The Trendence Graduate Barometer: business students rather worried
MBA News Barbara Bierach / 07-02-2011
What do business students really want from the future? To find out more about their career expectations and professional dream jobs, market researcher Trendence asked business students at 762 universities and business schools in 24 European countries. More than 96,400 answered. The most striking result of this survey is obviously the fallout from the financial crisis: 55.8 per cent of all business students in Europe are worried about their future careers. Hopeful applicants expect to send out an average of 34 resumés to land a first job and suppose the search might take them close to five months.
At 19,961 euro, the average annual wage expectation is also rather low, but that is mainly due to the impact of low initial salaries in Eastern Europe which lower the average sum. Business students there expect to start on 9,963 euro per year. Students in Denmark, Norway and Switzerland expect to start with more than 50,000 euro; their colleagues in Germany expect more than 40,000 euro and students in Austria, Finland, France and Sweden are prepared to start working for more than 30,000 euro. To achieve their career goals, 43.8 per cent of the surveyed are willing to relocate globally, 20.6 per cent would move within Europe.
Once these future executives have landed more than one job offer, how do they decide? When asked to rate the factors of most importance in terms of choosing an employer, (students were given grading options from -2 for ‘not important’ to +2 for ‘very important’), respondents allocated a poll-topping grade of 1.6 for both personal development and career development. This was closely followed by a 1.4 rating for job role as such and good training programmes. Next on the list were social factors: the friendliness of the colleagues and the appreciation of staff by the company. To have a good start students are willing to work hard in their future career: the average job market entrant expects to work 44.3 hours per week. Only the Finns expect to be done after 41 hours, whereas the Swedish are prepared to put in 51.2 weekly hours. The Germans with 45.9 hours are willing to work considerably longer than the country’s official 38.5 hour week.
