Careers and employability
You’ve finished your studies – now it’s time to find your dream job. Kingston offers expert guidance, tailored advice and a welcoming community to help you find your feet after university.
Why Kingston University is great for careers and employability
We stand out with our dedication to helping students achieve their career goals.
We offer a variety of support services, including work placements, internships and career mentoring to prepare students for a competitive job market.
Our career services include CV reviews, interview preparation, and access to industry connections. Students also benefit from a focus on entrepreneurship and the Graduate Career Community, which provides exclusive events and opportunities to grow your network.
Kingston's strong alumni network showcases success stories ranging from CEOs to innovative entrepreneurs, providing inspiration for students and graduates. Whether you're exploring options or climbing the career ladder, you’ll always feel supported.
Find out how Kingston can help you shape your future.
Career support for graduates
Support for all graduates
For up to two years after graduation, all Kingston graduates can access the careers and employability support that was available to them while studying. This includes:
- Access to the Handshake platform where you can find jobs, internships and placements, book workshops and webinars, connect with employers and book appointments.
- Access to Career Zone you will be able to discover career possibilities, search for jobs, prepare for interviews and optimize your CV.
- Attend employer events such as Careers Festival where you can learn about different career options and meet employers that want to hire Kingston graduates.
- Access to LinkedIn Learning for two years after graduation. Please complete this short form, after which you will be invited by email to activate your LinkedIn Learning Alumni account.
The Kingston University Graduate Career Community
Whether you graduated from Kingston in the last two years or are set to finish your course this year, the Graduate Career Community is here to help you.
When you join, you have the opportunity to take part in events, meetups and development sessions, access a toolkit of resources and get the support you need to:
- Explore further study and career options
- Build your professional network
- Identify your values and interests
- Develop your career confidence
- Understand routes into self employment and freelancing
- Connect with graduate employers
As a member of The Graduate Career Community, you have access to exclusive events and workshops, such as skills development sessions and Career Community meet ups, where you can build your network with other students and graduates to help you build your community.
We also host events with employers throughout the year, including careers fairs and festivals, panel talks and assessment days.
Final-year students and graduates can join us for a range of events and drop-ins to build skills and boost employability.
Join us regularly at:
- Our CV Clinic in the John Galsworthy Building on the Penrhyn Road campus
- Every Monday in term time, 11am–1pm.
- Our Teams-based Graduate Drop-in – your chance to get advice from a Graduate Career Coach every week all year round.
- Tuesdays, 6.30–7.30pm
- Thursdays, 10.30–11.30am
You can access all events on Handshake. If you’re having trouble, email us at careers@kingston.ac.uk.
| Upcoming Graduate Career Community events | |||
| Wednesday 19 March 2025 | 13.00–13.30 | How to keep on going and build resilience | Online |
| Wednesday 26 March 2025 | 17.00–17.30 | How to articulate my skills as a graduate (Cappfinity 2) | Online |
| Wednesday 2 April 2025 | 13.00–13.30 | How to write strong bullet points for a CV | Online |
As a member of the Graduate Career Community, you can tap into an online toolkit full of career planning guidance, plus access to graduate LinkedIn Learning pathways and more.
Here’s what you get:
- Kingston graduates can use LinkedIn Learning for two years after graduating. Fill out this form to start setting up your account.
- Connect with a professional mentor for free through the Graduate Mentor platform
Download our Career Planner (PDF) to start exploring your options. You could even bring it along to an appointment with our career coach.
We are only able to support graduates for up to two years after they graduate. If you have graduated over two years ago you can receive support and access resources from the National Careers Service.
When you graduate from Kingston University you automatically become part of Kingston Alumni. You'll be able to network, keep in touch and continue to develop your skills together with over 200,000 fellow alumni.
The Careers and Employability Service's Handshake lists a large number of graduate job vacancies throughout the year, which includes part-time opportunities for students both home and abroad.
Other resources you might find useful in your job search include:
Join the Graduate Career Community
Sign up is really simple and takes roughly two minutes.
After you sign up you will receive a welcome email and a call from one of our team to assess your needs and help point you in the right direction for support.
You will also get to meet with the Graduate Careers Coach who will support you on your personal journey to graduate success.
Information for employers
Find out more about how we can support your employment needs. Contact us to find out how we can help you develop your workforce and reach your recruitment goals.
There are a number of initiatives in place for employers who wish to raise their profile on campus, including sector-specific recruitment fairs, the opportunity to host your assessment day on campus, interviews on campus, and sponsorship of our activities and events.
We offer a tailored approach to on-campus activities and we would be happy to discuss your current needs. Please contact us for further information.
Our recruitment team can provide innovative solutions to help you meet your resourcing objectives. The team's expertise spans the public and private sectors; it includes retail, finance, law, professional services, non-profit, IT, engineering, media, marketing, further education and the built environment. We can tailor our approach to your organisation's needs.
Advertise your job for free
Kingston University's online jobs board, Handshake, provides a free-of-charge recruitment service to promote your paid vacancies to current students and graduates.
You can upload your job(s) quickly and easily, directly on to Jobs Central free of charge. For more information, please contact us on +44 (0)20 8417 7445 or email careers@kingston.ac.uk.
Depending on your needs, find out more about who you can recruit from Kingston University:
- Graduates
- Placement students
- Interns
- Students for part-time work
- International students
Join our career events
The part-time jobs fair and the summer opportunities fair are great ways to promote casual and flexible work opportunities within your organisation.
Many of our students are commuters and are looking for opportunities across London and Surrey. A stand at one of our fairs costs a small fee and many employers sign up students on the day as ready-picked motivated and enthusiastic workers.
Get in touch for more information.
Contact the Careers and Employability team
If you would like to find out more about how we can help you, please contact us via email or visit us.
Careers and Employability Team
The Career Centre (JG0006)
John Galsworthy Building
Penrhyn Road
Kingston
KT1 2EE
(The Career Centre is open 10am–5pm, Monday to Friday during term time.)
