One Month into Final Year

So I am officially one month into my final year at Ulster University now, and to be honest...I'm not as stressed as I should be yet, but I'm expecting it to hit soon with 5 assignment deadlines all before Christmas, yes I said 5....

My first month of this year has definetly been very different from the previous years, similarly to the jump from GCSE to A level...

I feel that the expectations from me are much higher, not only in terms of the standard of the work I produce, but also in my general knowledge about the PR industry. I sometimes panic that I don't know much about the industry due to having no actual work experience in the field and I often panic about what I am going to do once I graduate. 

My way of dealing with this has been by investing my spare time into looking into what is going on in the industry online, reading, and also most recently trying to incorprate more PR related content in my blog. If you have not seen my previous blog about reactive marketing and how some brands used this during the Rooney vs Vardy drama click here. This was an interesting blog post for me as it was very different to my usual content, but I actually really enjoyed writing it and the feedback I recieved from PR professionals was amazing! 

As well as this, I recently interviewed the UK's Best PR Blogger of 2018 & 2019, Orlagh Shanks for the Ulster PR Student Blog as part of one of my assignments for my PR module this semester, which helped me to gain an insight into how blogging can help during your time in university and also when you graduate and are trying to get a job in the industry. You can read that blog here. 

A massive chunk of my time during the first month of final year has went to thinking of a dissertation idea...which is a lot harder than it seems. I felt that, as soon as we got back to uni we were straight into it, having to have a brief idea before week 3, when we submitted our research outline, stating, at least, the topic area we wanted to research. 

I knew I wanted to do an topic area that I was interested in and enjoyed learning about as I am about to live and breathe it for the next 6/7 months. However, I have not settled on a specific title yet, this is something I want to give more thought to and maybe discuss with my dissertation supervisor once appointed. 


In terms of my advice that I gave to myself in my blog post 'How I plan to survive final year.....', I have actually stuck to most of it!! 

This is definetly the longest I have stuck to using a diary and honestly...life changing! Having everything wrote in in advanced really has helped me to stay on track with my work load! 

My attendance for the first month has also been great which has helped me to achieve one of my other tips to myself, which was to listen to my lecturers and take notes during lectures. This has helped me to have a better understanding of what is being discussed and has also helped me to be more organised with my notes.

To be honest, so far, I actually am enjoying final year, I am enjoying going to Uni and I am finding that I am more interested in the content of the lectures this semester. Hopefully this is something that stays with me throughout the rest of the year...


Thank you for reading.
Leave a comment below if you are doing a dissertation this year, how hard did you find picking a topic?