The Exclusive Finito University Rankings

1. Cambridge University

Sometimes considered the top careers centre in the UK, this offering is run by Director Jenny Blakesley. In 2020, Cambridge careers centre made the switch from its old system to Handshake – an app that allows students to network with employers, contact the careers centre and schedule meetings, check the status of their applications, and see new job listings tailored to their profiles – it has achieved positive reviews on the App Store. The careers service also provides advice and support for current students at all levels of study as well as alumni. Alumni benefit from the Alumni Careers Connect programme, which connects graduates with mentors who have successfully transitioned to the world of work. This is all very good, but there have been occasional bumps in the road in terms of delivery. In 2019, the careers centre sent out an email entitled, “Disappointing results? Our top advice,” which many students found patronising and alarming. To their credit, the service subsequently issued an apology.

3. University College London

has become difficult to manage during the pandemic.

When she took over the Director of Careers role at Cambridge in 2019, Jenny Blakesley already had 15 years’ experience in the field. She led the careers services at the London School of Economics and King’s College London after working in careers at Queen Mary, the University of London, and more.

She was instrumental in the switch to Handshake. Blakesley studied at the University of Bath, where she received a BSc in Pharmacology.

2. Oxford University

The Oxford Careers Service is housed in an appropriately aged and ornate building located next to Wycliffe Hall. The service offers online resources that help with CVs, networking, and interviews, as well as traditional in-person guidance. The careers service publishes “The Oxford Guide to Careers” annually, which contains industry information, tips from employers, and help with planning for the future. Students and alumni can find job listings, book meetings, and see upcoming careers events through the online CareerConnect portal. Their website is good, but visually uninteresting. Extensive advice is available for students on the website, however it is presented mainly as text with little video content. Despite this, they are still providing a good service with few issues.

UCL Careers offers an employment newsletter, an annual careers guide, alumni mentoring, and tailored oneon-one advice. UCL students can book three different types of appointment with the careers centre, depending on their needs. Meetings for applications advice, interview coaching, and short, general guidance are available with UCL careers consultants. Their website could be easier to navigate, and video content is not prominently displayed. The careers service would benefit from an overhaul of its website, because they do offer good services and information which is easily locatable.

“We’ve been promoting as much virtual work experience and that sort of thing as we can, which is as good as you can get in that situation, but it’s still really difficult for the students,” Barnard explains.

Without in-office work experience, students miss out on the ‘try before you buy’ aspect of finding a career. This could lead to students not finding the right job to fit their skills and interests, but Barnard says that many graduates are concerned about finding any job in the wake of Covid-19.

“There are the concerns that a student will have, not least of which is living though a global pandemic, which is one thing, but also the recession, their future and what it looks like, and obviously the backlog of graduates we’ll see from 2020 and 2021. Their confidence in the jobs market is low, coupled with the fact that the work experience stuff has not been there either.” have a class of 30-50 in small groups all taking part. I think that’s a way to do things at scale, particularly when there are fewer external experiences available.”

To allow students to gain work experience during the pandemic, Barnard and her team have begun to focus on work-related learning, which takes place in the classroom.

We have established that work experience is becoming increasingly valuable in terms of graduate employment, which brings us back to our previous question; where does the value of a degree actually come from?

Karen believes it’s not about any one part, but the experience as a whole.

Jonathan Black has led the careers service at Oxford for 13 years. He studied and pursued a career in engineering before moving into finance. Now, he helps students by creating new careers programmes, delivering advice seminars, and coaching students individually. He wrote the book “Where am I going and can I have a map?” in 2017, which Emma Jacobs of the Financial Times described as a “wise, calming, and pragmatic” careers guide.

Karen Barnard has been the Director of the UCL careers service for 17 years, following two years as head of careers at St. Mary’s University. Her experience allows her to help students with motivation, interview skills, and finding the right fit for them after university. She focuses on work experience, which

“One thing we’re doing to raise the standard is work-related learning. Not internships or learning in the workplace, but work-related learning. For example, we have job taster sessions and scenario activities where employers will bring real-life problems onto campus, and students solve them in groups. They’re working on real-life problems under the pressure of time and they get a feel for it,” Barnard explains. “You can do that reasonably en masse. Rather than one person having an internship, we can

“The value of a degree in today’s marketplace is about the whole package of being a university student. The research skills and study skills you get from having done a degree are definitely important, but I think the whole package is equally important. Co-curricular offerings from universities include work experience and placements, but they’re also about contact with employers, clubs and societies, volunteering work, ambassadorial roles for the university… that whole package is valuable,” Barnard says. “We know that employers look at experience from students in the broadest sense, rather than just saying ‘Great, you’ve got a 2.1’.” Barnard also warns students on the job search to really consider the roles they apply for, rather than simply ‘ticking boxes’.

“The approach that we encourage students to take is ‘don’t do a job because you can do it, do a job because you want to do it’. They should think about themselves first – what their primary motivators are, what their values are, then rank all of those things. Have that list, look at the job description, and then see if it applies to you.”