Alumni

Alumni

Are you a graduate? Help a Kent student?

Are you a graduate?

Careers help from the Careers and Employability Service (CES) does not end when you leave the University! We support students for three years post graduation.

Apply for an 'Alumni Login and Registration'

Read the Career Planning Guide for New Graduates booklet (PDF).

Graduate Outcomes

In previous years, graduates were surveyed 6 months after graduation to establish the employment rates for graduates from each institution.  From 2017, graduates will be surveyed after approximately 15 months as part of the new Graduate Outcomes survey.  This is a statutory requirement for the University and details of how graduate data is used can be found in the Student Collection Notice.

It is important that we have up-to-date contact information for you, so please do take a minute to update your details on the Kent Alumni site.

If you have any further questions about the Graduate Outcomes survey, please contact James Corbin, Head of Careers and Employability on J.I.H.Corbin-2@kent.ac.uk


Kent Career Mentoring: Become a Mentor!

Kent Career Mentoring is a new programme which aims to connect Kent students with Kent Alumni working in industry, to receive guidance, in order to support them in their future careers.

Alumni partaking in Kent Career Mentoring will have the opportunity to:

  • Self-reflect and gain personal satisfaction
  • Share skills, knowledge and expertise
  • Network and build professional connections
  • Develop mentoring/coaching skills

Help a Kent student progress in their career?

The Careers and Employability Service welcomes any offer from graduates of the University to contribute to the knowledge and experience of current students and graduates of the University of Kent. We are happy to facilitate this in a variety of ways and levels of engagement:

Talks on campus

We very much welcome Kent Alumni on to our campus to speak with our students about their industry and experiences. We can provide lecture halls and seminar rooms to give one-to-many presentations, skills session or workshops. The CES promote events via our newsletter, email bulletins, events calendars, Facebook, Twitter and blog.

Employability Festival

Employability Festival encompasses workshops, presentations, guest speakers, industry experts and careers fairs. The aim of Employability Festival is to encourage students to get involved in activities and skills development whilst at university and so, better preparing them for future employment.

Placement / Work Experience

At the Careers and Employability Service we would be very happy to speak to you regarding possible work experience opportunities, please email placements@kent.ac.uk

Alumni & Development Office

The University of Kent Alumni department would be delighted to speak with you regarding alumni articles and would be keen to update your contact details.

FAQs

  • Even if you know exactly what you want to do, it is worth being flexible. Don't restrict your applications to the household-name employers or to very competitive career areas such as investment banking, marketing or media. Broaden your career search by looking at other, less well-known careers that offer similar experience and job satisfaction.
  • Don’t rule out jobs that are not specifically labelled as “graduate jobs”: these can be good starting points.

Many graduates now start their career in a graduate internship – a fixed term position (typically 3-6 months) that gives you a chance to try out, or get experience in, a graduate-level job. These may lead on to an offer of a permanent position! The following sites are good sources of vacancies targeted on new or recent graduates. Most of them have a free vacancy alert service for registered users.

If this is your problem, don’t worry – many other graduates are in the same position and there are many opportunities open to graduates whatever your degree subject. The following resources should help you to get started, but you may find it useful to discuss your situation with a careers adviser.

Don’t write off any work experience as irrelevant – casual jobs in retail and hospitality jobs can add skills such as customer service, working in a busy team, and the ability to work under pressure to your CV – things that most graduate employers will look for.

Voluntary work can help you to gain experience, improve your skills, boost your confidence and build up your CV.

Further study can mean postgraduate degrees, vocational and practical skills training. There are many short courses available, often part-time or by distance learning, to build up skills such as:

  • IT and office skills - Databases and spreadsheets are important, and the European Computer Driving Licence is a good way to develop skills in core MS Office packages.
  • Driving - some jobs require travel or are located in hard-to-reach areas. If you don’t have a full licence, try to get one as soon as possible.
  • Languages - it's useful to brush up on your GCSE language.
  • Numeracy - this is a skill many graduates feel that they lack. Retaking your GCSE, or a course such as the Open University’s 'Starting with Maths' may be worthwhile.
  • Business and finance - build up the skills needed for a specific career or to develop commercial awareness.  For example, the Foundation Award in Public Relations, the Certificate in Finance, Accounting & Business or Open University modules in business and management.