Spring insight days/weeks/programmes – these are essentially mini internships designed to give you an insight into the life at a particular organisation, before committing to a full internship or placement year. Some of the typical spring insight programme activities include: introductions to the work of an organisation, networking events with employees, shadowing current graduates and workshops or skills sessions. These are usually offered by organisations in the financial services sector, and are valued highly when applying for further internships & placements. These programmes can last up to 10 days and usually run during the Easter break, though some also run during the summer.

Independently sourced voluntary work experience – this is a good option for you if you want to get experience from any smaller or local businesses which you're interested in. Though there are plenty of online applications for more formal work experience, there is nothing stopping you from emailing a couple of businesses you're passionate about working at to ask if they would consider providing you with a couple of days work experience. The company will have no obligation to do so, but you might find that if you explain well enough why both parties will get a lot out of the experience, they may accept.

Graduate schemes – these are offered by most of the large, well-known companies. Each year, they recruit a cohort of graduates to work for their organisation for a fixed period of time (after which you may be offered a permanent job). Some graduate schemes specialise in a particular area (e.g. Finance or Marketing), whereas others offer you the opportunity to rotate between different departments. Recruitment usually starts in autumn for the following summer.

Individual vacancies – these are jobs that are advertised as and when vacancies arise and usually have a more immediate start date. This is the most common route for our graduates, particularly as the majority of the UK economy consists of small and medium-sized enterprises (i.e. less than 250 employees).

Postgraduate study – this is where you specialise in a particular area of academic study. This could be because it interests you or it will help to further your career (though it isn't essential for graduate-level jobs).