Jonathan Black

Studied

Engineering (Cambridge University).

Previous experience

Jonathan has been Director of Careers, University of Oxford since 2008. 

He studied engineering at the University of Cambridge, after which he was an apprentice engineer in a helicopter factory. 

He then worked for six years as a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, an international blue-chip firm in Europe and California, before joining Times Mirror, a Los Angeles-based media company, as Strategy Director. Afterwards, he moved to London to become the Finance Director for an international academic text-reference publisher, and co-founded a successful medical publishing start-up with two colleagues. He then became Director of Corporate Affairs at the Saïd Business School in Oxford.

In his current role at the Careers, Jonathan advises students in one-to-one with careers appointments, runs workshops and seminars for groups of undergraduates and postgraduates, trains colleagues, and devises new and innovative programmes that provide hands-on experiences for students. He works with senior academics to explore how Careers, University of Oxford can support academic work, presents at seminars and conferences in the UK, Europe, Australia, South Africa, and the USA, and runs research programmes on what is required in order to secure a graduate-level job.

His book, ‘Where am I going and can I have a map?’ was described by Baroness Gillian Shephard as, ‘One of the most practical and comprehensible career guides ever produced.’

Jonathan also writes the weekly Dear Jonathan column during term time, answering students' careers questions.

Colleges & departments

Jonathan is a Fellow of New College, where he is Tutor for Welfare.

To see when Jonathan is available for appointments, browse the appointments on CareerConnect.

Areas of interest

Finance, HR & Recruitment, Management Consultancy