If you know exactly what you want to do

• You're still likely to benefit from help with finding Jobs and Opportunities.
• Most graduates could improve their techniques at Applications & Interviews.

If you have vague ideas

• Start with considering the various Options with your Degree.
• If those don't meet your inclinations, work through our lists of Occupations & Employers. The profiles will tell you the basics of what you need to do a particular job and suggest similar opportunities which might be worth exploring.

If you have no ideas

• Analyse your Skills & Qualities to help you get a grasp of the jargon employers use and to focus on your strengths and weaknesses.
• Use the Prospects Planner computer guidance system to identify possible career paths from your skills, capabilities, character and interests.
• Consider the variety of Options with your Degree.
• Make a list of options you probably wouldn't enjoy but be aware of Myths about Careers and avoid pigeonholing both employers and yourself.
• Research the Occupations & Employers which might interest you or about which you know little or nothing. Pay particular attention to the skills required in the day to day work. Make a shortlist of the most interesting, relevant, or practical options. Your aim is to refine your shortlist to a handful of possibles.
• Arrange for a Quick Query appointment to plan your next steps. Check whether you need another course, more work experience, can you start to apply now or should you wait and where do you find vacancies?
• When you've done more research, you may want to see a Careers Adviser for a longer Guidance Appointment. The adviser will help you decide how you should plan your next steps. If you've used Prospects Planner, take your printout with you.
   

General Advice

• If it doesn't work out you can try something else. Most people change jobs several times, and many make a radical switch in their career direction. Your first job doesn't pigeonhole you for life.
• Remember the truism 'a graduate job is what a graduate does'. Only a fraction of new graduates apply for, and get onto, the highly competitive management training schemes offered by big national and multi-national organisations. Your aim is to find something which will fulfill you and enable you to progress into the challenging future of your choice. The Careers Centre and its staff exist to help you do just this.