After your degree
Career options after graduation
After a degree the question changes. It is no longer which course to take but which kind of next step: work, further study, a profession, an MBA or government service. Each suits a different person, and each is cheaper to choose deliberately than to drift into.
Start working
Many graduates learn more in two years of work than in a master’s, and earn while doing it. The degree decides less here than people fear: employers hiring freshers look for evidence of skill, such as internships, projects and certifications, as much as for the subject on the certificate. Work first also makes any later study a sharper choice.
Study further in the same field
A master’s deepens what the degree began and is the normal route into research, college teaching and specialist roles in science, economics and psychology. It is worth it when the work you want asks for it, and a costly delay when it does not. A doctorate follows for those who want a research career.
Take a professional qualification
Chartered accountancy, law and teaching all have an entry point for graduates. Commerce graduates with good marks can enter the CA course at the intermediate level directly; any graduate can take the three-year LLB; and the B.Ed is the route into school teaching. These lead to well-defined professions with their own registration.
An MBA
An MBA is open from any degree and is the common route into management, consulting and finance roles. It pays off most at a well-placed institute and after a few years of work, when you know which function you want. Taken straight after graduation without that clarity, it is an expensive way to postpone the question.
Government service
The civil services, state services, banking, railways, defence and public-sector companies recruit graduates through competitive examinations. The preparation is long and the odds in the most sought-after exams are low, so most candidates do best with a fixed time limit and a fallback route running alongside.
Career options after your degree, by degree
Each of these pages lists the careers its degree leads to in our database, with the route into each.
Common questions
- Which is better after graduation: a job or a master’s?
- It depends on whether the work you want asks for the master’s. Research, college teaching and many specialist roles do; most business and technology jobs do not, and value experience more. When unsure, a year or two of work usually makes the decision clearer and the later degree better chosen.
- Can I change field after graduation?
- Often, yes. Law, management, journalism, design, social work and teaching all take graduates from any discipline, and many roles in technology and analytics hire on skill. The change is cheapest before you have specialised further, so this is a good moment to make it.
- What are the career options after B.Com, BBA or BA?
- Each degree has its own page, linked above, listing the careers it leads to in our database, who can join, and what the years of study involve. Commerce degrees lead most directly into accounting and finance; BBA into management roles; and BA degrees into fields that depend on the subject, from economics to psychology.
Already working and weighing a change? The working-professional career test sorts promotions, sideways moves and changes of field.
Find the field that fits your degree and you
The college version of the test works from the degree you have and ranks the fields, master’s routes and entry roles that suit you, with a twelve-month plan for the strongest.