A Note to Finalists

Everybody calm down.

There comes a time in every final year student’s life when they need to think about what comes next. As nice as an undergrad life is, you can’t stay around forever. But with these thoughts comes an absolute frenzy, as students search frantically for jobs. The stress only continues to build – building as people stumble into jobs with banking conglomerates or law firms, building as you get emails urging you to sign up to every job fair and careers advice appointment going, building as those grad schemes fill up and your course mates happily find their places – enough! Could everybody just calm down a bit?

There is still an awful lot of learning to be done, societies and sports clubs to enjoy and many more nights out with your friends at Neon or the Colly to suffer…

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t look for jobs in your final year (frankly, you’d be foolish not to). However, I’m fed up with final year just being a huge stress-fest about where you’ll wind up working when you leave. There is still an awful lot of learning to be done, societies and sports clubs to enjoy and (if you’re so inclined) many more nights out with your friends at Neon or the Colly to suffer.

Now, perhaps I’m not the best person to discuss this, as I never get stressed (I take laissez-faire to a whole new level), but I really can appreciate the logic that leads to this worrying. It’s getting harder to find a job with a quarter of graduates never even receiving an interview. Finding a job is tough, and it’s something that should be on your mind. What it shouldn’t be, however, is a worry that bogs down your every waking moment, driving you mad to the expense of all else. Becoming too fixated on your potential job will ruin your final year – it’s as simple as that.

Enjoy your final year, and make the most of the opportunities that university offers while you still can…

Final year is a time to work, sure, but it’s also a time to enjoy yourself. It’s likely to be the final year that you will ever have such a degree of freedom, and squandering it would be such a huge shame. It’s your last chance to enjoy learning things, to go out with your friends and really figure out where you want to go in life. I can think of few things more damaging and miserable than leaving uni to wind up in a bleak job you hate, just for the sole purpose of having a job.

Also, a friendly word of advice – search for your jobs, and apply for your grad schemes, but don’t be one of those people who needs to inform us about every step you take, or demand a running commentary on the moves everybody else has made. It serves only to stress everybody else out, and you will be nobody’s friend at the end. If you’re doing this, you’re just measuring yourself against the standards of others. ‘Tom has a job, so I should have a job too’ is not a helpful way to think about your future.

I know it’s not easy, but please try to shrug off the pressure to focus on nothing but jobs. Enjoy your final year, and make the most of the opportunities that university offers while you still can. University is an exceptional experience, fun and intellectually stimulating at the same time. We should not overlook our sheer fortune in being here. At the risk of ending on a cheesy quote, if you focus too much on the future, you miss the here and now. Think about jobs, sure, but make sure you aren’t focusing so much on jobs that you miss the chance to have a fantastic final year.