Zen your mind before your final year

Emma Williams is back with yet another great blog. If you will be a finalist next year make sure you read this before you jet off for your summer holidays. 

I’m sure prospective third year students reading this either in the manic stress of revision or  ignorant bliss of summer holidays will agree that the looming inevitability of third year is something that brings on thoughts of immense pressure, incessant hours of work and a load of grey hairs and eye bags.

And on top of the prescribed stresses that our degree brings, the dreaded idea of work experience and internships just adds to the worry of what we should be doing or achieving by a certain time in our ‘university career’. The main thing to be remembering is that measuring your accomplishments against others is the worst thing to do, and unlike school where competition is normal and comparison is how you determine how much effort you put into homework or modular test, life in university has to be all about yourself—which is most definitely scary if you do not have a CLUE what you want to do. At all.

As naff and spiritual as this may sound, this panic has to be refuted so that you can clarify what it is you want to do, and have to do in the last few months of your degree. So in order to do this the most important thing to do is clear your mind and basically, calm yourself  from any stress that’s looming.

Taking one step at a time in planning is crucial to de-stressing. Thinking about your dissertation topic in the midst of revising for second year exams is not the healthiest thing to do, and obviously will bring on the anticipation of internship deadlines, dissertation research, and you’ll even start stressing over organizing your summer, which is supposed to be fun!

Another thing that is important to do is really take into account the length of a year: you have plenty of time to either get your act together in terms of grades if that’s what’s worrying you, you have months of musing over what to write 7,000 words on before summer and what exactly you want to do with your life. It’s comforting to know that some graduates leave university trying to explore what their ‘calling’ is: and in this climate you have nothing to lose in exploring what you want to do before leaping into a job.

Remembering that you have a lot of time before the end of your degree is a relief when everything feels as if it’s on top of you, and the best thing to make use of too is your course or house mates during this time. You have more in common than the types of nights out you like and how you all love a lie in; its this confusion and frustration of not knowing what to do that unites us all as students, and is something that’s worth discussing and talking through with people going through the same thing.

All in all, calming your mind and de-stressing is the easiest way to clarify what you want to do, or at least what you don’t, and the best way to go into your final year where you want to be pro-active and efficient. But by logically thinking about how much time you have, your options, and the support networks of university mates, your family and career support, you will be able to offload and zen your mind of any anticipations and stress before your final year—where everything falls into place.

And finally a tip from us, TARGETjobs: If you really want to make your final year count make the most of your resources near you, such as your career services. 

Hope you find this post useful. 

The Importance of being Earnest

Read Della Massey's post on what she thinks is important when applying for graduate placements.

So, there I am, trotting into my first ‘Skills for Placement Search’ seminar, armed with my pen and paper: ready to take on advice from my Business tutors on how I, THE most employable student ever was going to make myself look even more attractive to bosses than I already was. I hadn’t actually applied for any placements yet, but there was no need to rush. As soon as I handed out my CV I would have them all queuing up to employ me!

After a couple of weeks of doing this I decided it was time to unleash my shining applications onto those unsuspecting employers. So I sat in front of my computer for two days, writing the sterling words that I knew would win me a spot on the highly prestigious, and sought after, investment banking placement scheme. My glowing application was finally ready to wow the whole of the bank... I could already hear the sounds of applause I would have as I walked through the building for my inevitable interview. Submit. “Thank you for your application. Please follow this link to reach our numerical and logical reasoning tests”. Tests? I don’t need any tests!! But to apply, I had to complete them. So I started the 18 minutes and finished in 6. Brilliant. Now I just have to sit back and wait for the calls to roll in. The first e-mail I received came back to me within minutes: I had obviously underestimated how amazing I was!!

But that e-mail wasn’t amazing. Obviously, I wasn’t quite as ignorant as I have portrayed, but it still hit me pretty hard when I got my first rejection e-mail. I remember the thing that upset me the most was that because I hadn’t scored highly enough in the tests they hadn’t even read my application; though already I was deemed unsuitable. The whole experience of my first, almost automatic rejection really brought me back down to earth with a thud. Though I must have landed on a trampoline or something as I decided I would try my best and spend another two days applying for another bank, which I would almost certainly be rejected from as I didn’t have the knowledge to complete their tests. And rejected I was! I just remember being so distraught, as my mind for a long time had been set on doing this sort of placement - I even had an image of how my life would be from there on! I just found it insulting that I had been told by an automated e-mail that I wasn’t good enough for something I had planned so well in my head.

For a long time I went quiet on the placement search: trying to re-evaluate what I wanted to do as for me, placements are for getting vital experience in an industry that I would like to pursue a career in. I found that really studying my skills and strengths allowed me to choose a sector that I know I will enjoy working in, rather than shaping myself to conform to some good idea I had three years ago.

In doing this, I decided a career in PR (Public Relations) or HR would be best suited to me.  So in light of this, I applied for several roles which would be doing things I was far more suited to, and actually have since managed to secure a 2^nd interview for a job that I would be really enthusiastic to work in. And the best part is that I didn’t have to pretend or talk myself up to make me look employable to them – just goes to show the importance of being yourself.

Overall, my experience through this has shown me that no matter how many times someone tells you to “keep going” and “don’t let rejection get you down”, it doesn’t really mean anything until it happens to you. And when it does, I think it’s really important to stay positive and ensure that you are happy in yourself with the decisions you are making, otherwise employers will see right through the bravado and realise that your heart is not in it. Obviously, you may have not made my mistake and have already chosen something which suits your skills best; though I think that my position highlights the importance of being sure in yourself to help you handle the rejection that you may find along the way: giving you the ability to know whether a placement is right for you. I could have handled my situation much better than I did – and I hope that I have given useful information to other students about how to (or how not to!!) handle the first stages of your placement search.

Find Della on Twitter: @DellaMassey

TARGETjobs offers the largest choice of graduate jobs, internships and placements. Independent reviews on top graduate employers and career planning tools and expert guidance. Become a TARGETjobs blogger by getting in touch with me at jackie.balchin2@targetjobs.co.uk 

What are you going to do when you finish university?

Read Nichola's journey from starting out at university, her views and how she is looking for her graduate job, there is a great tip right at the end of the post.

I heard it again today, that unsettling question that keeps popping up “so what are you going to do when you finish university?” It’s unsettling because when I think back to almost three years ago when I started university, I had an answer to that question. My answer was “I don’t know yet but I’ll know in three years when I graduate” after all that’s how it works, right?

One of the reasons I came to university was because I didn’t know what I wanted to do as a career aged 18. I didn’t want to get a job in my small hometown of Penrith, Cumbria and end up doing it for the rest of my life. I realise now I was painting myself an unrealistic and drastic picture of what reality might have looked like had I chosen not to go to university, but at the time this is what I thought.

The next step was to choose a degree subject and place to study. I’ve always been interested in fashion but it soon became apparent that without an Art or Design A-level there was next to no chance of getting onto a reputable fashion course.

This left me with little clue as to what I wanted to do. Careers advisors and teachers steered me in the direction of Psychology assuring me a lot of different industries consider it a valuable degree. After some individual research it looked like a subject that would interest me so I went for it, I started at Northumbria University in September 2009.

Before starting my degree I was under the impression that once you graduate, employment would be a breeze and fatter-than-average pay cheques would be guaranteed as a result. I was either given the wrong impression or a lot has changed in last three years.

In this day and age, life is lived in the fast-forward. Graduates are more often being advised against taking gap years. Employees used to look fondly upon a graduate who had been on a gap year – they had a high level of education, they had life experience both at home and living in another culture, they had got the travelling ‘bug’ out of their system and might even have some interesting stories to tell on their lunch break as a result – now competition for graduate jobs in fierce, employment prospects are much more uncertain and it seems the pressure is on to get on the career ladder immediately.

My inbox is inundated with e-mails with subject titles reading along the lines of ‘Want to get on a graduate scheme this year? Apply NOW!’ and ‘Make your gap year count, earn while you learn’. I’m starting to feel the pressure but finding the time to apply for graduate jobs isn’t an easy juggling act to balance along with final year deadlines and dissertations.

So where to start? I’d suggest writing out your interests and options as a starting point. Do you want to go travelling? If so, do you want tie it in with some ‘learning’ experience? Or just take a break for reality for a while, if your anything like me I’m sure you’ll feel you’ve earned it! Maybe you’re eager to start earning, if this is the case use your university’s careers services and graduates careers websites as much as possible. A one-to-one meeting with a careers advisor really helped me to see how my investing some more time and effort in my personal interests of writing and fashion could lead to a career.

If you’re like me, maybe your degree subject doesn’t lend itself perfectly to your dream career. This doesn’t mean you have to settle for doing a job you don’t want, it just means you have to work that bit harder to get it. In attempt to get a bit more experience with writing I have started my own blog and write feature articles the fashion section of my University’s online newspaper, and because its something I enjoy doing, I find the time to do it.

So don’t panic if you don’t know exactly what you want do just yet. As long as you try to do something you enjoy, I think that’s the most important thing…

Follow Nichola on Twitter: @NikiForNow

TARGETjobs offers the largest choice of graduate jobs, internships and placements. Independent reviews on top graduate employers and career planning tools and expert guidance. Become a TARGETjobs blogger by getting in touch with me at jackie.balchin2@targetjobs.co.uk 

Pressure of final year

Read the second blog instalment from Lizz @CityGirlDiaries, our G.R.A.D. reaching for her dreams, and learn how she re-focused her approach to graduate job hunting whilst in her final year. 

Ever had to battle with the crowd of noises in your head all at once? All these voices seem to get louder the closer you get to graduation; as you are about to face the big bad world of bills, rents and student loan repayments, (well the idea of repayments anyway).

This was the way I felt when I was in my final year and at this point I had received more rejection letters than I would like to think (my nostalgia only gets me up to rejection letter 50), and they kept coming with each click of the submit button. As if the prospects of revising for upcoming exams weren’t bad enough, I also had to submit an endless list of coursework and on-top of that put together a mind-blowing presentation on Financial Management.

The icing on the cake is that you are in the same graduate boxing ring with hundreds of other graduates and post-graduates applying for the same job/position, trying to meet deadlines and catching those early applications and at the same time proving you are worth taking the risk on. All of the pressures combined makes for a battle ground of thoughts, choices and many ‘I don’t cares’.

It was at this point I decided to throw the net wide open and change my preferred career choice and, needless to say, it was a long way different from just ‘Accounting, Finance and Banking. I expanded my career net to Media, Advertising, Fashion Buyer and Journalism.

At this point, proving that I could do any of this would boost my ego and made me feel good. I needed a job after graduating and it didn’t matter where or what sector/industry. That was my only objective. However this became a set-back to me getting any job as there was a real lack of focus which prevented me from being successful in any application (harder when desperation sets in).

My point of desperation: calling every other day to ask – ‘Your mail said you would get back to me on Monday, it is now Wednesday’. ‘I called on Wednesday, you told me to call back in the next few days, I wanted to know how far my application has gone’ (it was Friday). Desperation does not look good on a graduate.

It took a mentor, refined focus and learning my lesson in order to realise where I was going wrong, and what needed to change.

A couple of weeks into second semester, I was lucky to get a mentor via my careers office. He asked me tough questions about what I really wanted to do. After telling him my above career net he said my true passion came out most when I talked about ‘Finance and Banking’. I gave him the application letter and CV I sent out to my careers advisors and when I revealed the phone calls I made, I realised how crazy I truly was.

My mentor was able to give me a mock interview, look through my CV. He kindly told me to rephrase but strongly advises me to remove – in my hobbies section; “I like to go for walks at night in the city” and my love of “ice-cream”. Also looked through my cover letter and showed me how a simple change of words can make a big difference.

Not everyone has a mentor at easy reach, but careers advisors can help you with refining your focus. They can steer you in the right direction and also help with checking your CV or cover letter. You can never have them checked too many times.

Whilst refining my focus I also considered the option of a Gap Year and the pros and cons of taking one.

Pros – a great experience and I have always wanted to travel & looks great on my CV.

Cons – needs money!

Amid the pressure leave your options open to new possibilities you haven’t considered. Don’t worry too much; cosmos and fate are not against you! Self-pressure and worry can cloud your thoughts and focus. A clearer mind breeds refinement and focus.

Before I completed my final exams, I got an internship, and before the end of that I received a Chinese Government Scholarship to learn Mandarin.

TARGETjobs offers the largest choice of graduate jobs, internships and placements. Independent reviews on top graduate employers and career planning tools and expert guidance. Become a TARGETjobs blogger by getting in touch with me at jackie.balchin2@targetjobs.co.uk