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First Year at University

1. Get involved in university life

You can make yourself attractive to employers whilst at the same time enjoying yourself at university!

Get involved in clubs, societies or with the Students' Union. All of these activities will help develop your personal skills, for example: communication skills, organisational skills and team working skills, and will enhance your CV.

2. Get work experience

There will be various opportunities available through the university and externally to get some work experience. This experience will help you to increase your skills and will impress employers. Moreover, it will help you gain insight into a career you may be interested in and will help you to choose whether to pursue it.

3. Start to research possible careers

You can plan ahead by:

Visiting the careers service to do some preliminary research into possible careers/further study open to you when you graduate.
Discussing your plans with a careers adviser.
Researching various occupations using the AGCAS booklets.

4. Understand yourself

It will help you explore what you are good at, what interests you and what motivates you and use this information to produce a list of possible occupations to investigate.

5. Prepare a CV

It is a good idea to prepare a CV now to help with summer vacation applications, part-time work and voluntary work and also to act as a template that you can develop as you progress through university.

6. Consider the module choices for your second year

Consider how your second year modules may relate to your career interests. If in doubt, check with your personal tutor or seek advice from a careers adviser.

7. Develop computer skills

It is increasingly important that students of all degree disciplines are computer literate and students need to be familiar with word-processing packages, email and the Internet at the very least. Use your university email account and the Internet. Other useful computer skills include knowledge of databases e.g. Access, knowledge of spreadsheets e.g. Excel, presentation skills e.g. Powerpoint and web design skills e.g. FrontPage, Dreamweaver, HTML etc.

8. Develop study skills

These include note taking and report writing which are important skills not only for your degree course but also in work. Study guides and one-to-one support may be available from your student learning centre or equivalent.

9. Attend departmental careers service talks

Some careers advisers give talks in each department in the Spring and Summer terms. Please check with your department for details.

10. Look out for careers related events aimed at first year undergraduates

These can often be found on the careers service website and on bulletin boards.

11. Visit on campus student and graduate fairs

Fairs are held on campus and are a good opportunity to find out about possible careers and to network with employers.

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