When Leeds Met graduate job prospects

When recently thinking about different ways to start a
feature article on graduate job prospects, I spoke to a few different people
for opinions and realised as a Leeds Met PR student, students on the course
probably have the best options ahead of them.

As it’s the only university I have studied at, it’s easy to
miss the advantages of the opportunities we’re given and take it for granted
that other students aren’t experiencing the same degree as the rest of us.

For instance, the course I study includes a placement year
as part of the degree, to use as part of final year assessment but also (and
now mainly) to gain CV inches and build experience to give us a professional
advantage for when we graduate.

In addition to this we’re constantly encouraged to take on
short term placements for the same benefits, but fail to realise others who are
studying a more academic-focussed subject will be missing out severely.

For instance, I have friends studying English, music and languages
amongst other subjects. They are all doing equally well in their own subject,
but lack the business advice from their tutors that I receive on a daily basis.
None of them have been advised to take on placements or other work that will
build experience in their field.

So will they suffer in the job market when employers are
stressing the fact that a 1.1 or 2.1 degree is only part of what will get you a
much fought after small space in an office full of people desperately clinging
onto their jobs?

I chose to study PR over creative writing with gender
studies, and have to say the main reason for doing so was because I believed a
more business-focussed degree would ensure better job prospects, as I’m sure it
is doing. The other degree actually had modules which sounded much more
appealing to study than marketing dynamics (which has nothing dynamic about it)
or environments of organisations, but I took the ‘safe’ option, if there is
one.

I wonder though, how many people are taking this choice one
step further and training in something they don’t actually like at all for
career stability?

As usual, please let me know any opinions you’d like to add on
this subject.

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