Engineer your career

Engineer your career

There is a high demand worldwide for electrical and electronic engineers, and you’ll be able to take your pick from a wide range of careers across many sectors: including computer systems and information technology, medical and consumer electronics, robotics, mobile communication, power generation, defence and security, transport, design consultancy, management consultancy and finance.

Careers

Undergraduate

Preparing for work

Support for your future career starts from the day you join us. The decisions and actions of engineers have a far-reaching impact on society and the world we live in. From the start of your degree course, you’ll discover how professional skills will help you become more effective as an engineer. You’ll be equipped to make your ideas real, and to explain technical subjects to others through powerful and persuasive written and spoken presentations. We’ll help you understand how to rise to the challenges faced by engineering businesses.

The Department is a member of the IET Power Academy and the UK Electronics Skills Foundation. Both these schemes are intended to provide talented engineers for UK industry. Successful student candidates are matched with sponsoring companies who provide a bursary, paid summer work placements and mentoring. Our Imperial College Careers Service runs graduate recruitment events throughout the year, and provides comprehensive and targeted support with job vacancies, career planning, CV writing, applications, interviews and more. The Department also hosts its own annual Electrical Engineering careers fair with presentations from recruiters. Recent participants include BP, Imagination Technologies, Samsung, Cisco, and Jaguar Land Rover, and we’ve also visited Rolls-Royce and ARM.

Real-life experience

The third year of our MEng course is structured to include a six month industrial placement as part of your degree (as an alternative to a group based industrial design project). Placements are arranged by students; the Department assists with information and introductions to participating companies. These extensive placements run from April to September, allowing you to tackle significant industrial projects that help develop skills in solving real engineering problems, and provide invaluable experience of engineering as it is really practised.

In addition many students spend their summer vacations working for companies around the world. These vacation jobs help them decide which industry is for them, and where their future career will lay.

Employers tell us that alongside your degree qualifications, they place a great emphasis on technical and professional skills, and the application of these skills in a real working environment.  Summer jobs and the industrial placement all provide valuable experience, and will enhance your job prospects.

After graduation

Each year around 65% of our students enter employment, and a further 25% go on to further study either in the UK or overseas. Find out more about career outcomes for Imperial undergraduates.

Recent graduates have started work as:

  • Cyber security consultant, BAE Systems Detica
  • Fixed income strategist, Goldman Sachs
  • Site reliability engineering, Google
  • iPlayer developer, BBC
  • Graduate engineer, BBoxx

MSc

Preparing for work

You face a unique challenge to develop academic and professional skills while engaged in a short period of intensive study. In recognition of this challenge, the Graduate School has created a set of workshops and lectures to develop and enhance your employability.

The Imperial MasterClass programme gives an introduction to each of the topics, offering training to support professional development such as ‘Public Speaking’, as well as improving academic performance and progression, for example ‘Preparing and Writing a Literature Review’ and ‘Research Ethics’.  The workshops are short, lasting between 1.5 and 2.5 hours and have been made optional in recognition of the time restrictions faced by Master's students.

The Imperial College Careers Service runs graduate recruitment events throughout the year, and provides comprehensive and targeted support with job vacancies, career planning, CV writing, applications, interviews and more.
 

After graduation

Many students return to their home country and seek employment there.  The Careers Service provides support and guidance for students wishing to work in their home country.

Other students go on to study for a PhD either at Imperial College or elsewhere.

Recent graduate employment includes:

  • Control systems engineer, Schlumberger (MSc Control Systems)
  • Graduate rail engineer, Atkins (MSc Control Systems)
  • Ford Motor Company, China (MSc Control Systems)

PhD

Developing your skills

The Graduate School's Professional Skills Development programme is one of staged learning to ensure that you acquire basic research skills at the start of your doctoral studies and continue to develop as a well rounded researcher, gaining the skills and experience to successfully complete your research degree and move on. The programme is an integral part of your research degree and you should use it to support your personal development. The courses vary in length and format, from one-hour lectures to three-day interactive workshops.   These include a specialist course on job searches for PhD which provides an insight into how the UK graduate recruitment market works for PhDs with up-to-date information about potential vacancy sources, as well as strategies for successful job hunting including networking.

The Careers Service runs graduate recruitment events throughout the year, and provides comprehensive and targeted support with job vacancies, career planning, CV writing, applications, interviews and more.

After graduation

Many PhD graduates are employed by the Department as Research Associates for a short period (6 months-18 months) after graduation to continue work related to their research.  Others find positions as researchers or university lecturers, or go to work in industry.

Recent PhD graduate employment includes:

  • power engineers at UK Power Networks, National Grid, EDF (Control and Power)
  • research engineers at Alstrom, Schlumberger, Google, Microsoft
  • work in financial sector at HSBC, Nomura