There are some brilliant activities to get involved in when at University. The more extracurricular activities you can do, the better. These can all go on your cv and will show potential future employers that you didn’t spend all of your time partying at Uni, but took it seriously and knuckled down to work. It will also show them that you are a self-starter and are motivated to work hard.
So, what can you get involved in?
There are plenty of opportunities for extracurricular activities within the uni campus – clubs, groups and sessions run internally which are brilliant time fillers. Before you commit to an internal club, consider how thinking outside of the box could give you the edge over the competition when you leave uni and are looking for work.
Ideally it would be good for you to be involved with something that is going to support your long term career goals – consider what job you would like to do when you eventually leave university and what activities you could undertake which would support your knowledge or experience in that area – and which may even provide you with links to potential employment when the time comes!
How about volunteering in the Community? There are endless opportunities to support your community and get some brownie points, look at children’s centres, youth centres, athletics departments, schools, clubs, libraries – the list is endless. Firstly consider what you would like to do when you leave university. If you are studying photography, how about contacting the local youth centre to see if they would be interested in you coming down to talk to the 12+ group about photography and showing some of your photos off – maybe letting them have a go with some cameras, that would look lovely on your cv!
If you want to work in childcare, see if there is a regular under 5s session you can volunteer at. In a climate where jobs are scarce, it is vital to have the edge on your competition and anything which makes you stand out from the crowd is a winner! Children’s centres are always on the look out for people to support their sessions and volunteer! If you have a speciality, you could even use this to run a session for them.
Do consider that if you are working with children or vulnerable adults that you will likely need to be CRB checked. This is a way for those running these groups or sessions to ensure that you are not a high risk to those you will be in contact with. This is routine and nothing to be concerned about.
If you are interested in property, look at local estate agents – there are bound to be other students looking for properties and you could perhaps volunteer to teach them the ropes in a new area where they don’t know anyone or anything. Use your experience of house hunting in a new area to support their decisions – where are the best student houses, which parts of town should they avoid, are there any tips you could share to help them pick the best property to live in? You could offer to do some house viewings, share the hotspots for places that are really popular and offer them some reassurance that this confusing new tenancy agreement in their life is actually not a big deal as long as they don’t abuse the property that are moving into!
There are endless opportunities for ways in which you can spend your time at Uni around working, picking the right ones will offer you the chance to stand out of the crowd when it comes to assessing your time at uni and trying to get a job!