University life is often the first place where young adults learn to navigate life. There are no fixed rules given on how you should go through university, unlike primary or secondary school. Yet, you'll need to take this very seriously as it is your final platform to develop before you face the real world.
However, university should not just be all about work, assignments and development. It should be a wonderful place to make lifelong memories with friends and explore your interests before becoming too caught up in life in your later years. This is where many students find it hard to draw the line - they want to get the best grades and the best development opportunities, but also want to have enough time to have fun. Sometimes, they end up allocating more time to have fun with friends, that they look back and regret later on not thinking further ahead on how they can give themselves a head start in their future endeavours.
Two years after my own graduation, I'm proud of the choices I made in university that gave me a head start during both my time as a student, and now in my career. I don't have as many regrets as I feel that the choices I made changed my life for the better, and here are the choices that I would encourage current students to make as well!
Filled every semester break with internship, part-time jobs or co-curricular activities
During my time as a student, I tried out a lot of different roles - I was a part-time crew in an F&B store, an enrichment school teacher, a transcriber before moving onto corporate internships in the lab, marketing and HR. If I'm not working, I would be busy with leadership roles. Yes, I do admit that it's quite tough to keep going, and also to manage your time between work and interpersonal relationships. There were many times that I had to ‘sacrifice’ sleep or gatherings to make time for my commitments.
However, upon graduation, I realised that this was one of the best choices I've made - my resume is filled with enriching experiences that push me forward during job applications, but it does not end here. I've discovered so much about my interests and working style that I've never knew before, allowing me to decide rationally for myself how I want my career path to look like. Trying out many roles in different fields helped me develop better work ethic, workload management and strategic thinking, which shines through especially during interviews or case studies. This has allowed me to stand out against many of my peers who had just graduated as well, and is still currently paying off well into my corporate career.
Completed all my assignments at least two weeks before the due date
A good practice from my university is that they'll release the due dates for all our assignments at the beginning of the semester. This allowed me to gather all my deadlines into a single tracker, seeing all my units' deadlines in a single timeline. If I knew that a new assignment is coming up soon, I'll empty my schedule beforehand to make sure I can work on it as soon as guidelines are released. The mental preparation allowed me to firstly analyse the assignment, then give myself enough time to craft our questions to my lecturers. As such, every lecture moving forward would be a productive one, as I'll know exactly what to ask as the lecturer is going through his or her material.
Completing my assignments weeks beforehand also paid off for me, as I'll have more than enough time to edit or fully change my assignment if I do not feel happy with it, or if there's any last minute tips or requirements shared by the lecturer. Usually, I'll have enough time to go through my assignment with my lecturer once before the due date. This helped immensely with my grades as compared to many of my peers who preferred to work on a last-minute basis, and submitting whatever they could complete before the deadline. As a result, I've received only distinction and high distinction grades throughout my degree.
Built a steady support system with course mates and friends
Any university student, be it current or former, would agree that they'd find it hard to go through their university life without a good bunch of friends. These friends would often be people we meet in class, that develop into each other's support system. As such, it's a two-way relationship, in a way that your friends support you, you should also extend the same support to them. Put in effort consciously to meet up with your support system and let them know that you would help them in any way you can, if they are in need.
Having a strong support system helped my mental health in ways that I could never do alone. Thanks to them, I'm always updated in the case that I've missed any important announcements, and my mood is always much more joyful in their presence. Knowing that you're not alone in this difficult journey and have a support system that can relate to you is truly reassuring and helps to stabilise your mental health especially in peak assignment periods. You don't need to be friends with the entire cohort - you just need a few good, solid friends who you know will always have your back.
Started networking on LinkedIn in my penultimate year
Due to my leadership role in my second year of university, where I had to reach out to external partners and corporates for our community projects, I began networking on LinkedIn. I wasn't very good at it in the beginning - I'd just write some posts just to share out and update the community on the impact of the projects we were doing. Over time, I started using LinkedIn more.
By the time I graduated, my LinkedIn profile was filled with content showcasing thought leadership, as well as connections, recruiters and talent acquisition professionals from different companies that I was interested in. Taking the time and a leap of faith building on my LinkedIn profile when it was not yet the ‘it’ thing paid off as my profile visibility is significantly better than many fellow students, and this had led to many job offers or being prioritised by companies of my interest.
While none of my roles were achieved single-handedly from building up my LinkedIn profile, it remains a good resource that recruiters can always look at when I apply for future roles - it shows them my past credentials, and also gauges if I am a good fit for the company. It's not always about the immediate rewards, but sometimes the long-term benefits that comes when you think one step ahead.
University life is a rollercoaster with it's own ups and downs. It's up to you do decide how you'd like to own it :)
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Crystal Chai is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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