A degree in namedropping

HAVING graduated with an honours degree in Fashion Display Technology from the South California University of Merchandising, I can fully comprehend the advantages of boasting a premium education, particularly if one is considering a topflight career in the City.

Sadly, the closest I ever got to such a career was when I applied for an "opportunity with potential to rise rapidly", only to find it was a lift operator's position at Lloyd's.

Not only is the first cut the deepest, but getting your first job in the City is the hardest. Simply getting your foot in the door is one of the most difficult challenges any graduate will face. Things get much easier in the future, once you have proved your worth by losing a million here and there, but come spring hiring season and you have nothing on your CV other than details of your degree in Leisure Management from Accrington Tech and your commendations for mor-ris dancing, it is pretty hard to separate yourself from the rabble. To make matters worse, banks can be extremely snobby regarding the degrees they consider worthwhile, which may go some way towards explaining why none of my old college friends are working in the City at present. For those of you who already possess a university degree and are considering advancing your career through further education, think in terms of a Masters degree in an analytical subject. Employers like to see concrete evidence of advanced reasoning power and the ability to complete a rigorous course of study. The Wharton MBA is as out of date as the Hermes tie and red braces. In terms of educational fashion, an MSc in Physics from Heidel-berg University is the new black. In the HR departments of major banks, exotic words like Bocconi and Erasmus are often used in the same breath as Oxbridge, and a religious hush falls over the room when names like HEC, Stanford and MIT are bandied about. Ever eager to catch on, headhunters are no longer automatically impressed by a First at Oxford; and are displaying an increasing tendency to seek out graduates of foreign universities in preference to our own citadels of learning. The blame can be placed squarely on the tailored shoulders of the French. Their educational system at university level produces the most rigorously trained financial engineers in Europe. This is not to say that English universities are completely ignored. Graduates from the best universities still rank very highly in the eyes of City recruiters. The French invasion of the City began about five years ago and is now being emulated by hordes of gleaming Italians, Dutch and Germans. What is most irksome to the likes of you and I is that these foreigners are not only better educated, but have an excellent grasp of grammar and know none of the nuances of Estuary English. Brendan Carrig, recruitment specialist from City head-hunters Hudson York Farrell, actively pursues foreign-educated candidates for diverse roles in the City. According to Carrig, "our clients have been more focused on recruiting a wider range of nationalities from European and emerging markets countries, enabling them to secure language skills coupled with the ability to deal with substantial cultural differences". He adds that "the preference now is for candidates with very strong analytical skills, and this leads us to focus on graduates from major European universities". On the other hand, there is hope for those of us less well- educated. In the back of a famous weekly business magazine printed in this country there are a number of advertisements for "mail order" degrees, available from Californian universities. If you have earned your credentials and spent five years working on proposals in the corporate finance department of a major investment bank, you might get to meet one of the captains of British industry, like Richard Branson. If this is the case, don't be too quick to start bragging about your alma mater. Richard didn't quite make it through university; he found it got in the way of making money. UNIVERSITY NAMES TO DROP Imperial College - England Cambridge University England HEC - France ESSEC - France Stanford University - US Bocconi University - Italy Edinburgh University Scotland Trinity College - Ireland University Heidelberg Germany Erasmus University Netherlands

Copyright 1998
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.