As a second-year postgraduate studying career development, I started mapping out my direction during my very first term. I knew I wanted to support students through coaching and mentoring in higher education. Because I got clear on that early, I kept a regular eye on the vacancies section in the UWE Careers Toolkit. When the Peer Coach role came up in March, I was ready to jump on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To build my confidence and practical skills, I also threw myself into hands-on experience: volunteering with Future Quest at UWE on widening participation activities, and working with an NGO to mentor a Year 12 student through their UCAS process. Combining campus outreach with external volunteering gave me a safe space to test theory in the real world, discover my strengths, and clearly pinpoint my blind spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another resource in the Careers Toolkit that made a huge difference is free access to LinkedIn Learning. Whenever I wanted to build specific professional skills, such as coaching frameworks, psychology, or data analysis, I treated those courses as zero-pressure “tasters.” They’re a brilliant way to explore new fields, discover what you actually enjoy doing and earn digital certificates to back up your CV and LinkedIn profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you want to make the most of this academic year without burning out, here are three practical tips that kept me on track:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Invest one hour a week in “future you”<\/strong>: treat career exploration like a scheduled module. Set aside one quiet window a week to browse UWE vacancies, update a CV draft, or watch a quick LinkedIn Learning module.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prioritize by impact, not just deadlines<\/strong>: academic work will always expand to fill your day if you let it. Use a digital calendar or planner to protect specific slots for volunteering, work experience, and rest so your personal development does not get pushed aside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Test the waters early<\/strong>: you do not need your whole life mapped out right now. Try a micro-volunteering role, join an NGO initiative, or take an introductory course to see if an area suits you before making big commitments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your degree gives you the qualification, but early action gives you the confidence. Log into the Careers Toolkit<\/a> this week, pick one small goal, and give yourself a head start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Beatrice As a second-year postgraduate studying career development, I started mapping out my direction during my very first term. I knew I wanted to support students through coaching and mentoring in higher education. Because I got clear on that early, I kept a regular eye on the vacancies section in the UWE Careers Toolkit. … Continue reading “My career top tip”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":4809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":111,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[180,317,113],"class_list":["post-4806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers-and-enterprise","tag-career-opportunitites","tag-career-stories","tag-career-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4806"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4811,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4806\/revisions\/4811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}