Meet Nia

Meet Nia.  A typical graduate commencing her career with a leading employer in 2020

Nia* is one of over 2000 top graduates who participated in the South African Graduate Employer Association’s 2019 Candidate Insights research.  We can learn a great deal from Nia in terms of how she has spent her time at University, how she went about her job search and what is important to her in making career-related decisions.

• Nia is most likely to be working in Auditing, Law or ICT
• It is probable that Nia studied full-time towards an undergraduate degree at either UCT, the University of Pretoria, Wits, UJ, Stellenbosch University or UKZN.
• Her studies were probably funded by a combination of her family, a scholarship or a bursary. There is a one-in-four chance that Nia received assistance from NSFAS.
• It is likely that Nia and at least half her friends did vacation work and/or had some sort of part-time or casual work while she was studying. She and just under 40% of her friends also did some volunteer work while at University.
• Nia and half her friends will be working in Johannesburg.
• Nia has a LinkedIn profile which she created specifically to facilitate her job search. Nia and around half her friends are on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube but they prefer to use these media for social purposes.
• Nia is one of 60% of graduates who committed to finding a job before her final year at University – she applied to between five and six employers and received between one and two job offers.
• When Nia was considering which employers to work for, the training and development she would receive, the company’s reputation and what her longer-term career prospects would be were top of mind for her.
• Nia would like to work for her first employer for up to five years, but this will depend on whether her efforts are recognized and rewarded.
• She would really like to have an opportunity to gain soclicking here.me international experience in the next three years.

*Nia is a fictitious person, not an actual survey participant.

To find out more about Nia, SAGEA’s research among talented graduates, as well as our Employer Benchmarking Insights, please read our press release by clicking here.