Winter break marks the end of your first semester of Year Two. This is a good point in your degree to start thinking a bit more seriously about the options you have in your degree experience. You can also use this reflection time to think about any specific support or questions you need answered. Using your knowledge of the support and services offered by the university and your self-reflection, you can actively begin to find relevant support that will help you make the most out of your degree experience. 

Work through the checklist, activities, guides, and reflective questions to support you through this week. 

Checklist:

• Familiarise yourself with the Sheffield Graduate Attributes

• Complete the mySkills assessment

• Answer the reflective questions 

• Decide what you might want to try next semester 

• Explore part-time jobs/volunteering opportunities on Career Connect 

• See which events you might want to attend next semester  

• Ask questions you have about your employability and future career choices

• Continue to explore your options for a Placement Year or Year Abroad

• Use the activities, guides, and question prompts below to reflect on your employability

REFLECT: 

These questions will support you in your reflection on this first semester. Working through these questions, reflect on your first semester, your future options, and reflect on what you want the next stage of your degree experience to be. Make sure you are accessing the Jessop West Employability and Placements Hub or the Careers and Employability Service if you have specific questions. 

• Reflective Questions 

  • Reflect on your first semester

    • What did you enjoy the most?

    • What has been hardest?

    • Do you know who to reach out to if you have problems/questions?

    • Have you reached out to someone?

    • How useful was this? Would you change anything?

    • What skills do you think you have developed?

    • Have you tried something new?

    • Have you joined any societies?

    • Do you have any goals for next semester?

    • If you are feeling stuck, do you know how to find help?

  • Questions about the SGAs:

You can answer these questions and then complete the mySkills assessment if you want to record this reflection. By doing this, you can evaluate your skills development and compare your answers from earlier in your experience (and compare with future answers). You can find a breakdown of the SGAs here. 

• • • Which of the SGAs do you feel most confident with?

    • Do any attributes interest you?

    • Do any attributes feel less relevant to you and your degree? Why?

    • Which ones do you feel would be most beneficial for you to develop?

    • Can you see how these skills might fit into your dream job?

    • Do you know how to develop these attributes?

• Questions to ask yourself about Placement Years and Year Abroad

  • What is appealing about doing a Placement Year? Can you see how it might benefit you?

  • Would a Year Abroad be interesting or add to my university experience as a whole?

  • What kind of industries can you apply for? Which might be most interesting for you?

  • Do you know where you can find advice on Placements or Year Abroad?

  • Do you know where you can find Placement Year opportunities?

  • If you want to do a Year Abroad, where would you go and what would you study?

  • Have you used the Decision-Making Activity to help you make this choice?

• What development experience have you had this semester: 

Use your mySkills profile on Career Connect to add to your 'my development experience'. This can help you consolidate your reflections for this semester. You can use any experience here (it can be social, academic, personal, or work experience) and use the STAR technique to help you structure your reflection. The STAR Guide can help you with this. 

• Thinking About Future Options

  • Placement Year 

You may be thinking about doing a placement year. You might want to explore what placements are available to current-year students to give you an idea of what kind of roles you could apply for. The Arts & Humanities Careers Hub has a useful page to explore what a placement might look like. You can also explore the 'Placement year' page on the Careers and Employability Service site to explore placement years. Here are useful links to reflect on your option of a Placement Year:

• • • • https://students.sheffield.ac.uk/careers/experience/placements/about 

      • https://students.sheffield.ac.uk/careers/experience/placements/finding 

      • https://careers.dept.shef.ac.uk/casestudies/placements/index.php 

  • Year Abroad

Studying abroad may be an option that you want to explore. The Global Opportunities web page has really useful information about Year Abroad, Summer School, and volunteering opportunities. You can also read the benefits of studying or working abroad and explore whether this might be a good option for you. The Arts & Humanities Careers Hub has a page dedicated to international employability opportunities, which might also help you decide if studying or working abroad is right for you. GoinGlobal is also a useful website for exploring international work opportunities. 

• • Internships 

Internships can be found on Career Connect, GoinGlobal, Targetjobs, organisations' websites, and other external sites advertising internships can be found on the Arts & Humanities Careers Hub. The 'Internships' page on the Careers and Employability Service site also gives information about internship schemes. 

• • Graduate Roles

Exploring what graduate roles are available this year can help you understand what your future career options might be and what experience you might need to gain before you apply to these. You can find a list of websites that advertise relevant graduate jobs for Arts and Humanities students on the Arts & Humanities Careers Hub. You can also use Career Connect to explore vacancies, Prospects to explore job role profiles, and Targetjobs to explore job adverts. The 'Graduate Careers' page on the Careers and Employability site also offers information about exploring your options after you graduate.