Career Planning

Graduate Jobs

With talk of students racking up several thousand pounds of debt during your studies you may be wondering whether going to university is still worthwhile.

With more professions going over to graduate-level entry (eg. nursing) it should pay to go to university over your working life.

Studying for a degree makes you think and work hard; it increases your knowledge; it brings you into contact with interesting people and ideas. When you finally graduate what really matters is that studying for and gaining a degree should enhance your career prospects.

What Can I Do With My Degree?

What you decide to study may indicate your career plans, e.g. entry to a particular profession which is only possible by obtaining the appropriate degree.

However, in the UK today, nearly half the jobs available to new graduates are open to graduates in almost any subject at all.

Whether you will be offered one of these jobs will depend not on the specialist knowledge you will have acquired but on whether you display the well-informed enthusiasm, intelligence and other skills and qualities employers look for in their graduate recruits and which you should already be developing and may have begun to document in a Personal Development Plan (PDP).

Even when you need a particular vocational degree you will almost always need to display similar skills and qualities to win jobs against competition.

At university you will have many opportunities to build up the skills and evidence you are going to need and you should take full advantage of them.

Our Careers Service can get you off to a flying start in preparing yourself for the job market. Don't think of it as a service to be consulted only in your final months before graduation.