The best jobs for IT graduates

Graduating with a STEM undergraduate degree is an incredibly exciting time, marking the end of one part of your life and the start of another. While graduation is something to celebrate, it’s also not without its stresses. Chief among them is what happens next – how do you go about finding the right job for you?

Ultimately, your pay expectations and ideal city to work in will dictate where you end up. Some graduate positions are more hotly contested than others due to the work culture, excitement of the role and, of course, opportunities for progression. Based on these criteria, here are some of the best jobs for IT graduates…

IT Consultant

Being an IT Consultant can cover a huge variety of tasks, with typical day-to-day responsibilities varying between employers. Yet all IT Consultants need to be expert generalists, making it the perfect job for those who prefer to make each day a little different from the last, rather than those who excel by focusing on one discipline of information technology.

Graduate IT Consultants can expect an annual salary somewhere between £17,000-£30,000, with highly experienced IT Consultants earning upwards of £80,000. Click here to find out more.

Cybersecurity Consultant

Cybersecurity is considered to be one of the most exciting areas of IT. A good security consultant doesn’t just need to be an expert ‘defender’ who can spot and fix breaches, they also need to be able to think like a hacker. After all, if you can work out how to safely attack your own system in order to find and eliminate its flaws, you can plug the gaps before anyone on the outside can do the same thing maliciously.

The average salary for an experienced Cybersecurity Consultant is £62,500, with top UK experts being able to charge up to £10,000 a day. (https://www.ft.com/content/4b76f0e6-9db4-11e5-8ce1-f6219b685d74) As a graduate, though, you could expect a salary closer to £20,000-£30,000.

Software Developer/Engineer

Being a software engineer/developer was probably the dream role of most IT graduates when they first applied to university. Spending their days coding, testing and implementing new software solutions, Software Developers need to be great problem solvers who are able to analyse a client’s requirements before creating software-based solutions. It goes without saying that to become a developer, you’ll have to be fluent in at least one (and preferably more) programming language.

Support Engineer

If you’re a real people person, a role as a Support Engineer could be the right choice for you. This role combines in-depth knowledge of computer systems or networks with the need for excellent interpersonal skills in order to help colleagues or clients resolve IT issues over the phone, email or in person.

Graduate support engineers can expect an initial salary of around £20,000, with the average salary for an experienced engineer being around £27,000. However, there is potential to earn so much more in this role.

Business Analyst

If you have an eye for business as well as technology, you might want to consider a role as a Business Analyst. This is typically a consulting role which would require you to embed yourself within a client’s business in order to learn the ins and outs of how they function. As a final step, you would suggest a software and/or hardware-based solution to increase efficiency, cut overheads and increase profits.

Starting salaries are typically around £25,000, with experienced Business Analysts commanding salaries upwards of £70,000.

Summary

As an IT graduate, the world is your oyster, with a wealth of exciting opportunities in businesses, academia, government organisations and many other industries. To find out what could be the right role for you, why not give us a call?