Career Opportunities
Many postgraduate students, in particular those on taught courses, undertake further study specifically to enhance their career and employment prospects. If you are thinking of a postgraduate qualification for this reason, Cardiff has an impressive graduate employment record. Traditionally postgraduates of all disciplines are in demand across a range of careers and Cardiff is an institution targeted by employers recruiting recent postgraduates. In 2008, for example, the latest set of data available, 93% of our postgraduates of known destination were undertaking employment or further study - many in careers they had specifically chosen.
A school-specific breakdown of graduate career destinations can be found on the Careers Service website .
The Cardiff University Careers Service
Whether your career plans are fairly well-developed, or your thinking is at a more tentative stage, Cardiff's Careers Service, in particular, can help you develop your post-graduation career goals. The Careers Service helps both current and prospective postgraduate students, whether you are a Cardiff graduate or from another institution.
At the application stage, information and advice are available on postgraduate courses and research opportunities, the vocational implications of specific schemes and possible sources of funding. There is a comprehensive Information room and an often postgraduate-specific programme of activities, which include occupational, and employer information sessions and fairs, as well as job-search workshops. Employers seeking to recruit graduates regularly visit the University and many students take advantage of these visits and attend recruitment fairs to secure positions of employment.
Postgraduate students can also opt to take the "Postgraduate Personal and Career Development Program" run by the Careers Service. This series of workshops, tailored to postgraduate needs, is run at the Graduate Centre, where students can attend workshops on writing applications, CVs, interview technique, teamwork and presentation skills. Postgraduates are also given the opportunity to benefit from the experience of paid work placements across Wales. One-to-one guidance is provided by your subject-specific Career Consultant.
For more information about any of these services, please see the Careers Service website .
The Employer’s View
Celtic Technologies is a Cardiff-based Environmental Consultancy specialising in Contaminated Land, especially Risk Assessment and Remediation work. It currently employs 60 people and has had close links with Cardiff University’s School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences over many years.
Barry Ellis, Technical Director at Celtic Technologies is "very impressed" by the 9-10 postgraduates he has employed from the MSc course in Applied Environmental Geology since the company started 10 years ago.
"Not only do they have the baseline abilities we are looking for — good communication skills, team players, willingness to continue learning on the job — but they can also relate their studies to the real world of work
Most of the Cardiff postgraduates he has employed have undertaken their practical project for their dissertation with his firm. "It’s an excellent opportunity to see whether they like our work and whether we like them — it’s very much a two-way process".
Barry Ellis, Technical Director Celtic Technologies
The Graduate’s View
"I completed the two-year MSc in City and Regional Planning in 2001. I was attracted to the course by the good reputation of the School of City and Regional Planning and encouraged to stay by the availability of an ESRC studentship. The course was diverse and I really enjoyed the opportunity it gave me to experience planning practice.
I now work as a Planning Consultant in the private sector in Cardiff, where I have been involved in planning policy research for the Welsh Assembly Government, as well as mainstream planning research. I am delighted that my degree at Cardiff has opened so many doors for me, which is thanks to the strong links between the university and local and regional interests".
Jillian Hastings, former City and Regional Planning Student