University of Manchester Careers Blog

As the new term, and 2013-14 recruitment cycle gets into full swing I thought it would be useful to highlight some of the information resources the Careers Service provides at any stage in your career planning. So if you’re looking for a job or thinking of further study read on!

Job hunting

• Not sure what you want to do?  Don’t panic!  We have a number of resources to help you. Firstly use Careers Kickstart an online tool designed to help you think about your career and decide what to do next. Also pick up a copy of our ‘I don’t know what I want to do!’ resource as it’s got some useful exercises that get you thinking about what you want out of life. Online tools such as Prospects Planner and TARGETjobs Careers Report aim to match you personality to job roles.
• Exploring your options – If you’ve got an idea of what you want to do it’s still a good idea to do some research.  Our Starting Point Series  and Sector Pages will help you do that along with the job profiles on prospects.ac.uk .
• Finding a job – Once you have an idea of what type of job you are interested in you have to find a vacancy to apply to. Careerslink our vacancies database lists any opportunity we hear about so it’s a great place to start your search.  Graduate directories such as the Times Top 100 and GET Directory provide information on graduate schemes. If you’re thinking of staying in Manchester after graduation and want to work for a smaller organisation you may want to explore our MGIP scheme and if you are thinking of working overseas you access the Going Global resource (accessible through Careerslink).
• Applying – For help with applying for vacancies have a look at our CV, Cover Letter and Application Form guides along with the information on our website.
• Interviews and assessments – Our Preparing for Interviews handout is a must read for anyone invited to an interview. Similarly if you get invited to an assessment centre read our Assessment Centres and Psychometric Tests resource.  We also have a range of practice psychometric  test books you can use at the careers service  and on our website.

Postgraduate Study

• Is postgraduate study right for you? Thinking about a postgraduate or even PHD study but not sure if it’s defiantly for you? Have a look at the An Academic Career website to help you decide.
• Finding courses Once you have established that further study is right for you to find a course to apply to. The Prospects Postgrad Directory (Take away at the Carers Service) lists all courses available in the UK and Ireland.  You may also want to look at findamasters.com and findaphd.com. If your considering further study abroad our work and study overseas pages will be of use to you along with the Prospects county profiles.
• Funding The majority of questions the information team get asked about postgraduate study centre around funding. If this is an issue for you read our ‘Postgraduate Study and Funding’ guide to help.
• Applying – For the majority of postgraduate courses you will need to write a personal statement. Information   to help you do this can be found in our Application Form guide as well as on our website.
• Assessments For some postgraduate courses such as medicine, teaching and especially courses in the USA you may have to take some form of assessment during the application process . In the Careers Service we have practice books for numeracy, ICT, Literacy, GAMSAT, GMAT and GRE. Search our catalogue for details.

All of these resources listed above are available either in the Careers Service or online.

On a personal note I’m currently studying for a Masters in Library and Information Management and for my dissertation I am looking into how you as students want to access careers information. Please fill out my short Questionnaire and let me know your opinions. It can be accessed here – http://bit.ly/15eaW32

Thank you in advance! 🙂