Link Round-Up 14th October 2014

Sorry for the delay on getting this post up, yesterday was a busy one! I set up my first lot of students on their lab experiment, went to a careers fair and was a conduit to google maps while I navigated supervisor to Staples. That's not even a joke. 

As one of the useful things I did yesterday was all about graduate recruitment, and as it's the time of year when quite a few firms are hiring, for week's link round up I thought I'd look at some of the different graduate careers websites.

1. Prospects
   Prospects is one of the biggest recruitment websites. The best thing about prospects is that it doesn't just have job adverts, it also has careers advice, career matching quizzes and extensive information on what you can really expect from pretty much any career you can think of. Prospects doesn't just do jobs, it also has a lot of information about post-graduate study, making it a one stop shop for what to do when you graduate! As a tool for searching for work Prospects seems to be a very popular place to advertise graduate jobs as well as industrial placement years and summer internships, so its a good starting point for a job search.
2. Target Jobs
   Target is another of the big recruitment sites offering graduate job listings and internship opportunities. Like Prospects, it has plenty of career's advice and some good pages on applications. They don't have as much information on specific jobs, but it's certainly worth checking out for some extra opportunities and application information.
3. Milkround
   Another of the big recruitment websites, Milkround isn't that great for advice, but it does list a lot of work opportunities.
4. University Careers Website (Leeds)
   Most universities will have their own careers web pages. They tend to have lots of information on choosing a career and on how to make the best application possible. The only downside is that any vacancies they advertise may only be viewable to their own students.

And finally, here's Foxes cover of Don't Stop Me Now from Mummy on the Orient Express. Or, the even more awesome Brett Domino Trio's Doctor Who Song 

How do you choose a degree subject?

I thought today I'd have a look at choosing a degree subject as we're in the middle of university applications season. Fingers crossed I'll provide some useful thoughts how you might go about working out what to do at university.

Choosing a subject if you have a specific job in mind:
You've got a job in mind? Well that's great as it can help simplify things a lot. Want to be a doctor, do medicine. Want to be a nurse, go for nursing. Want to be a lawyer, you don't actually have to do law... So here's the kicker some jobs don't have specific subject requirements. A lot of the big law firms will accept graduates from a range of subjects, why? Well if you get a good degree, it sort of acts like a sign says you are a strong independent learner and that you have vital skills in research and analysis. Therefore, is possible to apply and get a job even if you don't have the most logical degree for it, especially if you do a relevant summer placement or have work experience. As an example, law is actually a career destination for science graduates, particularly in patent law where you have to understand technical documents to assess potential patents. Another good example of not needing to study a specific degree is teaching. To me personally if you want to teach, why not go for the degree and PGCE option? You'll give yourself so many more options and may be more employable as you'll have focused subject expertise. 

Choosing a subject if you have no idea what you want to do after university or if your ideal job has degree flexibility:

It probably goes without saying, but start with the subject or subjects you like the most or things related to them. My favourite A-level was physics, but I was also interested in computer science and engineering courses to begin with. So how do you narrow down that short list? I implemented two main tactics. Firstly, I went through a set of prospectuses and looked at structures of courses I was interested in doing. This was so I could see what the modules were, and I got an idea of the compulsory elements and whether I'd be happy doing them. Secondly, I looked at websites to see what graduates from different courses do. A really great place to look for this information is prospects.ac.uk, which has a section on "Options with you subject" where you just click on a subject and get information on which careers use that degree and careers where having that degree would be useful. In my case, after looking at course details I worked out that computer science or physics would be the right degree choice for me and I made the final decision on which to do based on careers I could pick. I ended up going for physics as it seemed to leave more options open and, as I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, that seemed like a good idea to me!

What if you want to do a subject but don't have the right qualifications?
Firstly, don't panic, you will still be able get where you want to go and there are a few things you can do. The first option is to look for foundation year courses, which allow people who don't have the required qualifications to get onto the degree course they want to do. These courses work by giving you the grounding you'll need to do your degree of choice and you are often automatically enrolled into the first year of the full degree program once you pass the foundation year. Secondly you could stay at school or college to get the extra qualifications you need. Finally, not all universities have the same entry requirements, so if you'd rather just get stuck in to a degree, there might be somewhere with flexible entry requirements that you could go to.

The main thing, however you choose your course, is to never be afraid to ask for help with the decision. Talk to teachers, careers advisers and directly to universities to get the guidance you need to make the right choice for you!