Helpful employability information for students. 

Information about the Careers Service, Year in Employment, exchange opportunities and top tips. 

Southampton careers service

ADRESS:

Student Services Centre (Building 37), University of Southampton Highfield campus.

Southampton, SO17 1BJ

careers drop in:

The Drop-in Service provides an opportunity to have a conversation with an advisor to assess how the service can best meet your present needs. Careers may refer you to appropriate resources, activities or information, including small and large group sessions, talks, campus events and individual help sessions. Drop-in hours can be found below:

Monday 11:00 - 15:00

Tuesday 14:00 - 18:00

Wednesday 11:00 - 15:00

Thursday 11:00 - 15:00

Friday 11:00 - 15:00

THe careers service calendar

Careers organise many events throughout the year which are designed to assist with your career planning, whether you're a student or a graduate. Many of our events involve graduate recruiters and provide  an excellent opportunity to find out what employers really want from university graduates. The calendar can be found here. 

MyCareer

MyCareer is an online careers site, which allows all University of Southampton students and graduates to easily find out about everything careers have to offer. Such as: 

  • MyCareer Jobs Board

  • Careers Fairs

  • Employer-led Events

  • Careers & Employability-led workshops & presentations

  • Excel Southampton Internship Programme

  • Careers Appointment records

  • Volunteering Bank

  • Year in Employment scheme

  • Business Innovation Programme

Excel southampton internship programme

The Excel Southampton Internship programme describes itself as "Paid internship opportunities during vacation periods and at term-time that enhance your CV, expand your network and open graduate recruitment opportunities".

The website for the Excel Internship scheme can be found here.

year in employment

The University of Southampton offers a 'Year in Employment'. The careers service describes this as "An opportunity to complete a work placement between your second and third year of study as part of your degree. This placement year is assessed and successful students will graduate with the Year in Employment recognised on their degree transcript".

Some of the key benefits from completing a Year in Employment include:

  • Valuable experience to demonstrate to future employers

  • Personal development to enhance your employability

  • Confirmation on your suitability for your career path

  • Career inspiration for those unsure of where they'd thrive

Student yie EXPERIENCE: MILES BANNISTER

Did the expertise gained from a Geography degree help with the placement? If so, how?

Yes, it meant that I could highlight my ability to work alone and organise myself. The high proportion of individual study that a Geography degree entails was attractive to employers as it demonstrated intuition and a high level of self-dependence.

How has having a placement benefited your future employability?

I have been exposed to business operations within a large international company. Exposure to this has better positioned me to know what I want to do when I graduate from Southampton. It has also been exciting working full time, Monday – Friday, 9-5 whilst having the comfort of knowing this if I dislike the position I am not on a permanent contract and that I know for the future to avoid similar positions. Additionally, having a years’ worth of full-time employment with a company like IBM will help differentiate myself from the hundreds of other students graduating with the same degree.

 

 

 

Exchange opportunities

Southampton offers a range of different opportunities available to those who wish to study outside of the UK. Geography and Environment students can spend semester 2 of their second year abroad on an exchange. Where you can go depends on the links that we have with other universities around the world. Students currently participate in exchanges to several European partners (in France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands) under the Erasmus Scheme, as well as exchanges to Australia (Adelaide, Perth, Sydney), Canada (Western University) and Hong Kong. 

There are some requirements you must:

  • Study in a faculty or academic unit which has a link with an exchange partner

  • Be registered at the University as an undergraduate, postgraduate research or doctoral student.

  • For undergraduate students to have successfully completed your first year of study and that you maintain a degree classification of 2:1 (60-69)

  • Have sufficient academic and linguistic ability to be able to benefit from an exchange.

  • Be selected by your faculty or academic unit to take part in an exchange.

A page of FAQs regarding Geography exchanges can be found here.

Interested? Blogs done by Geography students abroad can be found here