Making the most of your

Final Year
How we can help you
The Careers and Employability Centre offers a range of events,
activities, advice, and resources to help you prepare for
employment. This booklet will describe what kind of opportunities
are available, when to look for them and what you can do to
prepare.
Careers events
We run workshops and group sessions every week on many
aspects of job hunting and career planning. These topics include
CVs, interviews, understanding the graduate labour market, using
social media, and career exploration for different disciplines.
There are also regular employer talks that give you a chance to
find out more about what opportunities employers are offering and
what they are looking for in graduate applications.
To sign up for our events, go to sussex.ac.uk/careers/events

Careers Fair 2014
Our annual Career Fair will take place on Wednesday 5 November
in the Amex Community Stadium, Falmer. We will have over 100
employers and organisations from a wide range of sectors, all keen
to speak to students and graduates. Full details, including a list of
who will be there (updated daily), at
www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/careersfair14

Jobs database
We list graduate jobs on our database. There are more there than
you might imagine, currently over 400 graduate level jobs
advertised. You can sign up to receive jobs by email, or view them
through an RSS reader www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/jobs

Careers advice
Advisers are available every weekday to help you understand your
options, research them thoroughly, and make effective
applications. You can make an appointment any week day. Drop in
from 11am to 1pm, or book in advance for other times. To book an
appointment call 01273 678429

Skills
Study Success at Sussex (S3) is a website especially designed
to help you with your academic skills (writing dissertations, time
management, critical thinking, research skills and lots more). Visit
S3 now to make sure that you are studying effectively in your third
year: www.sussex.ac.uk/s3
Sussex Plus is our system to enable you to create online portfolios
and get feedback on them from our advisers. You can use it to
create a visual and distinct record your achievements.
www.sussex.ac.uk/sussexplus
Skillclouds is a resource in Sussex Direct that shows you the main
skills you are developing on your course. There are also examples
of how you can demonstrate your skills on your CV or in an
interview to show that you have the skills that employers want.
www.sussex.ac.uk/tldu/studentskills/skillclouds

Learning to Lead
Learning to Lead is a leadership development programme that is
open to all Sussex students. It includes a series of workshops in
leadership and management as well as a chance to present
yourself professionally to Sussex alumni.
Successful participants will have a chance chance to access 1-to-1
coaching with Clemorton, leading to study membership of the
Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM)
www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/learningtolead
Finding work
From the start of the academic year, employers will have
opportunities available for Sussex graduates. In larger
organisations, these may be formal training programmes called
graduate schemes.
Graduate jobs are available through the year. You can follow our
jobs database to see opportunities as they come up.
www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/jobs/search
Throughout the year employers give presentations in the Careers
Centre. This is a good way to find opportunities that could interest
you.

September/October 2014
Many larger organisations have their deadlines for recruitment
before Christmas, so it is important to start researching and
applying as soon as possible.
At the start of the year graduate careers directories will be
available in the Careers and Employability Centre. You can also
start researching opportunities online. Browse our Sector Guides
to find careers that would interest you and find out how to apply
www.guides.careers.sussex.ac.uk
You can find a list of graduate schemes available on
www.sussex.ac.uk/jobs/graduateschemes

October/November 2014
Graduate Fair in London is the largest graduate careers fair in the
UK and takes place on 14 October autumn.
www.londongradfair.co.uk


November/December 2014
On 5 November you can meet a range of employers at Brighton
and Sussex Universities Careers Fair 2014 in the AMEX stadium.
If you can, this would be a good time to organise work shadowing
in fields that interest you.

January/February 2015
Our Make it happen! events are a chance to meet Sussex alumni
from fields you may want to work in, and to find out about their
careers. www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/events

March/April 2015
Small and medium sized organisations often begin their
recruitment at around this time.

May/June 2014
There are a number of summer recruitment fairs, where you can
meet with employers and find work.
During June we will organise a series of events to give finalists
another opportunity to meet graduate employers

Later in 2015
If you have not found work yet, do not worry. Companies recruit all
the year round, and you can continue to receive help from the
Careers and Employability Centre for three years after you
graduate.





Other optons
Further study
23% of Sussex students go into further study and training after
their final year. This could be an academic course, such as a
masters, but it may also be a professional qualifications, such as
teacher training, or a conversion course to get into law. For more
information go to
www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/careerchoices/furtherstudy
Sussex offers funding for graduates who do further study at this
university www.sussex.ac.uk/study/funding
There are regular events where you can learn more about further
study at Sussex www.sussex.ac.uk/study/visitus/pg including a
Postgraduate Open Day on 28 January 2015.
Investigate options for funding your postgraduate study. Take time
to research courses. It helps to find out about costs, content, extra
funding options from the university, and application deadlines.

Working abroad
If you want to travel, you can find work abroad as an English
teacher, or on a working holiday. There are also companies that
offer you an opportunity to volunteer abroad. For more information
go to www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/careerchoices/international
There are many organisations that offer a chance to work abroad,
these include
Recruitment of English teachers in Japan through the JET
Scheme www.jet-uk.org. They will be holding a event in the
Careers and Employability Centre on 9 October.
The British Council begin recruitment of Language Assistants
in October www.britishcouncil.org/languageassistants
Sector specifc informaton
Our Sector Guides are clear and comprehensive guides to
working in many different areas. You can use them to get an idea
of routes into work, what qualifications you will need, and how to
prepare your job applications. You can find them at
www.guides.careers.sussex.ac.uk.
Here are a few of the routes you can take to get a job you want:

Teaching
There are multiple routes into teaching you can research them at
www.guides.careers.sussex.ac.uk/teaching/training
Many teacher training courses recruit through UCAS. There will be
two phases of applications: in Apply 1 you can select three
courses you would like to apply for with a single application form.
In Apply 2 you apply to one training programme at a time. Apply 2
is only open to students who sent off an application as part of
Apply 1 and did not receive or accept a place.
The dates to apply can be found on the UCAS website
www.ucas.com/teacher-training

Health
The NHS Management Scheme is open for applications in
October 2014 the deadline is in the end of November
www.nhsgraduates.co.uk
The NHS Scientist Training Programme usually recruits in January
or February www.nhscareers.nhs.uk
Graduate Entry Medicine is a route to train to be a doctor, more
information is at www.medicalcareers.nhs.uk
Civil Service
The Civil Service Fast Stream is the main graduate schemes for
civil service work. You can apply between September and
November for more information go to
www.faststream.civilservice.gov.uk
The Local Government National Graduate Development
Programme is a graduate scheme for public sector work. It recruits
between November and December. The website is
www.ngdp.org.uk
The Department For International Development (DFID) opens
recruitment in January 2015 for more information visit
www.gov.uk/dfid

Advertising
Many larger advertising firms
have deadlines early in the year,
so it is a good idea to research
and apply for schemes as early
as possible.
The IPA Ad School offers jobs in
marketing firms and recruitment
starts in February 2014 their
website is
www.ipa.co.uk/adschool
Between January and February you can apply to do a summer
internship with Creative Pioneers. www.creativepioneers.co.uk

Entrepreneurship
StartUp Sussex Entrepreneurship is a programme of events and
a competition where you can win funding to set up a commercial or
social enterprise. www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/startupsussex
Law
Students studying Law who want
to work in the legal sector need to
apply for training and start looking
for work.
If you want to be a Solicitor then
you can apply for the Legal
Practice Course from October
2013. You will also need to enrol
with the Solicitors Regulation
Authority before you start your
LPC. It is also a good idea to start
applying for training contracts as
some companies will be recruiting
trainee solicitors for 2015.
If you want to work as a Barrister then the first step is to apply for
a BPTC and research funding options. The deadline for Inns of
Court BPTC scholarships is the first week of November.
Applications for a Pupillage are made in March/April 2015 though
the Pupillage Portal.

Law (for non-law students)
You can apply for Christmas internships to get more experience.
A common deadline for applying is 31 October.
In the Spring term, you can apply for Summer internships and
for law conversion courses, a usual deadline for conversion
courses is the start of February
In the Summer term, you can apply for training contracts (a
common deadline is 31 July) and smaller firms recruit for Summer
internships.
Afer you graduate...
The Careers and Employability Centre can continue to help you for
three years after you leave Sussex.
If you leave Brighton, you can get help from us long distance by
phone or email. We can answer questions and review applications
by email, and we can book you appointments to speak with out
advisers over the phone.
Our email address is careers@sussex.ac.uk and our phone
number is 01273 678429
You can also follow us on Twitter @SussxUniCareers and
Facebook www.facebook.com/SussexCareers. We also have a
LinkedIn Group called Sussex Careers
When you graduate you can join The Alumni Network, which is a
tool students can use to learn from successful Sussex graduates
www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/sussexplus/alumni