Applications For PwC Graduate Finance Jobs Soar

Applications for graduate finance jobs at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) have soared as more and more graduates are chasing fewer jobs at the big finance companies.

Last year, PwC received 20,000 applications for the places on their graduate scheme. This year, with over 200 applications falling through the letterbox each day, the finance company is on course to receive around one and a half times that number of applicants for the 2012 programme.

That would mean that there could be around 30,000 graduates chasing just 1,200 finance places on the PwC graduate scheme this year.

Chairman and senior partner at PwC, Ian Powell, told The Daily Telegraph that his company expected to interview fewer than a quarter of the graduates who had applied for the 2012 intake and said it was a shame to eliminate so many people at the first stage of application.

Mr Powell worried that such a low ratio of interviews to applications would mean that some graduate talent could inevitably slip through the net.

Speaking of the seemingly insatiable interest in graduate finance jobs compared to other sectors of UK business, Mr Powell said:

“There are not the same opportunities out there now. People are looking for the security of a professional qualification. But I think it's important that other parts of industry become just as attractive, like engineering, as there's a real need to have a balanced economy.”

Source: E4s.co.uk, Friday 6th January 2012