If you’re interested in becoming a consultant, Deloitte are running a case study event at the Careers Service to give you an insight into how they work with their clients. You’ll work alongside consultants from different areas of Deloitte’s work (eg. Technology Integration, Enterprise Applications, Strategy etc) on a realistic business scenario.

• Date : Thursday 19th November
• Time : 12.00-14.00
• Where : Careers Service, Crawford House (5th floor)

You’ll need to sign up in advance, and do some preparation by reading their website describing the range of consultancy work at Deloitte. I’d also get to the event in good time, as I suspect it will be very popular (and the first to get there get the seats).

Public Policy Competition

While you’re on the Deloitte website, you might also want to have a look at their Public Policy Competition. This is an essay competition, open to all UK students (it explicitly mentions Masters and PhDs) where you’re asked to tackle a great big complicated problem facing the Government (of whichever flavour) over the next 10 years:

“The current economic climate and an ageing population present significant challenges to Britain’s public services. If you were in charge of a government department dealing with these issues, what key changes would you implement over the next ten years?”

Come up with an answer in under 2000 words and you might be in with a chance (and no, I don’t think “I’d stop paying consultants” is going to get you very far…). You need to register by 15th January at the latest and the closing date for entries is 29th January. Prizes allow you to choose between work experience at Deloitte – or holiday vouchers.

UK and International Applications

Deloitte, like many other consultancies, are open to applications from UK and international students, subject to work permit restrictions. They are happy to consider those who can work in the UK through the Tier 1 (Post Study) scheme, so that could apply to most of our current postgrads. Their website clearly states their stance on work permits and it looks like the only area where they explicitly state you need a UK passport is for their “Enterprise Risk Services Technology (Security & Privacy)” roles.

UK and International Equivalent Qualifications

They also have clear requirements of the level of qualifications needed, including undergraduate degree level, and A levels or the equivalent qualifications which got you to university. Unusually, their website also clearly lays out the international equivalents – worth a look if you’re confused about how your non-UK school qualifications compare to UK equivalents, even if you’re not planning to apply to Deloitte. Just be aware that they do set the bar pretty high (especially for their consultancy roles) so other employers may not be quite so demanding.

Tomorrow is the big Postgraduate Study Fair at Manchester Central (G-Mex as was).

Good reasons to go:

• You’re thinking about continuing with postgraduate study (for most of you, this will be a PhD – or maybe another Masters?)
• You want to talk to almost 100 exhibitors, face to face, about applying to their institutions, what funding they have, what their university is like etc.
• You want to investigate studying outside the UK – there will be representatives there from Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland, in addition to lots from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England.
• You’re interested in some professional study programmes such as News Associates Journalism training or MAs from Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
• You want to talk to careers advisers about where postgrad study might fit in your career plans.

Bad reasons to go:

• You’re looking for postgraduate jobs.
  This is about doing postgraduate courses. There isn’t a purely “postgraduate jobs fair” – all the graduate jobs fairs include jobs open to postgraduates.
• You need to talk to someone about a specific PhD or research topic.
  They’re unlikely to have your potential supervisor in attendance, but may be able to talk to you more generally about support for postgraduates.
• You’re looking for more of those freebies you picked up at the last two fairs.
  Hmm, these are universities, so you might strike lucky with the odd pen or cardboard coaster but don’t expect lavish giveaways (though I have heard that someone will have mugs which you can write on with chalk, like blackboards – but I’m not telling you who’s got these until I’ve been there first…)

We’ve come across a number of international students and recent graduates/postgraduates who have been under the impression that somehow their student visa automatically mutates into a Post Study Work Visa after their student visa expires – not so! You have to apply for this visa, and if you don’t do that before your student visa expires (often 3 months after your course ends), you may be in the UK illegally.

I know that this is early warning for many of you, especially those on Masters programmes which don’t finish until December, but you need to think about this early. There are conditions you need to meet which can’t just be addressed at the point at which you apply – like the requirement to have a minimum amount in your bank account for the three months prior to your application. At the time of writing (usual health warning – check for updates etc), the information from our International Advice team at the University states that:

• if you’re applying for the Post Study Work Visa and you’re still in the UK (legally), you must have had a minimum of at least £800, plus £533 per dependant, in your bank account for the three months prior to application
• if you’re applying from outside the UK, you need at least £2,800, plus £1,600 per dependant, in your bank account for the previous three months.

There are lots more stipulations so get your plans in place early.

Amanda, our International Careers Supremo, has been invited to attend a meeting with the Migration Advisory Committee on the 15th September, to give feedback on how the immigration and work visa regulations are affecting our students and post/graduates. She’s got lots to say already, but I’m sure she’d be very pleased to hear directly from you with a comment on her blog before she goes.

I’ve been waiting for the 2010 BP Eurograduate programme to be announced and at last the webpage has been updated to indicate that they’ll be open for applications from 1st September, with the next assessment centre taking place in mid December 2009 in Brussels.

This is a 5 year European programme for Masters in business or technical subjects, where you get to work in three different business functions in two or three different countries, starting with somewhere which isn’t your home country. In addition to having a Masters level qualification, you must be fluent in at least two European languages, of which one must be English, and be prepared to be mobile around Europe. This does sound like a remarkable fast track programme if you aspire to an international career in the oil business. You’re even offered the “Temporary International Relocation Policy” for the duration of the programme, which sounds like one of those sought after expat deals to me (from my time in HR in industry, the expats were always looked at with envy, conveniently forgetting the upheaval caused by regular relocation).

For more info, have a look at their webpage, including a video about the programme (I suggest you try Internet Explorer for this as I had problems with Firefox).

If you aren’t interested in this programme but still want to look at jobs with BP, their UK recruitment site will also be open for applicants from 1st September (some of the info currently there is still from last year). For 2010, BP are planning on having 150 UK graduate and postgraduate vacancies (plus 100 internships) in Engineering, Science and Business roles. The closing dates are Friday 12 February 2010 for most vacancies, or 13th November 2009 for the vacancies in Trading. However, in common with several other employers, BP have pointed out in an e-mail to us that they will start processing applications as soon as they are received, with 1st round interviews starting in October and Assessment Centres in November. They say

“We endeavour to make both Graduate and Intern Offers as soon as applicants have successfully passed the assessment process and therefore early applications are strongly advised”.

This early opening for next year’s vacancies is becoming increasingly common. Check out Holly’s post on the Graduate Careers Blog on the latest employers to open early for business.

We’re now looking to recruit more paid applications advisers to help with the flood of undergrads and postgrads who use our Quick Query service for CV and application feedback – details here. There’s not much time until the official closing date (3rd July) but I’ve negotiated an extension for you – if you get your application in by 7th July, you should still be considered.

If you’ve used the service yourself, you might not have realised it, but our Applications Advisers (as opposed to our Careers Consultants) are generally our current postgrads, mainly PhD researchers working with us part-time. They’ve all got skills and experience which make them ideal for helping other student with job applications, often with prior recruitment, HR or coaching/counselling experience or at least experience of training or teaching so they can empathise with our students and get information across to them (we know what a multi-talented bunch our postgrads are).

It helps if you’ve applied for jobs before, so you understand the application process. It’s also quite pressured – 1-1 discussions with students you’ve never seen before, where you have 15 minutes to establish rapport, understand their issues, read their application(s) and give them feedback to help them improve – and then it’s straight on to the next 15 min appointment. You get to see students from all disciplines and at all levels but most of the basics of applying for jobs are common across the range.

You also get to see all nationalities, which can be a delight and a challenge. You will need excellent written (and spoken) English – you don’t spell or grammar check or re-write CVs, but you do need to be able to point out where a CV needs the student to go away and do some work on the wording or punctuation, as well as the content or layout. However, this certainly doesn’t exclude international postgrads from becoming applications advisers – we’ve had excellent Greek and Canadian applications advisers, who can bring the extra dimension of knowing how tough it can be applying in a language which isn’t your first (OK, Canadian English probably bears some resemblance to UK English but you get the idea).

If you’re interested, I’d strongly recommend coming in and booking a Quick Query session yourself before applying (if you haven’t already used us). The applications advisers and careers consultants running quick query over the summer have been forewarned that you might want to talk about these jobs, so come and talk to us.

You’ll need to be here for the next academic year, so this excludes most current Masters postgrads, though if you’re doing your Masters part-time over a couple of years and can commit to being a student here and available for work at least from August to the Christmas vacation, do contact us. The hours are quite “bitty”, where you might be needed for a couple of hours in the morning, then a couple later on, so it also helps if you’re on campus a lot of the time.

It’s an interesting role, great for your CV, full training is given and you get real appreciation from all the students you help.

If you think you fit the bill, full details are on our website.

It can be challenging finding jobs on another continent, but it can be done – here’s the evidence and tips on how to do it, particularly if you’re looking for research jobs.

Belinda Bray, who worked with me on the UK GRAD programme, and in the Faculty of Life Sciences on their Widening Participation programmes and the national Researchers in Residence programme, has now headed back to her home country. As she’s from New Zealand, she couldn’t just nip off for the afternoon for a quick interview, so here’s how she did it (and if you’re wondering why you’d want to go to NZ, I’ve included some visual clues).

Guest Post : Belinda Bray

“After living and working in the UK for the past four years, circumstances dictated that it was time to return to my home country of New Zealand. Good news, except that it did require yet another job hunt and this time from a distance. How did I do it?

Well, I have to say the internet is a wonderful thing! I spent many productive hours cruising and viewing any websites that I could find relating to jobs, science (Toxicology being my speciality) and research. Unlike the bigger job markets of the UK and the US there is no really easy way to search for graduate jobs.

There are seven Universities in NZ which are located in, Auckland (University of Auckland), Hamilton (Waikato University), Palmerston North (Massey University), Wellington (Victoria University), Christchurch (Canterbury University and about 30 minutes out, Lincoln University) and finally Dunedin (Otago University). In addition there are nine government funded Crown Research Institutes (CRI’s) including Crop and Food, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) AgResearch, Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS), Environmental Science and Research (ESR), Industrial Research Limited (IRL), HortResearch, Landcare Research and Scion (for the forestry sector). As you will notice, the NZ government is very interested in funding research directly related to our biggest exports – meat, crops, dairy, wool and wood, but don’t expect these institutes to necessarily be large, only 4,000 people in total are employed across all the nine CRI’s. Research jobs are hard to come by!

This is compounded by the general lack of investment in science research in this country. I know it’s tough everywhere at the moment but this reaches new heights in NZ. Overall New Zealand invests less of total GDP in research and development than just about any other OECD nation. Money is very, very tight. You will hear this time and again, no matter who you talk to.

So how do you actually get a job? All of the Universities routinely advertise internationally for post-doc level positions. You will come across them in both Nature and New Scientist and they will often be included on www.jobs.ac.uk. The only problem is that they just don’t come up very often. Jobs in the CRI’s are less widely promoted, unless it is a high level position. I would recommend checking all the relevant websites at least once a week, each of the Universities and any CRI relevant to your work. Unlike the UK jobs generally are advertised and processed very quickly. It is not unusual for there to be a two week closing date on a position, so check often!

It is worth spending the time finding out more about who you may want to work for, rather than just scanning the situations vacant. It may be that there actually is no-one in the country doing work in your field, so you may have to look to Australia instead (which, by the way, invests more into its science research). All of the NZ Universities have good websites which, if you dig deep enough, will profile the principal investigators in each department. Check in similar disciplines as well as many of the institutions have recently undergone restructuring and people have gone where the jobs are, even if the department title isn’t relevant. As always, Google will help you.

Once you have found a potential lab group – contact them. In general Kiwi’s value the skills of overseas staff and encourage people to join their lab group from around the world. Many labs here are very multi-cultural which is seen as a bonus. In particular labs will be interested in any new skills that you can bring to the group – up to date techniques or knowledge – and if you could help form collaborations with other PI’s. With funding so hard to come by, networking is always high on the priority list. It is likely that you will be told that there is no funding, you may have to apply for your own fellowship but many PI’s are ready and willing to help you with this process, particularly if you can really bring something new to the project.

Keep talking to people, as many and as often as you can. Let them know that you are job hunting. It is a small community and people will spread the word. You never know who knows who and what funding they have. Keep this in mind in all your dealings as ignoring one email can have a real knock-on effect, don’t annoy anyone. After being in the UK I found the people here lovely, very open, friendly and wanting to help. Work any contacts that you have, through a supervisor, lab mates or just any kiwis that are working/studying at your institution. A personal reference or referral goes a long way. If by a strange twist of fate you are about to attend a conference, chat to any NZers that may be attending (they don’t often get to go as it is a long way to most conferences and very expensive). Even if they are not active in the immediate area that you are looking in, chances are they know who is and can give you some contact details. Network, network, network!

After sending many, many emails, phone calls and sending my CV to what seemed like every scientist in the country I was offered several positions. It took a lot of work, and longer than I expected, closer to six months than the three or four I thought originally, but it did work eventually. Some of the positions I was offered were technical posts, to allow them to get to know me better and as a preliminary to grant funding being applied for or offered. Others were research jobs but in a field were I knew I didn’t want to be long-term. Only recently have I received an offer that is all that I hoped for, a fellowship that aligns with my interests. Sadly, I have already accepted another job… [Update - Belinda has changed jobs again since writing this post, showing that it's much easier to find the right job if you're already in the country where you want to work.]

If the hard work does pay off for you there are a few other details you may like to know. The average salary for a post-doc hovers around $65,000 NZD (£25,000) but the cost of living is higher than the UK so you won’t feel particularly wealthy on that wage. Auckland is by far the most expensive city to live in but there is no compensation for this in terms of salary. The pace of life is definitely slower with work hours of 9-5 and weekends expected only rarely (particularly at post-doc level, students are expected to work a bit harder). However, it is likely that you will be expected to take on a wider range of job responsibilities overall. With fewer people in the country it is a bit more widely expected that each person will just do what is needed, not just what is in the job description. Technicians won’t be found in every lab and support staff in general are thin on the ground. One other thing you will notice is that supplies can take a long time to arrive, no more overnight delivery, and if something isn’t in stock it may be several weeks before it can be sourced. It’s then that you realise that New Zealand is a long way from anywhere. To work in NZ you will need a visa, this shouldn’t be a problem if you already have a job. Your employer will help you with all the necessary paperwork and it is very likely to be approved. If you attempt to get a visa without a job you will find it very difficult. Immigration works on a points system, similar to Australia, and the entry criteria are quite strict.

Despite the negative comments, the lack of funding, the small research institutes, the long supply times, New Zealand is lovely and the science is often cutting-edge. The people are friendly, the pace of life is slower, there is less crime, fewer people and less traffic. The scenery is fantastic and, once the rain stops, I can’t wait to get to the beach. It is a long way from anywhere (Sydney is a four hour flight from Auckland) but there is enough to see here that I don’t feel any urgent need to fly off overseas for my next holiday.

In closing, good luck with your job search. Use the power of the internet to your advantage and don’t forget – we’re 12 or so hours ahead of you here and in the opposite hemisphere so the UK winter is a NZ summer, just something to keep in mind when you’re making all those phone calls to potential labs.

Useful websites:

University of Auckland – located in Auckland, NZ’s largest city (pop.1,400,000); one of the two top research Universities (with Otago), good biological sciences and chemistry. Has one of the country’s two medical schools and many associated research institutes (e.g. The Liggins Institute)

Waikato University – located in Hamilton (pop. 184,000); known for arts, education, Maori studies and business.

Massey University – located in Palmerston North (pop.78,000); originally an agricultural college (long time ago) and still strong in plant and animal sciences. Has a history as a extramural provider and also hosts the country’s only Veterinary School. Now has a satellite campus in Auckland on the North Shore (Albany).

Victoria University – located in Wellington (capital city, pop.380,000); known for chemistry and also arts, law and architecture.

Canterbury University – located in Christchurch (pop. 360,000); best known in the physical sciences, it has the engineering school and some chemistry.

Lincoln University – located at Lincoln, approximately 30 minutes south of Christchurch (4,500 enrolled students), historically was a agricultural college. Research is mainly in the plant sciences, crops and food technology.

Otago University – located in Dunedin (pop. 119,000); one of the leading research Universities (with Auckland), very strong in the biological sciences and also physics. It has one of the two medical schools (the other is in Auckland) and has medical research groups based in both Christchurch and Wellington.

CRI Homepage, all the Crown Research Institutes can be accessed from: http://www.sciencenewzealand.org/

Other job websites:
www.jobs.ac.uk

www.newscientistjobs.com

www.nature.com/naturejobs

NZ job seeking websites
www.kellyscientific.co.nz
www.seek.co.nz

Major Newspapers:
Auckland – The Herald
Wellington – The Dominion Post
Christchurch – The Press
Dunedin – The Otago Daily Times”

I don’t normally use standard employer publicity on this blog, but this is an unusual one – anyone interested in the chance to work in the USA directly after your postgraduate (or undergraduate) degree? Thought so – read on.

Lutron, a lighting control company based in Pennsylvania, are coming on campus on Monday 1st December (see below and the Careers Service events page for details) and they’re looking for a range of engineers and computer scientists. The positions are open to both UK and non-UK students, and they are interested in postgrads. It’s nigh on impossible for most students to get a postgraduate or graduate level job in the USA straight after graduating (other than post-doc jobs in universities – and no-one’s kidding you that those are easy to get either), so if you’ve got any ambitions in this direction and want to see first hand what the Obama era means for the world, this is your chance.

Thanks to all those who took part in the webchat with the Global Careers Company last night. It was a big success from our point of view, with loads of you registering to take part and plenty of you asking questions on the night.

If you couldn’t make it or want to see the answers again, the transcript is now available on the webchat page on our website.

The event was so successful that the Global Careers Company now want to do another webchat for postgrads to support their “Careers in Africa” summit (in January), and Njambi, their Africa specialist is planning to come on campus to give a presentation.

Watch the blog for more details…

This event is exclusively for our international postgraduates – a webchat with the Global Career Company, ahead of their Careers In Asia, Careers in Africa and Careers in Central and Eastern Europe summits in London.

The Global Career Company career summits are “invitation only”, but give you the chance to meet directly with employers actively recruiting in the target location. They’re different to the normal recruitment fairs – at these events, people come away with interviews completed and jobs offered. The kinds of employers they invite include big names – Coca Cola, Aviva, Daimler, HSBC and more signed up for the December “Careers in Asia” summit. Browse some of the other named companies they work with and see if there’s anyone you might be interested in for Africa … or Asia …  OK, you’re back now? Right, let’s see what we can do to get you the chance to be invited.

The webchat will run from 5.00-6.00pm on Wednesday 15th October and to take part (or lurk) all you need to do is to sign up in advance. It’s a great chance to find out more about the Career Summits, to get some direct advice on international recruitment, find out how to make improve your chances of getting invited - and how to make the most of attending one of their events.

“This webchat gives students the opportunity to find out more about the key growing markets in Africa, Asia and CEE and how a move to any of these regions could greatly enhance their career development.”

Conrad Chua, Business Development Manager, Global Career Company

As the Chinese Graduate Fair is taking a rest this year (sorry about this, but we can’t guarantee that they will come over every year) this is your big chance to link up with employers in the Asian market this year – don’t miss it.

I keep waiting for these events and vacancies to be cancelled, but in spite of the media gloom, many of the investment banks are still actively recruiting, with events targeted at postgrads (particularly in quantitative or technology subjects) and at other groups they want to attract into the City – like women. Here are a few events coming up :

• Credit Derivatives Workshop, Credit Suisse – aimed at quantitative Masters and PhDs (no prior finance knowledge required), this “by invitation” workshop in London introduces the world of credit derivatives, global modelling and trading. You’ll get the chance to ask all those difficult questions like “why are we in this mess?” and “what can I do, if I join you, to put it all right?”. It’s on the same day as the Science, Engineering and Technology Fair (22nd Oct) so you’ll need to choose which you prefer. E-mail them by 15th October (details on the weblink above) to register your interest.
   
• UBS Investment Bank Operations/Technology roles :
   
  “Women in IT” dinner – it’s easy to be cynical about the City professing an interest in attracting more women, but UBS, and particularly their operations/technology groups, have a good track record with us here. They’ve been big supporters of our Pathways PhD career options event for the last two years and we got the good news that this year they recruited 4 of our graduates - 3 of them with PhDs, 2 of them women and all of them international. If you’re a woman in an IT related discipline (could also be other science/engineering with IT content) and want to talk to UBS over dinner at Malmaison on 21st October, apply to them by 13th October (details on the weblink above).
   
  If you’re not a woman (or don’t fancy dinner, or working in operations) there’s no need to miss out – you can always meet UBS at our Finance, Business & Management Fair on 23rd October.
   
  UBS are also doing an evening workshop on Operations on 16th October. As with a lot of presentations, this one filled up early with students registering to attend, so technically, I shouldn’t be bothering to tell you about it. On the other hand, I do know that normally, a lot of people sign up for presentations and then don’t turn up on the night. I also know that for these sorts of employer presentations, we don’t take a register on the door … OK, you’re smart, you’re postgrads, do you need any more hints than that?

There are rumours of more PG events to come – I’ll let you know when I hear about them!