Graduate schemes are not shameful, they are pragmatic

By Scarlett Sheriff, Fourth Year French and Spanish

People who bag a corporate grad scheme are not selling their souls more than anyone else.

Students should not be ashamed of being tempted by graduate recruiters from banking and consultancy. I, for one, am becoming more money-orientated than I thought I could be.

I once asked a commercial lawyer at a careers event: ‘But, what if you don’t agree with the actions of your clients?’, ‘This won’t be the job for you,’ she replied.

But now, things are different.

It is my final year and I approached Newton Consultancy. This time, it was not just for the free keep-cup and cappuccino, though obviously the smell of coffee was still a huge selling point.

It is no less righteous to take on a grad scheme than returning home and living off the wealth of your parents.

No, it is that I have only been back a couple of weeks and the pressure has been on since day one. Time is ticking. The flashy, clear and simple option - and the free coffee option - is outside the ASS.

In today’s world it, this career path makes sense. It did not use to, but now it does.

Suddenly, there’s a weird air of competition, as this is the year that people start ‘gunning for a first’ or securing a solid 2:1.

‘Education for educations sake!’, we have all screamed at a protest before sitting in the library pouring over the mark scheme.

‘At university, it’s good because people don’t compare themselves with their course mates,’ everyone says, and then that person drops the line: ‘I got a first, what did you get?’

As well as grades, the biggest thing on all of our minds is jobs, careers and the fiercely competitive world of work.

Many have countless internships they have been at it since their first year. Others do not advertise it, but it is pretty clear they are safe in the knowledge they have the contacts to get a good job easily.

For everyone else, the starting salary of some of these graduate schemes is more than 40-thousand per year. In creative industries like fashion, journalism and film the starting salary is zero, or you are paid well below the living wage - all whilst being told that it’s a privilege to gain this ‘experience’.

Corporate industries entice wide-eyed graduates with free coffee, good money and flashy logos, but creative industries tell you to come back when you are the best in your field.

Until then? Stay at home and rely on your parents, have limited independence and tolerate a sub-human existence for the love of the work.

They completely fail to acknowledge that this is not a possibility for those who did not grow up in London, cannot live with their family and stay sane, or who have no family at all.

What about care leavers or people with difficult homes?

To quote Newton Consultancy’s recruitment brochure:
‘Learn on the Job. We believe training should be more than learning how to book a holiday or fill in a timesheet. So you’re on a project, with a client, from week five running your own workstream’.

It’s fair to say you are no more selling your soul by working for them and taking the opportunity for paid training on the job, than by working for free or very little whilst staying in your family's nice London home, to break into a more ‘ethical’ and ‘left of field’ industry.

So I did speak to Newton and I was kind of tempted. But most importantly, I was not ashamed.

It is no less righteous to take on a grad scheme than returning home and living off the wealth of your parents.

Featured Image: Flickr/泰德