Career planning & advice
Making Careers Decisions
Why?
Your time at university will pass quickly. Recruitment for jobs and postgraduate courses starts in the autumn of your final year. Making time during your studies to get a career focus will enable you to make targeted applications for jobs and courses before graduation.
How
There are several steps involved in the process of making career decisions:
- Understanding Yourself
Your choices will be influenced by your views on what you are good at and enjoy, your values and motivations and external factors such as family commitments. - Understanding the Options
Have you researched job options related to your degree subject and jobs open to graduates of all subjects. Do you really know what is involved in the jobs that interest you?
Have you researched the graduate labour market? What sectors are recruiting? Where are the jobs located? How competitive is it? - Finding a Match
Compare what you want with what's available. What's the best fit for you? - Action planning
Identify and address any gaps in your skills and experience. Do you need further qualifications? - Making it happen
Research employers and vacancies. Prepare a targeted CV and covering letter. Make applications. Practice for interviews.
Web Resources
Take a look at What do graduates do? and find out what the graduates from 2009/10 were doing in winter 2010: how many had jobs, the types of jobs they went into and how many went on to further study. Check out the list of subjects to find out about the job market and get an idea of what job you could go on to do.
N.B. Downloadable copies of 2009, 2010 and 2011 editions of 'What do graduates do?' are also available from this link.
Take a look at Graduate Career Stories (.pdf) (HECSU) where 100 graduate employees give an insight into the graduate labour market by describing their route to their current roles.
