The first generation of graduates since the collapse of investment firm Lehman Brothers have taken their first steps in the working world. A new survey of over 600 students in the UK, France and Italy, by global careers site eFinancialCareers.com, highlights the sobering impact that the past ten months have had on their career hopes and plans.

Jobs in short supply
Graduate job opportunities in the financial services sector appear to be in short supply on the continent. In Italy and France, relatively few students graduating this summer who want to enter the finance sector have been able to secure a place so far: 11 percent in Italy and almost 16 percent in France.

UK graduates have been moderately more successful, one in five having already landed their first job. In general, though, rejection letters have been the order of the day.

Students committed to finance
Despite the knock backs, the survey highlights that the overwhelming majority of undergraduates surveyed still want to work in financial services: almost 74 percent of British students said they will continue looking for a job in the sector, should they fail to have found a position by graduation.

In France and Italy, commitment levels were even higher: 76 percent of Italian students questioned and 80 percent of French said they would continue looking for financial services jobs after graduation.

Few of the continental students seemed concerned by the tarnished reputation of the banking industry; only four percent of Italian students and nine percent of French students said they felt awkward telling friends they wanted to work in investment banking.

By contrast, over a third of UK students said they felt embarrassed mentioning their choice of career to friends. In a separate eFinancialCareers poll of 277 UK students, 26 percent admitted their parents had expressed a negative opinion about their desire to go into the City.

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