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As the accounting sector’s job market returns to near pre-pandemic levels, smaller firms will likely emerge with opportunities for graduates in lieu of traditional graduate intake schemes.
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Graduates encouraged to look to ‘competitive’ smaller firms
01 March 2021
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9 minute read
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Following a hiring slump of about 60 per cent across the sector in May last year, job postings are edging towards pre-pandemic levels, with listed openings currently sitting 2.3 per cent below what they were in February last year, according to analysis from Indeed’s APAC economist, Callam Pickering.
But the pandemic’s impact remains a point of pessimism for recent graduates who, according to Jay Munro, head of career insights at Indeed, should start recalibrating their career expectations.
“COVID has really changed that perception of graduates, to make them probably a bit more pessimistic, or down around their prospects,” Mr Munro said.
“We’ve always tried to educate new grads to look beyond what their focus stream of study is, because there’s so many opportunities out there — they’re transferable skills and adjacent industries that need the profession that they’re starting to work in.”
Contributing to the gloom, he said, are slowing rates of traditional graduate intake schemes at the big four, and other enterprise firms, which would provide an industrial point of entry to hundreds of graduates around the country, every year.
It’s a sentiment shared among recruiters across the sector, as various lockdowns have baulked much of the casual, or even vacation, work that those yet to complete their studies might’ve undertaken before the pandemic.
“Graduates should not be an overlooked talent pool,” said John Meehan, director at Robert Walters, a specialist national accounting recruitment firm.
“Organisations used to promote vacation work for university students which in a lot of cases led to a secured place on a successful graduate program.
“However, with various lockdowns, particularly in Melbourne, there has been a lack of engagement with [them].”
In the absence of such programs, or the limited capacity through which they’re now running, smaller firms are able to offer competitive roles to graduates, where they once might not have.
“This is where small- to medium-sized businesses are really going to be able to be more competitive, and offer those jobs to new grads,” Mr Munro said.
Mr Munro, however, believes it is too early to tell if the approach will contribute to fostering homegrown talent, and make for a workable succession plan in the long term.
“It is something that’s concerning for a whole range of professions, including banking, finance and accounting,” he said. “And it’s something that a lot of organisations need to start thinking about now, rather than waiting until it’s too late.”
In the meantime, though, it’s up to graduates to approach employment with a broader scope, and to be “more tenacious”, Mr Munro said.
“There are so many resources that they can tap into to learn how to best represent themselves,” he said. “It helps if they’ve been more proactive, and contacting small businesses and introducing themselves, even if there’s no position being advertised.
“They’re going to have to be a lot more competitive to get that foot in the door.”
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