Business and administrative studies : Types of work

Here is a breakdown of the types of work that graduates are doing for each of the business and administrative studies subjects covered in What Do Graduates Do?

Business and Management

The largest two occupational groups that business and management graduates were working in at the time of the survey were ‘commercial, industrial and public sector managers’ and ‘business and financial professionals and associate professionals’, which combined, accounted for over 40% of the cohort. These occupational groups are closely linked with the degree area, so could imply that business and management graduates are successful in securing entrance into related areas and perhaps also that there are more vacancies available in the business and financial sectors. The Association of Graduate Recruiter’s (AGR) Graduate Recruitment survey, Summer Review 2011, reported that 11.1% of their member’s vacancies were classified as ‘general management’ and 20.6% ‘accountancy and professional services’.

The three other significant areas of employment for business and management graduates were ‘other clerical and secretarial occupations’, ‘retail, catering, waiting and bar staff’ and ‘other occupations’ with 9.6%, 13.5% and 9.1% employment respectively. These occupational groups may represent short-term, stop-gap employment opportunities and also the ability to enter an organisation at ground level to ‘earn your spurs’ for a career in management.

Accountancy

According to the High Fliers’ ‘Graduate Market in 2011’ report, four of the five largest graduate recruiters will be accountancy and professional services firms, which combined were expected to offer 3840 vacancies in 2011. The DLHE survey showed that the destinations of accountancy graduates is dominated by two categories: ‘business and financial professionals and associate professionals’ (44.7%) with 15.7% working as chartered accountants and 3.1% as financial analysts. ‘Numerical clerks and cashiers’ also account for 16.2% of the accountancy graduates destinations. Apart from ‘retail, catering, waiting and bar staff’ (11.4%), no other category accounts for more than 8% of the destinations, perhaps showing that these graduates have remained focussed on their vocation both throughout their studies and following graduation.

Marketing

Marketing graduates are successful in attaining related roles across small, medium and large organisations. The AGR’s Graduate Recruitment Summer Survey 2011 constitutes mainly large organisations and indicated that only 5.6% of their members’ vacancies were in marketing or sales. However, the DLHE survey showed that 33.6% of marketing graduates were successful in securing an associated position six months after graduation in 2009/10, which had increased year on year from 30.5%. This suggests that marketing graduates are finding employment as marketing professionals in a variety of organisations not just the larger companies offering graduate schemes.

32.8% of marketing graduates were working as ‘other clerical and secretarial occupations’, ‘retail, catering, waiting and bar staff’ and ‘other occupations’, these graduates may have been either earning their way whilst they secured a more closely related vocational position, or were re-evaluating their options. The High Flyers 2011 survey suggests that many students postpone career planning until after graduation; one of the effects of this is a slower transition into the world of work and the need to take any job to make ends meet in the meantime.

The proportions securing employment as, ‘commercial, industrial and public sector managers’ (15.6%) or ‘business and financial professionals and associate professionals’ (8.7%) may indicate that a significant proportion of the marketing graduates had already decided to change their careers direction away from marketing into broader professional and managerial routes.

Salaries

The average salary of graduates from all disciplines in full time employment six months after graduating in 2009/10 was £19,794 which is only a slight increase on last year’s figure.

According to the DLHE survey, the average salary for graduates who studied accountancy and are in full time employment in the UK is £19,055. The other business related subjects have shown increases in UK average salary: business studies up £660 to £19,675; management studies up £130 to £20,360; and marketing up £380 to £18,640.

Average salaries vary widely according to region of employment, with London consistently offering the highest mean salaries; for instance the mean for an accountancy graduate working in the North East of England is £16,500 whilst in London it is £23,600.