Career and Employability Services for postgraduate research students

Message from Careers and Employability Service

Are you a postgraduate research student who could benefit from some career advice? Now you can book a one-to-one career consultation via the Open University’s Careers and Employability Services (CES) here https://help.open.ac.uk/contact-a-careers-adviser. We recommend you do this after working through the resources relevant to your aspirations (see below) and identifying specific areas you would like to discuss.

“Great advice on how to improve my CV. I was really impressed by the in-depth information given and it has helped me greatly in my job search! I can only advise any PGR student to use this opportunity.”

OU student, 2018

Whatever your life and career ambitions beyond your postgraduate research qualification, the CES can equip you to realise your potential and progress your career in the world outside academic study. CES provides support to research students from the start of their studies with the OU up to three years after qualifying. We help you plan your future, navigate the job market and define and present your unique strengths in ways that make employers take notice, from CV building (https://help.open.ac.uk/topic/careers/category/cv-applications-interviews) to interview techniques (https://help.open.ac.uk/preparing-for-a-job-interview). From the careers website (https://help.open.ac.uk/topic/careers) you can access a wide range of useful web-based tools, online and downloadable resources, live and recorded training, webinars, specialist forums, and employer events. Everyone is different, so we have designed our services so that you can tailor them to your personal needs.

Postgraduate research students might be especially interested in resources focussed on applying for jobs within academia (https://help.open.ac.uk/applying-for-jobs-in-the-academic-sector). We also provide access to unique opportunities created by our partner employers via OpportunityHub (https://opportunityhub.open.ac.uk/students), our new upgraded and enhanced online platform for advertising vacancies and connecting with employers accessible for all OU students from mid-August 2018.