First Year Zone

We’re accessible to all enrolled students within the Faculty of Engineering, the Faculty of Medicine, and the Faculty of Natural Sciences. All our students, from undergraduate level through to PhD, have access to us. You can use our services as an alumnus when you graduate too.

Please note that enrolment starts on day one of studies so you will not have access to our services before your course officially starts. Also, any student enrolled with the Imperial College Business School has restricted access to our services and should instead visit the Imperial College Business School Careers Service for support.

The foundation of a career plan can be made early in your studies and evolve as you move through your degree. In your first year you can start to develop an understanding of your career options, develop professional networks, undertake reflection activities, and begin to engage with employers. It’s never too early to begin your career plan and our Career planning and What can I do with my degree? webpages are a perfect start point.

As a student you have access to JobsLive, our online careers management system where we advertise all events, workshops, presentations and one to one appointments along with internships, placements and graduate opportunities. We encourage you to select the type of events and opportunities that are of interest to you on your profile settings as this will trigger relevant email alerts.

We also suggest you subscribe to our newsletter (sent every Thursday during term time) to keep informed about all the latest careers news, events and competitions. To do this, select the 'Me' icon near the top of the page, then 'edit profile' to adjust your account settings.

We offer many presentations, interactive workshops, and events throughout the year to help you with career planning, introduce you to employers, and support you through the application process. The autumn term and early spring term are our busiest times of the year with many recruitment activities taking place between October and March. We do however operate a programme of events throughout the year and during the vacations. Our What’s On webpages provide an overview of our events and JobsLive is constantly updated with all the latest activities as they’re confirmed.

Your CV may not contain much detail when you arrive at Imperial, however it will quickly grow and develop during your time here through engagement in academic classes and extracurricular activities. You should keep a record of your achievements as you progress through the College so that you can easily adapt and improve your CV when you come to apply for new opportunities. Our Know your skills and CVs and resumes webpages are great starting points.

Many recruiters say it’s essential for a graduate to have some form of work experience as it shows that skills and behaviours can be applied in a variety of settings and that the individual can act in a professional manner. Work experience can come in many forms through volunteering and casual employment in retail and hospitality through to more formalised project work, internships, or placements. Our Finding jobs and internships webpage is a great starting point.

Imperial offers a range of supplementary modules that can be taken as part of your degree to stimulate your personal, professional, and intellectual growth. We offer the highly interactive Professional Skills for Employability course to first year undergraduates, designed to help you to understand and acquire a range of professional skills that will help with your long term academic and career success. Sessions run in autumn and spring term of your first year.

We’re committed to creating an inclusive community and have a strong focus on equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). We support a wide variety of activities and initiatives aimed to develop an equitable environment and we operate with impartiality and respect at the core of our work. Check out our EDI webpages for more information and resources or chat to one of our team for further information or support.

To help you transition into your degree, the university has created an online short course called Attributes and Aspirations (AA). This is designed to help you:

• understand what degree level study will be like
• discover Imperial and how to make the most of being a student
• develop transferable skills such as team working, critical thinking and time management that will make you a better student

To find out more, visit the undergraduate section of the Attributes and Aspirations website which is accessible from 1 September and throughout your degree.

At times you may require personalised and tailored support. Through our one-to-one appointments we can assist you with pretty much any career-related questions, from offering advice on career options through to supporting you with an application or interview. You can use us if you have a clear career goal or if you’re feeling lost and unsure how to begin. We’re here to help. Further details can be found on our Book an appointment webpage.

Attendance

When you book an event or appointment hosted by the Careers Service, you'll receive a confirmation email with the event details and joining instructions. It is your responsibility to add these details to your diary or calendar. 

If you are unable to attend something you’ve booked, we expect you to be considerate of other students and evidence professionalism by cancelling your attendance as early as possible using the instructions provided in your confirmation email. Failure to do so can result in the suspension of your access to our services as this wastes resources and can reflect badly on Imperial and our students, particularly when external speakers and employers are involved.

We’re open throughout the year, including during the vacation periods. Find out more about our operating hours and various ways to engage with us in person, online, by phone and email or through social media on our Contact us webpage.