Undergraduate

PLANNING YOUR CAREER

One of the key questions you are likely to ask when considering university is "What can I do with a degree in History or Chemical Engineering or English…?" However this simple question has a complicated answer!

There is a vast range of career options open to all graduates these days. Some graduates choose to enter professions which are related to their subject, such as the Law student who becomes a Solicitor or the French student who becomes a Translator. However around 60% of all graduate jobs are open to graduates in any degree subject. At UCL, for example: Mathematics students have become Marketing Managers; Geography students have become Investment Bankers and Biology students have become Computer Games Testers. In addition, many UCL students also choose to begin their careers abroad – UCL students have become Engineers in Russia, English Teachers in Peru and Speech Therapists in Hong Kong, to give just a few examples.

This vast choice is exciting, but can make it difficult when choosing which route to take. At UCL we provide plenty of help and support, and we actively encourage you to use the UCL Careers Service throughout your degree. This ensures you will be fully aware of your options and that you will have developed the skills that employers look for in new recruits.

Accessing careers services

The UCL Careers Service runs an extensive range of employer-led events, including Skills Development Workshops (where you can practice a range of competencies such as Team Working, Networking and Problem-solving), Presentations and Forums (where you are able to meet with company representatives to find out about the opportunities they have on offer) and large Careers Fairs.

The UCL Careers Service has strong links with a vast number of graduate employers from many different sectors. Each year, around 90% of UCL students choose to go straight into a job or to carry out some further study (such as a Master's degree or a PhD), as illustrated in the pie-chart below. Most of the remainder choose to take a 'gap year' in order to travel or participate in another activity that interests them. Six months after graduating just 3.5% of UCL students are unemployed (compared with the national average of 5.5%). Whatever your career aspirations may be, UCL Careers Service can provide information and advice.

We offer the following services to all our undergraduates:

For further details see www.ucl.ac.uk/careers

UCL Careers Service is part of The Careers Group, University of London. This means that UCL students are also eligible to attend events hosted by The Careers Group. For further information see www.careers.lon.ac.uk

		This chart is drawn from data collected on behalf of the Higher Education Statistics Agency for the 2008 graduating cohort as part of a survey of first career destinations of UK/EU graduates six months after graduation. OTHER* On this chart the heading 'Other' represents a grouping of activities in which personal circumstance or choice has influenced the graduate's immediate options. The grouping includes students who are:

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