You can find detailed information about how the Career Service FSW can support you on the LU Career Zone!
Here you will find information about:

• Individual study (re) choice and (study) career guidance
• CV and LinkedIn profile tips & check
• Workshops & Events

Leiden University Career Zone
Extensive information about your preparation for the labour market and applying for jobs can be found on the LU Career zone. Here you will find...

• Information about choosing or changing your degree programme and choosing a master's programme.
• Study career tips
• Tips and advice for developing your job application and employability skills.
• Information about the labour market and fields of work.
• Tests to help you get to know yourself better, including competency, career choice, personality, group role and work values tests.
• The Career Planning Roadmap: Know yourself, Explore the job market, Develop your skills and Find a vacancy/job.
• The Leiden University Jobs & Events Portal with starter jobs, internship vacancies, part-time jobs, volunteer work and external career events
• The Leiden University Alumni Mentornetwork

You will find the Career Service workshops & events offerings:

• In the Course calendar on the student website;
• In the Brightspace Student Plaza: this Brightspace is set up to help you navigate through our activities, so that you can find what you are looking for, when you need it.

The Community Engagement Service (CES) is a service and a platform where the demand for and the supply of 'helping hands' of civil society organizations and students can be matched.

The Community Engagement Service is part of the Career Service FSW.

The Community Engagement Service can assist you by providing:

• Individual guidance in finding volunteer work
• More information about volunteer work, available on the LU Career Zone.

The Personal Development Centre focuses on your personal development throughout your studies.
If you are curious or would like to take advantage of an (additional) development opportunity, you can contact the PDC for one-on-one coaching sessions on a topic related to your own development or participate in workshops and seminars.

• Individual coaching
  • Walk-in consultation hours: every Tuesday from 13:00 to 15:00 at the Student Plaza FSW 
  • Make an appointment for a coaching session
• Workshops & Seminars:
  • Compass on Purpose
  • Sea of Possibilities
  • Talent and Traps
  • Learning Quest
  • Commitment

You will find more informations and workshops offerings of the Personal Development Centre:

• In the Course calendar on the student website;
• In the Brightspace Student Plaza: this Brightspace is set up to help you navigate through our activities, so that you can find what you are looking for, when you need it.

The Faculty of Social Sciences offers all kinds of opportunities for students looking for extra challenges within or alongside the regular curriculum. These include taking additional courses or a minor, but also, for example, following an honours programme. 

The Honours College FSW (Science, Society and Self) offers an additional challenge of 30 EC in interdisciplinary courses in the form of small-scale education. You can also take individual honours class courses.
Honours education is personalised and challenging education that you do alongside your bachelor's or master's programme. You work together with students from other fields of study and broaden your perspective, for example by looking at a scientific issue from different disciplines. Because you study in small groups, there is plenty of room to experiment and pursue your own interests.

• Check out the other honours programmes that you can follow in your bachelor's or master's programme at the Honours Academy
• Consult the Prospectus for the current Honours programmes and different tracks. Also, !
• Read more about FSW Honours College!

Walkin-hour for more information
Wednesday from 12.00-14.00 at the Student Plaza FSW.

An ideal way to gain work experience is through an internship. This can be done in many different ways and depends on the study you are doing.

Most master's programmes at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences include a compulsory internship in the curriculum, but not in all cases and not in the bachelor's programme. In the bachelor's programme, there is often the possibility to schedule an internship in your free electives.

Students often do an extra-curricular internship (in bachelor's or master's), for which you do not receive credits, but in which you gain a lot of relevant experience, which offers an extra challenge and which you can easily mention on your CV.

Ten reasons to do an (extra) internship:

• Discover whether you really want to work for your potential employer.
• Put theory into practice.
• Explore what your interests are.
• Get inspiration for a topic for your thesis.
• Increase your networking potential.
• Gain experience with applying for jobs.
• Familiarise yourself with the pace of work.
• Get your bearings on the labour market.
• Use your practical experience to complete your studies.
• Gain work experience for your CV.

Information about internships

• Ask your study advisor or internship coordinator for advice on finding and arranging an internship.
• View information about internships in the Prospectus.
• Enrol in the Brightspace course about internships in your study programme.
• View internship job sites.
• View the vacancies in the LU Job Portal.
• Need application tips for finding an internship?
  • View the tips on the LU Career Zone
  • Follow application workshops
  • Make an appointment with a career counsellor from the Career Service FSW for help finding an internship.

Studying abroad is a great way to broaden your horizons. It is good for your academic education and your personal development. You gain all kinds of new experiences and learn to hold your own in a different environment. A stay abroad is also a nice addition to your resume. Because the labour market is becoming increasingly international, many employers see experience abroad as a plus.

You can gain experience abroad in various ways. For example, you can take a semester abroad through an exchange programme or you can go to a university abroad as a free mover.

For up-to-date information about studying abroad and Corona, visit the Studying Abroad website. Contact your study advisor or exchange coordinator of your study programme for personal information.

Participation is an important democratic right. At various levels (degree programme, faculty, university or national) you can participate in decision-making and advice on all kinds of matters that concern the education and organisation of Leiden University. You also learn a lot from it.

You can think of a student representative on the university council, faculty council or programme committee. Or at the Leiden University Student Platform or even as an assessor in the Faculty Board. Also, think of participation through national student organizations that stand up for student interests.

Check out more information about the possibilities for active co-participation.

Many students choose to take up a board position during their studies in one of the many associations and committees that exist in Leiden and The Hague. Think of study associations, linked to your education, or employee participation boards, but certainly also associations next to your studies, such as student (social) associations, sports associations and hobby associations.

It is a valuable experience to gain work experience in this way during your studies because you can already develop many qualities that employers in the labour market demand of you.

Create a realistic planning and consider whether it is feasible to take up a board position in combination with your study.

You can find more information on board positions.

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Are you interested in entrepreneurship and would you like to do more with it during your education?

You can find more information about entrepreneurship in the LU Career Zone and which (network) organisations for students are already available in this area to help you with this.

Socially engaged with your faculty and elsewhere

Do you want to contribute to shaping your own learning environment? Do you want to change something? Do you have an idea for starting your own project, and would you like some guidance from experienced students? The POPcorner FSW can help.

The Pre-Study Programme (in Dutch) is a good example of social involvement, facilitated by your faculty. 

Volunteer work

Being socially engaged and looking for an extra challenge can also be done through volunteer work!

The faculty's Community Engagement Service will be happy to assist you.

• Community Engagement Service FSW / Volunteering
• Check out vacancy websites and the Job Portal on the LU Career Zone for side jobs and volunteer work.