What salary do Romanian students expect from their first job?

University graduates in Romania would want their first job to bring them a monthly salary of RON 2,200 (some EUR 495), and a weekly work program that doesn’t exceed 40 hours, according to the Graduate Barometer 2016 released by Trendence Institute. They would also like to work in a large corporation, where they would occupy a specialized position. However, the Romanian university graduates’ wishes are not much different from the students in Hungary and Poland, the same study shows. The young Romanians would want their first job to bring them an annual income of EUR 5,954, well below the European average of EUR 23,127. The Swiss graduates have the highest expectations in Europe, aiming for an annual revenue of more than EUR 60,000, and a weekly work program of 44 hours. The study also reveals that most of the Romanian graduates, namely 83.9%, would want a permanent job. The figure is close to the European average of 81.6%. On the other hand, only 16.1% of young Romanians and 18.4% of European graduates would prefer to be employed temporarily. When it comes to what tasks the university graduates want, 51% of Romanian students would like strategic tasks, to the detriment of operational tasks, as do 53.8% of young Europeans. Also, 57.2% of Romania’s graduates would like to work in a large corporation, above the European average of 53.8%. Almost 60% of young Romanians would also want to occupy a specialized position in the company, the figure being slightly bigger than the European average of 55.6%, and only 40.6% would like a management position (under the 44.4% average in Europe). When it comes to how much the studied courses help them, 54.3% of Romanian students feel they get the necessary competencies and skills at school while only 43.7% of European graduates make the same claim. The study was conducted between September 2015 and February 2016 in 930 universities from 24 countries. Employers in Romania, unhappy with the quality of university graduates One in ten Romanian employees believe they are overqualified for their jobs PayWell Romania survey: Private sector salaries, up 3.7% on average in 2016 Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com