Careers Advice
The prospect of finding a job after university can seem daunting, especially if you feel as though your degree isn’t associated with any obvious career paths. However, there a wide range of resources available to help you search for a job that best suits your skill set and ambitions.
Finding The Right Choice For You
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The Oxford University Careers Service
The Oxford University Careers Service has a number of resources available to guide you in your job search. Their resources on generating career ideas are a good place to start when exploring your personal preferences and researching the sectors that are most likely to appeal to you. It also offers further resources and suggested reading material to aid you in your job search.
The Careers Inspiration Hub
The St. John’s Inspire team also offer a Careers Inspiration Hub which is designed to show a selection of careers pursued by St. John’s alumni and friends to see the wide variety and range of career opportunities that are out there.
Prospects Career Planner
Prospect’s Career Planner also offers a career planner, which matches your skills, motivations and desires to a career best suited to you. It then provides information and job links to roles best suited to your profile.
Finding Your True Calling – Article, Oxford University Careers Service
This article by Emily Trenouth for the Oxford University Careers Service explores how to find a job that you find fulfilling and offers some further resources on how to pick a career best suited to your talents.
The Oxford Guide to Careers 2022
You might also find it useful to have a look through The Oxford Guide to Careers 2022. This is full of interesting job ideas from consultancy to social enterprises, with hints and tips from people who have established themselves in those careers. This guide also contains advice on how to make a competitive application including information on CVs, cover letters and interview technique.
University Led Career Advice
Most universities will have their own careers services; with resources and advisors specifically designed to assist in helping their students find jobs. Careers services can help with careers guidance, interview advice and CV workshops.
A large number of universities will also host a careers fair; where prospective employers will come to the university and provide information and advice on how to apply for jobs and internships.
Graduate job sites
There are a wide variety of job sites tailored to graduates, including:
These sites advertise a range of jobs that require the transferrable skills acquired at university.
Other sites also advertise different jobs and internships which can be filtered by qualification level. These include:
Graduate Schemes are also a great route to gaining hand-on experience of different areas of a company and usually last between 1-4 years. The difference between a grad scheme and a grad job is that graduate schemes are usually more structured, with training along the way. This article from Save The Student is a great resource if you are interested in a grad scheme. It lists a variety of different companies that offer grad schemes as well as more general advice on when and how to apply!
Keep Going
One final piece of advice is to keep going! You may get the first job you apply for, but more likely you will apply for a variety of different jobs. It’s important to keep your head up and try not to be too down heartened if you don’t get the job first time around. Remember, you have your whole life to work, so it’s good to keep applying and wait for a job that you’re genuinely interested in, rather than jump at the first opportunity.