How do you get a highly paid job? Play the psychometric video game

“In 2023 one in three students had a definite job offer by the end of February. This year not only has the number dropped, but there are fewer graduate vacancies for the year ahead. Employers in the top 100 get 40-50 applications per vacancy. They reject 98-99 per cent of those who apply.”

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So why is it that some people seem to walk into jobs, while others struggle — even with a good 2:1 or a first? There is an element of luck, but it also comes down to learning how the jobs market works and being prepared. To maximise your chances of finding a job when you graduate, experts advise being strategic about how you spend your time at university from day one (as well as having fun!). Here’s a guide to the next steps.

1. Figure out what you really want to do

What are your values and who do you want to be as you grow older? Is money the most important indicator of success for you or are you also seeking a sustainable way of life?

“There’s a growing trend towards young talent looking for [shared values] in their career search process,” says Oli Coles, co-founder of Windo, a platform that connects students with employers whose values align on issues such as diversity and sustainability. “Salary transparency is also a deciding factor for many candidates.”

Danny Simpson, who works for the sustainability and social impact consultancy firm Seismic, is glad that he took the time to find a role that matches what’s important to him. He says that knowing the company’s values fit with his own “made it very easy to answer questions about why I wanted this job and how I planned to stay motivated”.

2. Choose a degree with a work placement

Increasingly, companies are working with universities to help to shape their curriculums. Today many more degrees than in the past include the chance to study in industry or work abroad — including courses at Russell Group universities. At the University of Surrey almost every degree programme includes the option of a “professional training” placement for up to a year, working at one of more than 2,300 organisations in the UK and overseas. Elsewhere, modules designed to develop the skills needed to succeed in the workplace are embedded within degrees, or students are offered help to find and complete an internship.

3. Start your career search as early as possible

Make an appointment with your university’s careers service in your first term. This is a resource that not only connects students with employers through careers fairs and networking events, but helps them to set up a LinkedIn profile and can offer mock assessment centres and practice sessions for the online personality and aptitude tests used by many employers. Such assessments can cover verbal and numerical reasoning as well as situational judgment tests, where a scene is set and a candidate is asked what they would do in that situation. Free practice tests can be found online, including at The Psychometric Project and SHL.

McKinsey, a top consultancy firm, has begun screening candidates via its custom-built psychometric assessment video game, Solve. Applicants find themselves on a remote island, tasked with building a viable ecosystem and food chain and equipped with a minimal amount of information on how to survive. And that’s only the first round.

Platforms such as Forage also offer help with this stage of the application process, as well as job simulations to give you a chance to “try” careers.

4. Remember, though, it doesn’t have to be for ever

The average Briton changes careers or jobs five to seven times during their lifetime. So your first job after university doesn’t have to be for ever.

“You’re not making decisions about your entire career, you’re making them for the next 18 months to two years,” David Molyneux, the careers services manager at the University of Warwick, says.

And remember, should you ever decide to change your career path, experience is transferable.

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5. Apply for a taster week

Internships are becoming so competitive that it’s worth exploring your options before you spend hours on applications. Many top graduate employers, such as PwC, offer week-long taster experiences to first-year students. These are usually held over the Easter break and are sometimes called “spring weeks”. But bagging one is a competitive business too, and the application process starts in September, as soon as students arrive at university.

6. Make your experience work for you

Relevant extracurricular activities and work experience — even holiday jobs — are key. If you can match the skills you gain from these to the qualities employers are looking for, you have a better chance of standing out.

“When you get to that final recruitment round at the assessment centre and they ask, ‘Can you tell me where you worked with a team to solve a problem?’ you can say, ‘I organised a ski trip for 250 students,’” Birchall, who also edits The Times High Fliers Research, says. “That description brings alive your abilities and achievements.”

Many firms offer paid internships lasting eight to ten weeks to students in their penultimate summer at university (for law it’s “vacation schemes” lasting one to three weeks). If you can make it through the lengthy application process, these internships can be a gateway to securing a prized “return offer”, where you are invited back after you graduate to join full-time.

7. Play the numbers game

Once you know which sector you’re targeting, it’s worth looking within it to find the area where you’re most likely to find a career. For example, if you want to go into finance, you’re better off applying for accountancy than quantitative trading: it’s a numbers game.

According to The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2024-25, accountancy is booming, with 6,695 vacancies, up 13.5 per cent from last year — and the average starting salary is £37,500. The public sector is also hiring more graduates than last year, with more than 4,000 spots available. Engineering firms and banks, while still top recruiters, have fewer graduate openings than in previous years.

The largest recruiters of graduates in 2025 are expected to be Teach First (1,750 graduate vacancies), the accounting and professional services firms PwC and Deloitte (1,500 each), and the car and van hire company Enterprise Mobility (1,300).

8. Take all the help you can get

Make the most of your university’s alumni network. At Queen Mary, University of London, for example, graduates are invited to join alumni panels to give students an insight into the career they chose.

Meanwhile, charities and social enterprises such as upReach, the 93% Club, Bright Network and Zero Gravity provide support and access to a rapidly developing pipeline into graduate internships and careers at a range of firms including KPMG.

And try “information interviewing”, an American term for in-depth and structured networking, suggests Jonathan Black, the director of the careers service at the University of Oxford.

“If you want to be a solicitor, start by thinking, who do I know who is a solicitor? My parents bought a house, they used a solicitor. Get in touch and say, ‘I am thinking of a career in the law, I would like to interview you for ten minutes.’ Most people will agree to a ten-minute interview and then at the end of that, ask, ‘Are there any other people you can suggest I could speak to?’ Then you build this professional network of contacts. That is the entry to the invisible job market.”

And for a bit of good news …

Stephen Isherwood, chief executive of the Institute of Student Employers, says graduate pay is on the increase.

“We saw it for the first time last year, when the average graduate salary went up from £31,000 to £32,000,” he says. “This year we expect our salary survey to show graduate salaries going up above inflation for a second year running.”

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