Día y hora en que se deja el citatorio y nombre de la persona a la que se le entrega, y

The majority of STEM graduates interviewed had changed their career thinking to some extent while at university, about 10% changing ideas completely and about half changing to some extent. Only about a third did not change their career ideas (see Table 4.7). There appeared to be no systematic variation by degree subject, whether more vocational or less, and if anything fewer of the non-STEM graduates had changed their ideas. Fewer of those graduates now working in STEM Specialist employment or STEM Core job functions had changed their career ideas completely (Table 4.8), compared with others, and higher proportions of them reported no change to their plans. This supports the observation from students (section 3.6) that most changes in career thinking tend to be away from more specialised STEM career directions. The ‘direction’ of the changes to career plans during university was investigated in some detail, along with the graduates’ recollections of which factors had influenced them the most (they were invited to select the three most important from a list). The top influences on STEM graduates as students were reported to be their university course (for 42%), their work experience (34%, and over 50% of Engineering/Technology graduates), personal interests and values (27%) and relatives and family friends (24%, see Figure 4.5). Other external influences such as employer promotions, industry media, or careers services, were reported as influential by fewer than 20%; see Figure 4.5 and also Appendix B Table B4.16 for the full results. Salary prospects were claimed to have been influential by only 10% of the STEM graduates (and far fewer of the non-STEM graduates).

Figure 4.5 Most common ‘top three’ influences on career planning while at university, for selected undergraduate subjects (all graduates interviewed by telephone). For full detail of responses see

Appendix B Table B4.16

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Salary prospects University careers service Industry media Employer promotion Family/family friends Interest/values Work experience University course %

Physics Maths Engineering/Technology All STEM

Figure 4.6 Most common ‘top three’ influences on career planning at university, by current employment (graduates interviewed by telephone). Full results in Appendix B Table B4.17

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Salary prospects University careers service Industry media Employer promotion Family/family friends Interest/values Work experience University course %

Analysis by current employment sector showed a roughly consistent relative ordering of influences (Figure 4.6), but with salary prospects and employer presentations being rated influential by many more of those now in STEM Generalist employment (20% for salary, 25% for employer presentations), compared with those in more specialist STEM work (6% for salary, 14% for employer visits). The pattern when split by occupational role was similar.

The in-depth interviews confirmed a growth at this stage in graduates’ understanding both of the ‘commercial’ world and also what it would be like to work within it. New awareness of corporate working environments, partly through the high presence on campus of certain employers, had begun to attract some graduates but had put others off, and some had begun to recognise a personal affinity for working in other sectors, such as in public service. For several there was a clear shift from idealism to pragmatism as they began to recognise their own potential limitations in a competitive labour market, and realised that they might have to make their own impacts on the world in more practical ways: “I realised you might have more effect on animal welfare

through policy than actually practising it”. Nisha, trainee commercial lawyer

Nisha was a gifted first-generation HE student from east London, where her father ran a restaurant and her mother was a healthcare assistant. Although under family pressure to study medicine, because she potentially could, she loved and instead studied Psychology and gained a 1st at UCL. However, she felt that she needed to enter a professional career in order to maintain the respect of her community and family, rather than pursuing the academic research she dreamed of. Through a combination of her location, and she thinks her ethnic background, she had work experience in top investment banks, but that led her to believe such work was “insufficiently professional”. Entering a “proper” profession, in which she could become qualified, in the eye of her community, was critical to her. In addition there was expectation that she would get married and have a family by the age of 30.

While at university she applied to legal firms and secured a graduate place to train with one of London’s magic circle. As a trainee commercial solicitor her strong logical and analytical skills are well used and she has progressed fast in the organisation and gained the professional legal qualifications to practice. Nisha’s story was relatively unusual in that her perceived requirement to obtain the respect of her community and family, and conform to cultural expectations, overcame her personal passions for a scientific direction. She maintains hope that “the inner academic” within her will at a later stage be able to take a more central position in her working life, when circumstances allow.

The influence of parents, family and peers was significant for some, although by no means all, with some indication that it was more important for female graduates. Some individuals seemed to maintain career pathways or make decisions to please their parents, rather than matching their own personalities or aspirations, and in one case a graduate seemed to be living out his mother’s failed career aspiration. In some cases the graduates were aware of this influence, which they generally considered positive or benign, but others had not recognised it until challenged. The influence of the decisions of graduates’ peer groups and key friends were as significant, although in some cases this spurred graduates to take different routes (“everybody

else was either going into teaching or accountancy”).

Work experience was the highest rated influence by those who studied Computer Science and Engineering/Technology, at least partly reflecting the much higher proportions of those graduates who had undertaken it. The limited extent of the sample did not allow for deeper differentiation of this issue. From Table 4.9 it can be seen that over three quarters of these Engineering/Technology and Computer Science graduates interviewed had undertaken work experience, well above the proportion of the STEM graduates overall (56%). Two thirds of those who had undertaken work experience thought it was very helpful in developing their skills and experience, somewhat higher than the figure cited by students in section 3.8. Many of those interviewed in detail indicated it had been pivotal in either confirming that they did or did not want to work in a sector – giving them a genuine insight into what, for example, teaching in a school or working in a lab was actually like: (“lab work just wasn’t me”).

Table 4.9 Percentage with work experience, and perceived usefulness of undergraduate work experience for those who had it, for selected undergraduate subjects (all graduates interviewed by telephone). For full

results see Appendix B Table B4.18

B io lo g y a n d re la te d C h e m is tr y P h y si c s M a th s C o m p u te r S ci e n c e E n g /T ec h A ll S T E M Done work experience 48 56 39 40 88 76 56 As an undergraduate 43 54 38 36 88 76 53 As a postgraduate 5 2 5 5 0 1 4 Count 88 41 56 42 24 99 405 Undergraduate work experience

Not at all helpful 0 5 0 0 0 0 0

Not very helpful 5 9 5 0 0 4 5

Quite helpful 38 9 36 31 10 26 28

Very helpful 56 77 59 69 90 70 67