5 Things no one tells you about Final Year
1) The many examples of CV'S and cover letters you will look at
I wish someone had told me about the hundreds of Google searches I would actually do in my final year. Over the course of this year, I've probably looked at hundreds of fancy CV's and cover letters and spent nights comparing them with my own CV. I already was aware that I would be editing my CV constantly this year, but I never knew how much time I would spend looking at thousands of different examples. There are so many ways and different styles out there that I've spent most of my late nights sitting with my laptop and redesigning my CV layout or editing my cover letter (whilst watching Homeland in the background of course).
2) The over thinking you do
I was well aware of the lack of sleep I would be deprived of this year, yet I honestly thought that was going to be due to the hundreds of assignments that I had to do. Never did I actually consider the lack of sleep was due to the over thinking I would do at night. Am I going to ever be employed? Is my CV good enough? Damn, did I forget to check my bibliography for my 3000 report I submitted 10 minutes ago? Oh dear god, did I reply to my dissertation supervisors email? What if I'm unemployed for the rest of my life? Who created the word 'unemployment?' So many different and bizarre worries have entered my mind throughout the duration of this year that I'm surprised my brain hasn't melted because of it.
3) The feeling of jealousy
I don't think I've ever felt this jealous in my life. I've realised that during my third year, I' ve become jealous of a lot of people, especially first year students. I see them having fun in the library, walking around campus with that summer glow and I honestly wish I was in first year again. First year was so exciting, so relaxing compared to final year. Bizarrely, I also found that I was sometimes jealous of my lecturers who stood there with their effortless presentations and who have their whole life figured out. That is a bit ridiculous isn't it?
4) The ease of planning your assignments
I'm not talking about including the dissertation assignment in this point, as I'm pretty sure we've all suffered from trying to fit that in into our schedule. What I actually mean is your standard essay deadlines, as I feel I was able to plan that out with a lot less stress. By third year, we all know how we work best, how to figure out essay questions and how much time we need to the research and write it up. So, I felt when it came to planning my assignments, It wasn't that difficult to sit down and come up with a schedule of some sort.
5) You are in fact going to be facing reality soon
As obvious as this point is, I don't think anyone has ever sat down and explained to me that this is it. As in, after I finish university, I will no longer be a student, I will not be coming back to university in September, I won't be stressing over buying new books for the next year. It will be done. I know it's so obvious but I feel as if there is so much focus on doing your dissertation, finding a job etc, but no one explains to you that your student life will be over indefinitely.
By Maariyah Zaheer