Bright Network research highlights commercial firms as prized employers for members

Bright Network (BN) has released its research paper, “What do the brightest graduates want?”, which among other conclusions reveals that law is in the top three sector preferences among its members, with female members placing it at number one.

Launched at a breakfast event on 19 March which was attended by representatives from many different professional sectors, the research was conducted in 2014 and compared around 1,300 responses from BN members with around 33,500 responses from general undergraduates. Questions were asked to elicit respondents’ views on remuneration and advancement, career goals, employer reputation and culture, and job characteristics.

Some of the key findings include the following:

• Banking, consulting and law are the top sectors of choice for BN members; media and advertising, public sector and consulting were the top three for general undergrads.
• Work/life balance as part of one’s career is important to all undergrads, but BN women prioritise it more highly than BN men.
• BN members expect a starting salary of £29,765, compared to general undergrads’ expected salary of £25,165.
• All respondents – BN and general undergrads – cited professional training and development as the number one characteristic they were looking for in a graduate job.

Those BN members studying law exclusively prioritised commercial law firms as their ideal employers, citing as examples Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, Slaughter and May, Linklaters and Freshfields. For the general undergrad population that was studying law, Google, BBC, Apple and the civil service were put forward as ideal employers. 

For more detail on the paper’s findings, read the full research paper here.