Are there any specific challenges that you overcame whilst at university? 

Being the first member of my immediate family - and one of the first in my large extended family - meant that I took my first year very seriously and was over-worried about grades. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the pace of the coursework and I would be out of place among people from more academic backgrounds, which meant I turned down social invitations to focus on my course. In hindsight, I wish I had relaxed more and taken more time to enjoy the social side of first year - it's a great opportunity to meet people and take up new hobbies. The reality is that if you've earned a place on a course at UoS, you have the talent and ability to thrive - as long as put the work in you'll be fine. I'm from Torbay, which is both geographically very far from Sheffield and was among the 20% most deprived parts of the country at the time I started uni. Both of those things meant I didn't meet anyone from my area, whereas others found large "expat" communities which gave them an immediate support network. 

Please share a summary of your employability journey after leaving university:

When my course ended I realised I wanted to stay in Sheffield, but as opportunities in journalism were limited locally, it was more realistic to look for roles which had a lot of transferable skills. Through the uni's careers service I found that there were a lot of local jobs in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), an up-and-coming area of digital marketing. I landed a job at The SEO Works, a Sheffield marketing agency, where I became an Account Manager working with a range of local, national and international clients. SEO still involved a lot of writing and PR work, which I enjoyed. After two years I joined Twinkl, a classroom resources publisher based on Ecclesall Road, where I helped establish a new SEO department which went on to win a global award. I then began working with start-up businesses, providing marketing consultancy and launching my own mini-SEO agency. After 5 years in SEO, I moved to Evoluted, a digital marketing and web development agency, as Marketing Manager to develop my all-round marketing skills. 

Current Job Title: Marketing Manager

Please describe what your role and responsibilities are and what a typical day is like for you: 

I'm currently the Marketing Manager at Evoluted, a digital marketing and web development agency based in Sheffield. My role involves managing Evoluted's presence across pretty much every marketing channel you can think of - organic social, paid social, Google ads, SEO and PR - so there's a lot of variety, which keeps things interesting. I create content across each channel to showcase our expertise and how we can support businesses. I'm also a lead organiser for the Sheffield DM marketing conference, a free event every two months run by Evoluted where top marketers from across the country give talks.  

What advice would you give to students that are nervous about future career choices? 

Try and think laterally about what other industries the skills you've learned on your course could be applied to - there's probably a lot. Even if you're set on what you want to do post-uni, it's useful to have backups, especially at times like these when opportunities might be scarce in some sectors. Use the Sheffield alumni network - there's a pretty good chance your tutors will know of recent graduates who have gone into the same kind of roles you're looking at and will be able to give you specific advice on how to get there or even provide some useful contacts to get a foot in the door.