Back in college, one of my classmates dropped out of first-year arts because he realised the course wasn’t for him. The following year, he switched to veterinary medicine – only to realise that course wasn’t for him either. But his parents, who had paid for the year in veterinary medicine, put their foot down and insisted he stay the course. So he did, but he never went on to work as a vet. He didn’t even work with animals, instead forging a career in the music industry.
Not every graduate will work in their field of study. Career experts say that is no bad thing, because employers today are more likely to hire based on skills and potential, rather than a specific qualification.
So how can graduates whose degree doesn’t point neatly at a career path build their case, access in-house training and pitch the soft skills they’ve picked up along the way?
Orla O’Sullivan is head of career services at SETU’s campuses in Carlow and Wexford. “Graduate recruitment has experienced a shift in focus,” she says. “Instead of looking strictly at degree disciplines, companies now look across all degrees to build a more diverse workforce, placing greater value on a graduate’s skills and potential.”
For a graduate applying for a role outside their discipline, non-curricular activities are key. “A candidate who has done well can highlight the challenge of performing well despite the pressure of balancing a part-time job, commuting and keeping up with coursework,” says O’Sullivan.
“This highlights the graduates’ ability to pivot, to effectively manage their time while demonstrating a high degree of resilience.”
The CV is crucial to this, as it’s where you can show your skills and abilities beyond your degree qualification. “I often remind students that their CV is not a static document or simply a log of their education and work experience, but an expression of their suitability for a particular role or opportunity,” says O’Sullivan.
The ideal place for a graduate to tell this story is in the personal profile section, perhaps highlighting a module you took, a part-time job, a volunteer role or involvement in clubs or societies.
“Graduates who can clearly ‘story’ their interest in a new sector will make the greatest impact during recruitment; the narrative they build and how they deliver it is what makes them stand out,” says O’Sullivan.
Which employers are open to graduates from any background?
“The professional services companies such as the Big Four: Deloitte, EY, PwC, KPMG hire from all disciplines. The public service, financial services, banking, retail, wholesale and distribution companies such as Kerry, Tirlan, Amazon; even tech companies require non-technical as well as technical talent and are open to students of any discipline,” O’Sullivan says.
This said, a graduate can fall into an unsuitable role, so O’Sullivan emphasises the importance of doing your research on the company you’re applying to. “Companies with structured graduate programmes generally outline their tried and tested curriculum for graduates directly on their website,” she says. “A typical programme spans one to two years and features structured rotations across different departments, alongside clear pathways for internal promotion.
“In large professional services and legal firms, graduates can expect employers to fully fund professional qualifications such as the ACA, ACCA, or CTA for accountancy, and professional practice exams for law.”
A good graduate employer will help to build your confidence by framing mistakes as learning opportunities, and they will encourage questions. “Offering regular, honest feedback through a mentor, assigning real-world projects, granting early responsibility and celebrating wins all help graduates thrive,” says O’Sullivan.
Yvonne McLoughlin, head of DCU’s careers service, says graduate programmes are a strong route in for those not wedded to their discipline.
“It is important to identify and translate the transferable skills you can bring from one situation to another,” she says. “Start with the degree and modules, and how through them you developed critical thinking, communication, writing and other skills. If, for instance, you have a geography degree but don’t want to work in that area, some of the skills you will have collected include research and data collection, the ability to understand and explain abstract ideas, and critical thinking.”
It is important to make these connections obvious. “You make it easier for employers to connect the dots by saying: ‘these are the skills I have and I am interested in this area’.”
Don’t dismiss part-time work or extracurricular activities as irrelevant. “Sometimes students think if they don’t have formal experience in that role, it won’t count. Part-time jobs are really important as a way to demonstrate a skill set,” says McLoughlin.
Christiane Brennan, a career coach with TU Dublin, says the “I’m just a marketing graduate” mindset undersells what students have actually done.
“There is more to a person than their degree discipline,” she says. “Employers know that it is good for them to have people with all types of skills and abilities who they can train in the core of their business, including people with diverse perspectives and approaches, such as engineers, psychologists and scientists.”
Students underestimate the range of skills they have developed from projects done in college or what they did in work placement, Brennan says. “I might ask them about a module, a project or playing on a football team, and we use this to develop a skills inventory with the student.
“This serves as a basis for a tailored application – and every application should be tailored, to show the company you aren’t just firing out CVs at random, but are instead interested in working with them for specific reasons.
“We tell students the level of tailoring they do to show evidence of where they have built those skills, so they appear on the CV,” says Brennan.
For each skill, she wants specifics. “You want to show what you did, what you learned and what you achieved, so when it comes to the interview you can give specific examples.”
Confidence, Brennan says, is often the real barrier.
“We find students may have low confidence, saying, ‘I was only the society treasurer’, but we say you did achieve a lot even if only at a small scale.”