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! 

It's the Final Countdown...

... will things ever be the same again?

I can't hide from it any longer. In 9 days time I'll got a year to go on my PhD. How do I feel about that? Pretty happy to be honest. I've had a tough few months research-wise so instead of being the panic station this threshold would have been a little earlier in the year, I'm actually pretty relieved.

In many ways, now is a good time to take stock and to attempt to work out what happens for me next in terms of work and even applying for jobs. In many ways this year won't be much different from the others. However, it looks like I'm going to have extra pulls on my time in addition to what I'm used to. 

Firstly, I'm going to be doing 'official' demonstrating work this year. I'm not sure how this is going to effect things for me other than I should get paid for work I was already doing. However, at the moment I am revamping a lab script and desperately trying to remember how I did my 3rd year project; which was 3 years ago. Yeah, that's fun. Beforehand, with my unofficial demonstrating if there were things I couldn't remember I could pass the problem on, where as now... Well, that's not really going to be the case. I think a few days stood in front of the laser going, "Why? Why!? WHY!?" should be enough to help me work out most things. However, I don't feel like I've really got the time to be doing that.

I'm also beginning to look at and think about applying for jobs. I know I'm a year away from finishing, but quite a lot of graduate schemes are already open for applications! Therefore, if you're a final year of degree, beginning to look for work in September and October for the following year is not a bad idea. There are jobs that won't be open for application just yet, but by thinking about this early I'm hoping to be clarify what I want to do (by reading websites and going to careers fairs) and I'll hopefully be prepared for when the right jobs for me open up, or I'll be able to apply before the ones currently open close.  

Then there's that other little thing I need to complete. My thesis. 70,000 words of joy for me to write. I haven't started so much on the words yet, but I do have a plan and a thesis template set up, so that's something, right? I mean I'm ready, I'm prepared, but not quite started yet. I actually don't feel that worried about writing up at the moment. As the day when I stop getting paid looms I'm sure I will be, but right now I'm ok with it. I've written big documents before and I'll have plenty to say, I'm just not looking forward to rewriting things.

So, final year starts here. Roll on next September!