The graduates in the city: How are they doing?

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet some of the graduates of my current university in the city of London. And it was in the heart of the 'city', which means the financial district. A nice bar close to the Lloyds Building which is close to the Gurkin Building in London. Very nice atmosphere and we built up a good environment for conversation. Some of them shared their views on how the job market is doing, and it was nice to see people that work in different parts of London as well as outside the city.

I was positively struck by knowing that the graduates to whom I talked seem to be very flexible. Their degrees gives them possibilities to work in different areas. It could be that they do geography, biology, European studies or languages, physics or mathematics, but that does not stop them from working in areas like television, information technology management, financial analysis, business process improvement and even research funding.

What is also striking is to know that even despite what we see as a job crisis, some of them are thinking of changing careers. Either they want to travel, or they want to go back to university to enhance their qualifications. This is not the case of everyone, as some graduates are also cautious and would like to keep the job. But the motivation to change is there. Either because there is a perceived imminent 'redundancy' to be made soon (and we also met graduates who are actively looking for jobs, so the event was a good opportunity), or because they see themselves having a break to think and go to where they want to go. Two graduates I met want to work in areas in which they can pursue their interests in development, social responsibility and environmental management. One of the other graduates I met already moved from working in the financial sector to become a civil servant working with children and schools.

Our graduates remember a friendly university environment, a good place to study, meet people, party (of course!), fall in love maybe for the first time and then try to get the job they wanted to do in the first place. These things to me are still there. I feel we are a friendly place, we give our students options, and we also allow them to think about their interests. What I also learn is that our graduates still keep alive their passions, even if this means changing careers.

Maybe there is a lot that we can still do to help them to make sure they pursue their passions.