Careers blog by Isabella Simms, Graduate Intern, Careers.

With the final week of Spring Term drawing to a close (and Easter vacation being hot on its heels!) here at Careers we’re already starting to reflect on this term’s events.

Spring Term is a sort of middle ground –the novelty and excitement of first term is under your belt, but the sense of dread and panic from the looming exam period of Summer Term hasn’t quite made its full appearance yet. With a little bit of a lull, Spring Term is often the perfect opportunity to get involved with activities at university outside of your academics, which was our exact focus this term. With a campaign entitled ‘Spring into Action’, Spring Term at Careers has been all about springing into action to try something new. Whether it be volunteering, taking a skills course or getting involved with enterprise activities, we’ve offered a whole range of things to do to help you ‘Spring into Action’.

We’ve had a host of skills courses, from Networking for Beginners and Art of Leadership, to Project Management and Counselling Skills. Enterprise competitions have opened and are ready for applications, such as business plan competition, Plan ENVY. We’ve been recruiting for community volunteering projects such as @Work, as well as the extremely popular YSIS placements. This term we’ve also offered YSIS Plus workshops to deepen your knowledge and understanding of life in the classroom. Alongside this, there have been employer presentations, workshops and a complete variety of events such as an Interview Masterclass, an Assessment Centre Activity Day, as well opportunities to meet professionals and alumni through schemes such as the Alumni Mentoring Scheme, and our flagship networking event, Professional Connect. The Careers Timeline has provided a useful tool to see how to plan your time at university, and the Employability Tutorial has offered a place to record all of your activities and skills.

It’s safe to say it’s been a very busy term in Careers, but it’s been an exciting one. Although there are still a couple of courses taking place before vacation starts, we’re already steaming ahead to think about Summer Term, with even more exciting opportunities available through Careers.

Summer Term will see the return of Professional Connect (Publishing & Journalism; Politics & Public Affairs and Science), as well as more York Award skills courses, volunteering opportunities and internships from the Student Internship Bureau. With exam season on the horizon, our events programme and skills workshops/courses are a great way to take a break and let you focus on something other than assessments – which is proven way to make sure you get the best results you can!

If this is your penultimate year at York, the upcoming term provides a chance to really ‘Make the Most’ of your time at university before entering your final year – which will be our focus during Summer Term!  Pop into Careers to see how you can ‘Make the Most’ of Summer Term, and keep an eye on our website for upcoming opportunities and events programme.