Irish university students are very optimistic about their job prospects and some 70 per cent expect to own their own home or flat by the time they reach 30, according to the first Irish Times Graduate Careers Survey published today.
The survey of more than 3,000 final-year students found that only 13 per cent wanted to work in the public sector and 6 per cent intended to start their own business. The top choice for the class of 2007 was to work with a major national or international company.
Only one-third of all final-year students expected to enter the jobs market once they had completed their initial degree. A further one-third planned to begin postgraduate studies.
Of those surveyed 42 per cent believed there are plenty of jobs available for those leaving university in 2007. More final-year students wanted to work in accountancy than any other career area. One sixth of finalists had applied, or intended to apply, for graduate positions in that profession in 2007.
The Ireland Graduate Careers Survey 2007 is based on direct face-to-face interviews with 3,191 final-year students from the class of 2007 studying at the seven universities in the Republic.
The research was conducted by the independent student and graduate market research company High Fliers Research, which compiled similar surveys in Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
In an interesting social trend, the final-year students placed a huge priority on a healthy work/lifestyle balance when it came to assessing a job offer. A clear majority were also anxious to avoid jobs where they might have to work anti-social hours in the evenings and at weekends.
When asked how they rated specific companies as potential employers, the accountancy and professional services group KPMG emerged as the top company.
Students were also asked to select the company in each sector where they would like to work.
The favoured options included: engineering - SISK; finance - AIB; IT - Google; law - Arthur Cox; marketing - Google; media - RTÉ; public sector - Health Service Executive; research & development - Pfizer; sales - Google; accountancy - KPMG; consulting - Accenture.
On pay, students expected average graduate starting salaries of about €26,000, although a quarter anticipated earning at least €30,000. A remarkable 16 per cent expressed confidence that they would be earning at least €100,000 per year by the time they reach 30.
At present, final-year university students have an average debt of €2,000. But some 9 per cent of students at Trinity College Dublin are expecting to graduate with at least €10,000 in accumulated debt.
A majority of university students in the Republic still live at home, in marked contrast to the pattern in Britain and the US.
Marriage remains a popular option for the class of 2007. Some 44 per cent expect to be married by the time they reach 30 and close to 30 per cent expect to have children by that stage.