I found out my 2:2 classification sitting in the common room of a Barcelona hostel last month. After furiously calculating and recalculating my module percentages, the shock turned to tears. I called my parents for reassurance then ate six chocolate digestives.
I’d taken my final year at university seriously. I moved back home with my parents, curbed social excursions and worked hard.
Soon I was subjected to an endless social media stream of 2:1 announcements decorated with celebratory emoticons.
Am I destined for the graduate scrapheap with my drinker’s degree? Short answer: not with work experience.
Sure, the economic crash permitted companies to be picky. A 2012 survey found 75% of top employers required a 2:1 classification from applicants. However, as the financial crisis evened out, so did employers’ expectations.
“Employers can’t afford to be as choosy as they were in the recession. This means that they are not as concerned with grades as they have been, simply because there is much more competition for talent,” says Charlie Ball, head of higher education at the jobs website Prospects.
During 2015, the Big Four accounting firms phased out their 2:1 screening procedure. “This is a direction which some predict is due to grow,” says Nigel Royle, a careers advisor at the University of the West of Scotland.
Work experience is proving to be as desirable as a higher classification. “A significant number of graduate jobs are going to graduates who have had work experience in the same company,” Royle points out. “Plus, smaller companies are more likely to value work experience over a 2:1 classification.”
Ball agrees. “An employer may consider you more favourably if you have some form of work experience and they know you to be a good worker; someone who will make a valuable contribution to their company.”
According to a High Fliers report on the Graduate Market in 2016, recruiters were expecting to fill a third of full-time graduate positions with those who had already completed work experience. Better news still, 90% of top graduate employers in the UK are offering paid work experience to students and recent graduates.
For the creative industries, where recruitment programmes are thin on the ground, work experience is still vital. Paul Fisher graduated from the University of the West of Scotland with a 2:2 in sports journalism. Three years later, he is employed as a senior reporter.
“The more you write and build up a portfolio, the more notice you get,” he says. “A degree is a degree, but experience is key to success. There were some people in my year at university who left without an honours because they had managed to get full-time work.”
Even part-time work taken up during studies can be beneficial. Cara Samson, worked as a sales assistant while studying for a joint degree in psychology and sociology. “My 2:2 hasn’t held me back at all, I’m a personal banker now,” she says. “I was employed by the bank after finishing my degree in 2012 and have since been promoted. My customer service experience the main reason I got the job, not my degree.”
So rather than a couple of numbers guiding my future career prospects, it’ll be work experience and determination. As the optimistic Fisher says: “If you can get your foot in the door somewhere, this gives you opportunities and the only way is up.”
