I want to work in ..... a different way.

Time out, working for yourself, part-time and voluntary work and ways to avoid the rat race.
Also see our Working for a Charity page

Ethical Careers and Employers lemmings

Surveys have found that almost 90% of graduates consider high ethical standards in a company to be important when making a decision about whether or not to work for that company.

The following websites help to provide information about careers and employers of interest to graduates who are concerned about the ethical, social and environmental responsibility of graduate recruiters.

Books:

Alternative Work Styles

The following resources may be helpful for students who, through choice or through force of circumstances, are unwilling or unable to follow a "conventional" working pattern, who are seeking a satisfactory work-life balance or who simply want to avoid the rat-race.

Flexible Working

Working For Yourself

For advice on self-employment see www.kent.ac.uk/careers/selfemployment.htm

Other Ways to Avoid the Rat-Race

Time Out

Many students think of "taking a year out" after they graduate, but this needs to be carefully planned. Otherwise, you run the risk of spending a year stuck in the same sort of unchallenging job that you did during your vacations, gaining little in the way of skills, experience or satisfaction. The resources listed below will help you to avoid this trap, but first a couple of questions to ask yourself:

Think first - why do you want to take time out?

What can you do?

Almost anything! but these are some of the most popular options:

- and a question which students often ask careers advisers:

What will future employers think?

"Most recruiters look favourably upon people who have taken gap years, if they are able to draw on their experiences and show an employer how they might make them more effective in the role they are applying for" Carl Gilleard, Association of Graduate Recruiters

"When looking for jobs I found it very easy to handle the questions on employers' application forms as I had gained so many skills from my gap year teaching English in China: teamworking, initiative, problem-solving and leadership to name just a few"

 

A lot will depend on what you have done during a gap year and how you present it. If you have spent a year backpacking around the world, your applications should show how you planned and organised the trip; how you dealt with any problems you met along the way, how you funded it and what you learned from the experience, rather than just listing all the exotic countries you visited.

If you are using a Gap Year Organisation to organise your placement see our Checklist of Questions to Ask Most placements go well, but there is a significant minority where students feel that the experience was nothing like that promised in the glossy brochure. So before you pay out lots of money make sure you know all about the project.

Further Information

If you are using a Gap Year Organisation to organise your placement see our Checklist of Questions to Ask Most placements go well, but there is a significant minority where students feel that the experience was nothing like that promised in the glossy brochure. So before you pay out lots of money make sure you know all about the project.

Volunteering UK

Volunteering Abroad

Gap Year

See also our web pages on Working Abroad www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sitesint.htm

Books:

All available for reference from the Careers Service Helpdesk

 

Last fully updated April 2008