Southampton
Graduates from both of Southampton's universities are renowned for their
quality, whether this be their academic prowess, career ambitions or work
readiness. Because of this graduates from the South Coast city are always in
demand from employers and we wanted to know what made them so different from
graduates across the United Kingdom.
To do this we looked to at the data submitted by graduates from both the
University of Southampton and
Southampton Solent
University when they registered on graduate-jobs.com. We looked at the data
submitted for those who graduated between the years 2009 and 2014 to see what
comparisons could be drawn between graduates from that particular city and
graduates from the rest of the UK. By looking at this we could see exactly why
this particular group of graduates were so sought after by graduate employers
and recruitment teams.
Sectors
When thinking about trends present among graduates from a particular region
or city, we looked at the most popular sectors chosen by graduates. While the
choices made by graduates from Southampton were not totally dissimilar from
those chosen by the United Kingdom as a whole, there are certain nuisances that
can be read from the results.
Many of the sectors found in the UK top 5 are also found in the top 5 sectors
from the graduates of Southampton. This includes
Marketing,
Management,
Advertising and Public Relations and
Banking.
One interesting result that you can see from the preferred career
sectors of graduates from Southampton is an inclination
to more creative options. The inclusion of Media in
the top five most popular sectors is one indication of this, while also the way
that Marketing and Advertising and Public Relations also appears as a more
popular option amongst graduates from Southampton when compared to the UK.

Degree Classifications
Degree classifications can sometimes be a tricky one to compare, especially
when looking at cities or regions with only a few or just one university. While
this might not always be the most reliable barometer of a graduate's attainment
while studying at university it does give a slight indication of achievement and
work rate. While for Southampton's graduates this does show partly their appeal
to graduate employers.
An impressive 9.6% of graduates from universities in Southampton were given a
First Class Degree for their efforts, only marginally behind the national
average of 9.8% of graduates. This should be of no concern especially when you
look at the impressive amount of graduates got the next classification of an
Upper Second class degree (2.1). A very respectable 52.4% of graduates got this
classification, which was higher than the national average of 48.1%.

Work Experience
Work experience is increasingly becoming a key factor when it comes to
determining a graduate's suitability or aptitude for employment. Employers like
to see graduates that apply for positions who already have a grounding in what
the work will involve or already have some professional experience in the sector
or role. For this students from Southampton do not fare badly at all.
A respectable 13.5%of graduates from Southampton have managed to gain some
work experience, just slightly behind the national average of 16.6%. Although
this is lower than the national average, Southampton does do better than similar
sized cities like Brighton,
Leicester
and Norwich.
