Recruitment practices vary across different organisations, so you should use a variety of job hunting strategies. Some organisations will attend recruitment fairs and use recruitment websites, whereas others will seek out more specialist recruitment sources or recruit from within their organisation as far as possible, eg from internships, year in industry placements or insight events.
The websites below advertise science specific jobs and graduate schemes. Further details of websites can be found under individual job sector pages and the Using your degree outside the lab page. Examples include:
Some employers use specialist scientific recruitment agencies to help them fill permanent and short-term vacancies. The agency will screen candidates for the employer and select those with relevant skills and experience. There is no charge to candidates for using these services and they can be a useful addition to your job search resources and may also be able to offer you application advice. Some scientific recruitment agencies include (you can search on Agency Central):
Watch: Using specialist life sciences recruitment agencies (March 2021) (log into the VLE first to watch this recording).
Not all vacancies are advertised and some employers prefer to recruit through word of mouth or speculative approaches. Others may advertise opportunities, but only on their own websites or through social media, where they will find an audience who are already showing an interest in their work and organisation.
For speculative applications, when you find companies you’re interested in, check their website to see if they have vacancies or if they offer an address for speculative applications. If not, you could submit your CV and cover letter, demonstrating how your skills and experience could benefit them. They may not have vacancies, but if they are interested they may keep your application on file for future opportunities or tell you if they use a specific recruitment agency.
CV and covering letter videos are available for current students to refer to (log into the VLE first to view these):
Check the recruitment agency SRG CV guidelines (PDF , 4,096kb)
CareerSet is a tool that uses artificial intelligence to offer feedback on your CV. It focuses on the language, content, formatting and impact. It will give you a score and suggestions for how to improve your CV. As you make changes to your CV you can continue to use the tool to improve your score. If you are struggling to get a score above 70% we can look at your CV. Read more about writing a good CV.
You can use Shortlist.Me to prepare for job interviews. Try these interviews with employers working in science and research:
Find out more about interview prep on the Apply for jobs pages.