Blogs, vlogs and podcasts in a careers world!
In a previous blog post, how to use careers information was discussed. To follow up on this, here’s something about ‘blogs, vlogs and podcasts in a careers world’. I hope there’s some useful content here. These will all have a slightly different audience, so you will need to decide for yourselves which ones are good for you now or are aimed at a potential future version of ‘you’.
Blogs
There are loads of really good careers blogs out there. Lets start with universities blogs. These ones are examples of some good ones University of Liverpool, University of Manchester, University of Surrey, Queen Mary and University of Cambridge. Even smaller institutions like SOAS and Writtle University College have blogs. The KI careers service blog is worth a look at for those doing or contemplating science research. The posts in all of these sites will cover a range of careers issues. As you will see from them, they are often written and ‘aimed’ at their own students, but the content will be useful for a wider audience too! So regardless of whether you are at university now, intending to study there in the future or not, do have a read around, and not just at these ones!
Then there are ones which will have a specific ‘focus’. For instance the Bioscience Careers, LSE’s PhD Careers, Nature, Sciene and John Innes plant science ones are all really interesting - you can probably guess what they cover! The Conventry University careers blog has a more humanities leaning, just to balance out from the science ones here. Jim Bright’s sporadic blogs and his more regular Sydney Morning Herald content are definitely worth a read too. (If I ever do a blog about top reads for careers professionals, his The Chaos Theory of Careers book would be highly recommended too!)
There are several organisations that cover a range of careers blogs topics. For instance IBM, Vanguard and careers organisation CXK (more school/college focused) have interesting blogs to read, as does Curated Careers. If you have a career idea, why not have a look at the professional bodies that cover different occupations? They will often have careers blogs, this list of the professional associations will help.
Hellofuture are a NCOP partnership, i.e. they promote university opportunities. Their website has plenty of great blogs for students, parents and advisers/teachers, and not just about university topics! Ucas have lots of blogs related to university and applying, just in case you didn’t know.
And I know most of the blogs mentioned will be aimed at students, but I can’t not mention these blogs that are aimed at careers staff. Career Defender produces a fabulous blog for careers professionals working in schools and colleges, whilst Charlie Ball’s LMI blogs will be well known by HE careers staff. Tristram Hooley has produced some great content too. The Institute of Student Employers have a range of blogs that will be interesting reading for students, early career recruiters and careers staff. Gradconsult content is always worth a look at too, they’ve got some interesting content about HE employability issues.
Podcasts
Obviously not all careers information and advice will be written in a blog. There are some fabulous podcasts too, which are great to listen to! Why not check these out? These ones are all pretty good.
Lots of good careers podcasts around too!
Instutute of Student Employers
Graduate Compass - Cian O’Sullivan does a great job talking to people who use their degrees in unrelated career directions! Another absolute favourite.
Careers in your Ears - aimed at researchers, from Kings College careers service (one of my favourites!)
Get that grad job - University of Lancaster Careers Service
Graduate Job Podcast - some interesting content.
Early Careers Podcast from Jack Denton and Oli Sidwell (great for ‘early careers’ staff, careers staff and students)
The New Normal - Chris Webb and Helen Armitage, Sheffield Hallam careers service staff
PhD Careers - interested in how a career could develop with a PhD? Inside or outside of a university? This list of podcasts is definitely worth an explore.
Squiggly Careers - Amazing if
Prospects.ac.uk - you’ve probably come across the great careers information on this site, have you heard their podcasts too?
Reimagining Careers Education Jim Bright and Liv Pennie
Vlogs
There is some good vlogs too!
CXK have got a range of vlogs which cover all sorts of topics, aimed at school and college students.
National Careers Service - range of careers related topics covered.
Jobs.ac.uk - aimed at early careers researchers, some interesting content!
The Great Grad Joh Hunt University of London/The Careers Group, aimed at those looking for a graduate job.
I could just leave this post as it is, ‘namechecking’ these great resources. But a few comments might help!
Why spend time looking at or listening to these? Well for starters, they are all there to help you. Your future career decisions will be better informed. And selfishly, from a careers adviser’s point of view, the better informed a client is, the more they will get out of an interaction with me. Why? Well, rather than just talking about the basics about career decisions or planning, the conversations will be a lot more in depth and have more ‘value added’ impact. So doing some careers research before talking to a careers adviser will help you get the most out of talking to them. And they will be really glad to have a more informed conversation with you as a result! (Don’t confuse this with having to make decisions about a career before you speak to a careers adviser though!)
Why else? If you are studying hard, you are likely to have half an eye on the future too. How is all this effort going to pan out? Where will it lead you? Even if you are absolutely sure about ‘the destination’, these blogs and pods will help you on the ‘how’. And if you are not sure of ‘the destination’ yet? Understanding the options ahead, the processes involved and what the opportunities might be will all be useful to help you decide.
So how about creating a habit to intentionally consume some of this careers content regularly?
Happy reading, listening and watching!
Mark Yates
Careers Writers Association member
AGCAS member
