Nastassja Allin

I studied Criminology and Social Policy BSc as my undergraduate at Loughborough University. From my experience of the support and guidance provided by my department at my undergraduate it was the obvious choice to continue my studies at Loughborough. I grew an interest in the field of security, and in order to progress into the field of work that was my ambition it was with little doubt that this course would provide me with the teaching and skills that would help me achieve this. The course provided me with the opportunity to study contemporary security challenges such as civil wars, hybrid wars, cyber-crime to the security issued posed by climate change. As such, this course was unique to other courses in my opinion due to its plethora of security issues explored.

I really enjoyed how the course enabled me to explore a wide variety of contemporary security issues in international politics. The modules were innovative and unique and covered mainstream security literature while also providing me with a number of skills that have been practically useful - such as writing policy reports. After completing the course I feel confident that I have a strong understanding of urgent and ongoing security challenges globally.

The support both from my academic tutors and the careers network team based on the campus have been incredibly helpful in pursuing my career. Being taught my specialist in the field, their enthusiasm and passion for the subject field reaffirmed to me that this was the area of work that I wanted to pursue. My lecturers also taught me the importance of being critical and having the confidence to communicate my own argument. This has enabled me to gain written and communicative skills that have useful when writing applications and sitting interviews.

The careers network team sat with me one to one to discuss where best to look for jobs within my chosen area of work, how to write applications that showcased me as an individual and even conducted mock interviews with me. Without a doubt this support helped me land my graduate role.

Don't be afraid to ask for help. I really struggled in the first few months of my masters from a lack of self confidence regarding my academic abilities, but my lecturers provided me with so much support and reassurance that I had the capabilities to succeed.

Alongside my studying I competed for Loughborough Athletics Team over 400m and I also had the privilege to be selected for their committee where I was nominated as the female track and field captain and as the media secretary. I thoroughly enjoyed representing my university at competitions and having the opportunity to meet new people from different courses.

I will be starting a role within the Tactical Partnerships Team for the National Crime Agency within their National Cyber Crime Unit. My role will involve helping enhance the NCCU's tactical engagement with the private sector to enable external partners to directly contribute the NCCU's objective to disrupt serious and organised crime.

I will continue to work within the National Crime Agency, either remaining in the NCCU or branching off to another unit while still working to disrupt serious and organised crime.

As I haven't started my full time career as of yet, my proudest moment of my career has been receiving three separate job offers all in the field of work that I specifically wanted to enter after graduating.