Undergraduate prospectus

Student services: the Careers Centre

From the start of your studies and after graduation, the University of Essex offers help and information for all your work-related activities.

Making the best decision for you

It is not easy making decisions, particularly when it is about things that are four or five years away. However, while you are choosing your university and course, it is a good idea to take a longer term view and consider what kind of work you eventually want to do.

Subject choice

Does your choice of course limit you in your choice of career? To an extent, yes: some professional careers areas, such as engineering, demand specific vocational qualifications. You may also prefer to do a job in which you need to apply the subject knowledge from your course. Many of the departmental entries in this prospectus give you examples of the kinds of careers graduates with those degrees typically enter.

However, just under half of all graduate-entry jobs have no specific subject requirements. You do not need a degree in finance to work as an accountant, for instance. If you do not have any clear ideas about life after university now, do not feel that you ought to choose a subject that has obvious value in the job market rather than a subject you enjoy. Employers are interested in how well you do in your studies and in those general skills that you will develop as part of your academic training at university, such as analytical ability, research skills, writing skills, critical ability, independent judgment, time management and presentation skills.

Beyond the lecture hall

As well as academic-related skills, employers are also looking for workplace skills, such as working with other people, communicating ideas, planning and organising, and managing time. Student life at Essex provides you with many ways to develop these skills outside of the lecture hall:

• Get involved: whether you decide to join student societies, work with local voluntary groups as part of the student volunteering programme, or represent the University as a student ambassador, there are plenty of opportunities to develop new skills while you are having fun;
• Get working: part-time work is now a key part of student life for many people and is much more than a way to make ends meet. The Careers Centre helps you find work whilst you are studying at Essex;
• Get learning: the Careers Centre also offers a range of events, such as careers fairs, workshops and presentations by employers. You can use these to develop those essential work-related skills that employers want;
• Get skills development on the job: Frontrunners is an innovative programme offering paid work placements within the University. These are designed to develop relevant skills and are supported by training sessions.

Learning and working

As well as supplementing your finances, working part-time whilst studying provides you with the opportunity to develop and demonstrate your transferable skills which are very important when you come to apply for jobs after university. Many of our students have gone on to secure full-time graduate jobs with companies they worked for as students.

JobsOnline, our online vacancy service, handles a wide range of work opportunities for students on and off campus, from part-time vacancies requiring no particular skills to full-time graduate vacancies that require high levels of specific skills. We also post vacancies for work experience, internships, gap year and voluntary work positions. Registered students can also access important information on their rights within the work place, and on work-related issues such as taxation and National Insurance. Specific help targeted at those students that are newly arrived in the UK is also available.

How we can help you

Careers advice is available to all University of Essex students, from first-year undergraduates to final-year PhDs, at any stage of their time at the University. We aim to provide the support and resources necessary for you to plan ahead for employment or further study opportunities. We are also keen to support you for the three years after your graduation.

The Careers Centre contributes to career management skills programmes and offers support for these aspects of your personal development planning. In the Centre itself the information staff are there to help you find out exactly what you need to know: everything from who are the major recruiters, to how to prepare for interview day. Whatever subject you choose to study, we can help you to make the right choices to take you through your time at Essex and into the world of work. To find out more about the advice and opportunities we offer, visit the Careers Centre website.

Steven Kimberley, second-year BA Creative Writing student, Barking, Essex:
"Even before starting at Essex, I knew that I would need to find a part-time job whilst studying. I quickly found that the Careers Centre has an extremely helpful online service (JobsOnline) which is so easy to use and is constantly being updated with new job vacancies. I was able to search specifically for the roles which best suited my preferences and availability, and it was not long before I found the perfect part-time job. The website also gave me tips on how to fill out my application and covering letter for the jobs that I was applying for. It has really helped to relieve a lot of the financial stress which can sometimes come with being a student."

Sebastian Hopkins, third-year BSc Psychology student, Reading, Berkshire:
"The Careers Centre has provided me with excellent advice from the first day I arrived at Essex. They encouraged me to apply for the position of student ambassador which in turn lead me to my current part-time position as a student marketing assistant within the University’s Marketing and Student Recruitment Office. This is a varied role which ranges from assisting on photo shoots to copywriting for publications. The role offers manageable hours and it is helping me develop a wide variety of skills which are transferable to many potential careers which I may wish to pursue in the future."

Charlotte Pearson, second-year BSc Psychology student, Ipswich, Suffolk:
"I always knew that I would want to get a part-time job whilst I was studying at University and the Careers Centre on the Colchester Campus made this simple for me to do by using their JobsOnline website. I used the search system to find all relevant jobs and I now work in the Careers Centre myself as a student assistant. Since beginning my job I have found out so much more about the services which the Careers Centre provides for the students, and I believe that they can help every student, whether you’re looking for part-time work, help with your CV or information on what to do when you graduate."

Lynda Burnup, Careers Advisor – Employer Liaison:
"I regularly meet up with our local employers at the local business networking forum. This allows me to keep in touch with the issues impacting on the local economy, and to follow up and assist employers seeking part-time, and full-time graduate employees. I also attend specialist careers days held by large national and global companies where recruiters provide me with a real insight into the type of staff they are looking for. Our partnership with employers often results in representatives coming to the campuses to run workshops, one-to-one interviews, and specialist business games for our students."