The first three days of the Faculty of Arts Careers Week took place from 26th-28th February. Students heard from over 27 alumni and professionals on their respective careers, as speakers shared their experiences of how they have progressed through their career from graduation, and how to forge a successful career. Tips and advice were given, and students were able to hear about the positives and negatives of a variety of roles and sectors.
Alumni spoke about a range of different areas of employment including:
- Law;
- Academia;
- Banking and finance;
- Teaching;
- Public relations, communications and marketing;
- Charity and not-for-profit;
- Government and Civil Service;
- Freelance careers in the performing arts.
A common theme was the huge variety of roles and positions available to students studying degrees from Arts, Humanities and Modern Languages. The breadth of roles available in the banking and finance sector were discussed – and it’s not all about number crunching. Roles in HR, Communications and Marketing, IT and many more are all available in financial institutions and can put you on a career path with lots of opportunity for progression. On the other hand, speakers from the ‘Freelancing in the creative industries’ talk mentioned the importance of either having a good accountant, or else developing your own accounting skills accordingly!
In many of the sessions, alumni also spoke of the need for students to make the most of the opportunities available to them now at Bristol, to think flexibly about their career and start thinking about work experience as early as possible.
Having as much experience as possible was frequently cited as vitally important, and was particularly emphasised by speakers in the ‘Charity and not for profit sector’ talk. Some kind of volunteering, part-time work or fundraising experience is likely needed to get a foot in the door of many organisations.
A lot of the sessions were very well attended but if you didn’t manage to get to the ones you were hoping to, you can find notes on most of the sessions here.
The Careers Service also has a great range of Sector Guides that can help you research and understand the different type of work involved and the sorts of roles graduates undertake.
Unfortunately, sessions that were due to run on the Thursday and Friday of Arts Careers Week were cancelled due to snow, but these are currently being rescheduled to take place at the end of April – so look out for information about these soon.