Careers with an English Degree
Bruce Woodcock
University of Kent
Careers and Employability Service
bw@kent.ac.uk
You can download a copy of this presentation at
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/slides.htm
Destinations of some 2014 BA English graduates
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Phase 8
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Public Relations Intern
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Anise Catering
Events Manager
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Macmillan Science & Education
Manuscript Assistant
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Eve White
Editorial Assistant
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VCG Kestrel
Proofreader
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Lloyds Bank
Graduate banking scheme
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Chaucer Insurance
Insurance graduate trainee
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Williams & Griffins
HR Assistant
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The greater Cambridge LEP
Marketing & Events Assistant
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Elevating Success
Marketing & Social Media Intern
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FTD Digital
SEO manager
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Extra Digital
Digital Marketing Executive
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DigitalBeans
Digital Content & Outreach Executive
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Stratos Web Marketing
Junior Copy Writer & Content Creator
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Steel London
Copywriter
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John Lewis Partnership
Retail Manager
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Reed Exhibitions
Sales Executive
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Bauer Media
Freelance Journalist
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Highbury University
National Council for the Training of Journalism (NCTJ)
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University of Law
Graduate Diploma in Law
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Canterbury Christ Church University
PGCE Teacher Training
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West Hertfordshire Schools Partnership Schools Direct Secondary English
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Forest School
Teaching Assistant
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University of Kent
MA Dickens & Victorian Culture
Plus lots of shop assistants, waitresses and bar workers!
See www.kent.ac.uk/careers/fdrbases/destinations.htm for full details
Get actively involved in university
life …
Graduate Application Form Questions
• Describe a challenging situation which required your
persuasive skills and your ability to organise other people in
order to reach a successful resolution.
• Describe how your personal planning and organisation
resulted in a successful achievement of a personal or group
task.
• Describe a situation where you had to work effectively as a
member of a team. What were the team’s aims? How was the
team selected? What was your role?
Build your CV
The more you enjoy university life, the more you’ll get out of it.
Employers like you to have what they call “customer-facing
experience”. You’ll get loads of that if you take a part-time job
or work as a student volunteer.
It’s a terrific help if you can understand how businesses work,
show you can get things done and apply simple common sense. It
was my work experience that gave me all these things, not my
academic course.
Kate, marketing officer with a PR agency
Join three university societies and become actively involved in at
least one.
Alan Richardson, Graduate Recruitment, Royal Bank of Scotland
Group
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/skills-Kent.htm
One third of graduate jobs accept any degree
subject.
BECAUSE:
• Learn new skills quickly
• Analyse & solve
problems
• Communicate well
• Open to new ideas,
adaptable and flexible
• “Managers of change”
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Marketing and Sales
Retailing
Social Work
Personnel
Civil Service
Accountancy
Banking
Computing
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/English.htm
Media Jobs
• Many Kent graduates enter the media.
• Get relevant experience and practical skills - Inquire,
campus TV, UoK Drama etc.
• Talk to or workshadow journalists and other media
professionals.
• Develop a portfolio
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/portfolios.htm
• Need NCTJ Diploma for most journalism jobs
• Be pushy, patient and persistent!
• See www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sitesmedia.htm
Teaching
• 1 year postgraduate course (PGCE) or Schools
Direct
• Many students go to Christ Church
• £5,000 bursary with 1st, 4,000 with 2:1, 3,000
for primary
• Need at least 2 weeks experience in a state
school – get this in June
• www.kent.ac.uk/careers/siteach.htm
Digital Marketing
• Rapidly growing: using e-mail, websites, social media
and texts to promote products, services and events to a
targeted audience.
• Social media marketing: building up an online presence
by attracting internet followers.
• Search engine optimisation: increasing the number of
visitors to a website.
• Online copywriting: blogs, Facebook, Twitter, web pages
• Need an interest in and aptitude for computing
• Digital Career Finder Quiz: tells you which role would suit
you www.bubble-jobs.co.uk/career_portal/digital-careers-finder/career-finder-quiz
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/workin/digital-marketing.htm
Accountancy
• Take any degree subject provided you have done
careful research
• Need good A Level grades: about BBB minimum
• Need good maths – about GCSE grade A minimum
• Lots of jobs: PWC alone take 1,000 graduates a year
• 3 years demanding study for professional exams:
12 hours per week in evenings and at weekends
BUT paid £25,000 salary whilst doing this
• On qualification £40,000 +++
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/workin/accountancy.htm
CHOOSING A CAREER
• CHOOSING A CAREER
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/Choosing/ChoosingCareer.htm
and booklet available from Careers Service.
• Prospects Planner - powerful career choice
program. www.prospects.ac.uk/links/Pplanner
• Target Jobs Career Planner
https://targetjobs.co.uk/careers-report
• I Want to work in …..
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/workin.htm
Apply early
“Students in their first or second year at university
need to ask themselves what job they want to do.
It’s important that they do not wait until their final
year to think about finding a job, especially in the
current market”.
Sarah Shillingford, Graduate Recruitment Partner,
Deloitte
Applications and Interviews
• English CV: must be targeted at the job!
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/English-cv.htm
• Media CV www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/mediacv.htm
• Covering Letters www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/cvexamples.htm
• Practice Interviews: journalism, teaching, marketing, HR, postgrad
study etc.
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/interviews/mockivs.htm
• Application, interview and selection centre videos
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/IntVid.htm
• Applications and interviews
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/applicn.htm
Application Process
The smaller company process is much simpler and you can apply much
later (often after final exams) but salaries are usually lower and they offer less
training and less chance to specialise.
Skills gained on an English Degree
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ability to write well in a variety of styles.
to convey meaning precisely.
to summarise, argue and debate.
to plan, organise and meet tight deadlines.
to research, select, analyse, organise and
present information.
• to think clearly and logically and solve
problems.
• To gather, assess, interpret and critically
evaluate.
• EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNICATION!
“Would you say their are any skill
shortages in the UK for actuary's ie their
enough out their, is their a shortfall of any
kind of actuary?”
In an email from an HR manager to me!
VACANCIES
University of Kent Vacancy Database
www.kent.ac.uk/ces/vacancies.html
Work Experience
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/vacwork.htm
and the vacancy database
Placements
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/placements.htm
Other careers events on campus
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/casevents.htm
Postgraduate Study
• 23% of English grads do PG study after graduation
• MA taught: 1 year
Sept to June – lectures,
June to Sept – dissertation.
• PhD – 3 years. Must do an MA first.
• PGCE (teacher training) 1 year: about 6% of grads
£9,000 bursary with 1st, £4,000 with 2:1
• See www.kent.ac.uk/careers/postgradmenu.htm
Postgraduate study
• Fees are about £5,000. At Kent get £1,000 graduate
school scholarship reduction
• New postgraduate loan scheme for up to £10,000
• Many students work for a year to fund it or do it parttime whilst working
• Consider vocational MA – journalism, publishing,
business, HR etc.
• Normally apply middle of final year. No UCAS can
apply to as many courses as you wish to – 3 or 4 is
normal
New Postgraduate Loans
• New postgraduate loan scheme for English
-domiciled students and EU students studying
in English institutions from 2016.
• Offers students up to £10,000 to help with costs
of a masters degree.
• Students are eligible for the loans if under the age
of 30 and studying for a full-time masters, or part-time at 50%
intensity or above. There are no subject restrictions.
• Like undergraduate loans, graduates will only pay them back if
they earn over a certain amount - probably the same as
undergraduate loans (£21,000), and repay at a rate of 9% of income
above this sum.
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/postgradmenu.htm#Funding
Study Abroad
• Many postgraduate courses are now taught in English,
especially in the Netherlands and Scandinavia
• No course fees in Sweden and about £1,000 in Germany
and Denmark
• See www.kent.ac.uk/careers/postgradmenu.htm#PGAbroad
www.kent.ac.uk/careers Telephone: 01227 823299 Email: careerhelp@kent.ac.uk
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 9 to 5 including vacations
Drop-in times (no appointment needed: 15 minutes): 10.30 to 12.30 and 2 to 4 pm
Help given for up to 3 years after graduation
Weekly careers emails every Monday afternoon
Careers Employability Award on Moodle
• Half the unemployment rate for students completing the award
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/moodle.htm
• DP2650
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Email bw@kent.ac.uk if you have problems enrolling
Moodle Careers Employability Award
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14 Quizzes: need 75% to pass but allowed
unlimited attempts
•Employability skills quiz
•Employability skills quiz: drag
& drop
•How to develop the skills
employers want?
•Test your spelling and
grammar!
•What makes you happy at
work?
•How commercially aware are
you?
Complete 3 of the
following seven
assignments
•Special interests topic •Analyse your skills and learn
lesson
how to make top quality
•Interview preparation applications
•Practice interview
•What are the most
•Do you want to live to work
common interview
or work to live?
questions?
•Aptitude tests and
•Researching careers
assessment centres
•CV quiz
•Choosing a career
•CVs and covering
letters: drag & drop
•Submit a CV
quiz
•Career planning drag •Social media
and drop quiz
•Action planning
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/moodle.htm
Bruce Woodcock
• An adviser is on duty for 15 minute consultations in the
Careers and Employability Service any weekday morning
10.30-12.30 or afternoon from 2 pm to 4 pm. You don't
need an appointment - just ask at Careers Reception to
see them.
• Check you campus emails regularly as I send you
emails most Mondays. These can also be found at
www.kent.ac.uk/ces/files/newsletters.html
• Apply early in your final year if you want a graduate
training scheme with a “big” company, advertising,
marketing, HR or primary teaching.
• If you don’t know what you want to do, can book an
interview with me at Careers reception (Keynes Driveway)
Careers with an English Degree
Bruce Woodcock
University of Kent
Careers and Employability Service
bw@kent.ac.uk
You can download a copy of this presentation at
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/slides.htm