects of the credit crunch and of some of the options for students and graduates. However, students and graduates need to know that they have "more options" than the broadbrush approach...

Quotes:

Laura Kirk, Financial Recruiter, WH Marks Sattin
"Top-tier academics isn’t enough any more. You have to prove your business acumen. Spend time making your own investments. They’ll want to see that you have a real passion for the industry so if you have a spare hundred pounds, invest it. If not, run a shadow portfolio. Take unpaid internships, help at a family business, anything that proves you have that spark."

"There is probably a 40% drop in recruitment in the financial sector, but the last time things were this bad, in 2001-02, lots of banks stopped hiring graduates and were forced to hire talent from accountancy firms to fill the gaps they were left with. They won’t make the same mistake again, so for the right candidates the graduate jobs will be out there."

Sarah Butcher, editor of recruitment website efinancialcareers.com.
"They won’t say it on the record but it looks like there are a lot more graduate interns starting summer placements now than the banks will have jobs for next July. They recruited their summer interns at the start of this year and things have got worse since."

Sarah Crawford, Goldman Sachs' Head of graduate recruitment for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
"There is likely to be some concern among graduates. We want them to hear the message that we are looking to hire very healthy numbers. This is a cyclical industry. Despite the challenging market conditions, more than 400 interns are about to arrive for their summer placements and we anticipate offering permanent jobs [for a 2009 start] to about 75% of them."

Sallyann Birchall, Deutsche Bank’s head of UK graduate recruiting
"We’re searching for students from all disciplines who are motivated and interested, reach a high academic standard, have strong problem-solving and teamwork skills, and can prove their drive and commitment."

Brian Hood, Citi’s head of graduate recruitment
"The outlook is difficult to predict. We may see small reductions in the London intakes but there will be readjustments and shifts between the sectors that should balance the overall numbers."