Let me take you back to September 2011; I'd just finished a 12-month placement in London, my skin was still sun-kissed from a couple of weeks away in Rhodes and I was eagerly anticipating getting back into the student lifestyle. A decent house with my good pal Jack (who had also spent a year on placement) and three new female housemates awaited me, and we all moved in around 1-2 weeks before term-time officially began. This 'Pre-Freshers Week' period was just one big party and it was a great way for us to all get to know each other properly in great British student tradition.
A quick word about the girls, actually. Jack and I were looking on Facebook for potential housemates during the January of that year, on a purpose-built page designed to find people to live with. We knew we wanted the dynamic of a mixed-sex house, and diligently checked the profile pictures of any girls that were interested (haha) and struck gold when we found Laura, Simone and Danielle who were wanting to live with two people. As I sit here now, that seems so long ago and I'm so lucky we managed to find three great girls to spend our final year with, and wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
In terms of expectations and workload, I knew that I'd need to give 100% this year and my number one priority was to ensure that I achieved a 2:1 that would enable me to stand a chance for the most competitive graduate roles in my field. I was warned that third year would be a nightmare, and the thought of a dissertation terrified me to the bones! I wouldn't say the actual work itself was more difficult, but the sheer amount of work and the need for it to be done well, was something I found extremely challenging. So many people think that Uni is an easy ride (ironically the people that didn't do well enough at 'easy' GCSE's or A Levels) and all of us students that have successfully completed their final year should be extremely proud of ourselves.
The job hunt started in October and was quite tedious; application after application, constantly stating that I got a D in GCSE German and answering mind-numbing questions such as 'describe a situation where your thirst for knowledge has helped you'. I've always found that people are lazy when applying for jobs and simple logic tells us that if you apply to enough places, something will happen - 'Even a blind squirrel finds a nut' - so my objective was to apply to as many places as possible.
My number one choice was a large international firm called EC Harris, which advise clients on their built assets, and work on some of the most exciting construction projects around the world. Luckily, my application was successful and I managed to secure a place at an assessment day the following February, which consisted of a presentation, group case-study, group presentation, written assessment and one-on-one interview. Much to my disbelief, they offered my a graduate role within a week of the assessment day, that would be based in Manchester and my record now stands at 4 job interviews, 4 jobs. Furthermore, I'd heard that 3,000+ people applied for the firm, and only 45 graduate roles were offered, so I genuinely feel very lucky and just want to make the most of this fantastic opportunity.
With a job offer on the table (subject to achieving a 2:1) I just had to ensure that I completed all my work as best I could, and not make any silly mistakes. March-April was certainly the most stressful period in the house, with everyone working virtually 24/7 to complete dissertations and assignments. I think there was even a 5 week period where none of us went on a night out, which is often unheard of at uni! I wish I was one of those lucky people (you know who you are!!) that go out twice a week, stumble into lectures and still roll out of the uni with a 1st class honours degree.
Suffice to say, everything worked out really nicely and I managed to graduate with an average of 67%, a solid 2:1 and probably higher than I was expecting. The only problem is, I spent the whole year saying to myself "If I get a 2:1 I'll be so happy, I'd be buzzing", but now it's been achieved it doesn't feel that great. I suppose what they say is true, people are only at their happiest when they desire something that seems unattainable, and once they have it, it's no longer the same and they quickly desire something else. Depressing, eh?
So now I've moved back home, spending the summer here until the end of August when I'll move up to Manchester. I'm starting to miss my housemates and the student lifestyle already, so I'll make sure I keep in touch with as many people as possible so I don't forget those memories. It's amazing how when you lose touch with someone for a prolonged period of time, you easily forget about them.
My final year was when I achieved what I wanted to achieve, met some fantastic people and generally had a great time every day. I'm so happy I did the uni thing.
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Sam
