First year plan
Your first year at university is an opportunity to explore what motivates you. You will meet new people, and experience new challenges and situations. Use the information on this page to think of an initial plan and take the steps needed to develop it.
Your studies and experiences at university will shape your future job applications. It’s therefore important to get stuck in and reflect on how these will contribute to your personal and professional development.
Get familiar with us
To get you started, explore everything CareersHub has to offer.
Login to CareersHub and fill out your details to set up your profile. Please note, you can only register on CareersHub once you've enrolled at University. Once your account is set up, you'll be able to access bookings to our events and appointments, access the jobs board, and read insightful articles.
What career stage are you at?
You may have lots of ideas about what you may do after university, or you may not have thought about it at all. Both are okay. Working out what career stage you're currently at will help you decide what to do next. We have identified four key stages of your career journey: Explore, acquire, show, transition.
Work out what you want to do
Sometimes, working out what you want to do after university can take time. You may need to explore different options and try out a variety of experiences to understand what you enjoy and what you are passionate about. The best way to do this is to get involved with lots of activities and experiences at university.
Start building a network
Throughout your time at university, you will meet lots of people from all walks of life. This may include academics, employers, entrepreneurs, and fellow students. Building your network will allow you to keep in contact with these people and help you learn about your options and the world of work.
A good first step for building your network is to attend a careers fair or employer event.
Discover upcoming networking opportunities
Find a mentor
Finding a mentor will help provide you with a clear roadmap for university and beyond. They'll help you navigate complex choices and connect you with new opportunities.
Explore our QMentoring programme
You can also find mentors yourself by reaching out to older students in your academic school, identifying potential mentors on LinkedIn, or speaking to your academic advisor.
Get experience
Your first year is a good time to set the groundwork for your future university years – get involved in societies and internships now whilst you more free time. In your final year, you will have more deadlines and final exams, so it's important to get experience early.
This will also allow you to get a head start on securing competitive second year internships and placements, as well as graduate roles, as you will already have experiences to talk about in your applications.
What could this experience be?
Aspire
Aspire offers a variety of different work experience and skill building programmes.
Join a society
If you are elected to a society committee, you can definitely talk about this experience on your CV and promote your organisational and leadership skills.
Volunteering
Volunteering is often overlooked as valuable work experience, but it is a good way to gain experience in your chosen industry.
Part-time work
You can talk about part-time work on your CV and job applications. These jobs show commitment and organisational skills balanced alongside studies.
Internships and spring weeks
Internships and spring weeks give you insights into industries and sectors, and are a great way to gain experience.
Entrepreneurship
Explore events like Venture crawl or QHack to get a taste of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial mindset.