Getting started on your career thinking

Many university students have no clear idea about what they want to do for their future career and so if you are feeling like this you are not alone. Start by focusing on your first step. There is no one way to decide what you want to do and you don’t need a clear plan in place before taking any action. By taking some action, you will start to discover what’s out there and this can help you to develop ideas for after graduation.

The Student Employability team is here to help students and graduates at whatever stage they are at in their career journey, and so we’ve created this guide to help you get you started. You are welcome to book a careers appointment with a Career Development Adviser via the Surrey Employability Hub to help you generate some ideas. Exploring some of the links and tools suggested here first may help you get more out of your appointment with our Career Development Advisers.

Exploring your future options

This is a process which involves starting to think about:

Where you are now – identifying your strengths, values, interests and what motivates you in a job
Where you want to be – researching career options, job roles and employment sectors
How you will get there – how to gain practical experience and creating an action to help you achieve your career goals. This can also include further study

Values

Your values are the things that are important to you in life. They influence your actions, behaviours and emotions, forming the guiding principles you use to make decisions and prioritise.

Personality

Understanding your personality type can increase your self-awareness and help you make informed decisions about your next steps.

Strengths

A strength is something you are good at or capable of doing well and gives you energy when you perform it. Research tells us that when we use our strengths, we are happier, more confident and have more energy.

Skills

A skill is an ability to perform an activity in a competent manner. We all have natural skills and abilities and learn new skills through education, employment, voluntary work and extra-curricular activities.

Achievements

Reflecting on achievements can help identify what activities you find satisfying and provide evidence for your skills, strengths and qualities. Use the Achievement resource to build self-confidence and acknowledge what you can offer a future employer.

_{Step One: Self-Awareness}

This means understanding yourself and reflecting on who you are now and what you want in the future.

You can access the following online tools and self-reflection exercises to help you understand more about yourself, such as what you do well and what you enjoy. You do not need to do them all at once. You can choose which one(s) you think may be most helpful now and access others later if you wish. This greater self-awareness can help when you are exploring and evaluating different career ideas and options.

Reflect on what makes work meaningful and fulfilling for you
Explore your personal values and how they may influence career decisions
Consider your achievements and what they reveal about your capabilities
Use self-assessment tools and exercises to gain deeper insight into yourself

Tools to help generate career ideas

You may like to try the following online career tools to help with career ideas. These are only a starting point, but can be useful as a way of generating possible ideas that link to factors that are important to you.

Psychometric Tests

Psychometric Tests help you to understand more about yourself and your career interests. To access the tools, you will need to create an account with your University of Surrey email address here.

Career Interest Inventory - Dodec

In the Energy section of Profiling for Success, complete the questions to explore career interests. A Career Development Adviser can help interpret your results and connect them to potential career options.

Prospects: Career Planner

An online job exploration tool for higher education students and graduates, it helps you find out what motivates you in a job, identifies your skills and desires, and matches this information to related occupations.

Shortlist.Me Marketplace

Build self-awareness to unlock your full potential and uncover your personality traits and strengths with professional assessments. Stand out in applications and interviews and get personalised insights to tailor your career journey.

Write down any career ideas that appeal to you and you would like to find out more about. You may find it useful to reflect on your results with one of our Career Development Advisers to help you clarify your next steps. Students can book an appointment via the Surrey Employability Hub. Recent graduates can book appointments via their Surrey Employability Hub graduate account.

Create your graduate account here

_{Step Two: Research Opportunities}

Having found out some suggestions of jobs which might suit you, the next step is to investigate what these careers involve in terms of activities, qualifications, skill requirements, prospects and availability. There are some really good resources available to help you.

Start to investigate the types of jobs and sectors that interest you. You could find out about options related to your degree and look at the destinations data of previous students from your course. There are also many graduate opportunities that accept graduates with any degree discipline and so if you’d like to look more widely start a list of the specific jobs, sectors and careers that interest you. If your list is long, create a short list of what currently interests you the most.

Resources available to help you navigate graduate employment

What do graduates do? 2025/6 Report

Find out what UK graduates with your degree subject do 15 months after leaving university.

Subject and Sector Specific Resources

The University's Career Development Advisers have written a series of guidance documents that link you to career resources relating to subject-specific degree disciplines, including:

Career pathways and careers information
Job sites for graduate and internship vacancies by sector/job profile
Postgraduate study
Professional bodies
Recruitment firms

Access the Exploring Your Career Options guide.

Prospects: What can I do with my degree?

Lists career options for most degree subjects and so you can find the one that you are studying or a similar title.

Prospects: Job Profiles

Covers over 400 graduate level jobs.

Bright Network Career Path Guides

TARGETjobs Career Ideas such as ‘Advertising and PR’ with hints and tips about how to get a graduate job in that specific sector.

Team Focus Career Profiles describing more than 700 jobs. The Career Profiles are organised under the 6 main career themes: Doing & implementing, Creating & expressing, Persuading & influencing, Thinking & investigating, Communicating & helping, Planning & organising.

Step Three: Take Action

The only way to find out whether a job would suit you is to give it a try. There are various ways to do this, by attending insight/taster days, work-shadowing, volunteering, vacation/part-time work, applying for a summer internship or professional training year.

Employers are increasingly asking for relevant work experience and so a good degree, although essential, is no longer enough. Try to make the time to gain some first-hand experience. As a bonus you may also meet some helpful people who can advise you about the reality of career paths.

Explore our Searching for Opportunities careers guidance for:

Guidance on how to approach employers and access opportunities through the hidden job market (job vacancies not advertised publicly)
Help finding job/internship vacancy websites
Guidance on making the most of LinkedIn, the professional networking platform to support your job search/networking

We recommend that you write an action plan of what you need to do and when.

If you decide that further study is an option that interests you, then check out our Support with Considering a Postgraduate Course and Guidance for Considering a PhD, which are useful resources. It is important to think about your reasons for continuing your studies, funding and where the course might lead you in the future.

If you are interested in entrepreneurship and setting up your own business, visit the Start-Ups and Student Enterprise section on MySurrey which provides useful information on how to get started and support available.

Finally

Don’t forget we are always happy to help you with every aspect of your career planning and development, wherever you are in your journey. If you're unclear about where to start or what to focus on first, book an appointment with our Career Development Advisers via the Surrey Employability Hub and we'll help you develop a plan to move forward.

Visit our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion careers resources to find out more about diversity initiatives, employer perspectives and support at Surrey.

If you would like more information, visit MySurrey Help to find answers to the most common questions and details on how to ask us a question if you require more support.