You’ve spent three years studying hard, donned your mortar board at a glitzy graduation ceremony, and you earned that degree. While some people know what they want to do straight out of uni, for many of us, we can feel overwhelmed and lost, unsure of what jobs we should be looking at. Or maybe you got your degree several years ago and you’re still wondering how you can use the skills you developed to help your career.

Stylist spoke to Gary McNally, a careers expert and employability researcher at Staffordshire University, to find out how to make the most of your degree.

To start, McNally suggests looking back at the things you did in your degree that you’re proud of. Or a time when you did something you’d not done before, but you did it successfully.

“For example, I’ve never met a graduate that hasn’t had to deliver a presentation or lead a seminar,” McNally says. “It might seem obvious to you that you did it, but you might not have done it if you hadn’t gone to university. If you look at an anecdote like ‘I gave a presentation’ and break it down step-by-step, you’ll notice it contains lots of individual skills. Recognising that you did it and articulating this to employers is what makes you more employable.”

He points out it’s worth identifying additional skills from this, ie that presentation you did demonstrates your public speaking and communications skills, research skills, using Microsoft Office, organising and planning, managing competing priorities, working to deadline, teamwork (if it was a group presentation) and plenty more. 

“If you then look at the person specification for jobs that you’re interested in, you’ll be surprised how many of the transferrable and soft skills that graduate employers are asking for can be demonstrated by things exactly like this,” McNally says. 

“Most graduate employers don’t care what the topic of your degree is,” emphasises McNally. “They want people with the skills to do the job. Graduates are highly sort after because of the broad range of skills that study at higher education develops in you.

“As an example, I needed a degree for all my jobs for the past decade. I have a history degree and a master’s in political science. At no point has my understanding of the French Revolution or Gramscian interpretations of the state ever come up in my job. But my ability to read a lot of information from different sources and coherently summarise it for others gets weekly use. My ability to speak publicly, give presentations, organise calendars, write reports… these were all developed as part of my studies.”

So don’t feel like you’re limited by your subject area – your degree can open doors in so many places. Identifying the transferable skills you gained can help with matching these up to careers. Think too about what you enjoyed about your time at university: did you love collaborating with others, voicing your opinion or being creative? This can help you identify what you’re passionate about, even if it’s not specific to what you studied.

“I often advise people to look at the Civil Service jobsite,” says McNally. “Look at everything from around £25-30k and look at what skills they look for. You’ll be surprised at how many of them don’t say ‘you need a degree in X’, and that loads of jobs in totally unrelated fields to that which you studied are actually open to you.” This is true of lots of organisations who simply want people who have gained the skills a degree gives.

Of course, your degree will have also equipped you with knowledge and experience around your area of study. What aspects of your degree did you enjoy the most? Which modules or assignments stick in your mind as highlights? Look up the job descriptions and person specifications for roles in the sector, as this can help you identify what you already have or could easily develop. Look at the career paths of other alumni from your subject, especially those who have taken routes you’re interested in. What role did they first move into after their degree? How has their career progressed? Your lecturers are also a great source of information about potential career paths – don’t be afraid of asking them for advice.

If you’re still feeling stuck, McNally recommends the following exercise. Think about people that you admire. They can be celebrities, historical figures, leaders in a certain field, but preferably people you’d like to emulate or that you find inspiring. Then ask yourself: what do you admire about them? Why do you admire them specifically and not other people that do what they do?

“What you’ll likely find is that the answers to these questions will tell you something about your values and could tell you what you might want to achieve in life,” says McNally. “When you’re armed with this, you can then look at jobs, and know whether or not any given job can help you achieve this.

“I worked this through with someone studying biological science who mentioned they admired Brian Cox (don’t we all?). But when pushed on why they admired this specific physicist and TV presenter, their answers were illuminating. They liked how he made science accessible to all people. This led them to realise that to them, it wasn’t important that they researched science deeply or made new discoveries. They wanted to make science better understood by the wider world. It stopped them from pursuing a career as a researcher that they weren’t that interested in and instead look at developing a career in community teaching and increasing engagement from women with STEM subjects.” 

Did you have a part-time job or do volunteering, an internship or other work experience while you were at uni? Were you involved in a student group, like being a member of the university’s tennis team or on the committee for the am-dram society? If you graduated a few years ago, what have you done since, even if it’s not what you’re passionate about?

Let’s say you worked part time in a supermarket during your degree. On the surface, this may not seem relevant to a graduate role. “But it’s another source of anecdotes where you did something great,” says McNally. “Did you resolve a customer’s problem and they left satisfied? Break it down, step by step. What did you do to make that happen? Did you use rapport building? Did you adjust your tone to calm them down?

“These kinds of roles will be full of times you did great things and demonstrated fantastic skills. Look back and recognise these skills, then articulate how they, in combination with your skills from your degree, combine to make you the perfect candidate for that graduate role. When you’re looking at graduate jobs that you’re interested in applying for, think about how some of those skills can be ticked off from your previous work experience, as well as your study.”

It can still be tough to find the right role. “Don’t give up, don’t compare yourself to others, and remember that your career is a marathon, not a sprint,” reassures McNally.

“If you’re struggling to get interviews, then your applications might need some work. If you’re getting interviews but you’re not landing offers, then you could likely improve your interview.”

Most university careers services offer support to their recent graduates, so whether you’re feeling completely lost or need some help sprucing up your CV, they are well worth getting in touch with. Remember that there’s help out there. 

Images: Getty