Career Preparation

Career preparation is the part of university work that most students leave until the final term and most regret leaving that late. The course frames it as a 12-month project, ideally beginning in the second-year summer for undergraduates, that runs alongside academic work rather than after it. It covers CV and LinkedIn positioning for graduate roles — specifically, the difference between a CV that lists academic achievements (rarely persuasive to graduate-scheme recruiters who see hundreds) and one that demonstrates specific applied skill (a section project, a research paper, a paid internship, a society leadership role with measurable outputs). It covers internships honestly: the most useful ones are the ones that test whether a career direction is actually interesting, not the ones with the most prestigious names. It covers the strategic use of the final 12 months — choosing a dissertation topic with one eye on portfolio relevance, taking optional modules that build a coherent narrative, leveraging coursework relationships into reference letters and informal mentoring. And it covers the honest comparison between the post-university paths: industry, postgraduate study (taught master’s, research master’s, PhD), professional training (law conversion, medicine graduate entry, qualified accountancy), and entrepreneurial paths. The framing the course takes throughout: the goal is not to optimise for any single outcome but to maintain real optionality through the final year — which means doing several small things well rather than one large thing perfectly, and treating the next-step decision as an actual decision rather than a default into whatever comes easiest.

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