Far from wanting graduates with squeaky clean pasts and first class degrees, head of advertising giant Ogilvy has told anyone heading for a 2:2 or a third to "finish your joint and come work with us".
Yes, you heard right. In a column for the Spectator, Rory Sutherland asks: "Where are all the hippies, the potheads and the commies? And why is everyone so intently serious and sober all the time?
"Nobody has any evidence to suggest that, for any given university, recruits with first-class degrees turn into better employees than those with thirds," he adds. If we confine our recruitment efforts to people in the lower half of the degree ladder we shall have an exclusive appeal to a large body of people no less valuable than anyone else.
"And such people will be far more loyal hires, since we won’t be competing for their attention with deep-pocketed pimps in investment banking."
Sutherland, who was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, and graduated with a 2:2 provides a refreshing take on employing graduates. Carol Voderman and David Dimbleby both left university with a third, JK Rowling got a 2:2, while actor Hugh Laurie failed to graduate at all - and just look where they are now.
