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Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?

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Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?

#31

Post by helipad »

I was a business graduate (Nottingham) & we were never pitched startups either.

I was very willing to join a startup, but I also tend to rail against the Silicon Roundabout. I'm just personally not that interested in London.

Are many of these companies based elsewhere?

It's funny because something like this would do very well with Nottingham students. The dedicated business campus also has many computer science students, but we really only ever heard of the usual companies.

Have you looked at the Institute for Enterprise and Innovation on the Nottingham Business Campus, for example?

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?

#32

Post by arctangent »

I think your idea is superb, but your website would be better if there was a way to search through all the available jobs to see if there is anything in particular of interest.

For instance, it would be useful to be able to see which funded companies were looking for a junior designer and then be able to look at the actual job postings themselves (e.g. via link to that company's website).

I hope you have great success with this event. I have a friend attending and there's a good chance I will come down from Leeds one day to take a look at one of your future events.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?

#33

Post by jackgavigan »

I think there's a couple of issues. First, there's probably a bias on the part of graduates to take a job with what they perceive to be a safe, secure company that will look good on their CV. I think that tendency is a cultural thing here in the UK - there's more of a tendency for people here to work for companies for their entire career and, hence, there's traditionally been a cachet attached to working for big companies. That's something that's likely to change over time, though.

Another factor is likely to be a bias on the part of universities towards building relationships with larger employers who are seen as prestigious. An unheard-of startup won't garner anywhere near the interest and attention of a large, well-known company.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?

#34

Post by ian »

arctangent wrote: post #32

I think your idea is superb, but your website would be better if there was a way to search through all the available jobs to see if there is anything in particular of interest. For instance, it would be useful to be able to see which funded companies were looking for a junior designer and then be able to look at the actual job postings themselves (e.g. via link to that company's website). I hope you have great succes…

Thanks for the feedback. We'll consider adding a list of all available jobs, that's a good idea.

Re Leeds - how did your friend who is coming hear about the event? Are there email lists that we should have targeted that we didn't?

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?

#35

Post by fernandose »

ian wrote: post #11
dcaunt wrote: post #8

Have you contacted universities directly? I studied at the University of Birmingham and they had a named contact for getting in touch with students. That person often forwarded relevant communication (job opportunities, recruitment events) to us and I took my first job based on one of those emails. I agree with robfitz that people don't talk about startups. The companies that do the milkround are the usual suspects.…

We've reached out to a ton of university career services and CS & engineering departments. Some have been very helpful, for example the team at Queen Mary have been amazing and probably 50% of their CS students are coming down. But many of the others have been a lot less engaged and willing to promote to their student body, vs the tried and tested options of banks & consultancies. Do you think we should take the sili…

Great idea on touring, there's a probably a non-student-stereotypical type reason why banks/companies come to the students, instead of the other way round. Good opportunity to bring awareness to the start-up world

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?

#36

Post by SaintSal »

ian wrote: post #29
fernandose wrote: post #27

I'm currently a masters student at UCL and I'm too surprised at the small scale of start-up culture here. I've been talking to many london universities to bring hackers and start-up enthusiasts together to collaborate and see what everyone is working on. Numbers are small, but there is talent out there working on cool ideas. In my opinon in this case it's a matter of exposure, here at UCL I didn't see any advertiseme…

what could we do in the next 3 days to really crank up awareness at UCL? We have posters, fliers and can send someone from Songkick or another start-up down to speak about the event and the start-ups that will be represented. Thanks!

I'm sure some guys at the UCL Hatchery would be willing to help spread the word too. Email me at smile@saintsal.com and I'll put you guys in touch.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?

#37

Post by DonskiFarrell »

ian wrote: post #15
robinwarren wrote: post #12

When I left university I interviewed at a small company and a startup but in both cases they were just interviews for jobs I got through a recruitment consultant. That was all I knew of how to get a job. I think the problem is that recent graduates are unaware they could be doing anything other than looking at cwjobs and phoning a recruitment agency up. Possibly timing is an issue, right before or after final exams m…

Paid summer internships is a smart point. Many of the companies exhibiting at the event are keen to having summer tech interns, and perhaps if we packaged that up better we'd get more engagement from university tutors. Maybe we should create a listing of all the summer internships available as well. Thanks for a helpful idea.

I think this would create a lot of interest in the start-up area. As part of my course there was a compulsory 6-month placement in industry. Most of the students were blissfully unaware of the start-up opportunities available, especially when the big players were dangling large money incentives and holding big promotion events. Also, if you took a typical internship with a bank, etc, the chances are that you got offered a graduate job. This in itself would prevent a lot of the students looking further for other opportunities even if they were being promoted.

The only time I even had a hint of the start-up world was the odd email from the career officer. (I actually remember the SongKick advert. I was really tempted to apply, even though you were just looking for a graduate position. In hindsight, I should have tried my luck :))

What would be useful in promoting the internships would be a start-up demo-day, where bunch of start-ups would come in and showcase their product/vision, development technologies, and any other 'cool stuff'.

Edit: To clarify, rather that a start-up fair, where students stumble about, the demo-day would be contained in a lecture room with a proper presentation and QA session. These types of events were always packed in uni.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?

#38

Post by ian »

SaintSal wrote: post #24

No doubt the attraction of big companies is strong for grads, and for good reasons. A positive observation is that post-grad Entrepreneurship programs attract a lot of people who went straight to big companies and then figured out that startups were a better option for them. So grads who get it just take a year or 3 to become aware of the option. I wonder if the answer lies with these recent alumni, and if there's a…

I think many of the current registrants (of which there are thousands) are people who are 1-5 years into their career post uni and are realising they maybe went in the wrong direction by joining a bank/microsoft etc. So we're actually doing a good job of reaching that community.

I really like the idea of using alumni as an awareness vector.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?

#39

Post by nicwest »

as a vaguely recent graduate, and living in london, I was surprised that I hadn't heard of this until I read it here on HN.

Also (and this is totally personal) the Brick Lane location would have put me off a) because it's the other side of London, but mainly b) I have always perceived brick lane (and there abouts) as a London counter-culture/socialism/arty/etc scene, and events there abouts tend to follow that stereo type (for example look at the difference between the New Designers (http://www.newdesigners.com/) show and Free Range(http://www.free-range.org.uk/)). I have no problem with that now, but straight out of uni I was obsessed by money and one thing that a brick lane location doesn't scream to the high heavens is just that: money...

Re: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?

#40

Post by ian »

SaintSal wrote: post #36
ian wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what could we do in the next 3 days to really crank up awareness at UCL? We have posters, fliers and can send someone from Songkick or another start-up down to speak about the event and the start-ups that will be represented. Thanks!

I'm sure some guys at the UCL Hatchery would be willing to help spread the word too. Email me at smile@saintsal.com and I'll put you guys in touch.

will do, thanks
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