Originally Published 01 October 2003

Whether you are a fresher or a finalist - it's never too early to start thinking about career options - and you can start right NOW - because almost everything you can do in person at the Careers Service you can do online at the Careers Service website.

Freshers:

• Focus on getting the most out of your university experience, it will stand you in good stead when job hunting later on
• Start thinking about career areas that interest you
• Explore your interests and develop transferable skills through work experience and involvement in societies
• Investigate the Warwick Skills Certificate

Second Years:

• Start crystalising your thoughts
• The summer before your third year is the time to get ahead of the competition with relevant work experience and many larger employers will be looking for summer placement students soon
• Bear in mind that lots of employers use their work experience schemes to feed their graduate recruitment

Finalists and Postgrads:

• Start thinking about the early deadlines - especially for commercial companies
• Consider further study - the Careers Service can help you out there too
• Practice mock interviews, assessment centres and psychometric tests

Everyone:

Remember - it's not just about having a specific idea and following it up, you could use personality profiling offered by the Careers Service to help you decide on the area that you're best suited to.

Prospects Planner is also available as a tool to match your skills and interets to a relevant occupation.

Alternatively, attend a careers session or speak to a Careers Advisor

Go along for a 12 minute Quick Careers Advice session to get you started.

You can even get your CV or application checked through.

TIP: Register with myCareers to receive personalised career news, vacancies and events - see the Careers Service website for more details.

TIP: Check out the workshops and presentations on offer - everything from writing a CV and interview techniques to presentations from prospective employers

TIP: Careers fairs are a good way of getting ideas and investigating both the general and the more specific - the Careers Service holds tailored fairs for law, finance, science, IT and engineering

TIP: Don't forget further study - the careers service has information on all postgraduate courses in the UK, and can advise on relevant professional qualifications

For more information on the services offered by the Careers Service phone 024 7652 4748.