Hi, my name is Sam, and I am a recent graduate of International Relations and Politics here at LJMU, and I am now working here, with the Student Futures Team as a Careers and Employability Information Officer. 

I know how intense and often stressful the final semester of university life as an undergraduate can be, with assignments and exams seemingly around every corner as well as wondering what comes next in terms of further study or even taking the first step into your career as a graduate.

I guess the thing I would like to say is that time does go quick, and before you know it you will be celebrating the end of your studies with your peers, and wondering where on earth the last few months went!!  However please do not panic, or stress too much, try to take a deep breath, enjoy it, and remember to be kind to yourself. At Student Futures we are here to help you, through these next few months and beyond as you transition from being a student to becoming a graduate and all the things that it may entail. Over the next few months, I am going to tell you some of the things that I wish I knew when I was going through my final year journey, as well as sharing some tips along the way. 

For me March was the month when things started to get busy in terms of assignment deadlines, so I am for sure not going to recommend doing a million and one things all at once, on top of your assignments.  However, what I would recommend is perhaps placing aside 30 minutes to an hour every week to sit and just have a think about what you may like to do once you to finish university.  Something that I did was make a number of mind maps (yes, I know if you do exams this probably makes you shudder slightly!!) of different potential career paths such as going on to do a masters and various graduate positions and take it from there. Student Futures have several online guides and resources which can help to broaden your horizons and for courses even have some mind maps of their own, to give you some inspiration. I have posted the link here and I would highly recommend you check them out:  https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/studentfutures/online-guides-and-resources 

By doing this I found that it just helped me to gain some clarity about my future, as well as providing that little bit of extra motivation to push through those final few weeks, having now seen all the possible exciting opportunities and potential paths to explore upon graduation that summer.  

Additionally, as well for those of you who are reading this and thinking that you have already decided what career path you would like to go down I would perhaps still put those 30 minutes to one side to research perhaps a couple of different companies within the field, looking to see if they align with your working ethos and values, and if you feel passionate about being a part of their team. Not only might this research help you one day in terms of future job applications and interviews, it will also help you now as you deep dive further into your chosen career path. Perhaps even if you’re feeling brave you could reach out and network with some employers on LinkedIn to really help you to be one step ahead of the game!! 

So, for now, the overriding message I would like to give is don’t worry too much and try to squeeze everything you can out of this final semester at LJMU. We are all here to support you through every step of this amazing journey and I wish you all the very best. I will be back in a few weeks with some more tips and advice for you. 

Have a good day and good luck!! 

Sam