It is only one week on from my final hand-in of three amazing years of Film and Television at the University of Lincoln School of Film & Media, and Monday was my first day of my first graduate job, which is strangely not in film or television. Although I still love the media industry, somewhere during my first year I started to develop an interest in PR and marketing, so rather than panic about being on the wrong degree course (which admittedly, I did for a while), I began to put into place the experience and the skills that would lead me into that industry. I am a Trainee Accounts Executive at Papillon PR.

Last year I was among the first batch of students to take part in the LSFM mentoring scheme, which was an invaluable experience and one that I would urge all LSFM students to undertake if they can. The mentor I was paired with was Jez Ashberry, director of Shooting Star PR in Lincoln, and we had regular correspondence offering industry advice and alike, which then led into a two-week work experience placement at the company.

What really got me the job at Papillon was not my degree subject, or even my grade classification (which I don’t even get for another 6 weeks!), it was my CV. Ultimately, to apply for a graduate job, you and all of your competitors will all have a degree, so your CV is really what will set you apart from the other candidates. During my time at Lincoln I did what felt like a million and one extra-activities: from the Lincoln Award, to student ambassador work to a committee position at LincTV. As a result I had a wide range of examples to pull from during my interview, which they were vocally impressed by.

For the next year, I will be training as an account executive, which will involve liaising with clients, dealing with press enquiries and a lot of writing (which luckily I love).  Although I have barely had chance to comprehend the transfer from student to graduate with a full- time job, the best advice I could possibly give for current students is to get involved in as much as you can in the time that you’ve got left, because as well as building a CV crammed with experiences, you’ll be getting plenty of good memories to go with it! University is only as good as what you put into it, and if it’s anything like my time at Lincoln, it will be the best time of your life.