Mollie
Richardson

Why NTU?

Why did you choose NTU and your course?

"I’ve always been very fascinated with psychology as a subject and just people in general, so I took Psychology at A-Levels which I really enjoyed, specifically the Forensic Psychology module.

I chose NTU because I was moving to Nottingham after I left school anyway and I liked the idea of being in the city centre. NTU also offered Psychology with Criminology which I thought would be best suited to my interests. I didn’t want to just do straight psychology or criminology so being able to do a mixture was perfect!"

What was your favourite aspect of the course? 

"I really enjoyed the range of modules there were on offer. Each year I was able to pick what I would be doing so it meant my degree was nicely tailored to my interests, compared to A-levels where the modules were chosen for you. My favourite module was probably Forensic Psychology in my final year. For the final exam we had to record a podcast, which was a refreshing change from just a standard essay."

Tell us a little bit about your career since leaving NTU.

"After I graduated, I worked at NTU for a month helping with International Enrolment. This was a very rewarding role as for many of the students we were the first people they’d met at NTU so being able to help them through a nervous time was really nice.

Now, I do Fire Risk Assessments for Arc Partnership. This involves travelling around Nottinghamshire visiting schools, libraries and youth & community centres and making sure they’re as safe as possible. I visit the site and carry out an assessment of what I see on the day, taking any photos I need and then I write up my report and include any issues I found and how they can be rectified.

Although I have completed a course through work, there are many more to be completed and the whole graduate scheme I’m on will take me up to 5 years to complete."

What has been your career highlight so far?

"I recently completed my first solo risk assessment, prior to this I had always been accompanied by someone else in the team. I’ll start doing more by myself and eventually move on to more complex sites, then I’ll lose the trainee title and be a Fire Risk Assessor.

My degree and career don’t necessarily have a huge amount of crossover but the report writing and analysing part does come in handy for my job. Going to Uni also helped massively improve my confidence when meeting new people and this is massively helpful to me now as I must meet lots of new people on a daily basis."

What is your biggest piece of advice to current students and those graduating this year?

"I would always try and do my work ahead of the deadline but still always found myself rushing to submit in time so my biggest piece of advice would be not to procrastinate as it just causes unnecessary stress. But I guess the most important part is just to enjoy your time, I didn’t realise how much I’d miss going to lectures with my friends and sitting in the Library or Newton building."