Is the Consumer Goods sector for me?

Earlier this month, the Independent reported that in 2015 there was a record high in the number of graduate vacancies that went unfilled.  Whether or not it is fair to call graduates ‘picky’ that chose not to take up these positions is debatable – what is certain is that the power one company has over another to attract graduate applications varies enormously. Some sectors as a whole have far larger recruitment budgets than others and are able to engage with more students. A recent report shows that such sectors as Accounting and Law, which attracted among the highest volumes of graduate applications, had a recruitment presence at more than twice the number of universities than the Consumer Goods sector.

It is likely that a large number of positions are left vacant because graduates are simply not aware of the ways entire sectors might suit them. Of the graduate employees working within Consumer Goods, a strong majority stated that it was the access to international opportunities and the high levels of personal responsibility that attracted them to this sector. One in five graduates working in Consumer Goods stated international opportunities as the most important factor informing their career choice, ranking second across all major graduate career sectors in this regard. Companies within this sector also received the highest rating for offering good personal responsibility over all other sectors, whereas the Legal sector’s rating was the very lowest.
 
The infographic below provides a glance at what companies in the Consumer Goods sector have to offer graduates.


 
The fifteen companies listed in this infographic are taken from TheJobCrowd’s 100 top employers as voted by their graduate employees. There are names here such as Mars and Unilever that current students will doubtless recognise along with many they may not. It is crucial that undergraduates are equipped with information on how working for organisations from a range of sectors can work for them, particularly in roles they might never have considered. It seems lack of awareness currently allows many fantastic graduate opportunities to pass by unnoticed.