Stephanie Stanton

After graduating, I took a gap year and travelled to Australia, where I arranged work experience with a professor at a university there. He encouraged me to apply for a PhD. Getting a doctorate seemed like a good move as lots of graduate job schemes in the UK were being withdrawn due to the global financial crisis. I hoped that by the time I’d completed it, the situation would have improved, and I would have gained extra employability points. On completing my PhD, I moved back to the UK, and after a spell working for an NGO in London, I took up my current role as a post-doctoral researcher.

A degree from the School of Psychology has benefited me in the workplace as Psychology is such a broadly applicable discipline that it’s always relevant to any situation dealing with people.  However, one of the most valuable components was my year abroad in Quebec, Canada.  Doing an exchange year, studying in a different language and surviving the Canadian winter, gave me the confidence to tackle a lot of tough challenges later on.

If I could, the advice I would give to myself whilst studying would be to try to ignore pressure to get the best results! Academic performance is only part of the picture. And get a big coat to cope with the freezing Leeds weather.