// Archives

References – What, Why, Who, When, Where

By Abigail Rowse, Employability Officer As an Employability Officer for the University’s Careers and Employability Service, I get asked regularly about references. If you’ve not been through the references process before, they can seem confusing. This blog aims to simplify them for you using the “five Ws” so you can feel confident when you are next asked to supply …

Failure Isn’t an Option… or Is It?

By Hannah Woolley, Employability Education Manager   Failure is bad, success is good. Right? Maybe not. Whatever the scale of your apparent whoopsy, whether you’ve had a minor mishap at work or things have gone belly up and a job change is on the cards. Here are three reasons why an occasional career catastrophe can …

Make A Difference Working For A Charity

By Lorna Airey, Employability Officer A recent Twitter poll for UoN students and alumni on career motivations revealed that 46% of respondents were primarily motivated by the idea of ‘making a difference’. There are many ways this can be achieved in a role and working for a charity is one of them.   What do you need to consider when pursuing a career …

Careers In Healthcare: It’s Not Just For Doctors And Nurses

By Abigail Rowse, Employability Officer When you read the phrase “careers in healthcare”, what comes to mind? If you’re anything like me, the first roles you think of are doctors and nurses, followed by possibly midwives, pharmacists, dentists, and ambulance drivers. These are all great careers – you could even study graduate entry nursing or …

Graduates With Autism Making a Difference in SMEs

By Henry Pynegar, General Manager of Power Vigilance Power Vigilance is a fast-growing Nottingham based business who have offered a range of work experience roles to students in recent years. Here they talk about their experience of hiring two graduates with autism, the adjustments they have made as a business to accommodate individual needs and …

Searching for Jobs Beyond Academia?

By Clare Jones, Senior Careers Adviser PhD researchers often begin a careers discussion with me by asking questions about where they should start looking for jobs. They may then add that they are uncertain about what career paths are open to them other than academia.  This second statement is crucial, as it’s difficult to effectively job search without having …

What to Love About SMEs?

By Kathryn Moss, Employability Officer Love is in the air, so we wanted to share our top 5 reasons to love small to medium-sized businesses! A small to medium-sized business is any business that employs fewer than 250 people and has an annual turnover of less than £50 million. According to a report by FSB …

How to write a chronological CV with little experience

By Sophie Blumenthal, Outreach Executive at CV-Library Ltd Chronological CVs are perhaps the most common type of CV and can be an effective way of marketing your experience and qualifications. They list your most recent jobs first and are great for showing off your career progression, especially if you’ve been promoted in a past role.   But what should you do if you …

Five Practical Tips for Your First Graduate Job

by Jenna Alexander, National Head of Internal Recruitment at Hays The beginning of your career is a constant learning curve. With the benefit of hindsight, what do experienced professionals wish they’d known when starting out? Here are five top tips for your first graduate role. 1. She or he who shouts the loudest doesn’t necessarily get furthest …

My Experience on the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme

By Freya Parker, MSci Natural Sciences (2017)  In my final year of my degree, I secured a place on the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme (GMTS) as a General Management Trainee. My experience so far has been challenging, fast-paced and, at times, I have felt out of my comfort zone. However, I am really grateful for how this has shaped my …