Freshers Week provides a wealth of opportunities to enrich your time at university - and some can help your career too!
Freshers Week buzzes with excitement and opportunity for university students. Even if you're not a first year, you should sign up to some of the brilliant opportunities on offer as they might just help you land your first graduate job. Employers love graduates who have dabbled in extracurricular activities as they provide you with a wealth of skills and experience.
Here's graduate-jobs.com's top society picks to help your employability!
Join the Press!
Freshers fairs are the perfect opportunity to kick start your media career. Sign up to join the student newspaper or radio station to gain real experience in anything from radio production to news reporting to presenting. There are always opportunities to make your mark with a unique radio show or a weekly column.
Campus media outlets can also have good relationships with the industry, but remember if you are serious about a career in journalism or in the media, employers will want to see involvement in these campus institutions.
Join the Team!
No matter whether it is football, netball, hockey or quidditch, you should always browse the sports stands at your freshers fair. There are so many different sports you can choose from and there has never been a better time to learn a new sport.
Sports teams offer you a range of demonstrable skills to impress employers with, including team working skills, commitment and a proactive nature. Take on responsibility within the sports team too, such as treasurer or social secretary to really show employers what you're made of.
Also, if you commit to weekly exercise your academic work and lifestyle will improve.
Join the Faculty!
There will be a variety of reasons you chose your course, but the main reason will be a passion for the subject. Most university faculties will have a Faculty Society (Politics Society, Engineering Society etc. ) and they are excellent opportunities to meet with course-mates outside the lecture hall and seminar room.
If you join the Faculty Society not only will meet similar passionate about your course, but you will also gain access to lots of extracurricular events such as guest speakers and careers talks.
Join an off-campus organisation!
Don't feel limited to on-campus offerings, look into the local community and see if there are any projects. Universities often have links with local community organisations so see if you can get involved in projects like community gardens or local festivals and pop-up events.
Community projects off campus are a fantastic example for employers of a range of skills, including project management, fund raising and business development. Employers also love graduates who have an altruistic spirit and those who care about good causes. Experience in charity work is essential if you are considering a career in the charity sector.
Join Enactus!
Enactus have society teams at universities across the UK (see if they have one at your uni here). Enactus is a global organisation devoted to empowering people through entrepreneurship. They have strong links with employers and will help you develop workplace skills while you make a difference to communities in the UK and abroad.
Some of the projects run by Enactus teams involve finding affordable furniture for low income families and improving employability skills in unemployed people to creating innovative engineering solutions to provide clean water in Africa.
Freshers week is a fantastic opportunity to improve what you can offer employers. University societies will give you whole new social circles and enrich your time at university but also play an important part in getting you a graduate job or internship.