Postgraduate taught employability, careers guidance and support | The Graduate School

A private study room on the second floor of the graduate school

Postgraduate taught

Employability, Careers Guidance and Support

The Graduate School offers a range of opportunities for students to develop their future-readiness and manage their own careers whether that is into further academia, non-academic employment or self-employment.

Career PGR 1-2-1 Appointments

For All Postgraduate Students

Career 1-2-1 Appointments

Career 1-2-1 Appointments will be running across Semester 2.

Appointments can be booked via MyFuture. Once logged in go to:

Appointments > Book an Appointment

*please note that these sessions are bookable 15 days prior to each appointment.

Guidance and 1-2-1 Appointments

Career Consultations at the Graduate School
Partake in a thirty minute confidential career consultation with a qualified Employability and Careers Officer.

Postgraduate Research Consultant
The Graduate School’s Postgraduate Research Consultant, with an interdisciplinary background in Psychology, Education and Gesture Studies, offers career support and guidance to PhD students and early career researchers at QUB.

Now available: new and innovative learning programmes aimed at developing future-ready and resilient researchers, who perform confidently in a currently challenging employment market.

Researcher Development Consultant
Appointments with the Researcher Development Consultant at the Graduate School offer PhD students career support and guidance. Topics that can be discussed at these appointments include:

Careers after the PhD
How to transfer academic skills to non-academic work environments
Review of job application documents
Interview Preparation

Graduate School Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Entrepreneurship and innovation consultations give you the opportunity to discuss the following:

Ideas you have to start a business or social enterprise.
Support with setting up a business.
Advice on where to get started as an entrepreneur.
Guidance on specific support you need.
Signposting to opportunities for finance and investment.
Information on the Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur visa.

CV Clinic at the Graduate School
A fifteen minute confidential CV assessment with a qualified Employability and Careers Officer.

Would you like feedback on your current CV? This CV Clinic will assess your CV’s layout and content. If you are applying for an immediate job, please bring the relevant information with you to this appointment. A job description and person specification will enable staff to provide criteria-specific guidance.

Please note, your CV can be presented on paper or on your own laptop. Documents on mobile/smart phones or USBs will not be reviewed.

Employability Workshops

The Graduate School also offers a range of employability workshops to support postgraduates with the next step in their career. Workshops are demand led and often co-developed by employers and industry experts.

These can include practical skills development around:

Strategic Job Hunting - LinkedIn
Mock Interviews
Preparation for Academic Interview
Preparation for Non-Academic Interview

To sign up for our next workshop please visit MyFuture. If you would like to suggest any workshops please email Dr Lilian Simones, pg.skills@qub.ac.uk.

Master Your Leadership

The aim of this programme is to support a ‘whole person’ approach to the Master's experience at Queen’s through a programme of training and development which complements disciplinary excellence and develops employability skills:

To enable you to receive constructive feedback on your leadership skills and as a consequence to build a tailored leadership development plan for yourself.
To train and inspire you in relation to key skill areas as related to the 5 pillars.
To encourage you to develop your leadership skills through participation in the wide range of developmental opportunities that will be available from the Graduate School and the University as a whole.

Find out more.

Making the Most of Masters

Queen’s Making the Most of Masters (QMMM) supports collaboration between external organisations and Queen’s University to provide opportunities for Masters students to undertake a Work Based Project (WBP) in place of a more traditional Masters dissertation. The toolkit below includes advice, guidance and template documentation to support and facilitate the overall process of linking Masters programmes and external organisations; preparing and supporting students, academic supervisors and organisation project supervisors. The projects, which are an integral part of the students’ academic programme, address real needs within an organisation. Whilst the focus of QMMM is on Masters level projects these resources may be adaptable for other levels.

Find out more about Making the Most of Masters

Researcher Plus and Degree Plus

Researcher & Degree Plus

Gain Experience and Accreditation

As a current postgraduate student of Queen’s University, you will have the opportunity to gain official recognition by the University as a result of developing your own skills and research in addition to your studies.

Find out more