Four out of five students expect to work without pay after university

Nick Elvin

Despite the upturn in the global economy and a significant skills shortage in many western countries, the vast majority (79%) of students expect to work without pay – either as an intern or on a zero hours contract – once they graduate.

These findings are part of an international study of students by career matching platform 10 Minutes With, which found that almost two thirds of students (63%) expect to secure a job interview in fewer than 10 applications, even though employers receive, on average, 39 applications for every graduate job. At the other end of the scale, less than one in 10 (7.6%) expect to make more than 50 applications.

The student poll reveals a generation of students buoyant about their chances of getting a job, but pessimistic about what this first role will demand them to sacrifice.

10 Minutes With says despite an average graduate salary of $45,478, thousands of skilled jobs are going unfilled. So why are students now accepting that an internship is now a ‘must-have’ after they leave university?

“During the recession, the notion of working without a salary was ingrained in the minds of many students as they prepared to enter the job market,” said 10 Minutes With founder Manfredi Di Cintio.

“Internships can be a great way for graduates to get a foot in the door and for the employee and employer to gauge their compatibility to one another. However, we are now in a situation where there are thousands of excellent, paid graduate jobs going unfilled because companies are mismanaging their recruitment and are struggling to find young talent with the right set of skills.

“Interning is certainly an option, but companies and graduates really should see this as secondary choice.”

One of the most seriously impacted sectors are firms working in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sector. Although over a third (34%) of respondents were studying STEM courses, less than two-thirds are planning to (or are confident that they can) continue the subject into their career. As a result, organisations are having to look at new places to recruit from to discover new pools of talent and find other means of filling gaps in their workforce.

“There is a large matchmaking gap between graduates and companies every year, where the students are applying for jobs and failing to land the ones they want, and the companies are looking to recruit the best young talent available and can’t find candidates with the right skillsets,” said Di Cintio.

“The large number of unfilled jobs shows a clear problem with the existing methods, where companies are struggling to find exciting talent and graduates believe they have to take part in an internship to get a foot in the door. We need to focus on helping our graduates match with the best career prospects possible.”

Not every student wants to work for someone else, however. The data reveals that nearly one in 10 (9%) – including undergraduate and postgraduate students – want to either join a start-up or go it alone.