What to do after graduation: a checklist for Sheffield Hallam graduates

This catches people every year. You assume your Hallam email will keep working. It will not. Your university account — email, OneDrive, Blackboard, library services — stays open for about three months after your course end date, then it is disabled. The university cannot extend it. Your course end date is on My Student Record, under My Enrolment and Fees, then Confirmation of Enrolment.

Look at what that means next to the calendar. Your account can close before your ceremony even happens. The day it goes, every lecture recording you bookmarked, every project file on OneDrive, every email thread with a supervisor or placement contact is gone. If you have set your university email as a recovery address on any other service, change that too. My Student Record itself stays open for about two years, which matters for the certificate — more on that below.

Academic transcript

Sheffield Hallam's results transcripts — the modules you took, your marks and your award — are issued in digital form only. Save a copy somewhere you control as soon as you have it. You will need it for job applications, postgraduate applications and visa processes, usually at short notice.

Library

Return anything you still have out before your account closes. After that you are not locked out for good: as a graduate you can register as an Associate Member for free, borrow from the libraries on both campuses, and renew the membership every year.

The biggest risk facing most new graduates is not unemployment. It is drift. University gave you structure whether you appreciated it or not — lectures, deadlines, timetables, term dates. All of that disappears overnight. Without it, weeks dissolve into months of "figuring it out" without actually doing anything. You tell yourself you will start properly after summer, then after the ceremony in November, then in the new year. By then you have been out of education for the best part of a year, and the first question every recruiter asks is what you have been doing since you finished.

Start applying now

Not after the ceremony. Not after your holiday. Now. The longer the gap on your CV, the harder that first conversation with an employer gets. You do not need your dream job straight away — you need momentum. Even a temporary or part-time role keeps you active, builds recent experience and gives you something concrete to talk about while you look for the right thing. The perfect is the enemy of the started.

Hallam's careers support does not end

This is the most underused thing available to Sheffield Hallam graduates. The Careers and Employability service supports graduates for life — one-to-one advice appointments, employability workshops, career fairs and events, in person and online. Book an appointment while your course is still fresh; a CV reviewed now is better than one reviewed after six quiet months.

Graduate schemes and timing

The big structured graduate programmes — finance, consulting, tech, civil service — typically open applications in the autumn. If you did not apply in your final year, you have not missed the boat: those cycles come round every year, and many employers recruit on a rolling basis. Do not use "applications do not open until autumn" as an excuse to do nothing for months. The preparation — researching sectors, tailoring your CV, practising psychometric tests, preparing for assessment centres — can and should start now.

Internships still count

A common misconception: that internships and work experience are only for students. They are not. A graduate internship fills the gap on your CV, gives you real work experience and often turns into a full-time offer. If you are weighing up an internship against waiting for "a proper job," take the internship. Three months of structured work is worth far more than three months of job searching from your childhood bedroom.

LinkedIn — do it this week

Update your LinkedIn profile the week you finish. Add your degree, final-year projects, placements, skills and any relevant experience. Connect with coursemates, lecturers, dissertation supervisors and anyone you worked with on placements or group projects. Your network is at its strongest right now — everyone is still in the same place, thinking about the same transition, and open to connecting. That window closes fast. A connection made now is worth ten cold requests three years from now, when you need a referral and they cannot remember your name.

Your Hallam alumni network

As of graduation you are one of more than 300,000 Sheffield Hallam alumni around the world. Your graduate profile is where you keep your details up to date and unlock the alumni benefits — lifelong careers support, online library resources, events and discounts. Set it up now, not in five years when you need something from it.

The perfect job application does not exist. The send button does. Build momentum first; refine later. The CV improves with every revision, the cover letter sharpens with every send, the interviews get easier with every conversation. None of that improves while you are waiting.

If you are an international student, this section is the most important thing in this article. Everything else — job search, accommodation, finances — depends on sorting your right to remain in the UK first. If you want to stay, this is where you start.

The Graduate Route visa

The Graduate Route visa lets you stay and work in the UK after completing your degree. It is unsponsored — you do not need a job offer or an employer to sponsor you, and you can work in any role, at any level, for any employer.

Apply before your current Student visa expires — not the week before, but with enough time for processing. The Home Office usually decides within eight weeks, and you can stay in the UK on your existing conditions while it does.

The Graduate Route visa cannot be extended. If you want to stay beyond it, you will need to switch to another route — most commonly the Skilled Worker visa — before it ends. Plan that transition early.

If you are returning home

Wrap up your UK admin before you leave. Close or convert your bank account. Deregister from your GP. Make sure the home address on My Student Record is the one you want your certificate posted to. Notify your landlord and handle the end of your tenancy properly. And decide now whether you are flying back for the ceremony in November — if you are, book early.

Check your tenancy end date. Most student tenancies end in the summer — months before a November ceremony. If you are not sure when yours ends, check your contract now, not the week you are meant to move out.

That gap means most graduates have moved out long before the ceremony and come back to Sheffield for it. If you are travelling back, or family are coming, book somewhere to stay early — the hotels near the city centre and Ponds Forge fill up across the graduation fortnight.

Recovering a deposit from another city, or another country, is much harder than handling it face to face before you leave. Sort it before you hand the keys back, not after.

Staying in Sheffield?

If you are staying on after your course, budget for council tax. Your student exemption ends on your official course end date — not your graduation date. From the day after your course finishes, you are liable. In a shared house where everyone was a student and some of you have now finished, the exemption no longer covers the property. Tell Sheffield City Council and update your details to avoid a surprise bill.

Student bank account

Most banks convert a student account to a graduate account automatically, but the terms vary. Some graduate accounts keep an interest-free overdraft for a year or two and taper it down; others do not. Check with your bank before the switch happens — knowing when your overdraft changes is the difference between planning for it and being caught out.

Student loan repayment

Not urgent, but worth understanding before your first payslip. You only start repaying once your income is over the repayment threshold for your plan. Repayments are 9% of what you earn above it, taken automatically through payroll, and they pause whenever your income drops below it.

Cancel, update or switch

Your TOTUM card and UNiDAYS discounts end with your student status. Anything tied to your university email — cloud storage, software licences, streaming deals — stops working when your account closes. Update payment methods and email addresses on anything you want to keep. Cancel direct debits for student accommodation, gym memberships you will not use and anything else tied to your time as a student. A quick look through your bank statements now saves chasing refunds later.

GP and health

If you are leaving Sheffield, deregister from your GP practice and register with a new one at your next address. NHS registration is not automatic — you have to do it yourself. Collect any repeat prescriptions before you move, and ask for copies of your medical records if you want them. If you are staying, nothing needs to change.

At Sheffield Hallam nothing is handed over on stage. Whether you attend your ceremony or not, your certificate is posted to the address on My Student Record — so that address is the one that matters. If you move after your course ends, update it there before the certificate goes out.

Take it seriously: only one award certificate can exist. A replacement can only be ordered if the original is lost or damaged, and it is not free. Your transcript is digital. You will not need either often, but when you do — for a job, a visa application, a professional registration — you will need them immediately.

The people you studied alongside for the past three or four years are about to scatter across the country and, in many cases, the world. Right now you are all in the same position — finishing at the same time, going through the same transition, still within easy reach. That will not last. Within six months everyone is somewhere different, absorbed in their own next step, and friendships that felt permanent start to feel distant.

Keep your Hallam network alive now, while it is easy. A message to a coursemate, a LinkedIn connection with a project partner, a coffee with someone from your seminar group before you all leave Sheffield. And the ceremony in November is the one day your whole year is back in the same place — use it. The people you studied with end up in your industry, your sector, your city. A relationship kept up is worth far more than a cold reconnection years later.

You are part of a 300,000-strong alumni network spread across the world — a resource that gains value over time, but only if you actually use it.

Most of what is on this list takes an afternoon. The time-sensitive items — your IT account, your tenancy, your visa — have real deadlines that will not wait for you. The career items do not, which is exactly why people put them off. The absence of urgency feels like the absence of importance. It is not.

Do not be the person who crosses the stage in November and realises they have done nothing meaningful since May. The gap between finishing your course and getting traction in whatever comes next is normal — but it should be measured in weeks, not months. Start with the urgent things. Then start on the important ones.