It’s at that really busy stage of the academic year where final year students or MA students like myself are frantically trying to balance our studies with preparing for life outside of university. It’s a scary prospect to know you’ve been secure somewhere for 3+ years and accepting that place of solitude is coming to an end. You find yourself trying to answer the age-old question of what’s next? Where do I go from here? When applying for jobs/further study, there are a few tips or tricks of the trade that I’ve learnt that will hopefully help you in the future. These are as follows:

1) Start Early – Like revision and essays the earlier you start the process of preparing for your future, the better. You don’t want to be that person who hasn’t applied for anything come June. The earlier you start, the less stressed you’ll be. Although the process will naturally cause you some level of stress even just getting your head down and working on your applications for an hour here and there will help you.

2) Seek as much advice as possible – Nobody can decide for you what you want to do in your future, however that doesn’t mean that they can’t help. If you’re going down your chosen path and are finding that you aren’t getting anywhere with it, seek advice and help. Talk to people around you who may understand the process of what you’re going through, talk to the careers team at university. Do some research and find out what experts or professionals in your field are looking for. When applying for certain further study or jobs, make sure that you have a good knowledge of this field and can talk about them confidently in an interview setting.

3) Never give up – No matter how many set backs you face, don’t take it personally. The perfect job/course of further study is out there for you and although you might not get to where you want to be automatically, you will do. If you prepare well and never give up, you can achieve what you want to. No matter how much you struggle, you will get there eventually. Nobody in the world can be you, remember that what you have to offer is completely unique and will want to be utilised somewhere.

I hope that this has helped in some way, keep going, you can do it.