Graduates shun small firms

Citation

(2001), "Graduates shun small firms", Education + Training, Vol. 43 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2001.00443aab.004

Graduates shun small firms

Graduates shun small firms

Keywords: Graduates, Career planning, Small-to-medium-sized enterprises

Almost half of graduates want work in a major corporation, and less than one in eight express any interest in working in a small firm, despite the fact that they account for 99 per cent of all UK businesses. Moreover, graduates see themselves staying in major corporations for the first five to ten years of their careers, according to research by Top Jobs on the Net, which specializes in graduate recruitment. While graduates admire entrepreneurs, they prefer to take the well-trodden route into blue-chip corporations and appear to be oblivious to the benefits of working for a smaller management enterprise.

Commenting on the findings, Donald Martin, UK policy unit chairman for the Federation of Small Business, said: "As big businesses downsize, the global economy is increasingly made up of small firms and graduates need to realize that more employment opportunities will be within small and medium-size firms. Employment within a small business can lead to greater responsibility at an earlier age for able graduates, whereas within larger corporations these same graduates are often made to feel anonymous".

The Association of Graduate Recruiters chief executive, Carl Gilleard, commented: "Our recent research shows that today's graduates are Web aware and regard the Internet as the obvious place to look for information and services. Employers need to consider the importance of the Internet as a recruitment tool, and the implications of ignoring it when developing their graduate-recruitment strategy". Don McIntosh, of Top Jobs on the Net, said: "The milkround has become increasingly outmoded among both students and employers. Graduates are increasingly turning to the Internet to job hunt. Recent figures show that almost nine out of ten graduates now job hunt online". However, while many small firms have established Websites, actually getting graduates to look at them can prove difficult, without the kudos of a well-known name. McIntosh suggests that one solution is to use an online recruitment firm, which can raise a company's profile for them through their own graduate marketing activities, increasing target-audience reach substantially.