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Which industries offer the best salaries for international students?

When thinking about your future career, there are a number of factors to consider from course suitability at university, locations, possible career options and salary expectations. When you start looking for your first role it’s useful to understand how much is reasonable to expect from an entry-level role in your industry. By understanding what is appropriate it can help you to decide where to look for new roles and what to ask for when discussing salary. We’ve looked at a selection of countries to see which industries come with the best salaries so you can start to think about where you might work after graduation.

UK

The top paying graduate roles in the UK are in banking and technology. An Investment Banking Analyst can expect £50,752 with Software Engineers following with £34,106 and Business Analysts in the third spot with £32,142. Having STEM skills, those in science, technology engineering and maths are set to propel graduates into careers with some of the top UK salaries.

China

In China the top-paying industries differ to the UK. One of the highest paying roles is a Luxury Goods Sales Executive with Financial Controller, Marketing director and Hotel Senior Management coming in before Foreign Bank Executive in the fifth spot. The variety of the top roles in China shows diversity in the opportunities available for a wide range of skills and degrees.

United Arab Emirates

The top roles in the UAE reflect the business market in the country with CEO’s, Lawyers and CFO’S coming in on top followed by Banking roles and IT roles. The UAE attracts employees from all across the world, the focus for the top roles here are in the management of companies.

Canada

The top industries in Canada start with Mining and utilities. Followed by those managing companies , enterprises and finance. The Eastern Workforce Innovation Board created a list of the top 100 jobs, not just by salary but the level of opportunity into that role based on how many jobs were available. This gives a different view and ranks availability equal to salary. The results weren’t too dissimilar with Public Administration directors at number one followed by Nurses, Mining and forestry managers and Utilities Manager in the top 5.

India

Technology based roles in India come with the highest salaries both overall and for graduate or entry level roles. Software developers, Data Scientists and Engineers are the 3 highest paying roles showing similarities with the UK job market. Some of the highest paying companies in the country also include Google, Accenture, Tata Consultancy Services and IBM.

If your home country isn’t included in this list try to research what the salary expectations are in your industry. By doing this, you’ll give yourself a better idea of what to expect once you’ve graduated. GradLink works with companies across a number of global regions to create links with UK educated international students, graduates, and employers. Many of the companies we work with appear in reports of the top companies to work for worldwide. By registering your CV you can make yourself more visible to key employers in the regions you would like to work in. We also provide a global jobs board where you can search for the latest jobs in your chosen industry, helping you to re-connect to companies either in your home region or a brand new one.