Accessibility statement

Developing your career ideas

The University Careers Service can support you through the process of choosing and getting the job or postgraduate course that is right for you, but you are the one who must make the decisions. Even if you think you know what you want to do it makes sense to spend time researching your options to confirm those ideas and consider back-up options if your plans don’t work out immediately.

The Careers idea page explains the ways that you can develop your career planning and the ways that Careers can support you getting started with your career. 

The following resources can help you to think about your options and generate and research career ideas, but you are also encouraged to discuss your career ideas (or lack of!) with your supervisor and/or a careers adviser through the Handshake.

Psychology Employability Tutorial

We have developed an online Employability Tutorial on the VLE which contains information, questionnaires and activities that will help you to:

  • Understand yourself – your skills, strengths, weaknesses, values, interests and personality preferences
  • Understand your options – learn more about graduate opportunities, how to develop your skills and how to research career opportunities
  • Understand the way forward – discover how to make decisions effectively and set concrete goals to progress your career planning

We introduce you to the Psychology Employability Tutorial in your first year of study, but you are encouraged to continue to use it throughout your time at York.

Working through the Employability Tutorial supports you to complete a Personal Employability Plan (PEP), which you will share with your supervisor. You will continue to update and discuss your PEP with your supervisor throughout your time at York and it should help you to identify your skills, strengths and areas for development as well as offering you the opportunity to reflect on your activities.

The following information resources can help you to think about your options, generate and research career ideas, but you are also encouraged to discuss your career ideas (or lack of !) with your supervisor and/or a careers adviser.

Researching careers

Finding job opportunities

The Careers Information Room and website has a wide range of resources to help you to research different career options, further study, applications and interviews, work and study outside the UK and taking time out.

The Careers events programme features a range of fairs, talks, networking events, workshops and skills training sessions that can help you to find out more about different career options.

Careers run a session in 2nd Year on researching career options, but there is also advice on what to look out for in the information sheet above.

Researching careers and labour market information

The Prospects graduate careers website is a good starting point, as is this Psychology Employability Guide.