A new survey confirms that only the cream of the crop get the plum jobs in the finance industry, once again emphasizing the importance of studying hard and making good grades in order to land a top job.
Not surprisingly, it’s tough to break into the highly lucrative asset management sector right out of college. By the same token, it’s three and half times easier for a European finance graduate to find a first job in the accounting & audit industry than to land a position with an asset management firm.
A recent survey from salary-benchmarking site Emolument.com takes a closer look at salary data from 592 recent university graduates working in the European Finance industry. A few conclusions that stand out from the Emolument.com data set are discussed below.
Breakdown of job opportunities in investment banking, asset management, accounting & audit and more
One obvious conclusion from the Emolument.com report is that some jobs are easier to come by than others. Of note, graduates are around three and a half times more likely to find a position in Accounting & Audit (6.3% of the workforce has no prior professional experience) compared to Asset Management (1.8% of the workforce has no prior professional experience).
That said, while graduates will apparently find it easier to land a job in the Accounting & Audit sector, you can expect to take home 36% less than on average than you would in Investment Banking or Wealth Management. Entry level investment bankers and hedge fund analysts took home the most, making around £39,000 a year on average. Those starting their first year in the Accounting & Audit sector took home the least, only earning in the neighborhood of £25,000 annually on average.
The Emolument report also highlights that trying to land a job at investment banks and hedge funds might be the best plan, as those sectors offer new graduates higher salaries while still hiring a relatively high amount of them (3.2 to 3.9%).
