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Farah Chowdhury

March 15th, 2016

Career tips for undergraduates

1 comment

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Farah Chowdhury

March 15th, 2016

Career tips for undergraduates

1 comment

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Whether you’re a first, second or third year it’s never too late to start thinking about your future career! Read our tips below to get started:

You don’t have to do something related to your subject

Many employers will accept a graduate from any degree discipline so your career options can be much broader than you thought! However, if you do want to use your degree as a starting point visit the Prospects what can I do with my degree webpage or look at the destinations from other students from your course. Remember LSE Careers isn’t just for those who know what they want to do! You’re welcome to come and discuss your career options – just book an appointment on CareerHub.

Don’t forget to consider your interests and strengths

The first step when thinking about what career might suit you is to reflect on your values and what will make you satisfied in your future job. For example are you someone that thrives in a competitive environment or would you like to avoid this? Is salary important to you or would you sacrifice a lower salary for a better work-life balance and a job that helps others and society? You should also reflect on your strengths in order to find a job where you can put these into practice. Use our Career Builder tool to consider this further or talk to one of our Careers Consultants.

Your first job won’t be your job for life

Taking LSE Careers as an example, our staff in their first 10 years of work have had anywhere from 4–8 jobs. You’ll get a better understanding of your interests and preferences as you move through your career so see your first job as a stepping stone rather than your final destination. So don’t worry if you don’t get it perfectly right first time!

Don’t feel like you have to follow the crowd

Try not to feel pressured to follow what those around you are applying for or just consider a particular career area because you happen to have heard or seen a lot about it on campus. The career areas you hear a lot about on campus are those with large marketing and recruitment budgets but there may be other areas not as heavily publicised that might be more suitable for you, for example smaller or newer organisations.

Get involved with clubs, societies and volunteering

Meet new people, have fun and develop the transferable skills that employers look for by getting involved with clubs, societies and volunteering. The Student Union has over 200 societies you can join plus sports, media and RAG opportunities. LSE Careers also has a dedicated Volunteer Centre. Your time at LSE will go very quickly so make sure you make the most of all the opportunities on offer!

Look for opportunities to make your course relevant to future career

Can you choose courses or a dissertation topic to give you a specialism that is of growing importance or valuable to employers in your field of interest? For example you may develop a specialism in a particular country or region by taking a module in the history or political economy of that area, and by studying the relevant language.

Build your network

We’re very lucky at LSE to have many employers on campus frequently for fairs, presentations, breakfasts, and seminars. In addition you can use the LSE alumni mentoring network or you may wish to reach out to LSE alumni through LinkedIn.

 

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Farah Chowdhury

Posted In: Career planning | LSE Careers

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