WOULD A DIFFERENT DEGREE HAVE BOOSTED YOUR PROSPECTS?
A new survey by Totaljobs.com has found that more than four in ten graduates wish they’d studied a different subject at university.
Almost half (44%) of those questioned said they wish they’d picked a more vocational or hands-on subject as they feel it would have boosted their chances of bagging a good job once they graduated. Mike Fetters, graduate director at Totaljobs.com said:
“Our research shows that many graduates are starting to wonder if they should have studied for a more vocational qualification as more effective route to employment. Although a degree is an essential qualification for some industries, school leavers need to think more carefully about which route to employment is best for them as some may be more suited to an apprenticeship scheme.”
Do you regret your choice of degree – or are you happy with the subject you studied? If you had a different qualification, do you think you’d be finding it easier to land a good graduate job? If you fear you made a poor decision when picking your degree, who helped you to make it and why do you think their advice wasn’t better? How well did you research your options – and whose responsibility is it that young people make good choices about what degree subject they study at university?
I certainly do! I regret studying law simply because all my friends and family come to me expecting detailed advice on all manner of problems. So far, I’ve been quizzed on builder disputes, planning permission applications, nuisance claims, conveyancing, inheritance tax and consumer protection. They then get angry when you say it’s not your speciality (like asking a radiologist about your rash). Their protest is always “but you’re a lawyer…”. If the matter is really serious and you suggest getting professional advice, they resent you for suggesting that they pay for something that they thought they would get free from you.
I have a first class bsc in Psychology, class of 2009. this degree is worth wiping my backside with. forgive my choice of language. i have had a really difficult (an understatement) past five years. i am now studying finance, a subject which is pushing me to my limit. i want a refund from my university to fund my finance studies- now THIS is a real qualification.
I can blame the government or the economy but I only have myself to blame for picking a Politics degree. An expensive mistake.
No I don’t regret mine. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life when I was choosing uni’s (still don’t really…), so when choosing courses I went with the subject that I liked and felt I could get a decent mark in. Music. I’m glad I did it. Even if it hasn’t particularly helped me get a job… yet.
@Kev Bummer about all the random questions! Have you managed to find a job at least?
@Lola Who advised you to study Psychology and what to you think their advice was based on?
@Graduate What have you tried to do with your politics degree? And are your classmates having a similarly tough time finding work?
@Annaliese Happy to hear you don’t regret your degree choice! What do you plan to do with it?
I studied Linguistics at uni. Not many people know exactly what it is (and no, it doesn’t mean I can speak a load of languages) but I absolutely loved it! Studying at uni is not just about studying a subject for the sake of getting a good job, you have to enjoy the subject and it’s a good opportunity to try something different. If you don’t enjoy it surely that is equally a waste of time and money! Companies now tend not to look at your subject anyway! They look at skills you have acquired and the other stuff you have got involved in at uni. Linguistics is not particularly well known but I have still managed to get to the interview stages and job offers for most of the things that I applied for.
I hugely regret getting a degree. People often slate graduates saying we would be fine if we stopped doing ‘mikey mouse degrees’ from ‘former polys’ – well I have a law degree from a top 10 university and all I’ve managed to find is a dead end part-time admin job (not even in a law firm). Nepotism seems to be rife and unless daddy’s friend is a partner in a firm, even getting an unpaid placements is near impossible. I also hate the fact that as law is different in every country it isn’t as easy to simply move abroad and try you’re luck there. If anyone has tips for finding work abroad please let me know as I’m looking into it.
Like Kev, I’m also sick of people thinking that they can bombard me with questions and ask me to research complex issues in my free time like they’re entitled to have me as their free legal skivvy. I refuse to do this.
If I could re-live the past 5 years I’d have studied engineering. I have a few friends who did that and they were on a good salary straight out of uni and travelling a lot through their company. Since that’s not an option I’ve bought your book Tanya and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to improve my situation.
Still not sure really. I’m applying for Arts Admin jobs but that is a pig of an area to get into. I just apply for anything, although it would be nice to do something related to my subject.
I agree with @Linguistics Graduate that at university you should do something you enjoy.
It’s a shame that graduates aren’t reaping the benefits of a degree after all the years of effort they’ve put into it.
@Tanya
I decided to study Psychology because I had this really stupid idea in my head that I wanted to become a counsellor and help people who have struggled with emotional traumas. So I studied Psychology at A-Level, absolutely hated it as a subject, still wanted to become a counsellor so I pursued my degree in Psychology- I actually wanted to do a joint degree and wanted to mix Psychology with French/anything but a careers advisor told me that joint degrees are not as strong as studying a subject by itself. BAD advice but I took it. To be honest we were told to go to university ( I was at a grammar school, those who weren’t going to university were looked at like they were freaks) and I think many of us just picked a subject without really thinking about it. I had no ambitions to study subjects like medicine, finance, dentistry, law, healthcare, because I didn’t think I was clever enough, in fact they terrified me. Psychology is a very competitive subject to apply for because it’s so popular, however, it is a really average subject- essays, essays, and more essays. None of that knowledge has any value in the real world. I have also found that Psychology has such a stigma, people think you are weird and employers have often asked me to ”analyse” them when I was in job interviews. Basically I now hate the subject. I resent that I am training again and I have to work really hard because I feel I am not as fresh and bright/energetic as I was when I did my degree. We had a few mature students on my course and I wonder how they got on after graduation because they were certainly studying to try and improve their careers.
I studied graphic design a few years ago, and have worked up to a shift/floor manager for a large fast food company since! Through family and volunteering, I’ve discovered a passion for learning disabilities, and have now decided to re-train as a LD Nurse! Totally wish I’d studied nursing first time round, I would be in a job/career I actually care about now! I’ve regretted my degree ever since graduating and realising it would get me now-where though. It’s classed as ‘mickey mouse’, and to be honest, it WAS. There was NO intellectual challenge of any sort. Turn up 3 days a week to use the studio for creative projects and a little bit of ‘guidance’ (where students crit each others work!), and that was basically it. I soon lost my interest in design halfway through which didn’t help, especially added to my depression etc. Thank god I’d worked throughout in this fast food place so promotion to shift manager was always a safe back-up. Anyway, moving forward, I’ve decided not to beat myself up about it. I can’t change the past, but I can change the future. I enrolled on an access course with distance learning centre (which has an amazing supportive community), which due to being distance learning, is a lot cheaper (about a 1/3) than college based access courses (approx £3k since all adult funding stopped), and I’m just working hard on that and saving up so I can apply to uni to do LD nursing when the UCAS opens up again later this year. It’s really hard, but there ARE ways around our situations, you just have to research HARD, and above all, find your true passion. Funding is a nightmare at the moment as the government has removed funding for adults so you have to get a student loan just for college now. I think there is a deliberate plan to trap people and stop people from being able to progress, but one way or another, I WILL beat it. It’s costing me a bit from my pay each month, but payments stop in Sept and I can save that towards uni then. It’s really sad, every day lots of people bring CVs and application forms in, but we can’t recruit everyone. Good luck everyone, it’s really tough out there.
I studied politics and I’m not really sure I regret it or not. I quite enjoyed the subject matter of my course and the fact that it allowed me to specialise a little bit in a topic relevant to my chosen career in the final year. If I could start over, I probably wouldn’t choose politics, though, and go for something more practical like finance or accounting. Those would have been relevant to the career I ended up choosing and I also think the support from the careers services is more robust for those courses. It seems that politics students are mostly routed to either masters degrees or unpaid charity/NGO/government internships and anyone interested in other options is kind of left to figure it out on their own, which if definitely thought was unhelpful.
I was a mature student, started uni in 2007, didnt have much careers advice and I did a Primary Ed with QTS so I could be a primary school teacher. I am nrly 48 now and still havent got a teaching job, and I do apply far as london, and i live in the East Midlands. Jobs here are very thin on the ground, hampered by poor public transport ( I dont drive) I cant even get a factory job. Its depressing, as I waited for my children to be old enough before i did what i wanted to do.. I feel that i am on the scrapheap and I still officially are employable for another 20 odd years.
Whoever is to blame, whether it has been orchestrated by a consortium of businessmen and politicians, the world has just come through the longest and deepest global recession for 100 years. Although not a depression, the damage has been severe in the extreme. Recovery will take many years before we can say we are clear of the threat of another global slowdown and possible recession.
Graduates must be tenacious. Thousands will never get the graduate career that should be theirs. Thousands more will probably never have a graduate job. It is not because of the choices they made when applying to university. Academics are as much concerned about employment prospects for their students as business people. If Politics, Law, Fine Art, History, Photography and other Humanities were considered as irrelevant, universities would stop those courses.
The truth is that graduates in Engineering, Computer Science and Architecture suffered the same level of unemployment after 2008.
These are hard times and the answer lies in part through volunteering in our areas of expertise. It might only be one day a week on our day off from our non-graduate job, but at least we can hold our head up high. I know that English Heritage are always looking for volunteers and they reimburse your travel expenses. If you already volunteer, then just carry on.
Here’s what some of my old school friends are now doing:
pharmacy x2 – both got jobs straight away
medicine – worked in canada, spain, travelled the world
radiotherapy – got a job straight away in NHS
maths – training to be an actuary (takes years)
A few quit after GCSEs but now have solid careers as a dental nurse, plasterer etc. One quit university and now works on a trade reception desk.
My advice… go into healthcare. It’s what I am going to do.. either medical physics or postgraduate medicine. I don’t think I have any other choice tbh.
HI choose business administration because i like advertising, so i concentrated in marketing. I graduate next semester and i hate the whole field of business. Professors were nasty, students were nasty (no matter which of the 4 schools i went to).. always nasty.
I so regret it.
I loved technology, but by the time i finished my degree (four years), i wan’t sure i will be updated or too old for it.
At the end something in a creative and fun would have been my strongest. TV, video, journalism. I was good at it… but i figured i wont make money, so i chose business… stupid.
I got a rejection this morning. 🙁
It isn’t until you are unemployed that you realise how important a job is in a myriad of ways. Maintaining friendships, affording the essentials in life, dating — who dates someone with an income of £0.00?!, the self-respect and confidence that employment give you.
It is funny that all this is dependent upon the whim of a hiring manager isn’t it?
I used to be so full of confidence. Now I try to avoid meeting new people as much as possible because I’m afraid of dealing with awkward questions like “What is it you do?”. How did it come to this…
@Tanya – I did (luckily) after a year paralegaling but it is by far one of the most competitive fields in business. As a segway to this article, so many graduates are now doing law conversion courses that the sheer number of grads looking to get training contracts at law firms is frightening. There just aren’t enough to go around and the demand for expensive legal work is falling, given that companies are looking to cut costs. Trainee lawyer is definately not one of the “skills gaps” that the UK will have any time soon.
@Naomi – I completely sympathise with your situation. Students just aren’t told about the oversubscription in law because universities and law schools see it a a way of printing money. The opportunities for working abroad are also very limited unless you work for a magic circle firm. My advice would be to start looking for an alternative career (sorry). If you are young enough, there are many free courses for “skills gap” areas.
Article on the BBC website – hundreds of PhD graduates competing for a single academic post.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29933444
I wonder what the situation is for PhD graduates entering industry? IMO, unless it’s in medicine or healthcare, education is now a waste of time beyond undergraduate level unless you’re studying purely for enjoyment.
@ R University education has become a waste of time. A PhD is a longer 3rd year undergraduate dissertation, it’s an absolute scam.
Get the best A’Levels grades you can get and join the world of work. You can always do a degree (BA, BSc, MA, PhD etc.)part-time thereafter.
It’s too late for me since I’m already in the process of getting a degree. People have asked me about doing a PhD and I already suspected it was a saturated field, that’s why I was wondering if the situation is similar for PhD graduates who choose to go into industry. Does anyone have any stats for this? I know of one person doing a PhD in physics with the idea of getting a quant role in finance… I wonder now if they have any chance what so ever.
On another note, I’m currently in my third year and I’ve been thinking of taking it off to do placements instead – then come back and finish the degree. My parents are dead set against the idea since they want me to finish but I wonder if it will help a lot?
@ R It will make no difference, everything depends on the university you will have attended and, even then, on the subject you took. You will be paid peanuts on a placement scheme and photocopying all day. Been there, done that.
What universities are those? I would be applying for an internship through a site like gradcracker or through my department.
I’m trying to figure out, are you saying this is the situation for your industry, or for all jobs?
Another thing, say the university you go to does matter, what if I did an MSc in my subject (physics / maths) at Imperial or UCL (this is possible if I get a first, but it will cost an absolute fortune). Would the MSc change my prospects?
I am about to start my 3rd year, and wish I had chosen something else. It’s too late to change degree now, as I feel it would have been a wasted couple of years. Does anyone know anything about PgDip and if they are any good, if you want to change paths? I’m considering a masters in a completely different area, as my current degree won’t get me the job I want. Is this a possibility? I’d like to do another degree, but you don’t get funding, do you?
I just got turned down for a masters scholarship at queen mary, despite having a 1st and getting published. It’s an absolute joke.
@A I had an interesting conversation with one of my former lecturers when I was considering a Masters back in 2009. I was advised that Research Counci funding for the whole of the UK for MA History that year was for 4 graduates and the Council would likely only consider graduates with a First. I only had a 2:1.
Lecturers had a frank discussion with another graduate which basically went, “We never promised that your degree would get you the opportunities you looked for.”
Official advice is glowing from some universities – off the record, everyone in the food chain, including lecturers themselves, constantly struggle and make tremendous personal and professional sacrifices to even get on the first rung of their career ladder. And then they have to call upon favours and a good word from connected friends.
The idea that a job in academia is a soft option to escape the real world is far from reality.
It’s dog eat dog.
https://graduatefog.co.uk/2010/738/young-jobseeker-takes-life-year-search-work/
If anyone’s interest or still reads this page I’m kevin and have comment of this article. I’m about ready to throw in the towel now. I can’t deal with this anymore. I graduated last year with a degree in politics. doors slammed in your face, laughed at by employers. I don’t know what to do any more. I’m in a pretty shitty state and have all but been threatened with being sectioned by the doctor because my depression has gotten so bad. I just can’t keep going.
@Kevin I emailed you this morning, did it reach you?
No it didn’t Tanya
I regret choosing fine art. Apparently, only 1% of fine art graduates go on to make a living from selling their work. I’m not in that 1%! I teach art now, so at least my job relates to my education, but, it’s a very non vocational degree and it’s very hard to find reliable paid work either as an artist or as a tutor
Whilst vocational subjects are all well and good, in some of them unpaid internships are rife and in my profession. As a result people have taken to the LinkedIn page for my profession to say that because they can’t find experience (ie unpaid internships), they are unable to get a job and thus parked in jobs like stacking shelves in Tesco. In a way vocational subjects aren’t what they’re cracked up to be.
You get so many posts on here that blame the Tories, blame their university, blame the bankers, blame the recession. Blame everyone but themselves. It dawned on me today that to get into the position I have one needs to take a certain level of personal responsibility. It easier to blame the Tories isn’t it? To cling to and wallow in victimhood.
I’ve made a series of bad decisions. Sure I graduated at a bad time but I’m not entirely blameless. I shoudn’t have spent so long chasing ‘dream’ jobs, I should have volunteered far earlier. I should have picked a different degree — I didn’t have a gun to my head when I firmed UCAS. I just wish I could start again.
@Anon A mistake you make at 18 shouldn’t carry with you for the rest of your life. Yes there is a part for blaming yourself but we are 5 years out of the deepest recession since the great depression. The job market is still crap but there isn’t much use beating yourself up any more that you already have. Nor is it helpful to encourage others to do the same.
For anyone that has followed my story here will know I’ve been incredibly depressed in the last 6 months about my prospects and where I am at the moment. I have recently spoken to some friends in better positions and others in the same boat. The prevailing consensus seems to be that those with well connected families do well irrespective of degree choice. I know one individual making £70K in the City with a history of art degree.
For those saying I should have done engineering, computer science etc I know a far few people that studied these subjects. I only know 2 people working in the relevant fields. I know a chemical engineer who did a 4 year degree plus a year in industry who now works as a business analyst for an IT company. I know a woman with a masters from Cambridge currently working on a reception desk. This country is as it has always been, it’s who you know not what you know.
I have friends that studied politics like me working for companies like Deloitte, Accenture, PWC, Earnst and Young, FCA etc. The problem is me. I’m just not good enough.
I graduated into the worst recession for 90 years but some of my old classmates are on the Civil Service Fast Stream, the local government equivalent or are working for the Financial Ombudsman Service. How can it be the fault of my degree when they have managed to find something? The recession is over. The economy is growing and I just don’t feel I can blame the world anymore.
The problem as I now see it is those who graduated at the peak of the recession get left behind as the economy improves. People get into a position where unemployment becomes a barrier to getting a job. An employer is going to go for a fresh graduate rather than one of the long-term unemployed from the job club I volunteer with.
The longer someone is out of work the bigger and deeper a hole they build for themselves. There is a monumental hiring bias when it comes to the long-term unemployed. Not a subject this blog has covered as of yet. Maybe it is too depressing. But that for me is the key question that needs answering – what is someone like yourself with a bit of a gap on the CV due to health issues actually supposed to do?
Anon if you are trying to make me feel even worse about my situation you will fail because I can’t feel much worse. If you want to wallow in self pity go a head blame yourself but I will call you out on your crap.
The economy is growing yes but only in mid 2015 did it hit pre recession levels of income. Wages are still down, unemployment still quite high, its even worse on the continent.
I don’t know what I am suppose to do but one thing I’m not going to do is let people like you attempt to make me feel even worse.
Hi all
Interesting debate – and the comments on this post have inspired me to write a new post which has just gone live here: https://graduatefog.co.uk/2016/4352/3-questions-every-graduate-job-seeker-should-ask-in-january/
Although I think the question of responsibility (or blame / fault) is an interesting one, I’d suggest it’s a better use of everyone’s resources to focus on improving your situation, rather than analysing the reasons for it.
I don’t generally offer one-to-one career / job hunting advice but if you post specific questions below the new post I will do my best to respond and offer suggestions.
Thanks,
Tanya x
Real estate was my major as an undergrad. When i got to my final year i started to question my sanity for choosing the course because its a job that isn’t so productive in my country. I’m currently doing my masters in it but chose to focus on facilities management to bring a construction twist to it. looking back i wish i had done architecture i told my mum about it but she scared me silly and made me change to real estate. now I’m doing my masters hoping to continue to PhD so i can lecture because i feel that’s the best i can do. if i could push back the hands of time i would have stayed with my first love, architecture.
Yes and it sucks so much.
I’ve chosen a Business Diploma thinking it would be very promising. Ended up I’m in a office job doing dead end duties.
If I’ve gotten a choice I would have picked life sciences or engineering degrees. It’s so damn hard to even get into these degrees with a Business Diploma. Not to mention the money, the time feeling lost in the wild. And it makes me feel that my passion is dying when I’m only 22 years old and see no purpose in living. Damn it.
When you enter any discipline please check with the people who have gone through it, listen to some feedbacks there and do more research.
Make sure it’s what you really want and don’t be like me.
Listen to your heart.
Change course if you really feel that it’s not suitable while studying.
Agree with everything Kevin said back in January.
The people who get the best jobs have money and connections. I can give so many examples.
Even fields like engineering won’t guarantee employment. You have to complete for a small number of graduate places and have to knowledge of who is employing and where – connections.
Look into fields like quantity surverying, operational research, teaching, social work, occupational therapy and medicine. Train up and emigrate.
Fortunately for me, I realised very early on that my uni course wasn’t for me! I decided to switch up my education and do a distance learning course with Oxbridge Home Learning and it was the best decision I’ve ever made!
@ Charlotte M. Good to see some people have seen through the scam!
I regret my Psychology Degree. I knew the difficulties about finding employment but I was a little too optimistic about being able to stick it out, start from the bottom after graduation and eventually being able to make a decent wage.
I found that my course was too theoretical for my liking and I wasn’t being trained to meet the demands of vulnerable people.
However I think if it was more practical I would have realized quicker that mental health work was not for me. You need really thick skin.
I am not here to bash the course but I wish I had been more willing to change when I realized that I wasn’t gaining the tools I needed. I was scared about the fees, starting over again and not really being certain about what field I wanted to work in.
I found some modules to be very helpful and interesting, some mind numbing but important and others to be a waste of time.
For those considering the course please try to research your course and see if they offer placements. Also try and get some Zero hours work and if possible part time work in a relevant field.
Also see if you desire to help people is coming from your own inner turmoil. Try not to think with your heart when doing a degree but have a more objective stance. Overall pay is very important when considering a Degree but contentment with you career should be considered.
I thought I’d jump on the poor life choices train albeit a bit late lol. So I did a Fine Art Degree as well, didn’t do too bad either. Then I came home and within a month was on the dole. And it effing sucks. What eats at me every day is that the area I live in is notorious for unemployment, I can’t get on any related apprenticeship schemes because of my degree and I now wonder if I should’ve taken a different route entirely. But it’s not as if it matters because I’m stuck with my degree like a bad smell follows an undertaker. Sorry for the text wall but feel free to let loose those demons lol.
Well to put things into perspective I graduated in 2015 with a first class degree in physics and I’ve only recently had any graduate interviews.
On Tuesday I had an interview for an acoustic engineering role in London (starting salary £27,000) which is only the case as I knew someone who works in the Manchester office and they put in a good word. In May I got through to the final stage of the NHS Scientist Training Programme (STP) in medical physics and was rejected at the interview at Birmingham football ground. I had to go through four stages of assessment to reach this point. I’ve been rejected by every other graduate scheme at various stages. My advice is to get experience as the “graduate” title is misleading – what they really want are graduates with relevant experience. This is where the jobs market is elitist, as those who want to grammar schools or have money will do unpaid interships in London. The companies will usually take these interns onto their grad schemes upon graduation.
Of course, I’ve had job offers from the usual dodgy places (FDM, DeVere QA Consulting). The latter will charge you £12,000 if you leave the job within two years. The training is a joke, and companies end up sending the QA Consulting staff home as they do not have the knowledge to do the job. Go on glassdoor and see for yourself.
I do regret my degree choice. I’ve applied for graduate entry medicine this year, but it is extremely competitive. I can’t apply for the easier undergrad course as I have used up my student finance entitlement and can’t afford £9000 up front for 5 years.
We are esentially told to make life changing choices at 18 after A levels when we have no life experience. The whole education system from top to bottom is a shambles. I think another 500,000 people have gone to university this year? That’s at least another 450,000 who will regret their degree choice… I guarentee it.
If I was to give one piece of advice it’s do not go to university until you know exactly WHAT you want to do with your life. If that means going to university at 30, then so be it.
There are career areas which I would have to go to Europe to study as it is too expensive in the UK as a second degree. We are pushed into life changing decisions after our A levels and then not afforded a second chance once we realise our mistake. What a messed up system. What chance do the working class have in this country?
I wouldn’t recommend anyone to go to university these days.
Well… here’s an update on my situation if anyone is interested. I was rejected by the acoustic engineering role in London. I had a telephone interview with the acoustics leader which seemed to go really well. A few weeks prior to this I had an informal chat with the team at their Manchester office so I was given a lot of background and insight into the job. I researched the area and their research and was able to reel off quite a lot of insight into the company. As I say, the conversation seemed to be going well so I was shocked to receive an email saying that I hadn’t been invited to a formal interview. I haven’t had official feedback yet but I was told there were others with more experience (that old chestnut). Considering that this was an “entry level” graduate position, I’m not sure what someone in my situaiton is suppost to do. There (may) be the option to do a placement to gain experience, but this could take months to come through as they have no spaces at the moment, if at all. I am 29 and not in the position to hang around for opportunities which may not arise.
Currently I’m enrolled on an MSc in nuclear science in which my tuition fees are paid for, but I am in two minds whether to carry on with this. Despite there being a surge of investment in the nuclear sector in the UK, I could well find myself having to go through graduate schemes again and getting rejected. I am also jaded with studying as my courses are hard and allow very little free time. It was the same with my undergrad. I have been through some strong medications this year… valium, wellbutrin, nardil.
There was someone who dropped out of my undergrad course during the first year. I’ve coped a link below to a short story about her. She did a software apprenticeship with the DWP but has now moved on to a private company and works as a Java engineer. She must be earning close to or over £30,000 as it’s a niche role. I looked at the DWP apprenticeship myself and I can’t do it because I have a degree. To say I am angry is an understatement. I will look again at the requirements but it is probably not possible as it is a “level 4” course whereas a degree is “level 6”. In reality I’ve found the national framework of qualifications to be meaningless as the value of my degree amounts to trash compared to her apprenticeship. My “first class” degree in physics is essentially worth no more than toilet paper.
https://dwpdigital.blog.gov.uk/2016/01/21/the-apprentice-youre-hired/
I suppose my question is, what now? Can I get on a software apprenticeship somehow?
I feel like I have backed myself into a corner by going to university. I stopped applying to graduate schemes last year as there is no chance whatsoever of me getting on one. I kept getting rejected. I am strongly considering quitting my masters as I’m tired of studying to no end and there is no guarentee of a job, but right now it is all I have.
I feel like I have been abandoned by society. Drug addicts, alcoholics or ex-offenders get one-to-one support and a “leg up” into the system if they are willing to take it, yet here I am going nowhere at all despite staying on “the right path”. My CV is “ok” – I volunteered for a good number of years and worked office jobs. I don’t have any of those golden internships though. I do have good references. Why has it come to this?
I graduated in 2007 with a poor grade and in a so-called mickey mouse subject! Double whammy! Not because I’m unintelligent or anything, but because I had so many absenses in the last year (family & personal reasons) they were considering taking me off the course. I scraped through with a sh*tty honours BA. With that in mind I didn’t bother to apply for any graduate jobs, as I knew I wouldn’t be eligible anyway. I just applied for regular jobs, and over the next years had NO problem getting ‘standard’ jobs, I.e Catering, support work, admin etc. Actually nearly every interview I’ve had, has been successful. Maybe they had the mindset that I had limited options, so was a safe bet? I’ve dabbled in self-employment on the side over the years too (just hobby stuff). Despite my rubbish ‘career’ – a mish mash of jobs basically haha, I just worked hard and saved, in any role given and managed to save up to buy a flat (an ex-council one so not OTT expensive, but still in a nice area), go traveling for 6 months, and also socialize and holiday regularly, run a car and am reasonably comfortable. Most other graduates I know (apart from the ones who decided to become teachers in the end) are still living at home with parents or in shared houses and haven’t been able to move on because they feel too proud to do a regular job because they have a piece of paper that says they have a degree, despite still not attaining a grad job. My advice is to just humble oneself, take jobs that are ‘below’ you and plug away. You won’t start on 25k, heck, after all these years I’ve only just hit £22k (I moved back up north where I’m from, living here on lower salaries isn’t TOO bad) but you can still live well on that if you don’t try to live the champagne lifestyle. After lots of ‘finding myself’ I’ve decided to retrain as a an App/Software Developer. Self-teaching and following random courses at the moment, but am saving in case I NEED to study for it. I got offered a place on a 1 year conversion course (BSc) so that’s a possible future option. Sorry if this is long or sounds boasty, but I’m trying to say, you can make the best if any job, no matter how crap it is, and still keep your pride.