Students talking in Dalby CourtThe Careers Service collaborates with staff to ensure that our students are receiving the right careers and transferable skills support at the right time for their needs. Each department has a dedicated careers consultant who is best placed to understand the unique needs of individual programmes and discuss with staff ideas on:

  • Including transferable skills and employability into programmes in line with the Learning and Teaching Strategy by creating and running bespoke workshops, either in person or online
  • Supporting personal tutors and PhD supervisors with career and personal development for tutees. Please see below for initial ideas
  • Meeting the needs of students to achieve Imperial Graduate attributes
  • Providing employment data including graduate outcome data, labour market information and support in writing references as required

We also work with many other departments across college to support career and professional development such as the Graduate School, the Postdoc and Fellow Development Centre and the Educational Development Unit. If you would like to discuss further collaborations, please contact us directly.

Imperial staff

Services for staff working with students

Each department has a dedicated careers consultant who works closely with the departments careers advisers (DCAs) to ensure bespoke and timely careers support is offered. Please feel free to email your appropriate contact with any questions or queries you may have or you can email careers and we will direct you accordingly.

In many departments we also work with programme leads and academics to provide integrated transferable skills training within curriculum. Here a few examples of sessions we run within various departments:

  • 1st year Mechanical Engineering – Teambuilding sessions to support group work
  • 2nd year Med Bio – Reflection sessions to support LabPod 2 assessment
  • 3rd year Computing – Time management to support more flexible module choices
  • 4th year Physics – Objective setting to support project development
  • Faculty of Medicine Masters programmes – Networking for success

We are happy to discuss individual programme needs and create bespoke content to fit with individual programmes.

Services for Imperial postdocs

  • Confidential one to one discussions

    These may be used for interview practice, preparing CVs and applications, working out careers ideas and strategy for achieving the next stage in your professional life, or for any topic you wish to discuss. See how to book an appointment with a careers consultant.

    Please note: Postdocs are limited to two one to one discussions per academic year.

  • Career development courses

    Courses covering planning your career in and outside academia, preparing for interviews for academia and outside are available during the year. Full details of these courses and how to book are given on the Postdoc and Fellows Development Centre web pages.

  • Careers events

    The Careers Service organises a number of activities throughout the year: for example: science and engineering fairs, careers talks, employer presentations. See our What's on webpages.

  • Vacancies and employer information

    See the Jobs and experience webpages, and browse JobsLive for the most recent job vacancies and registered employers. 

    Additional help and support can be found via the Vitae website

Careers support for staff

Organisational Development and Inclusion offer support for staff career and professional development.

The Careers Service is funded to support students and does not offer careers guidance to College staff apart from postdocs or to Imperial Alumni within three years of graduation.

Information for personal tutors

The Careers Service is happy to support personal tutors in any way needed. Each department has a dedicated careers consultant who work closely with each department's departmental careers advisers (DCAs) to ensure bespoke and timely careers support is offered. Alternatively, you can email careers and we will direct you accordingly.

To help you support your tutees, here is some key advice along with links to explore further:

Early years

  • Encourage them to get involved in extracurricular activities that they are interested in and will build their transferable skills. The Student Union has a range of societies and volunteering support.
  • Prompt them to start exploring their career options either by looking at the First year zone or what other students with their degree have done on the careers website
  • Suggest that they start building up their networking skills either by attending a careers fair or going along to a networking event in an area they have an interest.
  • Urge them to consider how they are using their summer holiday. A break is always good but they could also include doing a UROP, some work shadowing or developing an area of a charity on our Professional Project Fund.

Penultimate year

  • Remind them to make the most of what the Careers Service has to offer. Internships with large companies are advertised up to a year in advance so registering on Jobslive and signing up for the weekly email is a good start.
  • If tutees are not sure what they are want to do, booking an appointment to see a careers consultant can help with this.

Final year/Masters students

  • Check what their plans are for next year. Graduate schemes and postgraduate study deadlines are generally during the first semester. Many jobs are advertised via our Jobslive portal
  • For Masters Students, the Moving Forward series seminars run by the Graduate School offer bespoke support on a range of useful topics.
  • Encourage them to attend career events they are interested in.
  • CVs, cover letters or applications for any position can be checked by the careers service either in person or remotely via My CVs (available via Jobslive).
  • Reassure tutees that they can continue to access the careers service as an Alumni for up to three years.

For more in-depth ideas on career development linked to an undergraduate student or masters student journey, then follow this link to our UG and Masters careers ideas‌.

If you are tutoring a student on an MBBS, please email the medical careers consultant for support.

Information for PhD supervisors

Information for PhD Supervisors

The Careers Service is happy to support PhD supervisors in anyway needed. Each department has a dedicated careers consultant who work closely with the departent's departmental careers advisers (DCAs) to ensure bespoke and timely careers support is offered. Alternatively, you can email careers and we will direct you accordingly.

The Careers Service works with the Graduate School to deliver a range of Personal Progression workshops. These can be accessed at any stage throughout a students PhD and often the earlier the better, especially in topics such as Networking and Career Planning.

To help you support your student, here is some key advice along with links to explore further:

1st year

  • It is never too early to consider careers post-PhD so encourage students attend a Career Planning session specifically designed for 1st year PhDs.
  • Many PhD focused careers events happen in the Spring term. Students can stay in touch by signing up to the weekly Careers email via their jobslive account.
  • Make the most of networking opportunities through Imperial links and beyond. Learn more about networking or find subject specific opportunities via our departmental guides.

2nd-3rd year

  • Building transferable skills is important throughout a PhD. Discuss what else your student is doing as well as their study. Potentially becoming a GTA, volunteering or joining a society with the Student Union or attending careers events could help with this.
  • If your student is interested in working in Industry, or collaborating with Industry (and is EPSRC funded), explore if the Graduate Schools Innovation Placements might be helpful.
  • Mid-PhD is a good time to discuss and plan for next career steps. The Careers Service offers one to one appointments every weekday which are bookable on the day.

Final year

  • Many industrial recruiters only recruit to their graduate programmes once a year, often between September and December so encourage your student to explore their timeline so they don’t miss out.
  • There is a wealth of information to support CV, application and interview skills on The Careers Service website. The Imperial Guide to CVs has CVs specifically for PhDs students who want to stay within Academia or move into Industry.
  • Often during writing up it is difficult to focus on making other decisions so reassure students that they can continue to access the careers service as an Alumni for up to three years.

For more in-depth ideas to support the careers journey of PhD students, please see our PhD Careers Journey ideas document.