Graduate Placement Report 2015 This Graduate Placement Report 2015 is the fourth annual report released by Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM). The results of this survey provide information about the first jobs of RSM students who graduated from our MSc programmes. The survey was conducted in March 2015, and we received responses from 421 graduates of the 2550 who graduated between 1 January 2013 and 31 August 2014, responded, giving a response rate of 16.5 per cent. In some cases, the number of respondents from certain MSc specialisations or nationalities was too low to provide useful conclusions, so we have therefore commented on the most informative and reliable features from our analyses. Contents MSc graduate profile Employment Contract and benefits Finding a job Experience and competencies CONTACT Careers, Corporate & Alumni Relations +31 10 408 2888 ikroon@rsm.nl
MSc Graduate Profile BACKGROUND OF GRADUATES Respondents came from all 14 of RSM s MSc programmes. The largest group of respondents is from the MSc Finance & Investments (17 per cent of respondents), MSc Supply Chain Management (16 per cent), and MSc Strategic Management (12 per cent). From the medium-sized master programmes, the MSc International Management/CEMS and MSc Management of Innovation are well represented, as is the smaller master programme, MSc General Management. Master programmes number of respondents 11 11 32 Almost 40 per cent of RSM s master graduates entered the programme directly after graduating from one of our own bachelor programmes, a big decrease from the previous year when 70 per cent came from our own bachelor programmes. Before doing a master at RSM, 23 per cent completed a Bachelor in Business Administration (bedrijfskunde) and 17 per cent did a Bachelor in International Business Administration at RSM. Almost 17 per cent studied first at a university for Applied Sciences (HBO) and did a pre-master programme before starting their master programme. Almost half, 43.5 per cent of all respondents, got their bachelor degree from a school other than RSM, either in the Netherlands or another country.
Programme before master at RSM DEMOGRAPHICS The average age at graduation was 24.5, and the range was from 21 to 40 years old. Of the 421 graduates responding to the survey, 152 were female and 250 were male. We can say that the Grade Point Average (GPA) of respondents in this survey does not differ greatly from the profile of RSM graduates in previous years. Gender of respondents
WHERE DO THEY COME FROM? There were 41 different nationalities among the respondents; 60 per cent were Dutch, 30.5 per cent came from the European Economic Area (EEA), and 9.5 per cent came from outside the EEA. Most international students came from Germany (12.8 per cent), then Bulgaria (4.3 per cent), Greece (3.8 per cent), and China (3.3 per cent). Country of origin of our MSc graduates
Employment HOW MANY MSC GRADUATES ARE EMPLOYED? Of all respondents, a majority of 86 per cent were employed within 12 months of graduation (363 graduates out of 421). At the time of the survey, 2 per cent had started their own business, 2 per cent were doing an internship, less than 1 per cent worked freelance, 2 per cent continued education with a PhD, and 1 per cent continued education with a second master. Of the remainder, 4 per cent were still looking for employment and 0.5 per cent were unemployed and not seeking employment. In the MSc programme, we can conclude that gender and nationality play no statistically significant role in the likelihood of graduates finding their first job. Employment status within 12 months of graduation
WHERE DO THEY FIND A JOB? The industries that attract most RSM graduates are consultancy and business research (27 per cent) and financial services and insurance (15 per cent). Industries employing RSM graduates The top 10 employers of RSM MSc graduates are Deloitte, PwC, Shell, Accenture, ABN AMRO, EY, CapGemini, Google, the Boston Consulting Group, and Unilever. RSM graduates responding to this survey say they work for 237 different companies around the world. Large companies attract the most graduates; almost 43 per cent work for multinational companies that have more than 10,000 employees. Size of companies employing RSM graduates
Our MSc graduates found jobs in 42 countries. Almost two-thirds of all respondents, 62 per cent, say they have found a job in the Netherlands, while 32 per cent found a job elsewhere in Europe and 7 per cent went to other parts of the world. In total, almost a third (31 per cent) found jobs in countries other than their country of origin or where they studied. And in answer to a question we are asked by many non-eea students: 68 per cent of respondents with non-eea passports stay in the Netherlands after graduation. A very small number of non-eea graduates, three in total, found jobs in other countries in Europe, and all of those were in the United Kingdom. Only 4 per cent of graduates originating from the EEA found a job outside Europe. World map showing where RSM graduates find their first job
ENTREPRENEURS The 2 per cent of respondents that founded and are working in their own businesses totals 9 people. This is a too small a group to make any conclusions about the entrepreneurship of this cohort of RSM graduates, although we can profile these respondents. Their average age is 24.5. Four of them are Dutch and 5 come from other countries in the EEA. The entrepreneurial group consists of 8 men and 1 woman. Almost half (4) of the graduates running their own businesses studied first at a university for applied sciences (HBO) and did a pre-master before starting their master degree. Most come from a business education background; 3 of them completed a Bachelor in Business Administration (BSc Bedrijfskunde) at RSM, and 1 completed a Bachelor in International Business Administration at RSM. One completed a bachelor at a different university. The timing of starting their own businesses is equally spread, with 3 starting more than 6 months before graduation, 3 people started between 0-6 months after graduation, and the other 3 started more than 6 months after graduation. They all credit own networks for helping them to start their own companies. The respondents work on average 44.7 hours per week, but the working week ranges from 8 to 75 hours for our entrepreneurial graduates.
Contracts and benefits TYPES OF CONTRACT More than half of employed MSc graduates from RSM, 59.3 per cent, have a permanent contract. The second largest group, 37 per cent, have a temporary contract with the possibility of a permanent contract in the future. Respondents finding a job in an EEA country got a permanent contract in 79 per cent of cases; only slightly more than those getting permanent contracts in non-eea countries at 75 per cent. However, significantly fewer graduates get permanent employment contracts in the Netherlands; only 45 per cent. There is no relation between the industry in which graduates work and the type of contract. Neither is the type of contract influenced by whichever specialised MSc programme a graduate did, except for those respondents from the MSc in Entrepreneurship and New Business Venturing, where only 44.7 per cent got a permanent contract. Type of contract per region
NUMBER OF HOURS WORKED On average, graduates work a 39.5 hour week in their first job, ranging from 8 to 70 hours per week. Respondents say they work an average of 48.6 hours per week, ranging from 8 to 100 hours per week. Only 2 graduates out of the 363 employed say they regularly work more than 50 hours per week. Industry and country appear to make no difference to the hours worked by our graduates. Their working weeks are similar, wherever they are in the world. SALARY The mean salary earned by respondents to our survey in their first year of employment across all industry sectors and globally is 2,950 gross per month ( 35,400 per annum), which is a little lower than last year s survey. Salaries range from 655 to 8,333 gross per month. However, salaries paid to those working in the Netherlands buck the global trend of our graduates salaries. The survey shows that the mean monthly salary paid by companies in the Netherlands is 2,912 gross, ranging from 750 to 7,000 gross per month. This is 104 more per month than last year s results. According to the higher education organisation VSNU, the average monthly salary of a master graduate in the Netherlands is 2,783 1. Salary differences per region 1 http://www.vsnu.nl/en_gb/f_c_university_education_monitor-en.html
In EEA countries other than the Netherlands, the mean monthly salary is 3,029 and in non-eea countries it s 2,895. In the Netherlands, salaries follow a normal distribution with many respondents earning close to the average. In the rest of the EEA, and in non-eea regions, you see an unequal distribution, with more respondents in the lower and higher salary ranges, and a smaller proportion earning an average salary. There are 16 respondents who earn more than 5,000 gross each month and 12 who earn less than 1,000 gross per month. Spread of lowest and highest salaries Earning more than 5,000 per month Earning less than 1,000 per month Germany (5) Bulgaria (3) United Kingdom (3) Greece (2) Netherlands (2) China (1) Switzerland (2) Czech Republic (1) United Arabic Emirates (2) Cyprus (1) Liechtenstein (1) Hungary (1) Papua New Guinea (1) Indonesia (1) Macedonia (1) Netherlands (1) There are differences in average salary and the percentage of people earning more than the average salary for each specialised master programme. While we cannot draw detailed conclusions for every specialised master programme, we can say that respondents from the MSc Marketing Management and MSc Human Resource Management reported the lowest average salaries, whereas respondents from the MSc International Management/CEMS, and MSc Business Information Management reported the highest.
Average gross salary per month per master
ADDITIONAL BENEFITS Our survey asked respondents to tell us of any other benefits they receive in addition to their monthly salary. This year, the most common additional benefit was education, courses and training; 71.3 per cent say they receive this. Having a laptop was also mentioned by 68.8 per cent, and 66.8 per cent get travel expenses for daily commuting. Additional benefits
Finding a job WHEN DO THEY START THEIR JOB SEARCHES? About a fifth of MSc students (21 per cent) have already started looking for a job at least 6 months before they complete their studies. A month away from graduation, 54 per cent are actively searching for a job. Job search start dates
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO FIND A JOB? The search for jobs seems to be effective, with 72.7 per cent of respondents saying they found a job within three months of the start of their search and more than half, 52.3 per cent, securing the first step on the career ladder before their graduation. There is no correlation between the time needed to find a job and the industry in which graduates found employment, but the respondents specialised subjects did influence how much time they needed to find a job. More than 10 per cent of respondents from the MSc Global Business & Stakeholder Management, MSc Human Resource Management, and MSc Supply Chain Management needed more than 6 months to find a job. All the respondents who finished the MSc Chinese Economy & Business, and MSc Entrepreneurship & New Business Venturing found a job within 3 months from the start of their search. Sadly, the response rate from some specialised master programmes was too low for us to make conclusions about the speed of finding employment in general. These results represent only the respondents experiences. Number of months to find a job by master programme
FINDING A JOB Using their own networks (58.4 per cent) was reported as the most effective way of finding a job, followed by doing an internship (37.7 per cent), and via social networking sites, such as LinkedIn (35.8 per cent). Giving students the opportunity to meet and interact with company recruiters on campus gets approval from 36.7per cent of our respondents; these interactions include company presentations (11.9 per cent), STAR Management Week activities (9.1 per cent) and the Erasmus Recruitment Days (15.7 per cent). The services of RSM s Career Services were rated as valuable by 27.5 per cent of respondents. RSM s Job Board, on which companies advertise for applicants from within RSM, is rated as the best service with almost 18 per cent approval, compared to 14.9 per cent who found the website www.rsm.nl/career-services as effective, and 8 per cent who made use of other services from RSM Career Services. Finding a job
MSC DEGREE AND CURRENT JOB Almost three-quarters of respondents (72.3 per cent) say that their employment position requires them to have an MSc degree. Required level of education Only 5.8 per cent of graduates needed their specific MSc specialisation for their current job. About half (52.3 per cent) thought my specialisation or a connected specialisation was required for their job, and 38.6 per cent said no specific specialisation was required. This was generally true for all 14 specialised MSc programmes in our portfolio, according to the survey. More than a third of respondents (37.2 per cent) see a direct connection between what they learned during their master programme and their current job, and another 38.6 per cent sees a general connection. Required specialisations
Experience and competencies INTERNSHIPS More than half, 56.5 per cent, of master graduate respondents took part in an internship linked to their study at RSM before they started working that s 238 people. Out of this group of graduates, 64 per cent did an internship during their MSc programme. There s more information about this in our internship survey report, available from http://www.rsm.nl/career-services/internships/ Internships during bachelor and master programme. STUDY EXCHANGE RSM graduates are keen to broaden their study experiences. Just over a quarter, 25.9 per cent or 109 respondents did a study exchange during their time at RSM. Number of students going on exchange during their bachelor and/or master programme
EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES Most respondents took part in extra-curricular activities during their studies. The most frequently mentioned were memberships of sports or cultural organisations (41.3 per cent), non-study related part-time jobs (42 per cent), and study related part-time jobs (40.4 per cent). As you can see, there is some cross-over, with some students taking parts in sports and cultural activities as well as having part time jobs. Extracurricular activities of RSM graduates COMPETENCIES Master graduates agree most strongly that the most important competencies to possess are problem solving (88.6 per cent), working independently (87.7 per cent), and teamwork (81.5 per cent). These skills are mostly gained during studies, say the respondents. Project management, creativity, and entrepreneurial skills are gained mainly outside studies, compared to the other competencies, say our graduates. Possession of competencies and when they were developed
FOR QUESTIONS AND REMARKS ABOUT THE GRADUATE PLACEMENT REPORT 2015, CONTACT Careers, Corporate & Alumni Relations +31 10 408 2888 ikroon@rsm.nl