Source: The Courier-Mail
QUT graduates Michael Bergin, Erin Gregor, Mitchell Cox, Lauren Threlfall, Isabelle McGreevy and Brigitte Yap. Picture: Annette Dew Source: The Courier-Mail
THEY are our gold-plated university graduates - with figures revealing some will earn a packet more than the average Queenslander in their first job.
Statistics provided to The Courier-Mail by Graduate Careers Australia show the median starting salary for mining engineering graduates in this state is $92,500, nearly $25,000 more than the average Queenslander earns in a year.
Dentists will have the next-deepest pockets fresh out of uni, pulling in an average of $84,000. Geologists ($83,000), chemical engineers ($70,000) and mechanical engineers ($67,500) are next. The average Queensland graduate salary this year is $52,000.
The University of Queensland this week revealed some of its graduates had reported sky-high salaries in their first full-time employment this year.
This included dental practitioners on a cool $250,000, mining engineering consultants raking in $130,000 and engineering assistants on $115,000.
GCA senior analyst Bruce Guthrie said that, in recent years, Queensland's resources boom had caused significant increases in the salaries of graduates in related fields, with the earning power of some soaring during the course of their degree.
A graduate geologist has seen their average salary rise nearly 28 per cent, or $18,000, from 2007 to 2012.
"For resources-related fields, even though the demand's pulled back a little bit, there is still very strong demand for relatively few graduates," Mr Guthrie said.
"Recruiters are getting in there and fighting hard for the best talent and offering premiums to get their attention and get them on board."
But Mr Guthrie warned new students hoping to hit the jackpot on completing their degree, that today's gold mine could become a black hole.
"In the early '90s, we saw red-hot demand for accounting graduates and it turned off almost overnight with the recession," he said.
Sarina Russo Education chief executive Kathleen Newcombe said, although the graduate job market was "super competitive", opportunities existed in areas other than the resources industry.
"Accounting, finance and business continue to be in very strong demand because they are sets of generic skills that can be applied in any growth industry," she said.
"The other one in strong demand and where there are shortages is in the health sector."
Recent Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed the proportion of graduates with jobs increased by 2 per cent to 87 per cent last year and this year, but the proportion with top-end jobs declined more than 3 percentage points.
ManpowerGroup Australia and New Zealand managing director Lincoln Crawley said that with Queensland's economy "undergoing significant change", graduates needed to focus on areas that were growing.
"That may mean moving locations or looking at skills that can transfer into growth areas," Mr Crawley said.
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* Highest graduate median salaries in Queensland 2012
Mining engineering - $92,500
Dentistry - $84,000
Geology - $83,000
Chemical Engineering - $70,000
Mechanical Engineering - $67,500
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Lowest graduate median salaries in Queensland 2012
Pharmacy - $37,000
Visual/Performing Arts - $39,000
Architecture - $40,000
Accounting - $44,000
Humanities and Vet Science - both $45,000
* Source: Graduate Careers Australia
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A SELECTION OF QUT GRADUATES AND WHERE THEY'RE GOING
Michael Bergin, 21, Hawthorne, Civil Engineering
"I recently got offered a job at GHD (the largest engineering consultancy in Queensland). Salary was a little bit of a factor in choosing my degree but the main thing was I was going to be able to get a job after Uni."
Erin Gregor, 21, Ascot, Journalism and Business (Marketing)
"I have got a job in Sydney, starting next year, with a managing consultancy firm called Bain & Company. I really wanted to go to a top-tier consulting firm and none had their offices in Brisbane."
Mitchell Cox, 21, Bracken Ridge, Biomedical Science
"Next year I'll be studying a post-grad in medicine at UQ. I've also started a business focusing on teaching science in high school classrooms. Because of my science background, it is pretty standard that you do post-grad. I'm not really sure what I'll do after the post grad, I will see how the business goes."
Lauren Threlfall, 24, The Gap, Education (primary)
"I've just accepted a position at Fairholme College in Toowoomba and I also applied with Education Queensland. Especially in the state system they kind of drill into you that it's your duty to go outside of Brisbane so that the senior teachers can come in. I also did not know if I would get a job in Brisbane."
Isabelle McGreevy
, 21, Red Hill, Fine Arts (major Fashion Design)
"In my final year of study I made a collection of locally made shoes using materials made in Queensland. It is about trying to be sustainable and supporting local manufacturing. I am hoping to launch it as a business on a really small scale to start with, but I think people want to buy locally made things."
Brigitte Yap, 21, Maudsland (Gold Coast), Engineering (civil and construction)
"Next year I will be working part time for an engineering consultancy in Brisbane called ARUP and studying a full time Masters in Project Management. I've been at ARUP since the end of my second year and I was offered a scholarship to do my Masters which was one of those things which is too hard to turn down."
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