What can you do with a 2:2? The received wisdom is that in today’s competitive employment market graduates need a 2:1 degree just to get a job interview, never mind a first step towards that dream career. But is this really the case?

For Kathryn Mycock, a City lawyer, a 2:2 is no barrier to success. As a solicitor with Royal London Insurance asset management department, she completed her training contract with flying colours despite narrowly missing out on an upper second at the London School of Economics.

She says: “When my results came through I was disappointed, to put it bluntly. I thought my life was over and I would never get another interview with a law firm.”

Mycock decided that if she could not find an employer to sponsor her postgraduate training she would fund her LPC (legal practitioner certificate) at BPP Law School herself. After qualifying she went for an administrative position in the legal department of Royal London. Within months she had proved herself and was offered a training contract. She believes that the effort to win her place has made her even more determined to succeed. “I’m happy here and by starting in a more junior position I got to know the business better. I’m now earning between £30,000 and £40,000.”

Mycock’s success shows how much personality and ambition count, even in a profession as exclusive and as academically oriented as the law. The tendency for employers to demand a 2:1 is in part a practical response to overwhelming numbers of applicants, a blunt instrument for thinning out the pack. The entry requirement of a 2:1 can be found right across the board from medicine to the media, retail, financial services, construction and engineering but is more prevalent among bigger firms with graduate entry schemes. Small and medium enterprises will usually take a more pragmatic approach.

Viv Dykstra, director of the recruitment company Graduate Solutions, says: “Banks will take people with 2:2s, especially for roles in areas such as compliance or in-house accounting. But for revenue-generating roles it has to be a 2:1. I’m afraid.”

The same is true of construction companies. Guy Lambert, of the housebuilder Countryside Properties, says: “One of the commonest concerns reported in the business is the standard of report writing with recent graduates. We find those with a 2:1 are generally stronger in this area.”

Kevin Smith, managing director of Non-Stop Recruitment, reckons that what counts in business is attitude. He says: “We look for a down-to-earth attitude and the ability to take criticism and learn from it.” Smith is living proof that business success is down to a positive attitude. He says failure to complete his university degree was the making of him.

“I have worked in Pizza Hut and Burger King and I have built up a multimillion-pound business from sheer hard work.” Britain’s biggest retailer, Tesco, runs graduate entry schemes for 17 of its UK business units. In all but two areas, buying and merchandising, the requirement is for a 2:1 because the back office functions tend to attract academic high-flyers. Graduates with a 2:2 can still join Tesco through its mainstream store management recruitment programmes, which are open to people with A levels.

So what makes a candidate with a 2:2 stand out? Graduate recruitment manager Lucy Hoyle explains: “We look on people’s CVs for evidence of passion for retailing. Determination and a experience of working in an environment like a shop, a bar or a restaurant — anywhere where you have to communicate with people.”

Low mark, high life

Top of the rich lists and one of the most influential entrepreneurs of the 20th century, Bill Gates failed to complete his computing degree at Harvard. On a summer vacation job in 1975 he met his future business partner Paul Allen and decided to start a small business — Microsoft.

Tony Blair still struts his stuff on the world stage but the Fettes College and Oxford-educated barrister is no dull academic as his second-class honours in jurisprudence suggests. A spell as front man for the student combo Ugly Rumours followed by a stint as a rock music promoter was enough to persuade the young Blair that his talents were wasted on the music industry. He joined a barristers’ chambers, the Labour Party and then stood as a Member of Parliament.

The former Countdown presenter Carol Vorderman, left, has a third in engineering from the University of Cambridge. She might still be hanging out with girl band Dawn Chorus and the Blue Tits, if her mother had not spotted a newspaper advert asking for a “woman with good mathematical skills” to co-host a new quiz show for Channel 4 and applied on her behalf. It was a winning formula.

Stephen Hoare