After Your Degree – What Next?
Jenny Keaveney
Careers and Employability Service
www.kent.ac.uk/ces
Introduction




Where Next?
Where to look for jobs
Making Applications
How the Careers & Employability Service can
help
Where Next?
Opportunities with your degree


What do graduates in your subject do?
What careers will use your subject knowledge?
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/degreein.htm
BUT ….

There is more to you than your degree!
Think about yourself ….





Your interests
Your skills
Your values
Your personal circumstances
Any other factors
What are your opportunities?

One-third of advertised graduate jobs
are open to graduates in any subject

For example: advertising, accountancy, banking,
marketing, personnel, public sector management,

Plus all the unadvertised graduate jobs!
And there are even more opportunities
after experience and training

Making career decisions ..





Relate your skills, interests and values to
careers and jobs by using computer guidance
systems e.g. Prospects Planner
Look at job adverts and job descriptions
Talk to people about their work and how they
got their jobs
Use careers websites and careers advisers
Get first-hand insight into careers of potential
interest to you
Where to look for jobs

What are you looking for?
– Graduate training schemes?
– Other graduate jobs?
– Internships?
– Other temporary jobs?
– Something different?
– I’m not looking for a job!
Vacancy Sites – graduate jobs and
training schemes

www.kent.prospects.ac.uk
www.prospects.ac.uk
www.targetjobs.co.uk

www.top100graduateemployers.com


www.kent.ac.uk/careers/graddirectories.htm
Vacancy Sites – graduate
internships
As above, plus:
 The Graduate Talent Pool
http://graduatetalentpool.direct.gov.uk
 Graduate STEP
www.step.org.uk/step_graduate.aspx
 Inspiring Interns www.inspiringinterns.com
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/vacwork.htm
Are you looking for something
different?
The best way to find jobs may to use specialist
resources e.g.:
 Professional bodies
 Magazines
 Specialist directories
 Specialist recruitment agencies
http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/workin.htm
The Creative Career Search
Network!
 ask your friends
 ask your relatives
 ask your “network”
 ask a past Kent graduate
 ask a careers adviser
Make applications on spec
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/CJ.htm
CAREERS FAIRS
Graduate Events
The Summer Graduate Fair
ExCel, London, 29 – 30 May
www.summergradfair.co.uk
TARGETjobs/The Careers Group
The London Graduate Fair
Business Design Centre, Islington 20 & 21 June
www.londongradfair.co.uk/summer
For fairs elsewhere in the UK, see
www.prospects.ac.uk/links/careerfairs
Recruitment Agencies
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/recruit.htm

The Graduate Recruitment Bureau
www.grb.uk.com
Reed Graduates www.reed.co.uk/graduate
Brampton Stafford Recruitment www.bramptonrecruitment-4-graduate-jobs.co.uk
The Graduate Recruitment Company
www.graduate-recruitment.co.uk
Job Centres

www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Jobseekers/index.htm




How do I apply for jobs?



Different employers have different ways to
apply
– CV + covering letter
– Online application form
– Hard copy application form
See the Careers Advisory Service booklet or
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/applicn.htm for
guidelines on making good applications
Careers and employability advisers can check
your applications and give individual help and
advice
Employer’s Application Forms



Contents – up to employer
Often competency-based – see:
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/compet/skillquest.htm
Common concerns
(Degree class, A-level grades, alternative qualifications,
nationality)


References
Submit online or download to complete
Further Information






Careers and Employability Service website
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/applicn.htm
CES booklet “Making Applications”
Reference Books in Careers Service
DVDs “Your Job’s online” & “Looking Good on
Paper” (available online at
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/IntVid.htm
http://targetjobs.co.uk/careers-advice/applicationsand-cvs
http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cvs.htm
I’m not looking for a job!

Postgraduate study?
– www.kent.ac.uk/ces/postgrad-study.html

Time out?
– www.kent.ac.uk/careers/alternatives.htm

Travel?
– www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sitesint.htm
The Careers & Employability Service




Where is the CES?
Who works there?
What does it do?
How can it help me?
Who works there?
Careers and employability advisers
Jenny Keaveney
Kathryn Segal
Bruce Woodcock
Natalie Smith
Amy Scamell
Nicola Urquhart
Who works there?
Support staff:
Lara Cavill
Sarah Farley
Sue Perry
How can the CES help me?
Careers advice: help with
– choosing a career
– Making applications
– Preparing for interviews
We offer this advice through ‘quick queries’
and longer careers guidance interviews

Careers information: including
– online job vacancy database
– Information on sources of specialised vacancies

Careers website www.kent.ac.uk/ces
When can I use the Careers &
Employability Service?




Open to all students at all stages of their
studies – and after you graduate too!
Open 9-5, Monday to Friday
Open term-time and vacation
Our website is
freely accessible on
and off campus – you
don’t need a Kent login
@kentunices
for job vacancies, events, news and updates
Careers and Employability Service
www.kent.ac.uk/ces