How Does Your Choice of University Effect Employability

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  airzone on 27/08/2015 - 15:08

  +2

  When I hire someone for IT, a uni degree is just a tick in the box..

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    [Deactivated] on 27/08/2015 - 15:25

    I honestly think it should be more about work experience, their grades (if it's their first job) and initiative ect so that's good to know!

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  Cheap Steve on 27/08/2015 - 15:38

  +6

  Cambridge, MIT, Harvard, Brown, Yale, and Princeton are all perfectly fine. Just don't show up at my company with one of those hippie Oxford arts degrees ;)

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  Davo1111 on 27/08/2015 - 16:06

  I think after your first few years it's irrelevant. Although i'm finding it very difficult to attain a graduate position. I feel that my choice of university is not widely accepted by the industry as they would prefer students from established/well known departments.

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    [Deactivated] on 27/08/2015 - 16:08

    Can I ask what field you're looking for a job in?

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      Davo1111 on 27/08/2015 - 16:16

      Looking at geology and geophysics is the mining and exploration industries.

      I get the impression that the companies have preferences for their universities (and i can kinda understand why). Seems to be particularly prevalent in WA where there is an "Us VS them" mentality, and "interstaters" are treated like foreigners.

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  Hellfire on 27/08/2015 - 16:29

  All top tier universities are treated pretty much the same. Those will the group of eight plus the technology universities (UTS, RMIT, QUT, etc).

  Some of the other universities have a good reputation for specific degrees but that relies on the other person knowing that.

  No Australian university is seen as bad so don't worry too much.

  The more work experience you have the less the university and GPA matter.

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    [Deactivated] on 27/08/2015 - 16:31

    Yeah I know how highly work experience is valued. Unfortunately due to the massive number of students and shortage of internships (paid or unpaid), it's becoming more and more common for graduates to have no work experience.

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      [Deactivated] on 27/08/2015 - 16:32

      I personally have a choice of Sunshine Coast university which is not rated very highly, or UQ/QUT so I was curious as to whether the choice could impact my future job outlook.

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        Hellfire on 27/08/2015 - 16:44

        If I were hiring someone with Sunshine Coast uni or UQ/QUT I'd lean towards the latter. But I'm from NSW so don't have any real knowledge of any.

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    MrBlank on 27/08/2015 - 18:25

    *cough*UC*cough*

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  nrg2010 on 27/08/2015 - 16:42

  Last two jobs I was hired by a boss who'd been to the same uni and done a similar course (SCU & Murdoch)

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  jzdhgkd on 27/08/2015 - 16:56

  +4

  Depends on the profession I'd imagine.

  In my current degree I've heard some of the higher-ups say they would always choose someone from a large, well-known uni over a smaller one. I can offer speculation on a few reasons:

  1) You would expect larger numbers of highly respected academics to be teach at top-tier unis and employers would be more familiar with their respective curricula. Employers would be more confident that candidates from those unis will meet their expected standards.

  2) I would assume more people would prefer to attend a top-tier uni thereby pushing the entrance requirements higher. It stands to reason that those who successfully apply to a top-tier uni would initially be better in some respects compared to those who tried and failed. Whether those aspects determine a better employee/person in the end is an absolutely different story and I won't even touch that topic here.

  3) People are biased whether they like to admit it or not. There was a social experiment a few years back that showed even something as simple as having a Caucasian name offers hiring advantages so you can imagine the bias towards/against certain unis.

  And remember - "effect" is a noun and "affect" is the verb you need for your post =)

  Best of luck for the future!

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  tonyjzx on 27/08/2015 - 17:07

  I can only speak for Sydney as that's all I know but the big four (USyd, Mac, UTS, UNSW) still have some attraction for employers.

  I think a lot is still snobbery for the other 'lesser' universities though.

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  plmko on 27/08/2015 - 19:05

  The higher you aim, the higher you can go (given everyone else's resume is equal), but try to step down with that degree and no one will hire you because you're "over qualified" or will "potentially ask for you too much".

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  MelBourne on 27/08/2015 - 19:21

  I work in a bank and I haven’t heard or seen anything to suggest that recruitment prefers any University over another. In my area, any financial/Economics related study background is a great help, but nothing specifically required.

  There are most likely different departments that will absolutely require a specific area of study to have been completed, but I don’t get the feeling that they would prefer one school over another.

  Im not involved with recruitment or hiring though.. so I could be completely wrong.

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  [Deactivated] on 27/08/2015 - 19:54

  I have a Comp Science degree, I got jobs that required degrees, but no employer gave a toss about which uni!
  As most ppl mentioned, I think all Australian Uni's provide a decent education. It's the individual performance in the end.

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  DealzEddy123 on 27/08/2015 - 20:01

  all Australian universities are well respected

  getting good grades does play a part though especially for grad jobs.

  getting good grades helps get you an interview. being a gun at the interview is another game.

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  Bilbo Bargains on 28/08/2015 - 07:34

  Alot of the time we hire based on how well the person will fit in the team and how much enthusiasm they show. I've seen the smartest of people with double degree but if they cannot communicate or will not fit in the team, it is a big fat cross for us. I am in I.T.

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  affable on 28/08/2015 - 07:44

  I have hired a few IT programming staff over the last 20 years. All other things equal I might be swayed by a particular Uni, however someone without experience who shows they have a hobby interest in coding will beat any particular Uni if the other candidates just did the degree because they got the marks.
  I give candidates a simple "on paper" programming task of parsing a string and its quite amazing how diverse the results I get are. Anyone can get experience if they can't get their first job, just think outside the box and set yourself research projects in the field you want to be hired. You'd be amazed how easily you can set yourself apart from your peers.

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  james8 on 28/08/2015 - 08:20

  +1

  There is a reason some Unis are harder to get in than others. Just Google one of the lists for best in the world and then go for each one in order. UniMelb onwards I think. People who say it doesn't matter normally didn't get into good Unis, or, got jobs based super high grades in average Unis and heaps of extra curricular. If you have a choice - pick the best available to you always.

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  orbitalpaul on 28/08/2015 - 08:22

  Unless they are related to a highly specialised subject uni (Bachelor) degrees are more a means of filtering out candidates because optional education means so much more than what you actually learn academically (you learn a bunch of life and business skills at uni whether you like it or not!) Having that degree means that you have something of note to put on your résumé BEFORE you have that on the job experience and you should supplement it with relevant volunteer experience if you can.

  However; how you present yourself to prospective employers is crucial and placing a high priority on how you construct and present your résumé will also help, and for me as an employer can actually be a deal breaker regardless of the uni that you attended or the degree that you earned. As a point in case your subject uses the word effect when it should be affect. This is not an atypical mistake but speaks volumes to me about the quality of your work and due diligence (whether I am correct or not doesn't actually matter: you didn't get the interview, so to speak). I know I went off topic a bit here but ultimately pick a uni that has a good atmosphere and does the course that you want and is near/far from home (whichever you prefer) because the degree is a marker of you as an individual but not the only one, and it doesn't matter where you got it necessarily. Hope this helps

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  mmecholet on 28/08/2015 - 09:34

  +1

  It could also be asked whether your not knowing the difference between 'effect' and 'affect' AFFECTS employability…

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    Unbranded on 28/08/2015 - 10:24

    That was my thought too!

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    [Deactivated] on 28/08/2015 - 15:19

    Haha I'm anything but an english major!

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  Jemz on 28/08/2015 - 09:58

  I remember watching a program on the ABC about Private School vs Public when it came to getting into university, I know it's not related but they did touch on which university you went to when it came to getting a job and whether there's any advantage, they said something along the lines of it doesn't matter which university you go to, it's the piece of paper you get at the end of it combined with your experience and or volunteer work in that field.

  I also just came across this; a recent post from the ABC: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-27/five-things-to-conside…

  Extract from that:

  Andrew Norton, program director of higher education at Grattan Institute, and David Carroll, PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales, co-authored an analysis of a 2014 HILDA survey which asks its respondents where they went to university.

  They said the study found a lifetime income advantage of about six per cent between attending either a Go8 or technology university compared to other universities.

  However, the study revealed the type of university a person attended "did not make much difference to whether or not a person had a job."

  "For students seeking a high financial return on their higher education, we should note that a course studied is usually more important that the university attended," they told The Conversation.

  "Given the potential career-long consequences of course choice, what to study is the first question, and where to study is the second question potential students should answer."

  I'm a 22 year old who got a shit ATAR/TER and pretty much didn't pass year 12, my dad told me that I'd better go and get a job to fund my life so I ended up getting a full time job for the government at 18 in HR, then at 19 my employer asked whether I wanted to do any training/development and I did a STAT test, smashed it and enrolled in a HR management degree. The experience coupled with the piece of paper will put me ahead of the pack once I start applying for roles in the future. Compared to just having a piece of paper to my name with no experience, also, I'd highly recommend networking as much as you can while you're in Uni because it is invaluable!

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  hayne on 29/08/2015 - 23:36

  It probably depends what type of company/industry you want to get into afterwards. If you wanted to get into top tier law/management consulting/investment banking firms, for instance, you would always go for the more reputable university.

  Some examples: from what I've seen in top tier law firms, getting a position without a degree from an elite law school is pretty tough - e.g. in one example I saw - out of 37 clerks, 34 had degrees from USyd or UNSW, 2 from UTS and 1 from Macquarie. That gives you an indication of the difference your university choice makes. At some of the top-tier banks/consulting firms, they split the recruiting between ANU, UNSW, USyd, Melb, Monash, UQ, maybe UWA and then everywhere else. 90% of graduates are recruited from these schools OR from courses in other schools that are considered the best in their field (Actuarial Studies at Macquarie is a good example). A rough rule of thumb is that you need to be a full grade higher in your marks to be considered the equivalent of a "core" school, e.g. High Distinction average at Bond or UWS would be the equivalent of a Distinction at ANU, UNSW, USyd, Melb, Monash, UQ, UWA etc.

  Equally, above comments regarding the importance of work experience and extra curricular courses are very true - I've seen resumes with HD averages in tough courses at top universities and literally nothing else, and that won't get you in the door for an interview. But these firms usually make offers to 1 - 3% of applicants, so it's a given that most people applying already have good work experience/extra curriculars. When it comes down to splitting hairs of who to interview, then your course and your university make a huge difference.

  Finally, 5 years out of uni and beyond, your work experience matters a lot more than your university and grades. But getting that next position is helped a lot if you got a good grad role out of uni and progressed in your job. So it all helps at the end of the day.

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    hayne on 29/08/2015 - 23:48

    Having said all of that - if you apply yourself, you'll get where you want in the end.

    I had a high school classmate and he was always pretty average in school - never had great marks. I didn't see him for years after graduation - then the next time I ran into him, it was like night and day. He had done a few different jobs including several years as a teacher in Asia. When I caught up with him, he was about to finish a post-grad degree at an Ivy League university in the US and had a six-figure graduate offer from a well respected company.

    Another guy who had pretty average marks in high school later got a PhD from one of the most prestigious universities in the US and became an academic.

    Probably what I was trying to say is, university reputation can be very important so make your choice with that in mind. But at the same time, realise that if you don't get into the course/uni you want, it's not the be all and end all. If you're driven and capable, you'll more than likely achieve your goals/potential.