In preparation for this book, I did my own research of current IT graduates and asked them what would attract them to a company as well as what would turn them away from a company. Unsurprisingly, the answers I received were in line with the traits listed in the larger research samples mentioned previously.

Although I specifically didn't mention salary, it was still the number one reason to accept a role above another. The next strongest factor was the opportunity to learn and grow on a personal level as well as gain deeper technical knowledge. The third decisive factor was a tie between having a strong work/life balance and having freedom from strict rules and schedules. Work environment and benefit packages in the style of Google and Facebook were mentioned a number of times, but didn't make it into the top three. Furthermore, graduates also commented on the fact that for a lot of organizations, a strong work/life balance was often more lip service than actual reality, and they definitely wanted normal hours so that life can go on outside of work.

The answers to the question "What would turn you away from a role?" were also quite revealing and congruent with previous research. Here are some of the top reasons graduates gave for turning down a role:

IT graduates would rather have organizations keep their promise close to reality instead of promising the moon, sun, and stars when the reality comes well short. They are eager to learn and develop, and they may consider a balanced package over a high salary with 24/7 expectations. What also came out was the expectation of graduates to have experience while, by and large, that will not be the case, and this will only end up frustrating both ends of the equation.

My personal research only accepted answers from IT graduates, whereas some of the other studies mentioned took just age as the main selection category, and yet the results were strikingly similar.