Natalie McKay studied Psychology at the University of Sheffield and after making friends in the city decided she'd like to stick around after University and get a job locally.

"A lot of students seem to stay in Sheffield after University, so there's
always a lively atmosphere in the city and lots going on to cater for
both students and graduates," says Natalie. "I like that everything is on my doorstep; I'm a 10 minute drive from friends, work, the city centre, the peaks or a trip to Meadowhall at the weekend."

Natalie was recommended the Yorkshire Graduates website by a friend as a great place to find jobs in the area, and says she would definitely recommend it to others.

"If you know you want to work in the region, Yorkshire Graduates is the first website to visit. Other job-matching websites don't have as many relevant, regional jobs, and as the service works in partnership with the University Careers Service, you know it's trustworthy. It has easy-to-use job categories, clear and simple job pages and it's completely free."

Natalie found her current role as Senior Account Executive at MK, a PR and communications agency based in Sheffield, through the Yorkshire Graduates website. "Quite a few of my colleagues were recruited through the service and we still use the site to recruit. I previously worked at the Regional Magazine Company and also got that job through Yorkshire Graduates."

Natalie recommends that students take a good look at their CV whilst at University and try to gain some good experience in a related industry.

"Find something you actually enjoy, rather than doing it just to pad out your CV. It's likely that activities you want to be involved with at University will be similar to things you want to do in the future. If you want to get into communications it won't take a huge amount of effort writing for the student newspaper or helping out on the radio station, and it will avoid having to explain in an interview why you didn't bother!"

"At University I worked as a Student Brand Manager, running campaigns to secure press coverage, organising events and distributing samples for some big name companies. It gave me lots to talk about when finding a job and showed I had used my time fairly wisely, not just binge drinking and watching Jeremy Kyle. Which I also did."