Employer relations team

Connecting employers with brilliant minds

We see our working relationship with employers and potential employers as a series of partnerships. Below you will find the answers to our most frequently asked questions, but if you cannot find the answer there, please do get in contact and we will provide you with guidance on anything from talking through posting a job on the jobs board, to putting together a job description for an internship.

If you wish to advertise jobs or internships to our current MSc and MBA students, as well as our job-seeking alumni, please visit imperial-csm.symplicity.com. This service is free – you simply need to register with us. The system is intuitive, but full instructions are available here.

As a registered recruiter, you will be able to edit and remove job postings at any time. Interested students apply by being directed to either your website or an email address you provide.

Our Full-Time MBA students have an average of seven years’ work experience (and at least three) and are therefore looking for MBA programmes or experienced hire internships and full-time job opportunities.

Executive MBA students have an average of eight to 11 years’ work experience, depending on the cohort, and those who are job searching are usually looking for experienced hire roles only.

The majority of MSc students have little or no work experience: a maximum of two years that is usually limited to one or two internships or placements. You should look to advertise entry-level graduate/analyst roles or programmes.

Some students from our suite of finance programmes and MSc International Health Management may have up to five years’ relevant work experience.

Imperial College Business School runs mostly one-year full-time postgraduate MSc and MBA programmes, with the exception of three two-year part-time programmes: Executive MBA, Weekend MBA and Global Online MBA.

Our MSc students can start permanent work from early July onwards, although most would prefer a September start. Full-Time MBA students can start work from early September.

Executive MBA students may be able to start work at any time of year, either during their studies or after graduation; it depends on their individual situations.

Finance suite students predominantly look for jobs during the September to March window, with other MSc students looking between October and March. However, some MSc students will still be actively looking during the summer term.

MBA students tend to apply for roles most actively between March and September. However, as they are predominantly accessing the “just in time” experienced hire market, only a third graduate with job offers in hand. The other two thirds find jobs within six months of graduation (from September).

All MSc students can only undertake internships during the summer period (July and August). However, as they are all “final year” students, and many already have some internship experience, the majority tend to prefer to apply for full-time permanent opportunities when that is an option.

Current MSc students find it hard to take up internship or part-time opportunities before July due to the busy teaching schedule and heavy workload. However, if you are looking for interns to work outside the summer period, you might find a recently graduated student to undertake one.

MBA students can sometimes take up summer internship opportunities, but these must be approved by the MBA Programme Director by April. If possible, we prefer you to engage with our MBA students by submitting proposals for MBA Consultancy Projects between December and March each year. We do understand a small number of companies only hire through internships, and we can usually accommodate them.

MBA students do often look for short term consultancy assignments from September while they are conducting their search for permanent employment.

We do not advertise unpaid internships, so we suggest you pay an intern the pro rata equivalent of what you would pay a full time employee doing a similar role. Full guidance on best practice for high quality internships can be found on our website.

CV books for Full-Time MBA and MSc students are available on request from September each year. These can also be filtered based on your requirements if you let us know what you are looking for, such as candidates with specific foreign languages. You can contact any of the listed students directly if there is a profile of interest to you.

We also put together CV books for our Executive MBA and Weekend MBA students, but inclusion in these books is not mandatory. Finally, job-seeking alumni are not included in our CV books at all, so it is strongly recommended you also post information on our online job board.

Due to the high volume of MSc students, we cannot recommend individuals, but we can help you to target the appropriate talent pool in a variety of ways. These include creating CV books based on your requirements and facilitating events or activities to allow you to talent spot.

Please contact us to discuss your requirements for MBA and experienced hire as we may be able to identify suitable potential applicants who we can ensure are aware of your opportunities. If your needs are ongoing or annual, it is particularly important to contact us; the profile of our MBA students varies dramatically from year to year and we would like to establish ongoing long term relationships that support your business without the need for significant resource or regular advertising.

All recruitment channels are open to job-seeking alumni and many actively use our online jobs board. Our Careers Consultants form very strong bonds with students while they are here, which transform into strong relationships with our alumni. They can also be invited to recruitment presentations.

Contact us

If you have any further queries, please contact the Employer Relations team.