Finding jobs and internships

JobsLive is a great place to start as all the opportunities will be suitable for STEM students/recent graduates, and you can filter them by industry sector, location, and job role. However, don’t limit your job search to this or any university jobs board as it won’t be a complete picture of all the opportunities out there.

Studying at Imperial also gives you access to exclusive opportunities to develop your employability, and to get career insights and experience. This includes the SME and White City Internship Scheme which offers Imperial students and recent graduates the opportunity to apply to paid, project-based internships over the summer vacation period.

The Careers Service at Imperial offers access to additional resources to help you search for jobs in the UK and abroad.  All contain jobs boards and are an easy way to start searching for opportunities.

GoinGlobal offers country-specific career and employment resources including worldwide job openings and a specific internship search, which can be used in the UK and abroad. 

Student Circus is a job search portal that helps current international students to search for jobs in the UK with organisations that sponsor visas.

You can access GoinGlobal and Student Circus for free via the Careers Service website.

A streamlined way to search for internships and graduate/entry-level jobs is by using websites created for students and recent graduates. The advantage of these websites is that you do not need to filter out the opportunities only available to experienced professionals. There are some graduate focused job websites that are starting to use generative AI to match and link students to roles. Please do be aware that as with many uses for generative AI, there is little research to prove it works. However, these sorts of websites can be interesting to include in your broader job search when used with caution and common sense.

The best-known graduate job boards are:

• Prospects - The UK's biggest graduate careers site, trusted by students and universities.
• TARGETjobs - Offers graduate schemes, internships and employer profiles.
• Milkround - Graduate roles and personality-based job matching.
• Gradcracker - The go-to platform for STEM students and graduates.
• Graduate-jobs.com - One of the largest graduate-only job sites in the UK.
• Graduate Recruitment Bureau (GRB) - Graduate careers hub offering tailored advice and job alerts.
• Bright Network - Combines job listings with networking events and virtual experiences.
• Give a Grad a Go - Great for graduates looking for jobs in start-ups and SMEs.
• GradSmart - Matches graduates to jobs using personality and skills.
• Student Ladder - Features internships, grad schemes and industry-specific advice.
• Save the Student - Student jobs, internships and financial tips.
• The Trackr - Lists of finance, technology and law internships, and graduate jobs.
• Forage - Virtual job simulations, job opportunities and work experiences.

Try to check a variety of different sites and not rely on one website alone, as each job board will have different opportunities from different employers.

Many areas of the jobs market have their own website for job hunting related to that area. You can find many of these in the Industry Links tab of the What can I do with my degree? webpages.

Most careers are supported by professional bodies - organisations that represent and support individuals and employers within specific industry sectors. While each professional body's website is different, they can be good starting points for exploring your chosen field. You'll often find valuable resources such as industry insights, tailored job boards, specialist publications and newsletters, and, often, directories of member organisations. These sites can also help you develop your commercial awareness and understand the steps needed to enter the profession. Head to the Professional Bodies tab of the What can I do with my degree? webpages to find those relevant to your degree.

The advantage of using specialist jobs boards and professional bodies is that you can find jobs directly linked to your interests. They also include jobs for more experienced professionals which could be interesting for you to read about as they can help you see the directions your career could develop in the future.

There are some well-known places to look for advertised jobs that have hundreds of thousands of opportunities listed though they can be overwhelming if you've never looked for a job before. However, once you have a clear idea of what you are looking for, they can be very useful. The most common websites are:

• Indeed - Powerful job search engine with filters for graduate and entry-level roles.
• LinkedIn - Job search, employer research and networking in one place.
• Reed - One of the UK's largest job sites with roles across all sectors.
• Guardian Jobs - Especially strong for media, education and public sector jobs.

Recruitment agencies act as an intermediary on behalf of employers to find suitable candidates to fill vacancies. Many specialise in a particular sector and have temp departments that applicants can sign up to, for casual or part-time work. You can find and search for relevant agencies for the industry or location on the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). There is also a handy introductory guide for students using recruitment agencies written by Agency Central.

There is a useful list of scientific recruitment agencies available at Scientific careers - The University of Nottingham under the Recruitment agencies tab.

Not all employers advertise all of their jobs. This is what is known as the hidden job market. Advertising a job is often expensive and if an employer gets lots of applications, it can take a long time for them to process all of these. Smaller companies don’t have the money or people to dedicate to this. To find these unadvertised jobs you will need to approach organisations speculatively. Our webpage on speculative applications can help you with ideas on how to do this. 

Large numbers of recruiters now have Facebook, X and LinkedIn profiles to share information with students and proactively look for talent. Follow companies you are interested in as many internships and jobs are advertised via social media.

Generative AI can also help you to source job listings. As with anytime you use generative AI, do be sure to sense check the outputs. For more information on using gen AI in your career planning, visit the Generative AI page.