Anna Henderson graduated with a BA in New Media and English in 2017. Here we catch up with her to find out how she's getting on one year after graduating from UL.
Looking back, what did you like best about your course?
My favourite part of my course was how varied it was. The six months spent on co-op shaped my future career, and I thoroughly enjoyed the semester studying in Manchester on Erasmus. The modules in the course itself ranged from computer science modules to journalism and technical writing. The more practical modules have also stood to me in the workplace.
What did you like best about UL?
The people. I made some of my best friends at UL (some of whom I'm still living with now!). The UL faculty, admin and my classmates could not have been kinder or more helpful.
Did you make any plans before you graduated?
Yes, I made plans to travel afterwards and spent 3 months in California the summer after I finished my degree. I had a job lined up when I came home so I was in a very lucky position.
What have you been doing since you graduated?
Working! I did my co-op in 2nd year with a Communications/PR company in Dublin. They very kindly offered me a job so I moved to Dublin the week after I graduated and started back working in the company in September.
I'm working in PR at the moment and I'm getting to do a lot of social media co-ordinating and writing so I'm really enjoying it. The job is related to my degree, and (hopefully) see myself doing this type of work for a while.
Have you any future career plans?
Short term, I'm hoping to gain more experience in the PR/digital media field. I would also love to branch into digital marketing as they obviously go hand in hand. Who knows in the future I might use more of the English side of the degree and try get into teaching, but for the moment I'm very happy where I am.
Any advice for our current final year students?
Cliché, but try not to stress too much. Work as hard as you can for the rest of your time in college, but enjoy it as well because it all comes to an end far too quickly! For students who went straight from secondary education to third level, it can be daunting when you've spent your whole life in education to suddenly not having any plans afterwards but try not to think about it too much. It's a great time to be a graduate as the job market is firmly open and looking for talent. Just keep your eyes and ears open for any opportunities that might come knocking.
