If you receive news that you’ve got an interview for a job or perhaps for university study, you may have a feeling of dread that quickly sets in after those initial feelings of excitement. We’ve all been there. Being interviewed is rarely a fun process, but is a necessary part of life, and one that you will likely have to go through quite a few times before you really settle down into your career. So how can you deal with the nerves that go hand in hand with preparing for or participating in an interview? We’ve got a few tips for you in dealing with interview nerves, ones which can hopefully keep you on a positive track.

The first thing to do when dealing with interview nerves is to put the experience into perspective. Is this a life-changing opportunity? Possibly. But will you be completely devoid of opportunities should you not succeed in this particular one? Of course not! Remember that there are many other opportunities for you out there, and so while this interview is important, it’s certainly not the end of the world if it doesn’t go well, or even if it goes well but is still unsuccessful. This may be harder to keep in mind if it’s a position that you’ve really got your heart set on, but the chances are that even if it is and you’re unsuccessful, you’ll move on more quickly than you had anticipated.

You can of course also help yourself a lot in dealing with interview nerves by being well prepared. Consider what types of questions you might be asked and prepare answers (don’t memorise speeches though as you’re never going to be sure quite how a question is phrased and sounding scripted will not help you out in impressing interviewers, nor help in dealing with interview nerves). Doing a bit of research into the company or programme will also help you to feel more calm, as you should have an idea of what you’re getting into and can be confident in your ability to speak knowledgeably about this. Think about all the things you know about the company and position applied for when you start to feel nervous and firmly remind yourself that you know what you’re talking about.

Another tip for dealing with interview techniques is to remember to breathe at a calm rate! This is something which is somehow easy to forget when dealing with nervous feelings–you get a pang of nervousness and before you know it you’re breathing like someone who’s in a life-or-death sprint away from zombies–but remembering to practice breathing techniques can really help calm your mind and body. Get into the habit of taking deep, careful breaths in the days leading up to your interview, and also in the minutes preceding it, as this will allow you to stay focused and not panic!

Finally, remember that no matter how nervous you feel now, the interview process will soon be over. Perhaps you can treat yourself to a little something afterwards whether you feel you rocked the interview or did terribly (this could be a quick pint with friends, hot cup of tea or even a bath). And remember that it’s an experience that will make you even better prepared for dealing with interview nerves and the whole process the next time around.

In the last post, we talked about some of the benefits of attending university in the town or city where you grew up. While there are some definite pros to studying in your hometown, it’s certainly not for everyone, and there are also great arguments for studying away from your hometown. Today, we’ll highlight a few of those.

While living at or near home may be easier in a lot of ways (saving money, knowing your way around already, etc.), moving to a new city to attend university can also be a great deal of fun. You’ll get to explore a whole new campus and city or town, getting to find the best restaurants, cafes and shops over time. This not only gives you another “home” of sorts, but will also likely make you feel more comfortable with the prospect of moving to and settling in a new location for work a bit further down the road. You’ll likely find that jumping outside your comfort zone now will enable you to do it more easily in the future.

Studying away from your hometown will also provide you with a lot of important life skills, which you’d perhaps not have to pick up quite so quickly if you stayed home. You’ll have to really figure out how to live on your own without being able to rely quite so much on your parents, meaning you may have opportunities to become self-sufficient in ways you otherwise wouldn’t have done at this point in your life. There’s a lot to be said for learning to shop, clean and make food, all while getting a university education.

Another pro is that if you go for studying away from your hometown (unless all of your friends are also applying to the same university), you’ll perhaps be more likely to make the extra effort to meet new people and form a new social network. This isn’t to suggest you can’t do this if you attend university where you grew up, but you may find that being in new place and with lots of others in the same position gives you an extra incentive to find kindred spirits with whom to share the adventure. This will open you to new experiences and enable you to meet people you otherwise wouldn’t have, making lifelong friendships in the process.

And finally, another very important reason to consider studying away from your hometown is based on your programme of study. Depending on which programme you’re interested in, you may find that it makes much more sense to go to university elsewhere. A lot of programmes are on fairly equal footing at a number of universities, giving you lots of choice, but if you’re really interested in a subject that is particularly well-represented by a specific university, it probably makes sense to go there. Even if you’re not quite sure which course you want to take, the willingness to go elsewhere provides you with a much greater choice about which programmes you might want to try.

Making the decision about whether to stick close to home or whether studying away from your hometown is the way to go is a big one, and not a decision to be made too quickly. It’s a great idea to talk about the pros and cons with your family and friends, and think about what it is that makes you excited or nervous about each prospect. Weighing up the pros and cons of each will likely give you an idea of which scenario will best suit you, meaning you’ll likely get a lot more out of the experience.

One thing that seems to get drilled into us when we are at school is the idea that the best way to a skilled (and also highly paid) job is to go to university and get a degree. At the same time, however, it’s undeniably the case that the cost of a university education has shot up pretty steeply. But the question of expense is not the only thing that needs to be considered when deciding whether or not to apply to university. There’s also the matter of whether you’d be best suited to and happiest with university studies, or whether in fact you’d thrive on the challenge of going straight into the workplace.

Unfortunately, many people hold the belief that going from school to a job cuts you off from getting the best, most skilled jobs. However, the reality is that while a university education is essential for certain skilled professions, for others there are in fact other, more vocational routes in.

Don’t believe us? Well here are three super skilled jobs that you can qualify for without attending university:

1)Lawyer

The UK has a pretty flexible system of qualifications for the legal profession. Aside from the people who do an undergraduate degree in law, there are of course also the people who do a degree in a non-law subject before then doing a law conversion course. But there’s also another way into the profession that involves no university studies at all. The vocational route to becoming a solicitor is to do on-the-job training to become a chartered legal executive, a role that from early on will have you handling complex legal matters. The legal executive qualification opens up all sorts of high-powered career roles in the legal world, including positions at the biggest law firms and even judgeships.

2) Chartered accountant

Being a chartered accountant is about far more than totting up the numbers for a company. In reality, they oversee and carry out hugely complex analysis of the financial operations of companies and organizations of all shapes and sizes. As with law, you can get into the profession with or without a degree. In fact, in recent years some of the biggest accountancy firms, including KPMG, have started to run training schemes for school leavers, who end up with exactly the same qualifications as the graduates they hire.

3) Engineering

With engineers being responsible for tasks like making sure buildings don’t collapse and keeping us supplied with oil and electricity, it’s not surprising that they don’t let just anyone into the profession. However, to become an incorporated engineer–one of the two main forms of engineering credential, the other being chartered engineer–that doesn’t mean that you have to have a degree. Instead, you can work your way through the vocational qualifications of apprenticeships, gaining your expertise on the job.

None of this is to say that going to university isn’t a highly worthwhile experience. Rather, the point is that if you think for whatever reason that it wouldn’t be right for you, you don’t need to feel that you’ll be left out in the cold when it comes to gaining advanced qualifications.

In the last post, we highlighted a few of the places you can turn to when the pressures of higher education start to take their toll on one’s mental health. Ultimately when students face depression and anxiety, it’s not only their emotional state that’s affected. Things like attending classes, completing coursework on time and writing exams become all the more difficult when struggling with these conditions.

Alternatively, it may be that while everything else about your college or university experience is going well, you’re nevertheless finding that your grades aren’t what you were hoping for but you can’t put your finger on why. In both these cases it’s important to know who to talk to and when in order to ensure that can continue on with your education with as little disruption as possible.

For study-related difficulties, the first person to speak to will be the point of contact within the department within which you study (or, if you’re at a smaller institution, there may be an individual who covers several or all academic departments). This individual will go by a name along the lines of academic advisor, academic tutor, or something similar; it’s likely that in the first weeks of starting your course you will have been given this person’s name and contact details. However, if you’re not sure who this person is then speak to either someone in your institution’s student support services or a member of the teaching staff in your department.

The individuals in these roles are there to provide advice to you to help you get through your education, and they are well aware that there are often extenuating circumstances that make it more difficult for some students to get through a module or degree than for others. An academic advisor can provide you with practical advice, from selecting the right course load (perhaps you need to drop one or two modules for a semester while you have counselling sessions) to helping you renegotiate a deadline if you’re going through a particularly difficult time or getting further support from other teaching staff if there are particular aspects of your subject that you’re falling short on. In many institutions, once the advisor is informed of your situation, they’ll speak to other faculty on your behalf so that you don’t have to approach each lecturer. And in many institutions, extensions have to go through an academic advisor, meaning that anonymity can be maintained.

When should you speak with an academic advisor? This is a difficult question to answer, as it depends on your individual circumstances. One important thing to remember though is that it’s a lot harder for an advisor to renegotiate deadlines if those deadlines have already passed or you’ve already missed all the lectures in a given module. If you think you’re going to be unable to get through a piece of coursework or class, you should let someone know as soon as possible so they can get in touch with the relevant faculty members.

This post is not to say that you need to let everyone know if you’re suffering from depression or anxiety and therefore need this taking into account by your institution, or that if you’re not getting great grades that you need to make it known to everyone. But remember that if you’re in one of these situations, just as there are many services to provide you with emotional counselling should you need it, there are also services and policies to help you get through your academic career as successfully as possible.