Analyst, consultant and software engineer are the UK’s highest-paying graduate roles, report finds

Grads who find jobs as analysts, consultants and software engineers could earn at least £28,000

Aftab Ali
Student Editor
Wednesday 17 August 2016 09:01 BST
Comments

Analysts earn the highest graduate salaries, followed by consultants and software engineers, according to a first-of-its-kind report from a leading jobs and recruitment site.

Glassdoor has found the top three highest-paying graduate roles all pay more than the UK’s national average salary of £27,600, with the most lucrative paying around £34,000.

Jon Ingham, careers and workplace expert with Glassdoor, said: “Getting on the first rung of the career ladder is a time of both great excitement and trepidation for graduates. However, finding the right job is not easy. With millions of final year students graduating this summer, we’ve now identified where some of the UK’s best young talent can earn the most in what is an extremely competitive entry-level market.”

(Statista

He continued: “While it’s not just about the money, knowledge really is power when you are job-hunting. Graduate job seekers should endeavour to think wider than just the monthly pay cheque. For example, what is the culture like, does the employer offer competitive perks and benefits, is it a sociable environment, do they offer training and mentoring? The more you know, the better the decision you can make.”

The report has come in the same week another from the Intergenerational Foundation (IF) said the Government must stop using the £100,000 average lifetime graduate earnings premium to justify increasing tuition fees, because it applies only to a select group of Oxbridge graduates and those with medical or dentistry degrees.

Angus Hanton, IF co-founder, said any politician or policymaker who “dangles the carrot” of an average lifetime earnings premium should be “challenged for gross mis-selling”. He added: “Our research proves the current £100,000 graduate earnings premium so often touted equates to an ‘annual bonus’ of just £2,222 over 45 years of work, and is wiped out once National Insurance and Income Tax are taken into account.

“Furthermore, the premium is simply not enough to cover the interest accruing on the average loan. The current system is fuelling a self-perpetuating debt-generating machine which short-changes young people.”

IF’s report came as it was announced students starting university in England will no longer be able to apply for grants for living costs – a move set to affect around half a million of the poorest students who relied on the grants to pay for living costs, plunging them further into debt post-university.

University students in England are already graduating with higher levels of debt than those in any other English-speaking country, according to the Sutton Trust, with an average of £44,500 – substantially higher than their American counterparts, and more than those in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

See Glassdoors complete breakdown of the top ten here

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in