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The University of Southampton
MusicPart of Humanities

Careers & Employability

Employability is about more than just getting a job – we believe in helping our students gain the necessary experience for a future career, along with the skills to identify opportunities and make the most of them.

At Southampton you will have the opportunity to broaden your options by meeting employers, getting involved in volunteering activities, work placements and much more.

The University’s Career Destinations service offers a wide range of services and support to students at all stages of their university life, and for up to three years after graduation, including:

For more information visit the Career Destinations Service website

Your Employability

Your Music degree at Southampton will provide you with essential skills for a wealth of careers within and outside the arts. Historical and critical modules build the thinking and writing skills sought by many employers. Performance will equip you to engage your audience, an invaluable asset for any organisation; regular practice helps ensure you are disciplined, motivated and well-organised. Composition modules help you gain a host of musical tools, and modules in conducting, music therapy, and arts administration supply leadership training, community engagement and professional business training.

Employability opportunities

We understand that Music is a competitive industry. We also understand that it might seem daunting to pursue a career outside of Music with a Music degree. For these reasons we've created a 'The Profession of Music' module, a practical course which has been specifically created to detail the wide variety of jobs available to Music graduates, how to enter them and what kind of experience you'll need.

We provide many other ways for you to develop your employability alongside your degree programme. Performing societies such as the university orchestra, Jazzmanix, or the Rock and Metal Music Society provide further outlets for creativity, and many music students take administrative or artistic leadership roles that help develop valuable skills such as team working and fundraising. We offer many ways to obtain work experience, whether through our university Ambassador scheme - which provides school placements - or paid internships in arts administration. You may want to gain work experience in a field unrelated to music, and the university's Excel placement scheme provides 4-12 week placements over Easter and summer.

Careers options

Music graduates have an excellent track record of success in education, performance, composition, music administration, the music industry, radio, television and film.

If you choose to be a musician or free-lance within the Music industry, the skills acquired from the degree will provide you with the entrepreneurial flair which should see you through. The self-reliance of a Music graduate will also be respected by employers.

Many of our graduates also enter fields unrelated to Music. With the self-management, confidence and technical abilities you've gained from your degree you may also find success in a field unrelated to music, such as law, financial services, computer programming or human resource management.

See the Where are they now? page for profiles of some of our recent graduates who are now working in a diverse range of fields.

Photo of Jai Channa
It’s inspiring to be in an environment where the whole body is striving for and achieving great things.
Jai ChannaBA Music / MMus

Hossein Hadisi

Hossein Hadisi studied for a PhD in Music Composition at the University of Southampton and is now a Research Associate.

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