Investment banking, accounting or technology: What are your chances?
Technology is the place to be. While investment banks continue to lick their reputational wounds inflicted by the financial crisis, top graduates and MBAs are all seemingly gravitating towards jobs at Google, Microsoft and Facebook. But just because the cream of academia wants to work in technology doesn't mean they necessarily have a chance of securing a job.
Investment banking is notoriously competitive to break into. Even if application numbers are declining, it's unlikely that banks' graduate recruiters will be losing much sleep - every vacancy is still hideously over-subscribed and most places are already filled by the previous years summer interns. Again here, there are tens of thousands of graduate vying for places on these schemes.
Yet, tech firms are arguably more difficult to get into. Google says it receives 50,000 resumes per week, but has hired around 6,500 people annually over the past two years. Microsoft says it gets around 6,000 applications for its graduate scheme in the UK. Is this the case across the sector, though?
And what about accounting? The Big Four professional services firms hoover up tens of thousands of graduates and school-leavers annually, giving the impression that there are plenty of opportunities. But figures suggest that, actually, it's just as tough as banking to break into.
Below is a breakdown of your chances or getting a job in each sector, together with earning power and bragging potential.
