As a PhD student coming towards the end of writing your PhD thesis, submission is the priority and making many job applications is not easy now. Thinking about the future at this stage can be unnerving (unless you have been very well organised and secured a position already).

This post is to reassure those of you without firm plans that there are job opportunities for you and careers guidance available when you are ready to make use of it. You can book a careers appointment in advance and we suggest you book now and plan ahead. We can also point you towards specialist vacancy sites and other resources.

For example, hundreds of opportunities are currently listed on LSE CareerHub suitable for people with PhDs, and jobs.ac.uk is advertising 1,000 social science jobs too. Busy writing up, you won’t have time to make many applications but you could bookmark vacancies on those two sites, check the closing dates and ensure you have some information to get started as soon as you have time to apply.

LSE Careers works completely confidentially with you to help you make the best decisions about your career and develop your future plans. We can help you present yourself effectively for various different roles on paper and at interview. Catherine Reynolds is the Careers Consultant with responsibility for the career progression of LSE PhD students and she looks forward to meeting you, if we have not worked together yet!

Access to LSE Careers after you graduate 

Opportunities and events listed on CareerHub are available to you for five years after you complete your studies. You can continue to use our one-to-one services including appointments with our PhD careers adviser Catherine Reynolds. For information on alumni access please see our page on CareerHub access.

Find out more about support to LSE alumni on the LSE Careers website.