UK Jobseekers Dream of being Own Boss

Entrepreneurship is the key to career and life fulfilment.

Dragons look out! it seems we are a nation of budding entrepreneurs. A poll of over 2000 jobseekers, which was undertaken recently by Reed Employment this month, reveals that the dream job for the majority of respondents is to own their own business.

The survey also revealed that professions such as medicine and law are being shunned by jobseekers who want more financially lucrative careers in the fields of accountancy and banking and finance.Perhaps surprisingly, accountancy was actually the third most popular career choice and banking and finance was the ninth most popular choice, scoring more highly than law.

Science was only chosen as a dream career by a handful of respondents, lending strong support to this month’s CBI report that the worrying decline of science students could have a long term detrimental impact on the UK economy.

Money was considered the most important factor in choosing a career today according to 68% of respondents. In fact, financial rewards were considered a bigger motivator than career progression, which was selected by just fewer than 40% of respondents.

Just 6% of respondents would select a company because of its corporate social responsibility programmes and only 2% stated they would be swayed by an employer’s brand image. Shame for companies, given how much money is spent on these aspects of promotion.Interestingly, the least favourite jobs were politicians, plumbers and dentistry.

Top Ten UK Jobs
1. Business owner
2. Pilot/astronaut
3. Accountant
4. Teacher
5. Air hostess/cabin crew
6. Writer
7. Vet
8. Policeman
9. Banking
10. Law

Graduates need to be Streetwise, not high IQ

“A high IQ helps, but HR and talent managers ask us to select graduates that have common sense, are streetwise, and understand how to innovate and lead.” says Max Choi, Occupational Psychologist. “You are simply not going to assess these qualities with a traditional verbal or numerical test. That’s why we are developing a Scenarios test to assess their practical, real-world decision making”. Max is co-author of Scenarios – the first valid psychometric test of Managerial Judgement marketed by SHL Group plc.

Graduate Scenarios simulates real organisational decision making by presenting practical problems and situations to applicants. It helps select candidates who understand how best to achieve objectives, manage people and effect change in an organisation. Research shows that this type of tacit skill bears a relationship to IQ, but it is something quite distinct and is not something that can be formally taught or learnt. It is also not related to academic performance, and this will come as no surprise when one surveys the UK’s rich lists. Sir Alan Sugar Amstrad entrepreneur left Brooke House School in East London aged 16 to set up his first company, selling car aerials from the back of a van. Sir Philip Green, retail tycoon left school without qualifications aged 15. He is now worth an estimated £3.6 billion.

Your graduates can trial the test now at no cost

If you wish to participate in the latest research and use the test initially on a free basis prior to publication, please contact us below. We are looking for a small level of commitment from recently employed graduates to expand our research data.

A great learning and benchmarking opportunity (if you have taken on graduates within the last two years) is to let us undertake a validation study for the test at no cost to you. In return for completing a quick online administration of the test and collecting some brief manager ratings, we will provide your graduates with a useful Development Report, and your business with a brief report based on the data provided - this includes benchmarking your organisation against our UK data.

Contact Max Choi at max@questpartnership.co.uk or on 0845 612 7722 for more information.