friend of mine running a bank IT function had a new graduate assigned, and asked him to do a piece of detailed business analysis. graduate politely declined, saying "I'm more of a big picture guy"what other gems do we have?

Tell us what subsequently happened. Be detailed and graphic.

things have moved on from my time as a graduate engineer, we used to send to people to stores for a left handed screw driver or a long 'weight'at least i didn't fall for it :-)

They should have asked the grad to dust the 'big pictures' hanging on the bank walls!

When asked where she'd been when i'd been waiting for her to send out an email a new grad replied "I took my whole hour of lunch to read my book in the canteen"

Sounds like that grad had the right idea. After all, the employer would no doubt have a fit if she left an hour early every day. So why does the employer feel entitled to expect her to give away her own time (the lunch break) for free? A naive view of the grad indeed, but also perfectly reasonable in my view.

Dave, I'd like to be able to say that Mr Big Picture went on to become Banksy, but in reality he was just returned directly to the grad rotation scheme...

Initial client meeting, with round-the-table intros, new grad on the consultant team: "I'm xxxxx, I've just joined as a new graduate and have no experience at all." To his (partial) defence, we probably should have prepped him in advance.

I would like to hear more of these stories. Please be detailed and descriptive.

What's with you Dave? Into complaintporn or something?

A new graduate told me. Yakshemash, Sir, can you give me some change please? I've been looking for work for about a year and nobody wants to hire me with my degree in media studies. You're a plumber so you must be loaded!

Oh my sides

Recently seen on a TC thread:"Just signed a contract with Accenture for a graduate consulting role. Starting salary is 31.5K plus 10K bonus for a total of 40K, before tax obviously, if you are a real hot shot. After 6 years of experience you should be getting al LEAST three times as much! "

ah, tax - also known as 'The Graduate's Surprise'when I joined AC some centuries ago, we were told that our salary would double every 3 years - which at the time meant that come retirement you could plan on being on £350 million a year :)