Geography at YSJ

Author’s bio

Hello! I’m Jess, and I studied Environmental Geography BSc at York St John University. I finished earlier this year (May 2021), but due to the pandemic, my graduation ceremony has been postponed until February 2022. I now work in the Student Opportunities team full-time at YSJ, with my job title being ‘Student Success Graduate Intern’, a role that involves co-ordinating internships, running social media, organising events, and helping students and graduates volunteer or find work. Recently, I was successful in my application to become a volunteer Student Event Organiser for The British Ecological Society and The Linnean Society of London, assisting in the execution of their Student Futures and Research conference to be held in March 2022. I also study for a Masters part-time. My MA is in International Heritage Management with the University of Birmingham, and it is entirely distance learning, which suits me well as I am very busy – as you can see!

My graduate story so far

Almost everybody has fallen victim to the allure of social media scrolling, comparing themselves, their lifestyles and their belongings to people both near and far, friends and strangers. But something I was not prepared for was the immense sense of urgency and panic I felt after my Environmental Geography course ended in May of this year (2021), as a direct result of seeing both people I knew and those I didn’t either walk straight into exciting job roles, or at least have a clear vision of their next steps. I loved my degree but did not have a clear idea of what I wanted to do with it – I am actually not very ‘outdoorsy’ (as my coursemates and lecturers on fieldtrips can attest!) so a hands-on conservation career would not suit me; GIS and mapping weren’t my favourite; teaching didn’t appeal… the list goes on. I realise now that I was thinking about careers in a linear, conventional way – meaning I was restricting myself to the list of roles that come up first when you type in to Google ‘geography jobs’.

One of the events I used my transferable skills to organise and run in my role at YSJ. Author’s own

I am originally from near Cambridge and I knew I wanted to stay in York, so with my student house tenancy ending and the student loan drying up, I knew I had to expand my options and be less picky. I saw my current role at YSJ, detailed in my bio, advertised on LaunchPad Online (our great careers service that you should all use, students and alumni!), and applied on a whim as I saw ‘organising events’ in the description. I also applied for a distance learning Masters course in International Heritage Management, as the only thing I was sure of was my desire to continue education in some capacity, and the course excited me. The universe aligned and I got the job and was accepted onto the MA, and I was even awarded an academic scholarship which reduced my tuition fees considerably.

I struggled with questions both posed by myself and others, like ‘so why did you get into all that debt not to use your degree?’, and ‘was your degree a waste of time?’. The skills, experiences, friendships and knowledge I gained from my degree were absolutely not a waste of time or money, and I find myself implementing these into my life on a daily basis. Consider how you can apply your skills in a broad range of contexts – for example, in my case, writing fieldwork reports has helped me to collect and analyse event attendance data, and creating academic research posters has helped me with marketing jobs and events in an audience-appropriate way. My Masters in Heritage incorporates a lot of geographical theory, and I feel I would not be as well-positioned to succeed without the excellent foundation of knowledge that my undergraduate degree provided me. Plus, there is nothing to say that one day I won’t find myself in a more traditional geographical role.

My main message would be that there is no shame in ‘career envy’, or not knowing what you want to do, or taking a path that veers away from your discipline of study.