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‘When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.’ So said essayist and wit Samuel Johnson when discussing with his friend James Boswell whether city life could ever wear thin.

That conversation took place in 1777 – but Johnson’s bon mot seems just as true today for the many thousands of graduates who flood into the capital every year chasing their own sex in the city lifestyle.

There’s no doubting London has it all. Whether you’re into shopping, theatre or clubbing, there is not much that the big smoke lacks. With a population of some 7.2 million, there is no busier or more diverse city in the country, some might say on the planet.

Many students entering the world of work see this giant metropolis as the ideal place to be. With more than 45 per cent of mainstream graduate opportunities being in London and surrounding areas, and higher salaries to boot, it may even seem like the only place to be.

But the city definitely has its drawbacks. Pollution, commuting woe, crime, overcrowding, cost of living – all are factors that push people away every year. And still the debate rages for students in higher education – is London the best place for the fresh-faced graduate?

The research
Credit card company Capital One conducted a survey last year to ask what graduates themselves thought about the capital – perhaps surprisingly, their findings indicate a severe lack of enthusiasm.

Only 19 per cent of the 124 graduates questioned said they were looking exclusively in London for their first job, while 40 per cent actually said that they were specifically looking to work elsewhere. According to the survey, the major reason for avoiding London is the cost of living.

‘Our research dispels the myth that the majority of Britain’s graduates want to migrate to London as soon as they pass their final exam,’ says Kevin Hogarth, director of HR at Capital One.

‘Nowadays it seems that many graduates feel they can’t afford London. And with so many other British cities having so much to offer, they can actually achieve a higher standard of living, more quickly, by opting to live outside of London.’

There is no doubt that opportunities outside London are on the increase, offering a real pull to cash-strapped graduates. In its graduate recruitment survey for 2006, the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) found that vacancies in the North East alone had swelled by almost 30 per cent, while opportunities in East Anglia, Scotland and the Midlands had also grown by around 20 per cent.

Alison Hodgson, chair of the AGR, says: ‘Geographically, 45 per cent of our listed vacancies are in London and 12 per cent are in the South East, so London is still the epicentre for graduate opportunities, mainly coming from the big investment banks and blue-chip companies.

‘But then you do see interesting trends further out, with 10 per cent of our employers now in the Midlands and five per cent in the North West. These opportunities often come from large corporations with offices outside London.’

Money matters
While London still boasts the highest starting salaries, with an average of £26,880, the higher cost of living means that workers may actually find themselves with less to spend than those living elsewhere. London weighting – extra money paid on top of basic salary – is available for many public sector jobs, but even that usually doesn’t cover the full cost of the capital.

With average house prices topping £330,000 in London, for most recent graduates buying their own home is little more than a pipedream. Even a rented room in a shared house can easily be £400 to £500 a month, so once travelling and living costs have been taken care of, there may be little left of the paycheque to enjoy the bright lights of the city. The long and arduous commutes that most workers endure – with 45 minutes to an hour not uncommon – can make the rat race an unseemly and tiring scramble on the trains, Tubes and buses.

The place to be…
Some experts in graduate recruitment insist that students still need to be in London to get the plum jobs and enjoy rapid career advancement.

‘London is still the best place that anybody can be,’ says Wilma Martinelli, director of the Centre for Career and Skills Development at City University and also vice president of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services.

She stresses that if graduates feel they might want to work abroad at some stage, starting out in London is the perfect springboard for that. ‘The opportunities are generally much better for those starting off on the career ladder,’ she says. ‘Students tend to go for the whole package in terms of jobs, pay, culture and social life – I think London is the only city that can offer that full package.’

But Emma Pollard, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Employment Studies (IES), warns that the abundance of jobs has its drawbacks too. She says: ‘London has highly visible jobs, and this attracts students coming to the end of their studies.

‘But high visibility jobs attract greater competition, and these advertised jobs tend to be in large blue chip companies, rather than representing the full spectrum of graduate employers.’

According to research carried out by her team at the IES, the main problem is ignorance of the opportunities that really exist outside London.

Mix ‘n’ match
One option many graduates eventually take up is to adopt a mix ‘n’ match approach – going to London early on in their career for swift advancement and then moving out once they’ve built up their experience and earning potential.

Andrew Gordon, director at jobs.ac.uk, which specialises in research, science and academic professions, says: ‘Many people spend a couple of years working in London to get the ‘capital city experience’. They then move back to the provinces to take a job at a higher level than they would have done if they had stayed local. They may also find that local employers will be impressed with time in London.’

The future
Indeed, the pull of opportunities from large provincial towns cannot be ignored forever. For those wanting to work in law or finance for example, Leeds is now one of the biggest centres outside London, as is Birmingham.

And Manchester now looks set to become an even hotter graduate destination as the BBC ponders a big transfer of its workforce up to Salford. Although the actual move may not happen until 2010, it will make a big difference. The ‘Out of London’ strategy, as it is known, envisages a move of more than 1,500 jobs and a dozen key BBC departments away from London.

Such initiatives mean that graduates of the future may be even more tempted to consider living and working outside the capital, especially as many of the UK’s cities now rival London for their cosmopolitan atmosphere, excellent shopping and vibrant night life.

And despite the prevalence of jobs in the bigger cities, the debate about graduate location does not boil down to just a few cities. Indeed, 4.6 per cent of AGR recruiters in 2006 were taking graduates in Scotland, while 1.6 per cent of vacancies arose in Wales.

Although the number of positions available is inevitably smaller in these places, recruitment analysts emphasise that competition may also be far weaker so there’s a much better chance of landing a job. For graduates entering careers such as medicine, dentistry or veterinary science, there are often opportunities in the remotest corners of the country – small towns and villages that may be far from London but still have need of skilled professionals.

There’s no denying that the message to graduates is mixed – while the lures of London include some of the plum jobs and an exciting environment, there is a country beckoning beyond the capital, a country teeming with graduate opportunity.


Case Studies

Joshua Fineman, 22, grew up in Birmingham and graduated in law from Liverpool University in June 2005. He headed down to London two months later to take the Bar Vocational Course at BPP School of Law in Holborn, central London.
Now qualified, he is still living in the big city, working as a junior lawyer at the Bank of Ireland. ‘When I first moved to London I lived in Angel, which is pretty much central London,’ says Joshua. ‘Going past four Starbucks in the space of 15 minutes took a bit of getting used to, but soon turned into a useful will power test. Living there was brilliant, but very expensive.’

Joshua has now moved out to east London, where he is living with his fiancée Hannah. He enjoys the advantages of living in the capital, but says it was only the course that brought him down south – although he admits London has a unique buzz.
‘More than the big city feel, London is the centre of so much that affects our lives - the government, the monarchy, the Bank of England and the big legal institutions like the law society and the Royal Courts of Justice. It’s where all the big legal decisions are made, and from my point of view that was a big attraction.’

But Joshua says there are drawbacks to being right at the nerve centre of the country. ‘I am very reliant on the Tube, and it’s an absolute nightmare when things go wrong. A week’s ticket costs me £30, which is expensive, but not too bad in the grand scale of things. Because London is so big, it can take a long time to get to other places, especially if you live over to one side like I do.’

Overall Joshua is happy with his choice and says he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. ‘If a graduate were to ask me whether I would recommend they come to London, my answer would be a definite yes, but that comes from a city boy who doesn't mind relying on the tube every day and paying £2.60 for his cappuccino and chocolate croissant on the way into work.’


Robert Goldstein, 25, grew up in Manchester and went to Leeds University to study medicine. He graduated in August 2005 and moved straight back to Manchester to start his foundation medical postgraduate training programme.

He is now in his second and final year of rotation, working at South Manchester University Hospital and Christie Hospital and is currently applying for posts that will allow him to specialise in a particular area of medicine.

He says: ‘Manchester has a lot to offer. In medical terms, there are three excellent teaching hospitals, including Christie, the biggest cancer hospital in Europe. Young professionals are drawn to the city by good restaurants, bars and theatres.’

Robert is living at home with his parents and saving up his earnings to buy his first property, something he may not have been able to do had he moved to London. ‘Compared to London, young people in Manchester have easier commutes, lower overall cost of living and an easier ride getting onto the property ladder.’

In his final year at Leeds, Robert weighed up his options and did consider moving to London. ‘I needed a change of scenery after six years in Leeds and was torn between London and Manchester.’

But looking back now, he says the financial benefits of living in Manchester have made the decision worthwhile. ‘My commute is 15 minutes by car, costing less than £15 per week in petrol. I’d certainly be worse off financially in London.

‘I’d be renting a property, paying utility bills, council tax and greater travel expenses. And last year I lived in the junior doctors’ hospital residence which was completely free.’

Moving to Manchester was, Robert says, the right thing for him at this time in his career. But the next few years may yet see him heading south: ‘If you like big cities then there’s nowhere like London.’

The experts’ view

Matthew Wood, lead recruiter at AstraZeneca
‘There are many large and medium-sized companies based outside of London, including AstraZeneca. Often, these companies have a better infrastructure to support better work-life balance for employees. There are a great deal of opportunities for successful careers in some of the UK’s  regional cities such as England’s North West in the Manchester area, even with vocations such as finance and accounting.’

Sarah Shillingford, graduate recruitment partner, Deloitte
‘It depends on which sector you want to work in, but there are very few careers that can genuinely only be pursued in London. Sometimes the numbers taken on by London offices will be much higher but then so will the number of applicants. Do not be fooled into thinking that if there are more vacancies your chances of getting a job are higher. It is unlikely that you will have a good career in a city where you are not happy, so this needs to be a major consideration.’


Average house prices

Greater London        £331,100
South East            £251,008
South West            £217,222
East Anglia            £194,543
West Midlands        £173,778
East Midlands            £163,075
Northern Ireland        £162,821
Wales                £154,741
Yorkshire and Humberside    £153,560
North West            £152, 491
North                £143,297
Scotland            £142,355

(Source: BBC)


Percentage of graduate vacancies by region

London            45.9 per cent
South East            11.6 per cent
The Midlands            9.9 per cent
South West            5.7 per cent
North West            5.3 per cent
Scotland            4.6 per cent
Yorkshire            3.0 per cent
North East            2.8 per cent
East Anglia            2.0 per cent
Wales                1.6 per cent
Ireland                1.3 per cent
Northern Ireland        1.0 per cent

(Source: AGR Graduate Recruitment Survey 2006)


Average graduate salary by region

London        £26, 880
South East        £23, 000
South West        £21, 500
The Midlands        £20, 500
North West        £20, 000
Scotland        £20, 000
Yorkshire        £20, 000
East Anglia        £20, 000
North East        £19, 625
Wales            £19, 500
Northern Ireland    £17, 000

(Source: AGR Graduate Recruitment Survey 2006)

Companies Recruiting