Careers and Enterprise Centre

Whether you’re a budding entrepreneur with a groundbreaking business idea, or you want to take the first step towards your dream career, we’ll support you all the way.

You might know exactly where you want to be when you finish University, or maybe you don’t even know where to start. Either way, our careers advisors can help. From career planning, through to applying for internships, placements, and graduate jobs, we’ll support you from day one. Wherever you’ve come from and wherever you want to go, we’ll help you develop the skills and experience you need to succeed.

There are countless careers, roles, and employers out there, which can sometimes feel a little bit daunting, but we are here to help. We have a wide range of online resources available to support you with your careers research, including detailed career sector guides, help sheets on everything from preparing your CV, making job applications, and what to expect at assessment centres and interviews, as well as a comprehensive set of e-learning resources. We also have interactive tools available to help you practice your interview and assessment skills, and a CV review tool, which will give you instant feedback on your CV. All of these resources are available to you wherever and whenever you need them.

Employers around the world are always impressed by just how employable our graduates are.

We’ve got links with many leading graduate recruiters and you’ll have access to thousands of work experience and graduate opportunities. Why not attend one of the hundreds of employer events we offer each year? They are a great way to meet graduate recruiters to find out about their internships, placements and graduate roles.

So make the most of our connections and give yourself a competitive advantage in the recruitment process.

The graduate job market is competitive. Whereas once a good degree from a worldclass university would be enough to secure you a job, it is now essential that you can demonstrate meaningful work experience to ensure that your CV stands out.

For all career paths, from graduate programmes and beyond, being able to demonstrate employability and personal skills gained in the workplace is key. The Careers & Enterprise Centre will help you secure work experience; whether it’s a summer internship, a placement year, or part-time work experience during term time.

As well as internship schemes for large graduate recruiters, we also create bespoke work experience internship programmes that meet the specific needs of individual students. Programmes change on an annual basis, to ensure we best meet the needs of our current student cohort. Recent programmes have enabled students to gain experience working with small and medium-sized businesses, social enterprises, charities, scientific organisations and more.

To find out more, see durham.ac.uk/careers

More of our students and graduates are starting their own businesses than ever before. Whether you have dreams of starting a freelance career, or a great idea for a new product or service, Careers & Enterprise provides the support you need to achieve your goals.

Delivered from the Hazan Venture Lab, our new co-working space for aspiring entrepreneurs, we provide a comprehensive offer of startup support. This includes: one-to-one startup advice, grant funding, and workshops, as well as access to our network of established entrepreneurs and business support professionals.

The University’s annual Blueprint Startup Challenge provides the opportunity to win up to £10,000 to take your new venture to the next level!

Durham University is situated in the stunning city of Durham.