Start yesterday. If you’re at university and haven’t visited your careers service you’re already late: locating the service should be a priority alongside finding the best bars during fresher’s week.

Think broadly. Students leave careers advice until it’s too late because they don’t realise what steps they should be taking or how the service can help them. “Many graduates underestimate to what extent employers like to see how they have developed themselves during university,” says Tony Butler, president of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services. “Careers advisers can help you to think about yourself more broadly in terms of what you offer employers.”

Use them to find part-time work. Besides career counselling and job listings, university careers offices offer services ranging from the nitty-gritty of job seeking, to setting up mock interviews and arranging seminars by employers. Careers fairs for part-time jobs, which help to pay off student loans and provide office experience, are an increasingly popular service.

Online careers help. The Prospects website (www.prospects.ac.uk) is the essential site for graduate careers advice. As well as detailed careers advice, it offers free advice to recent graduates from the European Economic Area.

Non-university options. If you’re not at school or university, careers advice is patchy. Connexions (www.connexions.gov.uk), a service run by Prospects, focuses less on careers advice for teenagers and more on helping those not in employment, education or training. Peter Heaviside, the director of Connexions, admits: “There is a careers gap in the market for young people who drop out of university or who change their minds about what they want to do.”

Professional bodies. If you have a career in mind, seek informal careers advice from the relevant professional body. They will tell you how to use your student years wisely.

JOHN PLUMMER

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