Experience ahead of salary

Economic weekly HVG held its annual career fair in October. Participation is linked to registration: this year approximately 11,000 people registered for the event. Beyond offering nearly 20,000 jobs and career advice, the organizers were interested in the reasons behind job searches and workplace changes. To find out what makes people look for a new job, they conducted a survey involving 1,000 respondents. 

Contrary to previous findings, job seekers aged between 20 and 30 with a degree place almost equal emphasis on work-life balance and salary. Requirements such as gaining experience, recognition of professional and personal assets, long-term placement, less commuting time and a thorough knowledge of the working conditions prior to starting the work are rated high.

The majority of respondents are dissatisfied with their work (42%) and their salary (59%). On a more positive note, those not satisfied are willing to take a leap and change. Some 35% are in work but looking for new job openings. The main reasons for switching jobs are career improvement (14.8%) and salary (13.35%).

In terms of job offers, companies are looking for fresh graduates with experience (72%), fresh graduates (62%), a workforce with extensive experience (62%) and workers with leadership experience (30%).

The most sough-after fields are economy and finance (52%), IT (52%), and engineering (50%) while arts (14%), law (4%) and sciences (2%) are at the other end of the scale.

As far as language skills go, 83.83% of respondents speak English, and 37.88% speak German, followed by French (6.59%), Spanish (4.43%), Italian (4.38%), Russian (3.94%) and Romanian (2.45%).