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anything lower than a 2:1 gets binned by the computer.

2:1 is usually the standard minimum, howeverapart from big companies it really depends on you as a person and your background.

Ity also depends on what you want to do. If it is a big company they still go for people with 3rds from Oxbridge rather than people with 1sts from another university. I've seen this mostly in marketing and management.

If you are going into a highly skilled proffession however, or science or math based there is less reliance on your uni or degree class but more on your experience and entry exams the employer may set

sciences/maths=pass upwards is still an achievement in the UK

arts=anything lower than a 2:1 either makes you retarded or you never did any work EVER

i'd never get a decent graduate placement with it so i went and got a job i could've got with my a-levels

now i'm doing a masters degree (that i had to jump through hoops to get on due to my poor BA showing) and working a 'normal' job part time to fund it. i'm doing canny well on this so hopefully it'll help hide the stain of my wasted first three years.

I got a 1st in a laughable arts subject from a good university. I've always done pretty well at getting jobs. But not all of my colleagues have degrees, and the ones that did I don't know what grades they got. Those 'graduate trainee schemes' all want really high grades, my friend with a 2:1 got turned down by all of them. But they sounded like horrible depressing jobs, he has a much better job now!

that's really not true at all. There are plenty of graduate recruiters who won't even look at people with a 3rd, Oxbridge or not. And even if you do make the cut they are liable to look at you as someone intelligent enough to get into a great university but lazy enough to completely squander that opportunity (unless you have decent mitigating factors), which doesn't look good at all. Obviously it depends on where you get your 1st from, but I'd say a 1st from anywhere in the top 20-30 unis looks better than an oxbridge 3rd.

People can and do spend ages debating the various permutations of degree classification, subject and university reputation and how they affect your employment prospects, but I think at the end of the day these are just things that get you to interview, and once you're there it's how well you interview that really counts.

I don't think it'll make any difference in what I want to do. I was actually told in an interview for a masters in social work that my first indicates I am too academic to be a social worker. I have also been told my first means I'm not well-rounded, which is bullshit.

work in a petrol station.

cheers.

which isn't top of the list of subjects for prospective employers. I'm sure I could have used it to get a lot of exciting career opportunities if it hadn't given me a self-righteous sense of entitlement.

It'd definitely be a distinct advantage to get a 2:1, but I think being confident and knowing what you're talking about in interviews are as, if not more, significant

but how much of an extra advantage does it give you if you get a 1st?

if you get a 3rd you might as well put a red flag say i suck.

2:2 not bad not great
2:1 yep this person did well at uni: i'd employ him
1st will get you in even if its a bad uni. we had this girl at last place who got a 1st from crap bag uni who got a job despite my objection over a guy with a 2:1 from UCL.

It's massively hard to be that consistent academically over the course of three years. I started another degree, after jacking in english literature about eight or nine years ago, and have realised that you can get a 2.1 regardless of how little work you do, but most firsts are not accidental (having realised my first grades have come about from actually putting more effort in rather than being frequent, now less frequent, flukes).

Anyway, I really think the importance of the degree classification depends on what you want to do. I know people that have studied humanities/social sciences but are doing their dream jobs, unrelated, because of personality/experience that they've built up.

I don't think it's made any difference as regards job opportunities / interviews, mainly because I've not followed a route into academia. I think if you're going to go into a corporate field (as I have) it's far more about showing that you've got an ability to multitask, be confident, work consistently hard, look for and manage responsibilities in your role and build good working relationships with people, as opposed to how good you were at writing essays at university.

All whilst posting on DiS every day.

it's about getting that 2:1 or better from a well-known university. Unless you do a cunt job I don't think you need a degree from a top top university though. On my course, I think only 3 people in the year got less than a 2:1 so getting a 2:1 was hardly an achievement if you were smart enough to get in and complete the degree.

I don't think firsts mean that much personally, at least on the basis of the CV (if the person interviews well too then it's icing on the cake however). Whilst they can mean someone is absurdly smart and doesn't need to do much work, the people I personally knew at uni who got firsts were dull and worked all the time. I suppose depending on job, that can be ideal. A first from a crap uni is obviously better than a worse degree from said uni, but ultimately I think the uni is more important.

A-levels are supposed to be a better guide anyway, particularly general studies, and if I was employing someone I'd put just as much weight on A-levels.

I started applying for graduate jobs last september and I wouldn't have had a chance with a lower classified degree. A couple of years ago my friends graduated with 2:2 and got jobs easily, but the job market for graduates has got really fierce lately and a 2:1 seems minimum for most grad jobs.

It depends massively what you want to do, but if you want to head into the grad job market a 2:1 is looking like a minimum requirement these days.

It's in a good subject anyway and I was busy running my succesful import/export business.

and I subscribe to Evelyn Waugh's views on degrees.

I had a 2:1, but all the Oxbridge kids had Desmonds.

From there I got two years of experience to get the ace job I have now. My whole career is down to my university's name opening a door. The people on the open day were right!