Careers

Transferable skills

Our masters programmes will enable you to develop specialist and transferable skills that are highly valued by employers as well as being suitable for further study, including independent research and teamwork, project design and project management, cultural and visual analysis, statistics and GIS.

Wide-ranging career options

The range of skills developed through our programmes, coupled with opportunities for extracurricular activities and work experience, has enabled our students to move into careers within government and secure positions in many international non-governmental organisations among others. Our alumni profiles tell you more about the breadth of career destinations graduates from the School have gone on to after completing their studies.

Organisations employing our recent graduates include:

• Affinity Water • Citizens UK • ECCO (Environmental Conservation Co-operative) • Environment Agency • Jacobs • PASCO Corporation Japan • Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) • Transport for All (TfA) • Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) • Wood • Zoological Society of London (ZSL) 

A sample of our recent graduates’ roles include:

• Asset Scientist • Assistant Consultant in Water Management • Business Development Researcher • Campaigns and Outreach Co-ordinator • Community Organiser • Environmental Consultant • GIS Analyst • Graduate Water Engineer • Secondary School Teacher • Senior Geomorphologist 

Our graduates have also secured PhD and research positions at a range of research intensive institutions including:

• University of Cambridge • University of Reading • Newcastle University • QMUL • Western University & Canadian Rivers Institute

Networks and collaborations

We have many collaborations and links with governmental and non-governmental organisations, industry, museums and heritage organisations at local, regional, national and international levels. These include:

• Charities (Womankind Worldwide, The Rivers Trust, National Trust, Canal & River Trust)
• Community organisations (Citizens UK, CASA Latin American Theatre Festival, Eastside Community Heritage)
• Conservation boards (Natural England, Chilterns Conservation Board)
• Environmental consultancies (PiLON Ltd, Atkins, Mott MacDonald)
• Governmental agencies (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales)
• International organisations (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Bank)
• International trade unions (International Transport Workers’ Federation)
• Museums (V&A Museum of Childhood, Ragged School Museum, the Geffrye Museum of the Home, Natural History Museum, Museum of London Archaeology, the British Museum, National Maritime Museum)
• National Health Service
• Research centres (British Geological Survey, the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Future Cities Catapult)
• Utilities (Wessex Water).

Career development support 

'Careers Conversations' event with careers consultant Gemma Garrett

To help you to maximize your potential and achieve your ambitions we have integrated careers support into all of our degree programmes. Even if you don’t have a specific career in mind (and we recognize that many students don’t), we use in-curriculum sessions and events to help you prepare for life after university.

To ensure the best quality support, we work closely with Queen Mary’s Careers & Enterprise Service as well as with our dedicated School of Geography Careers Consultant. They offer a programme of careers events and work experience opportunities, as well as one-to-one careers guidance tailored to meet your individual needs. They can help you secure important work experience while you study, help polish your CV and prepare you for interviews.

We also draw on our alumni. Past activities have included ‘Career Conversations’ events, which are a fantastic opportunity to hear from our graduates about the range of jobs they moved into after their degree, how they got there and what advice they would give to those wanting to move into that sector. This is a great way to help you identify how the skills and knowledge you develop during your degree with us relate to the world of work.

Our careers support does not stop when our students leave. Graduates can continue to access support provided by the Careers & Enterprise Service for two years after they complete their degree. This includes one-to-one careers advice and guidance, access to our careers information resources and graduate job listings.