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School of English
The University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham
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UK

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     nottingham.ac.uk

 

Careers and Development

 

Centre for Career Development

School Careers Advisor

Career Choices for Graduates in English

Careers Handbook

Careers Events in the School of English 2011/12

Beyond the PhD - a Careers website for PhD students

Opportunities to develop your CV

Arts Graduate Centre Work Placements

Arts Graduate Centre Skills Development

Careers Insight Seminars and Employability

References

Effects of the City Banking crisis on Graduate Recruitment

 

Careers and Employability Service

The Careers and Employability Service offers an extensive range of careers oriented services, including CV writing sessions, interview advice, presentations by major employers and general career advice. Located in the Portland Building, University Park campus. they also offer an on-line enquiries service.

The Careers and Employability Service can help students who are applying for jobs, developing their CVs and invited to attend assessment centres as part of a recruitment process.

The Careers Advisor who looks after students in the School of English is Julie Callaghan.

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School Careers Advisor

The Careers Advisor for the School of English is Dr Lucie Sutherland, who will be happy to meet students to talk through their plans. Please email to book an appointment.

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Career Choices for Graduates in English

As with many Arts graduates, English graduates find themselves faced with a myriad of choices when it comes to selecting a career. Some will have a very clear idea from an early stage as to what employment path they wish to pursue, while others may take some years to find the role that is right for them. No matter what your initial choice may be, you will find that the abilities that you have developed during your time at Nottingham will have equipped you well for the demanding and often highly changeable nature of the twenty-first century workplace.

Prospects - Graduate Careers Website
Milkround - a Graduate Recruitment Website

Latest Careers Statistics

The Careers and Employability Service has collated statistics about what our graduates are doing 6 months after graduation.

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Careers Handbook

The School has developed its own Careers Handbook with advice and tips specific to English Studies students and graduates.

The University of Nottingham Careers Guide is now available on-line for all students.
The theme for the guide is employability with sections on
• Employability – with additional new content on enterprise and entrepreneurial skills
• Career choices
• The job market – with additional new content on using social media in the job hunting process
• Applying for jobs
• Jobs and course providers

Follow us on Twitter or join us on Facebook.

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Careers events in the School of English - 2011/12

The School has organised two careers talks in Week One for returning students:

Tuesday, 27 September 2011, 1.00 – 2.00 pm - a talk for 2nd year students about careers and the Advantage Award in A48, Sir Clive Granger Building

Wednesday, 28 September 2011, 12.00 – 1.00 pm – a talk for final year students in A48, Sir Clive Granger Building

 

School Careers Days will take place in November and February with graduates of the School returning to talk to you about their chosen careers. These will take place on the following afternoons:

Wednesday 2 November 2011 – for PGCE, Law Conversion, Teaching English as a Foreign Language and Postgraduate course applications

Friday, 10 February 2012 (A21 Trent, Council Room - ground floor entrance from the courtyard, directly opposite the English entrance) – for general careers (final programme to be confirmed, but may include general graduate training schemes, finance, management, journalism the arts and other career choices.)

Further details will be circulated nearer the time by Dr Lucie Sutherland.

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Beyond the PhD - a Careers website for PhD students

The Centre for Career Management Skills (CCMS) at the University of Reading has launched Beyond the PhD: a career resource tailored specifically for arts and humanities PhD researchers. Beyond the PhD is a good place to explore possible career paths within and outside academia and brings together audio interviews, video discussions and articles aimed at making visible what happens to postgraduate researchers after they graduate.

 

Opportunities to develop your CV

Whilst at Nottingham, there are also many opportunities for you to develop your CV. In particular, there are regular PG seminars at which you will be able to discuss your work and the work of other students and academics. PG Seminars deal with help getting your research published, delivering conference papers, applying for funding and pursuing a career in academia.

The School offers the opportunity for some postgraduate students to teach on certain undergraduate modules and be paid as appropriate. Such teaching can provide a valuable opportunity for career preparation, although opportunities will depend on student demand and individual research specialisms. There are also opportunities for postgraduate students who want additional teaching experience on their CV to help undergraduate seminar Tutors with teaching preparation and delivery.

Arts Graduate Centre Work Placements

Every year, the Arts Graduate Centre offers a suite of paid placements with hosts ranging from Hodder & Stoughton to Broadway Cinema and Media Centre. Academic Year 2009-2010 also saw the start of a new partnership with Derbyshire County Council who will be hosting placements around the Derbyshire Literature Festival, the Arts Derbyshire Website, and Arts in Healthcare settings. The placements offered a great opportunity for students to develop their skills in a work context.

Students who have completed placements have said the following:
‘The AGC placement has afforded me a rare opportunity to further my hands-on work experience, build my CV, and earn some extra money along the way.’
‘The most valuable gain has been meeting people working in other areas of the culture industry who have allowed me to see other possible future careers.'
‘The placement helped me to keep motivated with my academic work.'
‘This placement will help me put together a CV that will allow me to apply for a range of positions in the academic, archival and curatorial arenas.'
‘I was assigned really hands-on practical tasks, which was unlike other placements I have done where the work tends to be admin-related. This meant that I could fulfil one of my goals for the placement of increasing my confidence as a communicator in a range of settings.'

 

Arts Graduate Centre Skills Development

The AGC organises a programme of training in areas including:
archives; footnotes; use of images; CV development; applying for jobs; surviving the viva; writing for journals; review-writing. The skills-development programme is largely led by academics from the Faculty with years of experience in these areas. It is also demand-led and the AGC is happy to listen to your ideas. Send an e-mail to agc@nottingham.ac.uk.

Students who have attended training sessions have said:
‘It was useful to hear about people’s personal experiences’.
‘Superb. It was an excellent panel who were very open and engaged with the topic and spoke extremely well’.

 

Careers Insight Seminars and Employability

The Arts Graduate Centre runs a series of careers insight seminars led by industry professionals in a range of sectors including: museums and galleries; publishing; archives; writing; education.
Students who have attended some of these sessions say:
‘The strong points of the session was the real-life experience of the speakers and their candid approach. The small size of the group meant it was very easy to interact with the speakers, and having speakers from two different poles of publishing meant that they both had different contributions to make. This revealed the scope of the industry re. jobs. It helped me to identify the basic entry skills for publishing and was overall a very thorough and comprehensive introduction to the industry.’ (Pathways into Publishing)
‘The speakers were interesting and clear and covered all the aspects of the application process for a job. They were open to questions and the questions were handled well. To a certain extent the fears of the audience were dealt with, and this helped build confidence. I’m really glad I came! It was excellent to hear people talk honestly about things.’ (Pathways into HE)

 

References

Academic members of staff in the School of English regularly receive reference requests and consider it one of their duties to complete these for students. However, if you wish to ask a member of staff to act on your behalf as a referee, you MUST contact them in writing beforehand and please give them an up to date copy of your CV for information. This is, in part, to comply with data protection policy. as academic members of staff will be unable to write you a reference unless you obtain their written permission beforehand to act as a referee. For each reference, you must also give your referee your written consent to disclose data about you. This is particularly important if you wish your referee to mention any periods of suspension, ill health etc.

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Effects of the City Banking Crisis on Graduate Recruitment

The Director of the Centre for Career Development, Stephen McAuliffe, has issued the following statement about the effect of the credit crunch and financial crises in the City on graduate recruitment and student careers.

"We are aware that the current situation in the Financial Sector across the world may be creating some anxiety amongst students and graduates about their job prospects within this sector for this summer. The Centre for Career Development is committed to providing relevant, accurate and up-to-date information and guidance about the labour market and, consequently, we are monitoring this situation in a number of ways.

Firstly, through our contacts with employers, we are receiving feedback on their recruitment intentions and relaying this information to students through the web site, through workshops and in our individual advice and guidance work. It is clear, at the moment, that the situation is still very fluid and therefore, many employers are reluctant to commit themselves to specific targets. Most of our City employers are maintaining a presence on campus through Fairs, promotional activities and presentations and apart from Lehmann Brothers, there have been no significant cancellations. These events provide an excellent opportunity for students to assess the situation for themselves and ask informed questions.

It would appear that recruitment within investment banks will be cautious this year, with certain functions most severely affected e.g. corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions and trading. Some banks are maintaining the level of internships for the summer, and suggesting that any future recruitment may be via this route. Other banks are telling us that the number of interns will be reduced, as will permanent jobs. Because of the lack of consistency of message, students can still be encouraged to apply to the banks, but our advice to them is to apply early and also consider alternative strategies and we are happy to help them with such planning.

Secondly, we are extracting information from the financial press and from professional sources on a daily basis. Recently, this has resulted in a consideration of the broader impact of the City crisis in the economy and some worrying forecasts about unemployment across sectors, including professional services, retail, the media and the not-for-profit sector. We are using sources such as the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS), the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) and the Sector Skills Council to obtain a national perspective on the challenges for graduate recruitment.

Thirdly, and most importantly, we are offering to students and graduates the opportunity to discuss alternative strategies and career plans with professional careers advisers and information staff at the Centre and we would encourage you to promote our services to your students in this time of uncertainty. The more prepared students are for the evolving job market, the better their chances will be to succeed."

 


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