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Graduates in science and engineering, starting their careers in research and
development and other technical roles, are earning median salaries of £17
250, according to a report from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR),
Warwick. Those with qualifications in information technology and computer
science are earning £17 500. Demand for these graduates is high. One in
five of the 265 employers participating in the survey did not fill all their
technical vacancies last year and one in ten failed to recruit all the computing
staff they required.

Average graduate salaries, according to the report, are £16 600, up 4.3
per cent on last year. Graduates with masters degrees are paid around £900
a year more, and those with PhDs an additional £2000. Students who have
gained degrees from sandwich courses, which include periods of work experience
as well as study, can expect £700 above the median.

A third of the firms in the survey say that they pay graduates working in
London more. Median salaries for new graduates who work in inner London are
starting at £18 000 and in outer London £17 375.

Earning a decent salary is one matter, how it progresses after you have taken
up your employment is just as important a concern for most of us. AGR members
say they are paying an average £22 000 to those whom they recruited five
years ago.

According to Tom Lovell of Reed, the employment agency, the AGR figures are
considerably higher than the national average because they represent only the
salaries paid by leading employers and not those of the smaller firms. A survey
by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals’ Central Services Unit for
Higher Education, Manchester, agrees, reporting a median starting salary for new
graduates of £15 790. Starting salaries for information technologists are
£16 000 and those involved in scientific services also receive £16
000.

Many graduate scientists join Civil Service laboratories as scientific
officers on pay bands which stretch from around £12 000 to £22 000.
Now that each laboratory sets its own pay levels, considerable variations occur
in the salaries from one part of the Civil Service to another. For example, the
Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew pays scientific officers between £12 914
and £23 356, while the Ministry of Agriculture rewards them with salaries
in the range of £12 480 to £19 486. Senior scientific officers earn
up to £33 401 at the Department of Trade and Industry, however they can
only strive for £32 449 at the Department of Education and Employment.
Senior laboratory managers are in pay bands which can rise in some departments
to £51 516.

The government has acted to make going into school teaching more attractive.
Science and maths teachers now receive a training incentive of £2500 when
they start a postgraduate course leading to a certificate in education, and a
further £2500 when they begin teaching in a state school. Salaries, for
those with at least a second-class honours degree, start at £15 012 rising
after seven years to £22 401. Heads of Departments in schools earn up to
£29 040 and the highest paid head teachers with responsibility for the
largest secondary schools can aspire to £59 580.

Academic life usually starts after the completion of a PhD. Those lucky
enough to secure an award from a research council will have their tuition fees
paid and be given a living award. This varies from £5455 a year from the
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to £6865 a year given
by the Medical Research Council. Students in London receive up to £2257
extra, and those involved in research in collaboration with industrial concerns
can be paid much more. Postdoctoral researchers in the old universities are paid
on a scale beginning at £15 159 going up to £23 651. In the new
universities the scale is £15 205 to £23 199. Lecturers earn between
£16 655 and £29 048. Senior lecturers are paid up to £37 257
and the minimum professorial salary is £35 170.

If you want a career as a clinical scientist in the National Health Service,
the initial salary goes from £13 290 to £17 486 but promotion to
higher grades can lead (after 24 increments) to a pay of £34 065. Senior
clinical scientists can earn up to £54 539. Medical laboratory scientific
officers have a grade which rises to £9796 during training and then
transfers to one which reaches £17 486 after 10 years. Senior scientists,
with responsibility for entire laboratories, can earn up to £32 753. The
pay is definitely low but additionally these scientists receive payments for
emergency duties and being on-call.

Investment banks and management consultants are often considered to be the
best payers, and indeed new graduate trainees can earn in the region of
£24 000 plus bonuses with such organisations. ������ýs with a PhD who
enter investment analysis have recently been receiving offers of around
£35 000 a year. But graduates with the right personality for a career in
sales can earn up to £30 000 in their first year of employment if they
meet their sales targets—basic salaries in this area of work are often in
the region of £13 000. Taking employment with one of the companies which
sells personal financial products, and which only pays on commission, can be an
exceedingly risky business. I’ve met people who have managed to earn as little
as £85 for three months work for such a company. It contrasts sharply with
this year’s highest salary earned by a new graduate who was a trainee district
manager with Aldi Supermarkets. He received a package of £30 000 a year
plus free accommodation, a car, petrol and expenses . . . for working a 14-hour
day and a six-day week.

Last year I forecast that we had reached the peak of the recruitment cycle
(Appointments, 28 March, p 66).
Three per cent of last summer’s graduates were
still unemployed six months after graduating. There are now clear signs of a
reduction in recruitment. Oil companies, investment banks and retailers have
reduced their 1999 recruitment targets. Marks and Spencer, which was offering
new graduates in London a starting salary of £21 000 last summer, has
stopped recruiting graduates this year. Recruitment in information technology
and telecommunications continues to be strong. Reuters (London) is offering
salaries of £24 000 to this year’s trainees, though many organisations,
such as Demon Internet, London, which were expanding rapidly last year have
reduced their level of recruitment activity markedly this year.