Revealed: These are officially the grad jobs that will be hardest to secure in 2024

Now’s looking like the perfect time for a panic masters

10 months ago

Emily Smith | News

It’s officially the worst time of the year: grad job-hunting season. Suddenly all your uni mates are turning down a rogue Tuesday night out because they’ve got to update their cover letter or have a job interview in the morning whilst you still have no clue what you wanna do after you’ve left uni.

Those painful conversations at family parties where your uncle’s dog’s cousin asks you what you want to do with your English degree all of a sudden get a lot more stressful.

But which grad jobs are the hardest to get into? You know, so you can avoid them. Well, careers experts, StandOutCV, analysed 17,815 job adverts for 43 popular entry-level jobs, using LinkedIn’s job board ‘entry-level’ filtering to work out the hardest grad jobs to get into.

On average, 37 per cent of all “entry-level” grad jobs wanted prior working experience in the field. Literally how are we meant to get jobs when all the ENTRY LEVEL ones all need experience?? When explained, the average number of years of experience requested for an entry-level role was a whole two and a half years.

The easiest grad jobs to get into, AKA the ones least likely to ask you for experience, are teaching assistants, social workers and real estate agents.

So these are officially the hardest grad jobs to get into in 2024:

1o. Waiter/waitress

You might have already been working in a restaurant for the entirety of your degree, but apparently waitressing is the 10th hardest grad job to get into with 52 per cent of job ads wanting previous experience.

9. Graphic designer

The ninth hardest grad job to secure, 52.3 per cent of all graphic designer “entry-level” jobs say they need candidates with previous experience.

8. Project manager

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For all those projects you’ll be managing, 54.8 per cent of project manager entry-level jobs on LinkedIn want previous experience in the field.

7. Civil engineer

With a minimum average graduate salary of £33,630, 55.6 per cent of grad jobs in civil engineering advertise needing previous experience.

6. Computer programmer

You might have had precisely zero friends from studying computer science at uni and now your job is gonna be one of the hardest to get into. You need a break! 56 per cent of graduate computer programmer jobs want previous experience.

5. Graduate sales engineer

For graduate sales engineer jobs which have a minimum advertised salary of £25,820, 56.5 per cent of them want previous experience.

4. Associate produce manager

Not gonna lie, I couldn’t tell you what an associate produce manager does but it’s apparently really hard to get into, with 58.2 per cent of entry-level jobs wanting prior experience.

3. Barista

hardest grad jobs

Umm, okay?? Apparently, 58.8 per cent of “entry level” barista jobs want experience making it the third hardest grad job to get into.

2. Junior software engineer

Bad news if you’re wanting to be the next Elon Musk, software engineering is the second hardest grad job to land. 60 per cent of job ads on LinkedIn for software engineering require previous experience.

1. IT technician

An IT technician is officially the hardest grad job to secure in 2024. 52 per cent of entry-level IT technician jobs asked for experience. The minimum advertised salary was £18,935.