With exams out of the way and graduation around the corner, the main concern for many college graduates will be getting their first job. Another concern, however, is what exactly the different sectors are paying college graduates?

Marketing graduates with little or no experience are starting on salaries of €18,000 to €25,000. However good marketing positions are rare for graduates and usually only low level sales jobs are open as a training ground until they gain enough experience.

Those in their first telesales job are typically earning €15,000 but there is commission to be earned on top of that. Because of the number of multinationals basing call centres and technical support hotlines in Ireland, employees are clamoring for graduates with language skills. Even if they don’t have technical skills, they can be given basic training in a matter of weeks. They can expect to earn €17000 to €20,000.

Entry level salaries for customer service reps are relatively low, starting at €16,000 to €19,000 and rising between €19,000 and €23,000 with three years experience. Human Resource graduates can expect to earn between €20,000 and €28,000.

Boom time in Ireland has meant a surge in the salaries being offered to business graduates. According to John Hannon, Careers Adviser in NUI Galway, Commerce graduates in most areas of business are laughing all the way to the bank. The average starting salary for a business graduate is about €20,000, with those holding a post-graduate qualification earning over €25,000. For the talented, student starting salaries of €32,000 are not uncommon in some accountancy firms who are suffering from a lack of recruits at present.

Because of the huge demand for engineering graduates, salaries have been pushed up. Those with a primary degree in engineering are earning from €23,000 up to €34,000. Civil engineering graduates are off to a good start with salaries from €23,000 to €30,000. And as they gain experience in industry, that figure increases drastically.

With a good IT related degree graduates can command starting salaries on average of €20,000 to €26,000 per year. Graduates with a BSc in computers can earn anything from €19,000 to €25,000 at the higher end of the starting salary scale. Software engineers starting out should earn between €22,000 and €34,000. Network and system administrators should be earning between €23,000 and €25,000.

The average salary for a technical writer straight out of college begins at €22,000. Web authors and graphic designers can expect to earn between €19,000 and €23,000 per year depending on the role and the company’s line of business.

While remuneration is certainly attractive in certain sectors such as engineering, commerce and construction, what graduates are increasingly turning their attention to is the whole package on offer which includes health cover, ongoing training opportunities and pension schemes.

Debbie O’Hallaran, Career Columnist
www.irishjobs.ie