Employability

 

Enhancing your employability is one of our key priorities. We offer a range of activities throughout your time in university to improve your employability.

Your career prospects

The Department of Computer Science is proud of our graduate employment rate. Here at Aberystwyth University, we help you to prepare for life after graduation and employment after your degree.

Careers Advisory Service

Throughout your time at Aberystwyth you will be given lectures by the Careers Advisory Service on a range of topics including: writing a CV, giving effective presentations, psychometric tests and so forth. As well as these timetabled lectures, numerous additional workshops and ad-hoc drop-in sessions are offered throughout the year.

ABERcareers is the university's online portal which gives you easy access to everything you need to plan your career, including access to our vacancy database of work opportunities and industrial placements.

AberGrad is another element of your time here Aberystwyth University that helps to prepare you for your future life. Alongside your academic studies, personal interests, part-time work and any other extra-curricular activities in which you engage, the Careers Service provides you with a host of opportunities that encourage you to develop your skills and abilities. It is our aim that by graduation, you will be well placed to confidently demonstrate the wide transferability of your subject knowledge, skills and experiences recorded and developed throughout your time as an Aberystwyth student.

Year 1

A fine balanceIn your first year you will participate in an activity weekend, which will help you develop your interpersonal, problem-solving and team-building skills. All our first year students take a Professional and Personal Development module, covering issues such CV writing, presentation, time management and team-working skills whch are essential to improving employability.

Year 2

‌If you are intending to take a year in employment in Year 3 you will participate in a careers event in Gregynog Hall which focuses on improving your employability. You will receive guidance on your CV, learn how to give a presentation and you will have an opportunity to have mock interviews with real life industrialists. All this will improve your confidence and prepare you for the world of work.

All students take part in a major group project in Year 2, with team members taking on roles found in industry such as Team Leader or Quality Assurance Manager. This further develops team-working skills, communication and time management, and also exposes you to industry standard documentation, testing and tools such as version control systems.

Industrial Year

We encourage all of our students to spend a year working in the computing industry between the second and third taught years of their degree scheme. Help is available from the department and the University's Careers Service to find suitable placements and to develop your CV and interview skills. Our Industrial Year students are in demand with prestigious employers such as IBM, HP, Walt Disney and Amadeus. 

Final Year

In your final year you will be preparing for employability as you near the end of your course. We provide talks about writing job applications, talks from previous alumni about their jobs, and talks from visiting employers. You can also book one-to-one sessions with the Careers Advisory Service.

A significant part of your final year is your major project. This is your opportunity to complete a substantial individual project that showcases your computing abilities, which is of great interest to employers. All of our single honours students also take a module on Professional Issues in the Computing Industry, covering issues such as managerial, ethical, legal and financial topics relating to the IT industry, and discusses the opportunities and challenges of different career options.

Postgraduates

The advanced specialised skills and knowledge that students acquire on our taught postgraduate courses are eagerly sought by employers in the industry. Many of the students on the courses are already experienced professionals and know from their own experience how much up-to-date expertise in these areas is in demand.

Jon ShireJon Shire

After several years working in the media industry I decided to move towards software design in the hope of enhancing my skillsets regarding graphics design and visual effects, both of which are becoming heavily reliant on programming ability. Preferring a more personal touch to my work environment, Aberystwyth was a natural fit. The department is somewhat rigid in its learning, but is happy to support any personal student projects, be it through simple advice or the use of facilities and tools. This can be worked into your learning as the studies advance, which leads to great flexibility and an invitation to be creative. For instance, for my final year dissertation, I worked on a virtual reality game in part as a personal project. I was one of the first students to use the new VR room to demonstrate the work and achieved a high grade, due in no small part to the fact that it was a project of my own making. Taking this further, since leaving Aberystwyth I have started to set up my own company once again, to deliver interactive VR experiences. My main focus right now is in disability access for VR games. It’s not all dreams, though. The optional industrial placement year can be incredibly beneficial as well. I interned for a leading software company developing CAD tools for electrical engineering. My internship was not only a great addition to the CV, but also led a full-time job once I graduated. I still work for the same company! I didn’t expect that I would fall in love with Aberystwyth and the CS department itself. The staff are some of the most supportive people I’ve have the pleasure of meeting and learning both for, and with. I simply wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for the department's facilities and those there who guided me.

Adam JonesAdam Jones

I decided to study at Aberystwyth University a few years before I was even eligible to! I fell in love with the area having been on many family holidays to Ceredigion and was excited to take up the Computer Science course after secondary school. Now, as a teacher of Electronics and Computer Science, I am thrilled to see a young group of computer scientists-to-be engaging in and enjoying the marvellous technological advancements that are available to them! More and more primary schools in the UK are equipping children with various programming languages and techniques, and it's our responsibility as graduates to fuel the academic field by supporting and educating the next generation of young people! Each student I have the privilege to teach has the potential to think of an idea, develop a piece of software or be part of a team of engineers who come up with new and exciting technologies. I find that very exciting! In a country with young people craving computer science lessons, an ever expanding national curriculum and a shortage of graduates willing to go into education, now is an exciting time to take up a teaching role. I'm just starting off in my job, and I'm excited to continue. I'm grateful for Aberystwyth University and the opportunities that I had there to develop, work and grow. It will forever be the place that shaped my academic understanding and ultimately made me into the teacher that I am.

Didi GradinarskaDidi Gradinarska

I studied Internet Computing and Systems Administration with a one-year industrial placement at Aberystwyth University and graduated in 2016. My passion for the course I chose started while I was still in high school and this is what drove me to the decision to pursue my education beyond my country’s borders, which brought me to Aberystwyth. In this course I worked with multiple program languages and learned a lot about System Administration, while also having the chance to gain experience with business related topics. In every university a person could be taught on multiple topics related to their degree, but in Aberystwyth I found something more. As an international student I managed to overcome language barriers in a short amount of time due to the care and attention of the staff to a student’s personal growth. This university gave me not only my education but the start of my career, with multiple opportunities to train for interviews and assessment centres. The first step in finding your dream job is having someone believe in you and that is exactly how the staff made me feel. It started with teaching and placement staff helping me find my internship, which was in GE Corporate. There my passion for technology only grew and resulted in me getting a graduate job in GE Healthcare in the Digital Technology Leadership Program. Now I am on a path of constant learning and professional improvement, working on diverse projects with real business impact and it all started with Aberystwyth’s supportive community, for which I am thankful every day.