Dedicated international careers advice and consultation
The Management School has a dedicated Careers Adviser for international students based in the school’s Employability Hub. We also have two Careers and Employability Consultants who are well equipped to support your career thinking.
You can book a one-to-one appointment with a management school adviser through career connect here. We are here to support you as a current student and for as long as you need us following graduation.
We also have a dedicated central careers and employability service focussed on international student support.
Support for applications
As a management school student, various sessions are available to you throughout the year, specifically for international students. These are advertised in the events section on Career Connect.
Online Pathways can take you through the different stages of the recruitment process. The online pathways are available on Career Connect and Target Jobs. Again, some are specifically for international students.
For more advice on each aspect of recruitment such as cvs application forms, tests, assessment centres and interviews click here.
You can also find support in securing graduate roles on the Final Year, PGT and MBA pages.
Graduate recruitment market intelligence
As an international student, you may be interested to understand the trends in the UK graduate employment market. Prospects Luminate produces regular reports by sector and demographics. The ISE Student Recruitment Survey, The Times Top 100 Employers and the Highfliers reports all produce annual reports. These are extremely useful to see the changes in the numbers of graduate jobs by sector as well as salary information. The ISE Recruitment Survey is helpful to understand the skills and attributes UK employers are looking for from graduates.
The University of Sheffield – Graduates First portal includes recruitment reports for many of the leading graduate recruiters. You can even research the tests companies use and potential interview questions!
Many graduates go on to work in Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs). These companies often use their own websites, LinkedIn and general job portals such as Indeed to look for applicants. These jobs may be advertised later in the year too. You can type in ‘SME graduates’ on LinkedIn and speculatively apply to one of the winners of the top 100 SMEs.
Remember that 99% of UK companies are SMEs so don’t just look to the big names in the market!
Although many UK employers are flexible in the degree subjects they consider, large employers particularly, receive multiple applications for placements, internships and graduate schemes. Home and international students may find the recruitment process competitive, lengthy and in depth. Therefore do explore companies across all industries and sizes to understand their recruitment processes.
Take a look at some more useful links below for further UK job market intelligence:
What type of roles can I do with a Management School degree?
The UK graduate job market is more open than some countries in terms of accepting a wide range of degree subjects for jobs. Many jobs in business, finance, public sector, sales will accept any degree subject.
Remember, the careers and employability advisors and consultants based here at the management school are here to help with career planning and further resources to support your career thinking can be found here.
If you know what type of roles you are interested in, applying for jobs early in your final year of study can be advantageous as you will have more time to work on your applications without having assignment and dissertation deadlines to meet at the same time.
Maggie Fenn
Careers and Employability Consultant
Marian Derbyshire
Careers and Employability Consultant
Karen Allan
International Careers Adviser
To discuss your career thinking in more detail in a 1-2-1 appointment simply book online through Career Connect. Got questions? Simply drop into the Hub, email us on mgt.employability@sheffield.ac.uk or call us on +44 (0) 114 222 3255.
Applying for UK graduate roles
If you are an international student looking for a UK employer who has a licence to sponsor workers under the Skilled Worker visa there is a live government website that lists them all.
If you spot a vacancy you are interested in applying for you can look them up on the website to see if the company holds a sponsorship licence.
Graduate schemes and roles are jobs that are advertised by companies who wish to attract a large cohort of students completing a Bachelors or Masters degree. Take a look at the Times Top 100 employers (as voted by graduates). You can see how many graduate roles each employer has on offer and whether they also offer internships and placements.
Many employers (especially larger ones) begin their recruitment process in September. Some have early closing dates in October or November for jobs that start the following summer.
Graduate schemes often start in the summer or in September. This means that ‘international’ postgraduate students may not be considered for roles that begin before the end of September due to restrictions to some visas. Some companies may have a January or March intake for new graduates.
Click here for more resources supporting working in the UK after your studies.
There are some websites that advertise jobs and offer tailored webinars to international students looking for jobs in the UK.
Graduate schemes may be two or three years duration. The recruitment process is very competitive so you need to prepare well before submitting an application. You may receive an invitation to sit online tests immediately after you have sent in your application form!
Some students apply for 10+, 20+ or even more graduate schemes initially. This strategy doesn’t often lead to success for a couple of reasons.
1) Applications are often not tailored to individual employers which they would expect you to do.
2) Immediate requests to take online tests becomes overwhelming, affects performance and can impact on your studies.
Remember quality is better than quantity!
Direct entry roles and recruitment agencies
If you are an international student who has a significant amount of previous work experience in the sector you wish to work in, then applying for specific advertised jobs (rather than graduate schemes) could be a good option. These roles are often advertised for an immediate start.
Companies who consider people with less work experience will use words like ‘graduate’ ‘entry level’ or ‘trainee’ in the job title.
You could try searching ‘Graduate’, ‘MBA’ or ‘Masters’ in a keyword search for vacancies to identify employers who are keen to attract people with higher level qualifications.
Direct entry roles are often advertised on company websites, job sites and through recruitment agencies.
Recruitment agencies do not charge fees for job applicants (they charge the company for a successful hire) and can be a useful source of vacancies for people with previous work experience. You can search for relevant agencies for the job sector you are interested in here.
Recruitment Agencies prefer to help people who are available for work at the time of registration, therefore registering with an agency just before your course finishes is advisable.
Qualification requirements for UK jobs
Many employers have a minimum qualification requirement for their roles, e.g. some ask for 2:1 Bachelors degree and specific UK A level grades (or equivalent). International students should state the grades for their equivalent qualifications. A postgraduate qualification will not supersede a lower Bachelors grade (e.g. 2:2 equivalent) unless stated by the employer.
Check out company statements on overseas qualification requirements. Some companies clearly list their qualification requirements while others prefer to use your degree grade as part of the entry criteria and prefer to assess your performance in their online tests, assessments and interviews.
The recent ISE Student Recruitment Survey has reported a continued decline in employers asking for specific A level and degree grades.
Getting started
Working in the UK: regulations
Working in the UK: during your studies
