November 13, 2016, by Danny Bav

What do I do after university?

So I’m sat here after just applying for a scholarship scheme for an internship in China thinking what the heck do I want to do after university? I know I still have about a year to go, but is that really that long? Today my girlfriend and I had a chat in the car on the way back to Nottingham about what we would do in the future, whether we would be in difference places, what kind of jobs to apply for – the whole thing got me thinking about the future and the hard decisions that all us final year students are going to have to make. I just had an e-mail through saying that the outcome of my graduate job interview for Deloitte will be e-mailed to me at the end of the next two weeks and that makes me incredibly nervous…

To be honest, I didn’t think the interview went well. On paper I think it went well, and I still may have a chance, but I have a horrible tendency to overthink things especially when I know I didn’t perform at my best. For example, imagine taking an exam at the end of the year. You worked hard all year and you revised 3/6 topics well, but the other 3 not as well because you didn’t find them quite interesting. You walk into the exam and BOOM, the 3 questions for the topics that you didn’t like. Okay… no worries you can still answer these and walk out of the exam alive. But after the exam you start to think, what if I got the 3 questions I liked, I could have done so much better. Or, I don’t think what I wrote down is a representation of what I can achieve. This is kind of how I feel about my interview, I said the main examples I wanted to say, but I don’t feel I got across who I really am and what I stand for and that frustrates me, just like I would be frustrated in an exam where my answers didn’t quite reflect my ability and effort I have put in throughout the year.

Anyways, all this ‘panic’ and ‘nervousness’ in a way has pushed me to think to apply to many other different graduate programs. I applied for PWC, Accenture and most recently I’ve been looking into applying for scholarship schemes abroad in Asia because I think my heart lies somewhere in Asia, I just don’t know how to get there yet. That’s kind of what motivated me at looking into graduate schemes, it develops my skills and gives me the ability to earn and save some money to put me into a better position when I do decide to take the leap to Asia. Having that said, if I do manage to get on a scholarship scheme, it could be beneficial to my future path.

There just seems like there’s so many things to think about and stress over at the moment, and sometimes I need to remember to step back from it all and appreciate what I have around me. My girlfriend and I hold the mentality that we should just apply for everything and anything that interests us, gather the offers and then make the decision of what to do in the future as we don’t want to close doors even before they are opened.

It’s hitting week 7 into university in what seems to be a very stressful period for everyone – but just remember that amongst all this stress or decisions that we may have to face, sometimes we need to take a minute to just look around us and appreciate what we have right now, including the opportunities, friends and family surrounding us.

So I guess I’d just like to end by saying I’m grateful for all my family and friends around me, and even though I may not know exactly what I would like to do in the future, I have a lot to be grateful about right now and I think that I just need to sit back, take a breather and realise that it’s not the end of the world thinking about the future.

 

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