Vanessa Karsh

Deciding to study Psychology at Leeds is, so far, one of the wisest decisions I have made. The various societies, union and university all work together to provide you with a vast range of opportunities, many of which I have taken advantage of, that make it so easy to meet people, challenge yourself and get involved in new things which make a huge difference to everyday University life.

LUU PsycSoc, my school's society, held several careers and volunteering talks covering opportunities from Counselling in India to Human Resources in London. Attending these, and other University-held careers/networking events, were useful in helping me decide what I wanted to do following my degree and emphasised what I needed to do be doing right from 1st year to give myself a good chance when it came to applying in 3rd year.

Early on, I set about looking for opportunities to make myself a desirable candidate for potential employers. The careers centre funded teams to enter the IBM University Challenge, an inter-university business simulation task. Taking part in this competition helped me to develop my commercial awareness and gain an insight in to the workings of a business.

Just before Christmas I was able to secure an offer for the graduate scheme at Deloitte. Although very excited, I was still keen to fit in some volunteering abroad. The Raise and Give (RAG) society were involved in a project working with children in Honduras which I decided to get involved in which will be in part, funded, by an award from the Leeds for Life foundation. Aside from being involved in a great project, this venture will enable me to develop my Spanish skills. I'm leaving Leeds with a good degree, lots of new friends, lots of great memories and most importantly, my ideal graduate job!