It is not unusual for university careers advisory services to have one or more members of staff dedicated to advising PhD students on how to find jobs. It is much more unusual, however, to find an adviser appointed to work just with MSc students. But next year, one will be in place at Warwick University, advising students on taught masters degree courses.

The university already has staff dedicated to helping PhD students to find employment, as well as a team advising first-degree students. A decision was made that MSc students need specific help as some were seeking work in areas where there were no defined opportunities for people with postgraduate qualifications.

Gill Frigerio, the university’s acting director of careers, says: “They could be applying alongside undergraduates and they sometimes need help to present themselves and to work out what added value they have derived from their postgraduate study.

“We also need to advise employers what these students have to offer and how they can be targeted. We are talking about thousands of students. A lot of people want to do a masters programme.”

The adviser also would offer help to MSc students who have started courses without thinking about where they are heading. The students would be asked what they consider to be their options, and encouraged to assess how these fit with their skills, values and interests.

Terry Jones, deputy head of careers at King’s College London, says some research suggests that MSc students do not feel they are as well served by university careers services as undergraduates or PhD students. They believe they would benefit from a bespoke service offering a specialist understanding of the employment areas appropriate to their skills.

University College London offers MSc students specific help. It runs masters students’ workshops on career planning and job searching, writing effective applications and succeeding at interviews. Masters students also attend a bespoke careers induction at the start of their college courses. As more than three quarters of those who graduate from the London School of Economics each year have masters degrees, most, if not all, LSE careers staff regard themselves as MSc specialists.

Fiona Sandford, director of the LSE’s ten-strong careers team, says that in the first few weeks of the autumn term the service works closely with new MSc students.

They enrol at the start of October, just weeks before the closing dates for many graduate recruitment schemes. “The window is exceptionally tight so they need to hit the ground running,” she says. “They do not have a year to prepare for making applications. It is an extremely hectic period.

“We offer practical help in terms of designing a job-search strategy; how to credit crunch-proof their job applications, including those for their dream job.

“A lot of masters students are able to say, ‘I am doing this masters course so I can find a job in finance or in development’. If they are in that position, we can work with them and look at their job-search strategy.

“We make sure they do not shoot off job applications to every development agency or investment bank in London but think more strategically. If they do not get the dream job first time round, at least they have put themselves in a good position to get the dream job in a year or two.”

In the first week of term the LSE careers service stages an induction session with every postgraduate course group. One to one sessions with 70 per cent of students follow.

However, Jones, of King’s College, warns MSc students not to expect an automatic edge over those holding first degrees. “If you ask any of the traditional blue-chip recruiters such as energy companies, British Gas or Centrica, they will say that an MSc offers no advantage whatsoever.

“On the other hand, if you ask non-governmental organisations in the charity sector, for example small consultancies doing qualitative research, you may find a real benefit. This particularly applies to a masters in some social science subjects and in being able to discuss and comment on broader social trends and developments.”