Personal advice for doctoral and early career researchers

Guidance appointments 

We have a range of guidance appointments to give you the opportunity to discuss your particular set of circumstances with a careers practitioner. You may want practical help with an application form or more general help in order to clarify the direction you want your career to take. All discussions are confidential and can be useful both to those who wish to remain within academia and those who want to move into other employment areas. 

Application advice and CV checks (15 mins)

Dedicated Application Advisors are available every afternoon (term-time) 2-4pm who can give you advice and guidance on your CV, cover letter or application.

Guidance (15 mins)

These sessions are ideal for helping you to decide about your career direction once you leave SOAS or if you've got an idea of what you want to but need help from a careers practitioner to develop it further. You may then be referred to a careers discussion appointment (45 mins) for further guidance. 

Practice Interviews (45 mins)

Practice Interviews can be booked if you have an interview lined up. Please book up to two days in advance so that the careers practitioner has time to prepare questions for you. 

How to book

For further details and information on how to book, please contact us via SID, phone 020 7898 4115 or in person in Room SL57. We offer both virtual and in person appointments, but these are subject to staff availability. If you are late for an appointment we reserve the right to turn you away in order to minimize inconvenience to other users of the service. 

In order for as many SOAS students as possible to access support from SOAS Careers we would ask that you book no more than 3 appointments with us per term. We have found that important learning takes place between appointments, for example by exploring our resources, reflecting, action planning or networking, and so it can sometimes be beneficial for you to allow a gap between the times you see us. 

If this causes a difficulty for you or you wish to discuss it with us please do let us know.  We aim to support your career development learning as best we can and are always happy to receive constructive feedback on our services and resources.