Results tagged “Graduates” from Food Job Blog: The inside track on Food Recruitment and Careers

In employment today, there is often a bias towards hiring graduates from traditional universities as opposed to newer universities - the traditional Universities being the 'University of...' and the newer universities being the Metropolitans and Polytechnics.

The reasoning behind this is often linked with how established traditional universities are, as they have in most cases been established for decades, if not centuries.

What many fail to realise is that newer universities have on many occasions been teaching professional and academic courses for many years before being awarded a university accreditation, and that they are just as capable of producing graduates of a high calibre with high business acumen.

From a recruiter perspective, we have yet to see any graduate employer whose desired candidates solely from 'traditional' universities - some employers may be interested to look at specific universities, but this is due to it's specialism or excellence in particular courses and not the time it has spent as a university.

Many have noted the lack of fresh graduates entering into the food and drink manufacturing industry, and many have also discussed the reasons for this. Whilst we do not see our Clients to fall into this group of employers who show bias towards traditional universities, we wonder if other employers in the food and drink industry do?

What are your thoughts? Have you come across issue when looking for employment?

Recent studies have shown that many employers desire candidates that speak a second language. This skill comes a close second to IT skills, which hits the top spot - unsurprisingly.

Whilst most if not all students will study a language throughout high school, many choose not to take this further into A Levels and even further into a degree (or part of a degree). Many courses offer an international 'version', which includes modules in languages from French to Japanese and Spanish to Chinese.

The benefits of having a second language are obvious - and are clearly a key quality if you are applying to work internationally or to work in a company that has offices or customers in a particular country.

From a food industry perspective, most employers have ties with suppliers in all continents of the world, with many having international offices too. Speaking a language could be the foot-in-the-door for some candidates wishing to enter the food industry. It is, however, not the be-all and end-all - many factors are considered in a job application including experience, personality, ability, education, character plus many more - if you don't have a language and don't intend to learn one, it doesn't mean you wont get a job!

But what if you don't speak a second language, want to learn one and have already graduated? Don't worry - there is avenue after avenue of facilities available for people to learn a language.

Are you a graduate who studied a language at degree level - what benefits has it brought to your employment?

More and more clients are expecting higher and higher ability test scores as their belief in qualifications diminishes. But is this really a fair measure? It seems from our experience that if you practice testing, you get better at it. Online and paper testing seem to give differing scores, and I suppose the question that needs to be asked is what are clients looking for? Are they looking for a standard that is the norm in an organisation, or a wish list? Our view is that these tests do display useful information and highlight areas of importance, and indeed a 2:1 degree is no longer an indicator in isolation of intellect... but is there a better way?

Yes, that's right, the food and drink sector is absolutely 100% ageist! Or to be correct ageing. Over 25% of management in the Food and Drink industry retires in the next five years and the talent required to plug these gaps is just not coming through. Why is this so? Do people not recognise the food industry as having great future prospects and career opportunities?

To add to this, the number of new entrants onto food related degree courses continues to cause concern as the pipeline for new graduates and talent is disappearing. Not everyone can go into media studies!

Large numbers of students are transferring to food science from other disciplines.. 'It's a very applied and interdisciplinary science, in which you can use basic science to solve everyday problems related to the food we eat.'

The recent economic downturn may also prompt students to re-evaluate their options and switch to a field with more encouraging job prospects. 'Especially in the last few years we've seen many students transitioning to food science. There are so many jobs that there's actually a shortage of food science graduates!'

Are you a food science graduate? If yes, are you currently employed?

What are your thoughts?

Do you graduate in 2010? It may seem a while off; in fact, it probably is. However major players in the food industry don't seem to think so. Due to many of the blue chip food manufacturers putting all their graduate recruitment on hold in 2008 and 2009, they seem to be planning ahead for a 2010 intake. So although you may not graduate for over a year, and are certainly not looking for any post-grad employment for the next 18 months, this does not mean that many companies will not be looking for you.

This method of proactive search not only means that graduates can secure places early and get the type of graduate scheme they desire, it also could be considered in some opinions to be giving clients access to the more 'on-the-ball' graduates, who are also proactive in their searching - maybe due to their hard-working nature or their desire to take advantage of the best opportunities available to them, these graduates will get their grad schemes sorted before many of the 'I'll-do-it-tomorrow' grads even start looking.

Not only this, graduates of 2010 will not just be competing against other students graduating that year, but also against the 300,000 students who graduated in 2009, many of which will be eager to secure graduate schemes after facing the industry-wide graduate recruitment freeze in 2008/09.

What this says for the food industry? On the one hand it may suggest that the larger food companies have adjusted to the current economic conditions and are now able to take on new employees. However on the other hand it may imply that these same companies anticipate a more productive and profitable 2011 and thus are planning accordingly - otherwise, they wouldn't be taking on graduates, right?

We are all aware that the current economic climate is far from its best; it has been for some time and is unlikely to improve in the immediate future. As well as many senior level and junior level employees losing their jobs as a result of the 'credit crunch', students who stand to graduate in summer 2009 are finding it increasingly harder to find a graduate scheme that is running this year. Heinz and Bakkavor, to name but a few, have put their graduate roles on hold for the foreseeable future.

This is not the first time that graduates have been struggling to find jobs after finishing University. In 2001, a report on the Times Higher Education website stated that 1 in 5 out of 66 surveyed companies (that were registered as members of the Association of Graduate Recruiters) said they had deferred graduate roles for an average of 12 months, while 1 in 10 had withdrawn offers already made to graduates. Here in January 2009, the situation is undoubtedly worse, as graduates will be struggling to find jobs in any area, never mind one that will utilise the skills they have been taught throughout their degree.

However, it is not all doom and gloom for graduates. Aldi have announced they are looking to take on Graduate Area Managers with a starting salary of £40k, rising to £57,750 after 3 years, and have also thrown in a fully expensed Audi A4. Not bad for a graduate salary!

As someone who is on industrial placement at the moment, with about 18 months until I'm due to graduate, I personally will be looking to stay in education for as long as possible, and avoid looking for graduate schemes or alternative employment for as long as possible. That will include the possibility of either a Masters, travelling after graduation, or a more appealing option (to me) of securing employment for 6, 12 or even 18 months in a foreign country.

I can only wish the 300,000 students due to graduate in June 2009 the best of luck in fighting for the recently-government-backed graduate roles at Barclays and Microsoft (BBC Website, Intern plan to ease graduate woes), and hope that the economic climate has improved by June 2010 when I'm due to graduate.

Ask most final year students or graduates where they want to work and the chances are they will say one of the big corporates like P&G, BT or until recently, one of the big banks. If they want to work in the food industry they will say one of the major brands like: Mars, Kellogg's, Cadbury Schweppes or Heinz. Yet this flies in the face of what most of them say they want from their first job in food. Sure, you will get to work with major global brands but how much influence will you have on product development? You have to ask yourself: how many new products do Heinz Baked Beans go through in the average year?

Increasingly, I believe graduates should also look at the own-label chilled product manufacturers who develop new lines for Tesco and M&S. While a global brand might carry out a dozen or so new product developments in a year, these companies could develop up to 800. You may say OK, that's fine for the guys in new product development but I have a degree in manufacturing science and I want to make a difference. Well you won't be Just in Time to teach Heinz much about the latest in Lean Manufacturing techniques. They have been at the cutting edge of real time manufacturing systems since the seventies. Own-label manufacturers may be more open to your ideas as they will be anxious to leapfrog a developmental stage or two in manufacturing know-how.

If it's a challenge you are looking for, how about managing a team of 100 people two years out of university? The non-branded chilled food market is as challenging as you like and backed by multi-million pound budgets and international networks, where you can learn the latest management thinking from around the world. And finally, if that's not enough there is always the thrill of seeing products that you developed or had a hand in the manufacture of sitting in the chillers of the major food retailers. After all, we all like to have our works of art on display for the whole world to see and, of course, to enjoy.