Your career and skills

Your first year

• Consider signing up for the Sheffield Graduate Award. This prestigious award helps you to develop the skills most prized by employers, and will help you to provide evidence of your abilities when applying for jobs.

• This is a good time to start developing a Work Experience Portfolio. This will help you to keep track of the skills you have developed through your studies and any paid work or volunteering you undertake.

• We recommend making an appointment with a Careers Advisor to make sure your careers planning is on track.

Your second year

• Any Politics degree can be taken as a Degree with Employment Experience. Through this scheme, students undertake a year's work placement between the second and third years of their course. This can be paid or unpaid, and gives students a meaningful edge in the job market. The first term of your second year is when you should start to apply for placements to start the following summer, and talk to your tutors about your interest in the scheme.

• In your final year you will need to undertake a Dissertation, and you can choose to make this a Work Based Learning Dissertation (WBLD). This is a research project undertaken in collaboration with an external organisation, and should address an issue which is both interesting to you, and useful to the organisation. This type of 'real-world' problem-solving experience is highly regarded by future employers. Applications for the WBLD take place in Semester 2 of your second year.

• The Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) scheme gives undergraduate students the opportunity to undertake their own funded research project during the summer after their penultimate year of study.

• If you didn't sign up for the Sheffield Graduate Award last year, this is a good time to do so, allowing you time to complete the full range of activities required.

• We recommend making an appointment with a Careers Advisor to make sure your careers planning is on track.

Your final year

• Careers fairs take place throughout the year, and these are well-attended by recruiters from major employers - we are the 12th most targeted university by top employers. Some fairs focus on specific sectors of work, and others are more general. They start early in the year, so don't miss out. Dates

• If you're interested in the Sheffield Graduate Award, it's not too late, but be quick! You will need to show evidence of a range of skills and it will take time to complete all the tasks.

• The Careers Service provides a directory of job websites, information about social media and work, and advice on taking time out after university. We also strongly recommend making an appointment with a Careers Advisor, who can help you with your CV, job applications and offer general guidance.

• The University's myVacancies service is a good place to start looking for graduate jobs.

• Your personal tutor will be happy to provide academic references to potential employers - please speak to them if you think this is something you will need.

After graduation

• Don't forget, you can continue to use the Careers Service for up to three years after graduation.

• You can also continue to use the myVacancies service as a graduate.

• Your personal tutor will be happy to provide academic references to potential employers - please speak to them if you think this is something you will need.