As a result, we were interested in finding out what worries graduates the most about their futures. We surveyed 1,200 graduates about what they are most worried about, as well as what the most important factors are when looking for a new role.
Results
We found graduate’s biggest worries were:
- 33% cited not having a rewarding job as what worries them most in their future.
- 29% responded with struggling with work-life balance
- 25% responded being unable to afford things they want in life as their biggest worry.
Followed by fitting family around their career (7%), other (3%) and a lucky minority who responded I don’t worry about anything (3%).
Rewarding and work variety
Long gone are the days of working one job for your whole life and then retiring. Nowadays, young people get stick for switching jobs too quickly, otherwise known as ‘job hopping’ and get stereotyped as floaty and easily bored.
However, with tuition fees higher than they’ve ever been before, it is understandable that grads want a rewarding, enjoyable job that they are passionate about. Graduates use job-hopping to build up and develop experience, learn new skills and decide what is important to them in a career.
Research from Small business found that two thirds of employers actually said that job hopping is good for your career with 42% saying they would be more likely to hire someone who has retrained or made a career change than someone who hasn’t, as this allows them to pick up a diverse number of skills which are important to jobs today.
- Our survey found that the majority of respondents (33%) reported that the opportunity to progress in a role as the most important factor in a new role
- Job variety was reported as the second most important factor in a role, at 31%
This points to the fact that graduates are looking for roles they can progress in, and if this is not the case, this is when job hopping occurs. Job variety was also reported as a very important factor in new jobs.
Robert Walters found that Millennials want more than just a job with 68% reporting that a role with growth is the most important factor and motivator in staying at a job.
Work/life balance & flexible working
Our research demonstrated that maintaining a healthy work-life balance is very important to fresh grads, with
- 18% of graduates chose ‘flexi-time’ as one of their most important factors in a new job.
Nine to five is becoming less common. We also have more flexibility around when and how we work – more companies are allowing employees to choose their hours and some allow remote working.
Despite this, research has demonstrated we are working longer hours than we did in the past and there is more expectation to work overtime
This has led to many struggling with work-life balance. A study by EY found that nearly a third of young people said that managing their family, personal responsibilities and work has become more difficult in the past 5 years.
According to the 2016 Millennial Survey by Deloitte, 16.8% of Millennials evaluate career opportunities by good work-life balance.
Many employers are already taking this in mind with 53% of those surveyed by Certes said they currently have some form of flexible working.
Matt Hamish, 22 comments: “I work long hours as a business analyst, so it’s important to me to have a bit of flexibility. I prefer to come in earlier and finish earlier, but many of my colleagues are late risers and so start later. I can also do 3 days working from home a month. It makes you feel valued when your employer cares about your work-life balance.”
All in all, it appears that having a rewarding and progressive career is of upmost importance to graduates. However, they don’t want to burn out in their careers citing flexibility as very important.
