Graduate careers with any degree
Many students study for the pure enjoyment of a subject and want to advance their knowledge in this area. However, many others also want to use their degree to progress their career or start a new one. What happens though when careers directly related to your degree are limited and highly competitive? Or you realise that you want to venture down a completely different career path unrelated to your degree subject?
If this is the case, it might make you question the value of your course and feel lost as to what to do next. However, it’s not uncommon for people to have a successful career in a sector or role that isn’t related to their degree. This is due to the application of transferable skills that you attain and develop throughout your study.
There are many career areas that you will find typically do not require applicants to have a specific degree. These include roles in area such as
- accounting and business
- human resources, management
- insurance
- retail
- consulting.
For further options and insight into which careers require specific degrees and ones that don't see the article by Target Careers, Which degree do you need for which career?.
For further insight on this subject, discussing how flexible and varied your career options are, regardless of what subject you have chosen see our YouTube resource, Graduate Careers with Any Degree.
Recognising your transferable skills
Through degree-level study you attain and develop a range of transferable skills not necessarily related to the subject content studied. These are skills employers look for and they open doors to a wider range of graduate-level careers and training schemes. It’s about how you apply the knowledge you’ve learnt in a variety of real-life scenarios, not necessarily the subject content itself.
You may have also gained transferable employability skills in other ways such as through work or volunteering. They can also be gained through personal circumstances and situations such as caring responsibilities, societal and sudden employment changes or home-related changes. These skills are key attributes that employers look for when hiring.
Learn more about employability skills, identifying your transferable skills and the employability skills you gain through OU study in the following articles.
Student case studies
The following student stories highlight the broad range of opportunities that are available and how your degree can prepare you for many career directions.
Finding job opportunities
The following articles provide information about graduate job options as well as useful links to help you locate job vacancies and other opportunities.
