Graduate employment opportunties and careers fairs!

Now that term has well and truly started, it is time for final year Higher Education students to start thinking about life after dissertations and exams.  And not just to ‘think’ about it, but take some action too. Why? 

 

• It's graduate careers fair season
• Employers graduate schemes are open (and some will close soon) for applications
• Masters/PhD’s are available to apply for from now

So what do you need to do?

Firstly, you need to keep a regular check on graduate scheme deadlines. There are several coming up between now and Christmas. Some of these sites will allow you to register for vacancy alerts and give you more information - target jobs vacancies listings, target jobs graduate schemes, graduate scheme deadlines, prospects and gradjobs.

 

Once you start filling in the applications (usually online), don't forget to save copies of what you have put, as you will find the answers useful for other applications too.

 

Secondly, if you are thinking about continuing with further study though an MSc or PhD, you can start applying for these now. Some Masters will be more popular that others and will fill up more quickly, others in more specialist areas or at less competitive prestigious universities will accept applications for much longer. If you are keen to get funding for further studies e.g. a PhD or a PhD that comes with a salary (otherwise known as a stipend), then you need to be researching for these opportunities now. These opportunities can come up at any time of the year, but you do not have to wait for them to be advertised. You can make contact with university departments from now, especially if you have a research proposal in mind. You can use  https://www.findaphd.com/ and www.findamasters.com for more information about this.

 

Careers and postgraduate fairs are also worth attending.  Mainly because they will give you a chance to talk to lots of employers or universities offering postgraduate courses in one hit. That way you can intensively research the opportunities that could be possible and feel that you’ve made good progress in a day!  One tip, research the companies attending the fairs before you arrive, so you know what they do and who they are, and so you can prepare questions to ask them. The Writtle University Careers Fair is on Wednesday 9^th November, 12pm - 3pm.  For more details please speak to Mark Yates, Careers Adviser, located on the first floor in the Library. 

 

Lastly, don’t forget that if the options sound too numerous, or you are not sure what you actually want to do, talking to a careers adviser will help clarify the situation. So get talking!!

 

Written by Mark Yates.