How to make career decisions, tips for first years

So, you’ve started your first year, you’re beginning to settle into university life, you’ve made some friends, done a little socialising and you’ve got forever before you need to start thinking about that thing called careers….right? Well, you’re one-ninth of your way through a three-year degree, hence it’s probably better to give it some thought sooner rather than later. So, what could you do?

Getting started ….

If you haven’t done so already, ensure you have got to grips with what is expected of you in terms of academic performance; find out from your tutors what criteria your work will be assessed against and what academic success looks like! This will help to ensure you leave university with the best results you can and support you when you come to make applications to graduate employers.

Getting experience …

Whilst at school you probably took part in extracurricular activities, whether that involved sport, drama, debating or working towards the Duke of Edinburgh award, for example. This information was undoubtedly used in your UCAS statement to help you secure a place at your chosen university.

Taking part in extracurricular activities, such as joining societies or volunteering, during your time at university is important for several reasons, not only does taking part allow you to develop your interests, meet new people and develop a network of contacts, but it also enables you to try things out and learn more about yourself – what you enjoy and find rewarding. Furthermore, taking part will help to develop your ’employability skills’, the transferrable skills employers expect applicants to have, no matter what industry you’re working in:

• Communication
• Teamwork
• Problem-solving
• Initiative and enterprise
• Planning and organising
• Self-management
• Learning
• Technology

There are several steps you can take throughout your time at university to develop said employability skills. Your overall aim should be to leave university with the best degree classification together with a range of experiences and skills that demonstrate to future employers that you have the potential to be a good employee.

So, what could you do to get started?

Well, involvement with student societies and sports clubs at university is a great way of getting to know other people and have fun. If you can get involved in organising an event or getting something new off the ground, all the better. This experience will give you something notable to put on your CV and could be a talking point on applications and at job interviews. Why not give something new a try?

Work experience 

This will really make you stand out to employers too. It’s the extra things that support the academic qualifications that often make the difference between employers picking you over someone else. So volunteer, check out opportunities within your department, try job shadowing, part-time and temp jobs, work placements, virtual work experience and internships. Not only will gaining experience help your CV to stand out, but you will also learn a lot of valuable skills and maybe even…. have a great time doing so!

This article,  highlights the importance of work experience to employers. If you have any careers ideas you would like to try out, or employers you would like to work for, why not contact them? Look their details up on the internet and find out if they can offer you work experience over the Christmas, Easter or summer breaks. Getting work experience in your first year at university might just put you ahead of ‘the game’ in terms of securing internships during your second and third years of study and could help to secure a job when you have completed your studies. Some organisations have been known to use work experience placements and internships as an extended part of the recruitment process and to make job offers based on an individual’s performance whilst on work experience.

There are many different forms of work experience. Essentially, it is anything that allows you to develop professional (employability) skills. Most university careers departments can support students to source work experience opportunities and some provide bursaries to support unpaid opportunities (usually in more niche sectors such as the arts).

What you need to consider …

Start to articulate what factors would be important to you in a future job such as: doing what you are good at or enjoy, leading people, having autonomy, a high salary, creating something new, job security, having a chance to progress, working for a small employer, working with lots of other new graduates, making a difference, etc.

Begin to understand your options now and in the future; find out what is available at your university in terms of opportunities – what are the eligibility criteria? Could you take an ‘intercalated’ year and spend time working? Are there opportunities to travel abroad? What links with employers does your university have? Does any one of these interest you? What have previous students gone on to do? Are there opportunities to link in with Alumni and ask them questions?

Getting help…

Speak to your careers department and find out what help they can offer you. Most university careers centres offer students support through workshops and tailored appointments which aim to help students make career choices and develop their career planning and application skills. Universities run careers events throughout the year dedicated to different employment sectors to enable students to talk directly to recruiters and advertise vacancies for employers looking to recruit students from their specific universities and courses.

However, don’t worry if you have no idea about jobs/careers or if you have lots of ideas but have not settled for one particular vocation. The Careers Team are there to help and will point you in the direction of useful websites to help you generate job ideas, listen to any concerns you might have about your future, let you know of employer events or workshops that might interest you and generally support you whatever stage you are at with careers.

There’s lots to look into and explore! Having said all the above, if you are feeling under pressure and want to talk about your future with a careers advisor, please book an appointment and rest assured they are there to help you. Alternatively, you might want to try taking one step at a time and aim to do one item from the above per term. Breaking things up into small, more manageable steps really can make a difference. Write down three steps you might take after reading this article and see where those take you…

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