Contacting alumni - the Oxford Careers Network (OCN)

What is the OCN?

The Oxford Careers Network (OCN) is a database of former Oxford University undergraduates and postgraduates who have volunteered to share their experiences of employment, further study and gap year activities with you.  Read their case studies and contact volunteers for more advice and information. 

Use the Network to find out about:

• Employment sectors
• A particular job
• A specific organisation

and seek inspiration on:

• What you could do with your degree subject
• Gap year activities
• Options for further study
  

Don't forget about us when you leave, either, and add yourself to the Oxford Careers Network - future students are depending on you!

Log into CareerConnect, and select the Oxford Careers Network tab.

Knowledge, expertise and insights from people like you

Every volunteer on the Oxford Careers Network was once an undergraduate or postgraduate at Oxford.  They have already faced the often bewildering array of choices and decisions, and have embarked on their chosen careers.  You can learn from their experience: their successes and their mistakes.

They describe details of: a typical day in their job, the best and worst aspects involved, a brief description of their career path to date, any further study they have undertaken since leaving Oxford and any gap year activities.  OCN provides you with behind the scenes information about a company or occupation, as well as creating valuable opportunities for networking as many members are happy for you to contact them via email. 

These volunteers represent a huge variety of roles and occupations, from the legal sector to journalism and from medicine to music.

So what do students ask?

Often it's information that company brochures and recruiters don't really provide: what is it actually like to work at a particular company, or what qualities do they really want to see in applicants?  The volunteers on the Network won't be able to get you a job, but they can often offer advice about work experience, or recommend further contacts within their organisation. 

"I am just amazed at how helpful (some) people are, across a wide range of companies, from fine-tuning my CV to individual company preferences, preparing me for the various selection processes, and taking time to tell me almost whatever I want to know about them and their firms (one of them has spent at least six hours over the past week helping me)."

Of course we can't guarantee this level of success every time, but you can increase your chances of a helpful response by doing plenty of preparation before approaching a volunteer.  Many of your basic questions can be answered by information already available at the Careers Service or through careers advisers.  However, if you've exhausted all the resources, and still have questions or want to network, the Oxford Careers Network can be an extremely useful tool in the ever competitive job market.

And once you've got the career of your dreams, why not help future Oxford students by becoming a volunteer yourself?