It’s a funny one to be asked after all this time really, because it makes me think about what I have actually brought with me from that time and how much more I’ve learnt in life since then, to give me the qualifications I now have.

Even after all these years, you can’t help but want to justify your choice of an Arts degree too, sometimes referred to as the McDonald’s degree, it is not always viewed as highbrow shall we say. However, I’m actually pleased I did exactly what I did – a bit of everything, from marketing to rhetoric to media studies to desktop publishing – because I still do a bit of everything in my job and that works for me.

And to be quite honest, the amount I have learned in the workplace, since leaving university has more than made up for any doubts I had about my subject choices at the time. And it isn’t necessarily the obvious things either.

I still remember the first time my boss asked my opinion and promptly took my advice seriously, I was dumbfounded. Why would a highly qualified marketing professional listen to my opinion? Surely I didn’t have enough experience yet to be giving opinions.

And yet, a belief in yourself and your opinion was, for me, one of the toughest, yet most influential, parts of my career so far. Working in a PR Agency, where your opinion counts for a lot with your clients, you need to be confident that what you’re saying, based on all the cumulative experience you have built in your life, is worthwhile listening to.

I know it’s pretty common for anyone starting out, to doubt their own abilities, but hopefully everyone has someone as grounding as my sister, who helped me with a story of one of the interns at her law office –  a graduate lawyer, who sent a fax with the post-it note still affixed to the front. The barrister who received the fax wasn’t quite so impressed, as he thanked my sister for the fax, but was curious to know what was in it, as he couldn’t see past the post-it note covering the entire message.

It was a good lesson for me because there are always times when you doubt yourself, ask yourself if you’re really doing a good job, or doing exactly what is asked and expected of you. It taught me that there are bigger skills in life to learn than facts and theories.

For me, I have found one of my biggest assets in the workplace is common sense, one of the most underrated of skills. Another skill I have found universally helpful is empathy, to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, see it from their point of view can often make all the difference. And as old fashioned as it may sound, good manners is something I think has been instrumental in the good relationships I have built with those around me.

Simple skills I know, but I’m sure you all have something similar up your sleeve that has given you the edge in life, something you probably often don’t realise sets you apart –  you talented people out there.