Blogs: Danielle dishes out life lessons

Danielle King graduated from Aston University, Birmingham, with a BSc in English Language. She's now pursuing writing jobs after realising that's the career for her.

With the standard 'what an amazing fresher's week!' Facebook status updates starting to come to an end, I've noticed students are now starting to realise just how much work is to come. And while watching the babies of university life vow to never miss a 9am lecture and final-year students panic over their a dissertation topic, I can't deny that I’m feeling a little bit smug about being able to sit back and relax, with my 'been there, done that' t-shirt on.

I don't want to jinx it, but I'm currently waiting to hear back from a company regarding an interview for my dream job. And while sitting in front of my laptop and checking my emails every five minutes, I started to reminisce about what I did right and what, perhaps, I may have done wrong at university. I certainly didn't realise that the small choices I made at Aston would have such a big impact on the rest of my life, so I'm going to share with you the two things I would have done differently.

First things first: work hard, play hard. With my degree being mainly coursework based, I had the first ethic down to a tee - I would sit, for hours, researching, writing, reading aloud and re-writing essays until I made sure that every 't' was crossed and that there was no punctuation out of place. Unfortunately, my self-confidence issues in fresher's week took over and when it came to joining societies, I ended up signing up to ones that I'd never go to again just because I knew that my course mates had signed up too. It took me until second year to realise my mistake, but I had already missed out on a crucial period of time that I could have used to develop skills and gain responsibility. It's never too late to get involved and even now I see graduates from societies meet up on a regular basis, so don't be left behind.

The second of my life lessons is this: don't fall into the trap of thinking university will last forever; remember why you're there! As those of you in final year will know, it goes by in a flash, so always put time aside to focus and decide on what career move you want to pursue. Make sure to use every available resource, such as Prospects range of magazines, for example Work Experience and Internships, and its website.

The government has also set up the National Careers Service so if, like me, you go back home for summer, you can create an account with them and even meet with advisers from your local university to gain one-on-one, crucial advice. And don't forget that your university careers service is always on hand to help out.

It may all sound as though you'll have no time to sit down and have a cuppa, but just remember: you'll have plenty of time for that when you're waiting to hear back from a job application! I think I'll go and make one now...