Helping you get to where you want to be when you graduate
Now that the doors of the Careers Service on 5 Tyndall Avenue are temporarily closed, we’ve moved our Welcome Desk online in the form of our live chat service.
On the Careers Service website, between 9:30 am and 4:30 pm, Monday to Friday – you can speak to a friendly and expert member of the Careers Service team who are there to help with any careers questions you might have. Here are seven things you should know about our live chat.
Meeting with employers does involve networking – which we know can seem terrifying! But don’t let that put you off coming to talk to some of the 300 plus employers that come to Careers Service events every year. There’s so much you get from coming along. Here’s our top five:
Coming along to a large scale employer event, like one of our Sector Spotlight Series (27 October to 11 November) events, is a great way to get a lot of information quickly. There’s no better bang for your buck than being able to research multiple employers on the same day.
As you’ll be speaking directly with employers, you get the inside scoop on the work culture and can get answers to questions that aren’t on their website or FAQs list. Employer representatives might include recent Bristol graduates who can tell you all about their work. Come and get the gossip!
Employers come to our events because they want to hire Bristol students. They will have work experience and internships on offer as well as graduate jobs. Recruiters will often hire people to their full time roles that have completed work experience with them, so you can get in there early.
Meeting employers in person (even if that is through Zoom!) is the best way to make a good impression. The people you meet might be a future interviewer, so you can make a good contact and start to stand out from the crowd early on. You can also ask for tips on making applications 👍
It doesn’t matter if you’re starting to explore your options or ready to apply for opportunities, you can get useful information from an employer. The range of employers we connect with is huge – large and small, local and international – and from a huge array of sectors.
At our Sector Spotlight Series, you can meet employers from:
👋 We look forward to seeing you there!
And if you’re worried about networking, use our resources to build your confidence, our elevator pitch builder to prepare your introduction, and our how to prepare guide for ideas about questions to ask. Remember, you can always ask your Careers Service for help through our live chat too.
Your Careers Service connects you with employers – large and small, local and international. Every year we link Bristol students and graduates to over 300 employers, and are one of the top five most targeted UK universities by employers (High Fliers).
We’ve been in this position for the last ten years, so we’re not going to let this new, mostly digital world stop us! This autumn term, we are bringing over 100 employers directly to you through our Careers Showcase Week and Autumn Fair (19 to 23 October).
As the new academic year starts, we are so excited to welcome you all back and *drumroll please* open the Bristol PLUS Award for registration! (more…)
Interested in start-ups or aspire to be an entrepreneur while befriending some like minded creatives? 3 Day Start-up is for you!
3 Day Startup (3DS) was founded by a group of students in 2008 who wanted to make entrepreneurship more accessible for students. Through the years, 3DS have worked with over 16,000 students in 35 countries, across 6 continents, and this year’s programme will be held at the University of Bristol!
Run in partnership between SETSquared and the Basecamp Enterprise team, 3DS is a free 72-hour workshop which teaches entrepreneurial skills to university students in a fun, supportive and hands on environment. Usually run on campus, this year’s programme will run as a virtual learning-by–doing workshop where students from partnership universities; Bristol, Bath, Southampton, Exeter and Surrey work collaboratively to solve ideas and generate credible business ventures.
We know that coming to the Careers Service can be a game-changing moment, even if it might feel a bit daunting at first. You may not even be sure what support we can offer to you.
We also know that the best people to tell you (and us!) about the benefits of using the Careers Service are students who have been in the same position. We caught up with Kofo, BA History graduate 2020, to find out what she had to say about her experience with Careers during her degree. (more…)
We are often greeted with surprise from both students and graduates visiting the Careers Service for the first time: “I never knew there was so much here!” and “I wish I had got in touch before now” are common reactions.
We also know that students are often reluctant to get in touch with us, feeling that they need to have a specific reason to talk to us – you don’t!
The New Enterprise Competition drew to a close last week and the winner of the Growth stage was Kaedim, winning £10,000 and 12 months incubation at SETSquared.
Kaedim, launched in 2019 by Computer Science with Innovation students Konstantina Psoma and Roman Bromidge, is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) start-up which turns sketches into 3D models. Their degree based at the Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship alongside the help of the Basecamp Enterprise Team, allowed them to develop their idea, enhance their entrepreneurial skills and draw on a pool of expert industry mentors.
Over the course of the year, the Basecamp Enterprise Team received over 100 applications to take part in the Ideas, Development and Growth stages of the competition. Winning the competition gives students, graduates and staff the opportunity to win prize money and unlock support packages to help develop and grow their start-up ideas- whether it be a business, charity or social enterprise!
Here’s what Kaedim had to say about winning this years’ top prizes:
Did you make it to Social Sciences and Law Careers Week 2020?
From 10 – 14 February this year professionals working in a range of career paths popular with Social Sciences and Law graduates came to share their career advice and experience. We heard panel discussions on careers in ‘Government and Policy’, ‘Academia and Research’, ‘Marketing and Communications’, as well as ‘Using Your Degree to Make a Difference’.
If you missed out on any of the talks, don’t sweat! We’ve pulled together information on the speakers’ career paths and their headline hints and tips from each event in a handy Careers Week Resource.
To start you off, here are our five key takeaways from the week:
Calling all Bristol’s budding entrepreneurs! On Tuesday 11 February we welcome the first Start-up drinks of the decade!
Start-up drinks is an event run on the second Tuesday of every month in collaboration between The University of Bristol’s Basecamp Enterprise Team and The University of the West of England (UWE).
Whether you have an entrepreneurial idea, an established and growing business or you are simply interested in entrepreneurship and growing your networks, this is the place to be. But don’t just take our word for it! We spoke to local businesses and students about what they heart most about Start-up Drinks…
Why did you attend Start-up Drinks?
I found out about the event while looking through the Careers Service page last year and decided to attend for a variety of reasons. I wanted to learn more about being an entrepreneur and to find out what’s going on in the local start-up community. I wanted to meet other people who might be helpful in making my start-up a reality like co founders and investors as well as customers.
Start-up Drinks is a friendly environment for students who want to get started with entrepreneurship. It is where you can meet other supportive and likeminded people. It may be just what you need to take that first step into turning your business idea into reality.
Always know why you are there. Have a friendly smile, be yourself and listen! (more…)