The events industry is a dynamic, fast-paced sector offering opportunities to work on anything from small staff events and festivals to weddings and charity fundraisers

Job options

Jobs directly related to your degree include:

• Conference centre manager
• Event manager
• Hotel manager
• Outdoor activities/education manager
• Public house manager
• Restaurant manager

Jobs where your degree would be useful include:

• Charity fundraiser
• Marketing executive
• Museum/gallery exhibitions officer
• Public relations officer
• Sales promotion account executive
• Talent agent
• Tourism officer

Work experience

Events management is a competitive area and experience can be just as important as your degree subject for getting a job in the sector. Experience in any role involving customer service will raise your profile, especially in hospitality or tourism. Many events organisations look for casual staff to help out at their events, and this can be a good way to gain skills and build up contacts in the sector.

Your extracurricular activities can give you valuable experience, for example, organising the end of term ball or a fundraiser for a university society. In the run up to a large event, and during the event itself, staff may need to work long hours and be very adaptable, so any role where you can demonstrate an ability to work hard and think on your feet is useful.

Typical employers

Large hotel chains, conference venues and wedding organisers all offer opportunities for events management graduates. Some courses give students the chance to specialise in festival or cultural and arts events, so museums, large galleries and festival organisers are possible sources of vacancies.

Graduates can also find work in events management companies and charities, which organise large scale fundraising events.

Skills for your CV

As well as developing project management and organisational skills, a degree in events management equips you with both the business and creative skills to take an event from the ideas stage to realisation.

A degree in events management gives you the skills to:

• manage the logistics of planning and staging events, from conception to final delivery
• budget or raise funds
• market and promote your events
• develop a strong awareness of customer service, working closely to a client brief
• manage a complex workload.