Your future

Not sure where you’ll be after uni? Feeling stuck with planning your next steps?

Don’t worry.

Most people don’t have a “plan” - and what you do straight after uni won’t necessarily dictate the rest of your working life!

Your career is likely to take unexpected twists and turns, and you’ll develop as you go.

The University’s ‘Your future’ framework is designed to help you make the most of your time at Leeds, discover opportunities and options and make decisions about your next steps.

There are three elements to the framework: Discover, Develop, and Decide, all circling one vital word – Act.

This illustrates a journey that isn’t necessarily down one path, you could decide something and then change your mind! 

You’ll likely cycle between all points, even throughout your professional life. But it’s important to Act, no matter where you are.

Act

It is only by doing something that you will move forwards; therefore action underpins every element of the framework.  This does not need to be a big thing, it might be coming for a careers appointment, attending an event, or any number of other things, but action and review are crucial to progress throughout your career and professional life.

Discover

This is about starting to consider, research and identify your professional interests.

It might include discovering what opportunities are open to you as a student at Leeds, discovering what other students have gone on to do, discovering your own values, strengths and interests, discovering trends in your sector/s of interest, or opportunities for further study.

Example resources to help:

• Careers events

• Career “quizzes” e.g. Prospects Planner

• Destinations information for your subject

• Exploring the support available to help start a business

• Researching different sectors and career ideas

Develop

This is about development in its broadest sense: It might be you developing specific skills or experiences, it might be developing your awareness of options, or developing your understanding of your interests, values and motivations.

Example resources to help:

• Volunteering and other opportunities

• Engaging in opportunities through LUU such as clubs or societies

• Taking on positions of responsibility such as a rep role in LUU or in your school or course, committee positions in clubs or societies, or additional responsibilities in a part-time job

• Part-time or vacation work

• Undertaking placements, internships or any form of work experience

• Networking and talking to people in sector/s or role/s of interest

Decide

The focus here is on shorter-term decisions, as opposed to deciding what to do with the rest of your life.

Ultimately, it is about deciding what to do immediately after university, but this may comprise various smaller decisions such as deciding to explore certain sectors, to do some work experience and apply for certain opportunities or further study, to seek support or anything else.

Example resources to help:

• More specific work experience or volunteering

• Careers appointments

• University professional mentoring schemes

• Support with job hunting, applications, interviews and assessment centres, whether this be for jobs, further study or anything else

• Support with starting a business from Spark