Careers and employability

Big Careers Fair

The Big Careers Fair is held annually, over three days in early October. There are typically over 100 employers each day offering graduate jobs, student internships and placements in a wide range of industries such as consultancy, HR, retail management, finance, marketing to engineering, science and technology. You can make personal contact with employers and relevant professional bodies for expert advice on finding your ideal career.

Calculating Careers Fair

The Calculating Careers Fair is an annual event held in the atrium of the Alan Turing Building that helps students and recent graduates of the Department of Mathematics to network with various graduate employers. Previous fairs have attracted over 30 internationally-renowned employers, including the likes of Morgan Stanley, Manchester City Football Group and Atkins, and more than 700 students - many of whom have gone on to achieve graduate positions with employers first contacted at the fair. There is no need to register, simply come along on the day.

Meet the Professionals

A series of events called Meet the Professionals is held throughout the academic year. These events concentrate on particular work themes such as Finance, Big Data and Engineering and give the opportunity to hear from recent graduates now working in those fields - people who can closely relate to our students and talk from recent experience about what the career is really like.

Statistics Careers Fair

We hold a fair showcasing careers in statistics and related areas in the second semester each year. Employers have stands set up in the Alan Turing Building so that students can have informal conversations and ask questions on a one to one basis. A selection of these employers will also make a series of short presentations in an adjoining lecture room. Last year we had employers attending included Autotrader, Lubrizol and Co-operative Insurance.

Teaching workshop

Each year we have experts come into the Department to a run a workshop where the various routes into teaching are explained and details given of the financial support available to maths graduates. This is important guidance for our students who are considering a career in teaching.

Other employer visits

We will host other visits to the Department from a range of employers. These are sometimes organised by the student run Maths Society (MathSoc), with support given by the Department.

The Department will help you plan your post-university career throughout your time here. This will take many forms, including:

• The Managing My Future (Careers Management Skills for Mathematicians) compulsory course for all second-year students, which aims to familiarise you with the skills and competencies employers look for in a maths graduate;
• Offering dedicated Maths Careers Consultants who provide one-to-one guidance appointments on your career options; whether you have a specific career in mind or just need some inspiration to get you started. These are held weekly in the Alan Turing Building, as well as the central careers service. They can also help with all aspects of applying for jobs, internships, placements or further study.

These major events sit alongside a regular programme supported by dedicated careers experts. These help with all the stages that may be involved in securing a job:

1. Advice on your choice of career;
2. Guidance on CV and cover letter writing;
3. Interview practise – the opportunity to do so either with Careers Service staff or employers who visit the University to help;
4. Practising situational judgement tests and psychometric tests;
5. Video interviews – practise these and get feedback;
6. An opportunity to practice for employer assessment centres;
7. Professionalise your LinkedIn profile – this is in effect your on line CV.

In addition to the above, we run events focused on international students, as well as specialised workshops and fairs – in the last year this has included events focused on careers in teaching and also in statistics.

The University also supports schemes that allow students to benefit from external mentors, working in careers that might interest them (Manchester Gold Mentoring) and also develop their network of contacts across the world (Global Graduates).

Plus of course, advertising lots of jobs on their Careers Link pages.

If you're studying an undergraduate degree with us, we offer the opportunity to go on a year placement between your second and third years (MMath students can choose instead to have a year placement between Years 3 and 4 – guidance is given to help you choose when to do this for those who are interested).

To help you, the Department runs a Placement Academy which provides additional resources and support. You will, as part of the Academy, work closely with dedicated advisers from the Careers Service with support and mentoring from within the Department.

• Find out more about Year placements on our Industrial experience page