Careers and Employment

Degree Ceremony

The skills developed in the course of a Music degree are varied and extremely attractive to employers: 94% of our graduates are in work or further study six months after completing their degree.

Further Study

Around 30% of Music graduates decide to continue their studies at postgraduate level. Some choose to study an area related to their first degree such as composition or musicology with others taking a more vocational route into teaching.  A significant number of our graduates go on to a music college or conservatoire where they are able to specialise in areas such as music performance or conducting.

Careers

During your studies reading Music you will develop many of the transferable skills sought by employers. These skills are highly desirable in most fields of employment. The list below shows the huge variety of careers that have been followed by Cambridge University Music graduates.

  • Brand Manager
  • Chartered Accountant
  • Barrister
  • Diplomat
  • MP
  • Music Director
  • Audio Restoration Engineer
  • Curate
  • Performer
  • Music Producer
  • Director of Music
  • Festival Director
  • Composer
  • Music Teacher
  • Lecturer
  • Opera Director
  • Artist Manager
  • Artistic Programmer

The Unistats web site has information on the destinations of recent Cambridge Music graduates, and the University of Cambridge Careers Service has more specific examples of the employment destinations of Cambridge Music graduates. The Prospects website has a page on using your Music degree.

Key Skills

Increasingly, good employers require more than just a good academic background. They look for evidence of the key transferable skills which are required in their roles. Some of these you can demonstrate from your academic work, but they will look for evidence of skills gained or improved in two other areas: real world work experience and positions of responsibility. To help with this, Cambridge University provides opportunities for vacation work and voluntary activity. The Careers Service has lots of advice and information, including vacancy advertisements for vacation work.