I have four main areas of responsibility; I look after the administration for our centrally delivered workshop programme, I co-ordinate our SME Summer Internship Programme, I monitor students who are part of the Doctorate Extension Scheme, and I work on a funding scheme for widening participation students.

Every day is different, and depends on what point of the year it is. I could be scheduling workshops on our central system, speaking with employers interested in our summer internship programme, or reviewing student applications for funding all in one day!

I enjoy how varied my role is and that I am able to interact with a range of people and that I am able to get involved in projects or areas of work outside of my day to day tasks. I especially enjoy working on the SME Internship Programme, as I am involved in the whole process; from attracting employers right through to seeing the student complete their internship and the impact this has on both the student and the organisation.

The main challenge I find is trying to juggle all of my projects together, especially at peak times, and dedicate equal amounts of time to each. I find it's easiest to manage by blocking out time in my calendar that colleagues have access to so they can see my workload, and each day write down two or three tasks that are a priority for that day. Anything else not on this list can wait for another day.

Customer Service Advisor, Royal Mail (September - December 2016)
Graduate intern, the University of Sheffield (January - July 2017)
HR & Project Assistant, the University of Sheffield (July 2017 - April 2018)
Administrator (Academic Skills), the University of Sheffield (April 2018 - January 2019)
Senior Administrator (Bursaries and Work Experience), the University of Sheffield (January 2019 - present)

My current career ambition is to become an Employability Adviser. I've always thrived in roles where I can see how what I do directly benefits other people. Working in the Employability Programmes team I've been able to see first hand how this role enables students to take their first steps in their journey after graduation. Having benefitted from using the service as a student at the University, I want to be able to help others to benefit too.

Experience of working in the Higher Education sector is helpful, but I wouldn't say it's essential. To begin with, I think that fact that I had been a student at the University really helped (and still does!) in my roles, as I could use my own experience as a starting point when thinking about projects.

My advice to anyone, whichever sector you're considering, is to be open to different opportunities and trying new things out. This is a great way to find out what sort of thing you enjoy doing, and also perhaps more importantly, find out what you do not enjoy doing. Don't worry if you don't know what you want to do when you graduate - the likelihood is that you'll have a lot of different jobs in your lifetime and the first job you take isn't going to be what you do forever. I'm in my fifth job after less than 4 years after graduation!