Graduate Career Explorer

How do I access Graduate Career Explorer with Safari?

If you're using Safari as your browser, you'll need to enable cross-site tracking to access Graduate Career Explorer, here's how you can do it:

• Open Safari
• Go to Preferences
• Click on the "Privacy" tab, and uncheck the "Prevent cross-site tracking" option

Enabling cross-site tracking might affect your online privacy and security, so you may want to turn it off again after using Graduate Career Explorer.

How does Graduate Career Explorer know what jobs are degree related?

We have used information from the Graduates Outcome (GO) survey to identify degree relevant occupational outcomes. GO is a UK wide survey that is undertaken by the Higher Education Statistics Agency. We use a combination of GO data at national level (from the publication What Do Graduates Do?) and for Huddersfield graduates, along with information from Prospects.ac.uk (What Can I Do with My Degree?). A further stage of analysis is provided by Course Leaders and Careers Consultants to identify relevant occupations and representative job titles.  

Why can't I find my degree?

Graduate Career Explorer aims to include all the main types of degree courses currently offered by the University of Huddersfield from its Huddersfield campus, including Distance Learning Courses. During 2024-25 the site will be launched with data for the main types of undergraduate degrees in all schools, and for postgraduate taught courses in Arts and Humanities; Business, Education and Law; and Computing and Engineering. Postgraduate taught courses added for Applied Sciences and Health and Human Sciences will be added as soon as possible in 2024-25.

Graduate Career Explorer does not provide reports for the following types of courses: courses that are not a full degree; Higher Apprenticeships; professional qualifications at postgraduate level which are not taught Masters; PhDs. 

What is the difference between the career focuses?

Direct Routes shows careers suitable for a new graduate that are directly related to your subject. These make direct use of the subject specialist knowledge and / or skills from your degree. Generally, these will be opportunities you can apply for as a new graduate (provided you have developed the appropriate skills, qualities and experience while at university). This view provides a precise focus on your degree subject and emphasises immediate opportunities. However, because employers may use the same job title for someone with a little work experience and for someone with many years' work experience, some adverts and opportunities shown may not be suitable for a recent graduate.

Further Possibilities shows careers that build on your degree, but which often require additional qualifications and / or experience (for example a specialist taught Masters, or a professionally recognised qualification. It shows a wider range of careers than Direct Routes and in some instances the scope for career progression for someone who has been employed in an industry for a number of years. Because employers may use the same job title for someone with a little work experience and for someone with many years' work experience, some adverts and opportunities shown may not be suitable for a recent graduate.

Where does Graduate Career Explorer get its vacancy data from?

Graduate Career Explorer pulls hundreds of thousands of GDPR compliant job adverts from thousands of internet jobs boards. These are de-duplicated (so each advert is counted just once even if the same advert is posted in more than one place).

Am I qualified to get all of the jobs that Graduate Career Explorer lists for my degree?

Not necessarily. The jobs that the system searches for are ones which are relevant to your degree. But any large data set may include non-applicable results. This is for three reasons:

• Because job titles are not standardised, employers describe the same type of job in many different ways.
• Employers set their own requirements for each post. Two jobs which have the same job title can have different job requirements.
• Because job adverts are complex documents and can contain irrelevant information. As the job adverts are read by an AI there is a possibility that some jobs matched may not be applicable.

We make every effort to get the results as accurate as possible. If you see results that don't look right, please let us know using the feedback function built into Graduate Career Explorer so we can address any issues. 

Can I apply for any of the jobs in the Examples of Job Adverts feed?

The jobs feed shows examples of actual adverts to inform your career planning. Because it is updated every 30 days, some vacancies will have already closed (and the link may not work). Where a vacancy is still live, you can apply for it. You should always check the employer requirements yourself and check that this is an organisation you're happy to work for. Inclusion of a vacancy from the AI generated list does not represent an endorsement by the University.

Does Graduate Career Explorer show all jobs available for my degree?

No. Graduate Career Explorer shows most of the jobs that are related to your degree subject. But no system is 100% perfect. Some jobs may be missed.

Furthermore, the full range of roles will be wider as some people will take a career that may not be especially related to their degree.

Career choice is based on many factors. Many people choose career paths based on their interests, values or personal priorities which may take them in a different direction from their degree subject.

The UK jobs market is more flexible than most of the rest of Europe (or North America) with approximately 60% of graduate roles being open to ‘graduates of any degree’, so it is quite common for graduates to get work which is different from the subject they studied. 

Does Graduate Career Explorer include non-graduate roles?

Yes. While Graduate Career Explorer mainly shows graduate level roles, sometimes we have included non-graduate ones for those areas of work where non-graduate roles are generally essential steppingstones into graduate careers. Occasionally some non-graduate roles may also be returned mistakenly by a query due to the nature of big data. 

Does Graduate Career Explorer sometimes under-report the number of jobs?

Sometimes this is possible. Because Graduate Career Explorer shows the number of jobs advertised on internet job boards, sectors which use informal recruitment methods like networking and word of mouth (e.g. in the Performing Arts) or that use rolling open recruitment through a dedicated occupational website (like the police or some medical roles) will be under-reported.