Guys,
The Low salaries you spot of £22,000ish to retain "High calibre" graduates is not the whole story. The following is based on my experience and those of my friends. Graduation ranging from 2007 - 2009. The companies this applies to: RR, BAE, AW, Thales, Goodrich, Airbus(UK)...generally the
BIG players of the UK....
Genghis, you can look away as I know you already know most of the following!
Generally(PLEASE NOTE EMPHASIS) speaking:
There are two types of Grads, lets call them:
- Direct-Entry
- Graduate Trainee
Direct Entry (DE)
Straight into a technically specific roll. Starting Salaries are around the £25,500 - £26,500 mark. You are put in a chair in an office and thats it...MOUTH SHUT, EYES OPEN (advice given to me!!) Time to learn and be a self-improver.
Graduate Trainee
These schemes are where you get the low £22k figures from. Rolls Royce has some really
stupid names for their schemes, but these schemes are typically 2 years of "structured" placements across the breadth of the company. You then get a choice where you end up (little more freedom than the DE grads).
HOWEVER Although the salary could be as low as £22,000, there is often little perks such as £1000 signing on, £1000 end of year 1 bonus, Rent allowance foryour frist 6 months, etc etc.
Your basic Salary then should goe up from £22,000 to about £24,000 for year 2. After the 2nd year you move into your permanent roll and on a salaray between £26,500 - £28,000. Typically this is what the DE grads are on after 1.5 years anyway.
These salaries must still be in the better half of the grad population, surely??
Just FYI, i graduated only with a Bachelors...my friends have MEng, but this makes no difference it seems to opportunities or salary, merely an early perperation/short cut to CEng when you can be bothered with the paper work :P
Hope this helps!
Sorry for my aweful typos, im off to lunch! No time to correct!!