Planning your Degree Course with your Career in Mind

Worried about how choosing your degree options might affect the choices open to you after graduating? Although there are a few exceptions, the answer is usually `not as much as you might think'.

First, generally speaking there are many factors that employers consider before they start looking at the way your degree was structured. Yes, a good degree from a University like Warwick stands you in good stead. However, employers also want to hear about your personal skills and qualities and how you have developed them through student activities, work experience and study.

They are interested in your motivations and interests, and why you've chosen a particular career. Option choices can help here. You might choose maths and computing because you want to work in IT, and it does show your interest in computers; however, you could equally well demonstrate an interest in IT through vacation work and how you use your leisure time. Students from all degree disciplines get onto graduate management training schemes, so a business studies option isn't a requirement if that's what you're aiming for. For teaching, voluntary work in schools or a summer job working with children can be just as relevant as education options.

For some careers, your general level of academic attainment is important and if you want to enter one of these, it would be a shame to jeopardise a 2.i by choosing an unknown area of study that you might find overly stretching.

Maths graduates enter a wide variety of areas of work, with the most popular being IT, Finance (especially accountancy and actuarial work) and Teaching. A PDF with an overview of what Maths graduates go on to do is available for download here. Looking at data from those doing straight maths and those on dual programmes, there are no major differences, the only pattern being that more MMath students go straight on to PhDs (having opted for the extra year makes them more likely to be career mathematicians).

The key message is: if you know what career area you want to enter, option choices are one way to prepare for this and you might want to discuss them with your tutor or a careers adviser. However, if, like many, you have a very open mind as to your future area of work, choose options that you will enjoy and that will hold your interest as these are the ones where you are most likely to find the motivation to work hard and do well.

Don't leave your career planning until your final year though. You are welcome to visit the Careers Service at any time during your academic career. We are happy to see you if you have no idea or lots of ideas about what you want to do next. For those of you looking for career inspiration the Careers Hub and Weblink online resources hold information on a wide range of jobs and you can try your hand at the computer based `Prospect Planner' to generate career ideas - see www.prospects.ac.uk.

Time and again, we are told that work experience is a central factor in creating employable graduates. Work experience can help you:

• Gain insights into a particular area of work.
• Develop skills like team working, problem solving and communication.
• Build self-confidence at work.

Many employers, keen to offer students work experience, target Warwick. For details search our databases of jobs and opportunities.

Look out too for details of our work experience fair held on campus each January

Remember that you can also apply for a bursary to cover your travel and subsistence if you choose to complete unpaid work experience.

Undertaking Volunteer projects can also develop essential transferable skills such as communication, teamwork and project management. Please visit www.warwick.ac.uk/volunteers to access the Warwick Volunteers site. Possible projects include student mentoring, student tutoring, Kidz Kamp and many more.

Come and visit us on the ground floor of the University House to discover some of these resources or use us online. We are open Monday to Thursday 09:00-17:00, and Friday 09:00-16:00.

How to Impress

Look at any recruitment advertisement for graduates and you'll see what they want. Yes, of course they want the applicants to have a good degree, but they want to see good transferable skills as well. Transferable skills? Things like really good communication skills, team-working, negotiation and persuasion, resilience, initiative, planning and organising and problem solving skills. That's just an example of the sort of generic skills, that can be adapted to many different types of workplace, that employers are demanding today.

You can develop your skills in a number of different ways. Firstly, through your studies - mathematicians have good analytical skills, will think logically and be good at solving problems. Secondly, think about how work experience can develop things like team-working, dealing with people, multi-tasking, drive, initiative and taking responsibility. Getting involved in other extra-curricular activities like clubs and societies will also give the opportunity to develop and demonstrate those skills that the employers want to see.

Have you thought about the Warwick Advantage? It's a University of Warwick initiative designed to develop your confidence and credibility in a range of these essential skills.

Get more information at www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/advantage

You may also be interested in the Undergraduate Skills Programme (USP) to develop your academic, personal & professional skills, improve your marks, impress potential employers and network with other Warwick students.

If you're hoping to find employment in the UK after graduation, and English isn't your first language, think about ways in which you can improve your conversational English. To be successful at an interview you will need very good verbal communication skills, and sometimes our international students - despite having excellent academic results - will not be able to progress beyond this point because their spoken English isn't good enough. The Centre for Applied Linguistics runs classes for our non-native speaking students,

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/learning_english/

and you can apply what you have learnt by joining clubs and societies and regularly mixing with students who are native English speakers.