Tips on finding a graduate opportunity

Careers Connect is a system for booking event places and viewing vacancies for jobs and work experience opportunities. Hundreds of opportunities, based locally, nationally and globally, are on the system each week and more are added daily.

Complete your free online registration by following these steps:

• Go directly to the graduate registration page.
• Once your registration has been approved, you should receive an email with a password; you will then be able to login to Careers Connect.
• On first login, you will need to complete your profile, including setting your preferences for the job alerts that you receive.
• If you experience any difficulties with this registration process, email your questions to us at careersenquiries@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

• Once you have created your graduate account on Careers Connect, take a look at the careers events being run by Careers Network – all are open to graduates.
• Careers Network is proud to present a series of specialist recruitment fairs focusing on career opportunities in a wide range of industry sectors. These fairs are attended by a breadth of employers ranging from smaller businesses through to larger multinational organisations.
• Careers Network also run workshops with employers through the Getting to Know events, and run sessions about particular professions and sectors through the Insight Into events.

• There are plenty of options that don't involve going into permanent paid employment. You don't have to jump into a career right away; recruitment agencies can help you pick up experience whilst working out what you would like to do longer term.
• Work experience isn't just for students; more and more people are finding that graduate work experience and internships can be a great way into a career. Find out about our graduate internships.
• If you are local to Birmingham, explore opportunities available within the West Midlands region. Read our tips to finding local opportunities and support.

• Keep in touch with us through one of our social media accounts - join Careers Network on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
• Apply for the Careers Mentoring scheme to help you crystallise your career goals and plan your next steps by learning from a professional in industry – applications open in October and January each year.
• Build your network by making speculative applications to companies or organisations of interest.

• There are lots of types of postgraduate study opportunities available. Search postgraduate courses on Prospects for the right course for you.

To find out which professional body is most relevant for your area of career interest, you can visit:

• The job/sector profiles pages on Prospects - and go to the sections on ‘Training’ or ‘Employers and vacancy sources’.
• The Directory of the Professions website provides a comprehensive UK list of professional bodies and organisations. The site also offers news and articles on many of these organisations as well as YouTube videos.