Helping you get to where you want to be when you graduate
Commercial awareness is all about having an understanding of the market a certain organisation operates in.
It is a sought after skill by employers, and having good commercial awareness when applying for a job might help you stand out from the crowd.
How can you improve your commercial awareness? We’ve done a round-up of some of the top resources about commercial awareness from mycareer.
We know that Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic students face specific and real barriers to career development. In light of the worldwide and local Black Lives Matter movement, we want to affirm our ongoing commitment to supporting our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students. (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!
At the end of March, we posted a blog about the ways that you can continue to develop your skills and employability from home. As the lockdown has continued, we’ve seen more and more students taking up these remote activities and finding ways to adapt their plans or practices in response to COVID-19.
Read about the experiences of some of these students below.
I am really passionate about sustainability so I applied to be an auditor with Green Impact in March. However, the lockdown came, and departments had to close their doors, which meant that I would not be able to audit in-person.
Luckily, The Green Impact staff team managed to transfer all our work online and it was extremely successful. I was able to interview the staff in the departments and review the work that they had done throughout the year virtually. It was really fun to have a chat with all of them.
I believe that now more than ever, other students should get involved in these sorts of opportunities. We are in a self-isolation bubble, where our minds are in more need of social interaction and our brains need different stimuli. Also, I feel it’ll be great for my employability, so, if possible, I advise others to stay active with volunteering from home!
Work experience is any opportunity which gives you experience of work, or the non-academic skills that will prepare you for work. It can be paid or unpaid experience and is not necessarily related to your degree or your future career plans. This can include internships, summer vacation jobs, volunteering, insight events and shadowing as well as self-driven projects.
Good quality work experience should:
We know that many of you have had your summer internships and work experience cancelled or are struggling to find opportunities.
Here are some ways we’d suggest you look for new opportunities for this summer.
You may have seen articles in the UK press about how coronavirus is affecting the UK graduate job market. Broadly speaking it’s a mixed outlook, with some sectors like hospitality badly affected whereas others, like healthcare and social work, are more robust. You can read a useful summary on Prospects.
At Bristol, one in four of you now are from overseas, so we’re actively using our relationships with global recruitment platforms and employers to collate information on job markets outside of the UK.
With student applications still open for next year’s Bristol Mentors programme we caught up with 2019 Politics and International Relations graduate Liberty O’Hagan about her time as a mentee during 2018/19. (more…)
We have launched a new internship fund to provide paid work experience of 4 weeks within Bristol-based small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
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:
What are Chambers of Commerce?
Chambers of Commerce are membership organisations which businesses can join to access services to help them grow and play a part in their local business community. They exist around the world at the local, regional and national level. Bristol Chamber of Commerce is run by Business West. You can easily find Chambers for your nearest home town or city, or home country, by searching online. For example, “[name of city] Chamber of Commerce.”
