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: What graduates want
Flexible work patterns, a learning experience and access to social media are the key factors students look for in their first job, according to new research.
Over half of the students surveyed by Orange said they expected flexible working benefits, meaning either working from a location of their choosing or outside of normal office hours.
Social networking, long seen as the future of business, is increasingly important to graduates, with 43% of respondents believing that access to networks like LinkedIn and Facebook is essential to their future development and contacts list.
‘Today’s graduates are far more digitally savvy than their counterparts of ten or even five years ago. They expect to be able to work on the move and make use of tools like social media and the internet wherever they are,’ said Max Taylor, Director of Corporate Marketing at Orange.
A further 69% of graduates see the first job as an opportunity to learn new experiences and work practices, although whether employers will agree is open to debate.
A decent salary, good colleagues and becoming self-employed also ranked highly in the survey of 1,000 university leavers, with 51% of respondents already having established their own businesses or planning on doing so.
‘In our research, many graduates cited that learning experiences, happiness and flexible working would be more important than a big salary. This aligns with our recent research, which found that regular, social, face to face connections with close friends and family are valued highly as workers strive for an improved work/life balance,’ added Max.
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Written by: Karam Filfilan
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