Careers with a degree in English

Bruce Woodcock University of Kent Careers and Employability Service bw@kent.ac.uk

You can download a copy of this presentation at www.kent.ac.uk/careers/slides.htm

Destinations of some BA English graduates• Phase 8 `` Public Relations Intern• Anise Catering Events Manager• Macmillan Science & Education Manuscript Assistant• Eve White Editorial Assistant• VCG Kestrel Proofreader• Lloyds Bank Graduate banking scheme• Chaucer Insurance Insurance graduate trainee• Williams & Griffins HR Assistant• The greater Cambridge LEP Marketing & Events Assistant• Elevating Success Marketing & Social Media Intern• FTD Digital SEO manager• Extra Digital Digital Marketing Executive • DigitalBeans Digital Content & Outreach Executive• Stratos Web Marketing Junior Copy Writer & Content Creator• Steel London Copywriter• John Lewis Partnership Retail Manager• Reed Exhibitions Sales Executive• Bauer Media Freelance Journalist• Highbury University National Council for the Training of Journalism (NCTJ)• University of Law Graduate Diploma in Law• Canterbury Christ Church University PGCE Teacher Training• West Hertfordshire Schools Partnership Schools Direct Secondary English• Forest School Teaching Assistant• University of Kent MA Dickens & Victorian CulturePlus lots of shop assistants, waitresses and bar workers!See www.kent.ac.uk/careers/fdrbases/destinations.htm for full details

Get actively involved in university life …

Graduate Application Form Questions• Describe a challenging situation which required your

persuasive skills and your ability to organise other people in order to reach a successful resolution.

• Describe how your personal planning and organisation resulted in a successful achievement of a personal or group task.

• Describe a situation where you had to work effectively as a member of a team. What were the team’s aims? How was the team selected? What was your role?

Build your CVThe more you enjoy university life, the more you’ll get out of it. Employers like you to have what they call “customer-facing experience”. You’ll get loads of that if you take a part-time job or work as a student volunteer. It’s a terrific help if you can understand how businesses work, show you can get things done and apply simple common sense. It was my work experience that gave me all these things, not my academic course. Kate, marketing officer with a PR agency

Join three university societies and become actively involved in at least one.

Alan Richardson, Graduate Recruitment, Royal Bank of Scotland Group

www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/skills-Kent.htm

One third of graduate jobs accept any degree subject.

BECAUSE:• Learn new skills quickly• Analyse & solve problems• Communicate well• Open to new ideas,

adaptable and flexible• “Managers of change”

• Marketing and Sales• Retailing• Social Work• Personnel• Civil Service• Accountancy• Banking• Computing

www.kent.ac.uk/careers/English.htm

Media Jobs• Get relevant experience and practical skills - Inquire,

campus TV, UoK Drama etc.

• Talk to or workshadow journalists and other media professionals.

• Develop a portfolio www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/portfolios.htm

• Need NCTJ Diploma for most journalism jobs

• Be pushy, patient and persistent!

• See www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sitesmedia.htm

Teaching• 1 year postgraduate course (PGCE) or Schools

Direct

• Many students go to Christ Church

• £9,000 bursary with 1st or 2:1

• Need at least 2 weeks experience in a state school – get this in June

• www.kent.ac.uk/careers/siteach.htm

Digital Marketing• Rapidly growing: using e-mail, websites, social media

and texts to promote products, services and events to a targeted audience.

• Social media marketing: building up an online presence by attracting internet followers.

• Search engine optimisation: increasing the number of visitors to a website.

• Online copywriting: blogs, Facebook, Twitter, web pages• Need an interest in and aptitude for computing• Digital Career Finder Quiz: tells you which role would suit

you www.bubble-jobs.co.uk/career_portal/digital-careers-finder/career-finder-quiz

www.kent.ac.uk/careers/workin/digital-marketing.htm

Accountancy

• Take any degree subject provided you have done careful research

• Need good A Level grades: about BBB minimum• Need good maths – about GCSE grade A minimum• Lots of jobs: PWC alone take 1,000 graduates a year• 3 years demanding study for professional exams:

12 hours per week in evenings and at weekends BUT paid £25,000 salary whilst doing this

• On qualification £40,000 +++www.kent.ac.uk/careers/workin/accountancy.htm

CHOOSING A CAREER

• CHOOSING A CAREER www.kent.ac.uk/careers/Choosing/ChoosingCareer.htm

and booklet available from Careers Service.

• Prospects Planner - powerful career choice program. www.prospects.ac.uk/links/Pplanner

• Target Jobs Career Planner https://targetjobs.co.uk/careers-report

• I Want to work in ….. www.kent.ac.uk/careers/workin.htm

Apply early“Students in their first or second year at university need to ask themselves what job they want to do.

It’s important that they do not wait until their final year to think about finding a job, especially in the current market”.

Sarah Shillingford, Graduate Recruitment Partner, Deloitte

Applications and Interviews• English CV: must be targeted at the job!

www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/English-cv.htm

• Media CV www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/mediacv.htm

• Covering Letters www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/cvexamples.htm

• Practice Interviews: journalism, teaching, marketing, HR, postgrad study etc.www.kent.ac.uk/careers/interviews/mockivs.htm

• Application, interview and selection centre videos www.kent.ac.uk/careers/IntVid.htm

• Applications and interviewswww.kent.ac.uk/careers/applicn.htm

Application Process

The smaller company process is much simpler and you can apply much later (often after final exams) but salaries are usually lower and they offer less training and less chance to specialise.

Skills gained on an English Degree• ability to write well in a variety of styles.• to convey meaning precisely.• to summarise, argue and debate.• to plan, organise and meet tight deadlines.• to research, select, analyse, organise and

present information.• to think clearly and logically and solve

problems.• To gather, assess, interpret and critically

evaluate.• EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNICATION!

“Would you say their are any skill shortages in the UK for actuary's ie their enough out their, is their a shortfall of any kind of actuary?” In an email from an HR manager to me!

VACANCIES

University of Kent Vacancy Databasewww.kent.ac.uk/ces/vacancies.html

Work Experiencewww.kent.ac.uk/careers/vacwork.htm and the vacancy database

Placements www.kent.ac.uk/careers/placements.htm

Other careers events on campuswww.kent.ac.uk/careers/casevents.htm

Postgraduate Study

• 23% of English grads do PG study after graduation

• MA taught: 1 year Sept to June – lectures, June to Sept – dissertation.

• PhD – 3 years. Must do an MA first.

• PGCE (teacher training) 1 year: about 6% of grads £9,000 bursary with 1st, £4,000 with 2:1

• See www.kent.ac.uk/careers/postgradmenu.htm

Postgraduate study• Fees are about £5,000. At Kent get £1,000 graduate

school scholarship reduction

• New postgraduate loan scheme for up to £10,000

• Many students work for a year to fund it or do it part-time whilst working

• Consider vocational MA – journalism, publishing, business, HR etc.

• Normally apply middle of final year. No UCAS can apply to as many courses as you wish to – 3 or 4 is normal

New Postgraduate Loans• New postgraduate loan scheme for English

-domiciled students and EU students studying in English institutions from 2016.

• Offers students up to £10,000 to help with costs of a masters degree.

• Students are eligible for the loans if under the age of 30 and studying for a full-time masters, or part-time at 50% intensity or above. There are no subject restrictions.

• Like undergraduate loans, graduates will only pay them back if they earn over a certain amount - probably the same as undergraduate loans (£21,000), and repay at a rate of 9% of income above this sum.

www.kent.ac.uk/careers/postgradmenu.htm#Funding

Study Abroad• Many postgraduate courses are now taught in English,

especially in the Netherlands and Scandinavia

• No course fees in Sweden and about £1,000 in Germany and Denmark

• See www.kent.ac.uk/careers/postgradmenu.htm#PGAbroad

www.kent.ac.uk/careers Telephone: 01227 823299 Email: careerhelp@kent.ac.ukOpening hours: Monday to Friday 9 to 5 including vacations Drop-in times (no appointment needed: 15 minutes): 10.30 to 12.30 and 2 to 4 pmHelp given for up to 3 years after graduationWeekly careers emails every Monday afternoon

Careers Award on Moodle

• Half the unemployment rate for students completing the award www.kent.ac.uk/careers/moodle.htm

• DP2650 • Email bw@kent.ac.uk if you have problems enrolling

Careers Award Content12 Quizzes: need 75% to pass: allowed unlimited attempts

Complete 3 of the following 7 short, easy assignments

• Employability skills quiz

• How to develop the skills employers want?

• Test your spelling and grammar!

• What makes you happy at work?

• How commercially aware are you?

• Interview preparation

• Practice interview• What are the most

common interview questions?

• Aptitude tests and assessment centres

• CV quiz• CVs and covering

letters: drag & drop quiz

• Career planning drag and drop quiz

• Analyse your skills and learn how to make top quality applications

• Do you want to live to work or work to live?

• Choosing a career: find out what your ideal career is!

• Researching a career • Submit your CV for professional review• Social media in job hunting• Action planning

• I completed the award in my first year and got a placement with a top company due to the skills I gained on the award.• The amount of time put into this is astounding! I spoke to friends from other universities who said they wished they had

something like this.• It would be mad to apply for a job or attend an interview without doing it! • It has made me feel a lot more confident when it comes to applications and interviews in the future and has also made me

think about skills I have that I didn't think I had before.• It was so easy, quick and I learned a lot. Without realising, you have finished the course and have already put together a very

good CV and covering letter. • It covered every aspect, such as how to apply for a job, how to write a good cv and cover letter, analysing your skills and

showcasing them as well as making you think about the reason why we work. I was impressed with the amount of detailed information, links and quizzes which all proved extremely helpful and I learnt a lot that I didn't know before, making me feel better prepared for the future.

Bruce Woodcock• An adviser is on duty for 15 minute consultations in the

Careers Service any weekday morning 10.30-12.30 or afternoon from 2 pm to 4 pm. You don't need an appointment - just ask at Careers Reception to see them.

• Check you campus emails regularly as I send you emails most Mondays. These can also be found at www.kent.ac.uk/ces/files/newsletters.html

• Apply early in your final year if you want a graduate training scheme with a “big” company, advertising, marketing, HR or primary teaching.

• If you don’t know what you want to do, can book an interview with me at Careers reception (Keynes Driveway), by ringing 01227823299 or via https://careers.kent.ac.uk

Careers with an English Degree

Bruce Woodcock University of Kent Careers and Employability Service bw@kent.ac.uk

You can download a copy of this presentation at www.kent.ac.uk/careers/slides.htm

Moodle Careers Employability Award 14 Quizzes: need 75% to pass but allowed

unlimited attemptsComplete 3 of the following seven

assignments•Employability skills quiz•Employability skills quiz: drag & drop•How to develop the skills employers want?•Test your spelling and grammar!•What makes you happy at work?•How commercially aware are you?

•Special interests topic lesson•Interview preparation•Practice interview•What are the most common interview questions?•Aptitude tests and assessment centres•CV quiz•CVs and covering letters: drag & drop quiz•Career planning drag and drop quiz

•Analyse your skills and learn how to make top quality applications

•Do you want to live to work or work to live?

•Researching careers 

•Choosing a career

•Submit a CV

•Social media

•Action planning

www.kent.ac.uk/careers/moodle.htm