Being an Officer

A former student officer speaks...

"When I graduated from my university in 2003 I was the AP Education for a year and honestly feel it was the best year of my life.  I had to work really hard but I had great fun because student unions’ are such forward thinking organisations (because they are run by students) and because I loved being able to do a job where I could see I was improving student life at my university.  For example we had always a rubbish bus service at university that stopped running at 6pm even though lectures went on until 8pm and the library was open until 9pm.  While I was AP Education I managed to persuade my university to join up with a local bus company to run a service all night.  It was really satisfying to be able to fix something that had caused me and countless other students so much hassle over the years.  I also got to sit on major university committees – before starting the role I had not really paid much attention to who ran the university – but suddenly I had the ear of the Vice Chancellor (he’s the one in charge) and he listened to my opinion on everything from the process for getting an extension on coursework to the high prices of food in the university café.  
 
On top of being able to change loads of things at university for the better, and suddenly being recognised on campus (and sometimes Sainsbury’s) I also got enough experience, training and networking opportunities to propel me way up the career ladder than I would have been had I gone for the jobs available to me as a normal graduate – I mean how many 21 year olds can say they spent a year running an organisation with a xxx turnover or can cite changes within a university that they played a part in?  For example the year before I had gone to an open day at another university to do a masters and I had been turned away because of where I had studied my undergraduate degree, the admissions woman was not even interested in my grades; but after my year as AP Education I got an unconditional place."