What do Imperial graduates do?

Alumni Support Chris Fuller PhD Plastic Electronic Materials Management

“The Careers Service is accessible up to three years after graduation! Despite leaving Imperial College London in 2017, the Careers Service supported me fifteen months later as I changed career direction. Within days of contacting the department, a careers consultant was available for a general appointment over the phone - I did not live in London at the time - and further advice via email. The consultant offered an incredible service by providing valuable cover letter/CV feedback, job searching strategies and even a mock interview over Skype. The support was yielded quick results too, as after two weeks of advice I was invited to three interviews and subsequently offered a job.”

Find out more about the prospects for Imperial students when they graduate.

Options for Imperial’s science and engineering graduates are superb and wide-ranging. Many careers are open to students with any numerate degree and the quality of an Imperial degree means that our graduates are in demand.

Popular sectors for Imperial graduates

Of those graduating with first degrees in 2018, 64.1 per cent were engaged in paid employment, including running their own businesses. The most popular sector was healthcare/social work – due to the degree in medicine.

Excluding medics, the three most popular sectors were professional, scientific & technical activities, Finance & Insurance and Information & Communications with twenty 4.2 per cent, 17.7 per cent and 15.8 per cent of graduates entering these sectors respectively.

The ‘other business activities’ sector (5.1 per cent) is diverse, covering the legal profession, marketing, advertising, retail, property and recruitment, with a mixture of professional, permanent jobs, plus temporary work (typically in retail) with graduates paying off debts while continuing to seek a career position.

What about the rest? About 5 per cent of Imperial graduates take time off after studying to travel the world, building confidence and developing their skills in the process.

Sadly, unemployment is the initial experience for 3.2 per cent of graduates, fifteen months after graduation. If you find yourself in this position, remember that support is still available to you from the Careers Service for three years.

Be flexible and proactive in your job search and network actively. Consider voluntary work or getting involved in community projects to develop ‘soft skills’ too. And remember that your degree will continue to remain attractive to employers in the future.

More information

More details of graduate destinations for your subject area can be found under the What do Imperial graduates do section of our website.

Surveys

To continue to have these figures, we rely on graduates letting us know about first jobs by completing the Graduate Outcomes questionnaire, which is emailed to all graduates fifteen months after completing your course. All information is treated in confidence and stored and used in accordance with the Data Protection Act. All universities work with the Higher Education Statistics Agency to collect this data, which publishes indicators of employment and other statistics and helps the College provide anonymous examples of career destinations to present students.

Salaries

We collected salary details from 607 graduate responses, and the average salary was £35,577.

Postgraduate study

Further study beckons for 25.9 per cent of graduates. Courses range from PhD. and MSc, to vocational training or even another degree (e.g. in medicine).

In 2018, over 30 per cent of graduates from Bioengineering, Earth Sciences & Engineering, Life Sciences, Chemistry, Mathematics & Physics went on to further study, many choosing to stay at Imperial to do this.