Thetownend.com

A little clue people... DON'T GO!  Or at least don't do history.  I was under the misguided notion that a Masters Degree was a useful tool.  Apparently, I can't get a job anywhere now because of a lack of experience.  Basically, I would have been better off finding a job at 18, instead of going to uni as the government suggested I did.  Bastards.  Intelligence is the least important tool in the job hunting procedure.  I'm seriously looking at pushing trolley's in Tesco.

do you have a hunchback then? Coz if you haven't you won't get that job either

I made the same point at A level results time.

Have you tried temping somewhere and getting a foot in the doore?

I really should write for the daily star :D

I'm doing a masters degree this year.   :oops:

Apparently their good further down the career line, as not many people have masters degrees in comparison to normal degrees.

He he, like the pun.  That is what I am doing starting next week.  Soz if that sounded like a poor little me rant, just got turned down for a graduate training program because I had no full time experience.  Sounds a bit daft if you ask me, I have no full time experience, except in the summers, because I am a graduate.  I emailed them back and explained to the this fundemental gap in their logic, which may not have been the most productive thing to do.  Really, my point was that uni is not as great an option as it appears at the time, and I feel I got sucked in by Government advertising.

Hang in there Doore, don't lose hope yet.

Standard of education loses relevance the further you go into a career. But if you have a degree and are up for a job against some school leaver who does not who will they be more likely pick?

Also university is a great laugh. Did you enjoy it? OK you are relatively poor as a student, but the hours are great.

I enjoyed it, and yes the hours were very agreeable to me, as a man who does enjoy sleeping.  Just getting a bit frustrated with the job hunt, and ranting on here is surprisingly therapuetic.

Aye, its tragic really - if you want to get job after in a big company, you usually end up out of University and then stuck on some 'graduate training' programme for a couple of years, which is basically a YTS as far as I can tell - apart from you start off about 10 grand in debt.    A lot to be said for starting work at 18 and saving up for a house straight away.

Still glad I went though...

You could've mentioned before, I start uni in 3 weeks :|

What did you think History made you useful for then?

subjects like this are ace.

i never went to uni but left school with decent GCSE's and got my self a job. 11 years later i'm earning good money and even a lot more than folk who are doing the same job yet went to uni etc.
reason is because i have experience.

thing is though if you've been to uni for ages and then try and get a job they say no cos you have no experience.
so how you supposed to get a job after uni if they wont employ you without experience.

stupid

history degrees are notoriously bad for post-graduation employment %'s

i've still got no idea what i want to do after uni, so i'm just enjoying my time there and trying to get a 2:1

after doing an office job for a year i've decided the job i get after uni should be one i really enjoy, not fussed about the bunce £

considering doing a pgce, teaching would be quite rewarding i'd imagine and i get to be a student for another year. if i did a masters too then i'd leave the uni system at about 26 - great fun but loads of debt.

i'm sure my plans will change next month though

What I don't understand is people that go to uni to do Psychology, Sociology etc. and don't want to do jobs such as Psychologists etc.  Ok it may be favourable for social work etc. however those are things that you get training for on the job, not need a degree for!

I think if someone wanted to be a doctor/dentist etc. then thats completely different but if you're unsure on what you want to do in your life, rather than just choosing something for the sake of it, isn't it better to take a year out to think about it properly?  Uni may be great fun etc. but is it worth the thousands of pounds worth of debt if you are indecisive of a career?

I did Maths. Can't recommend it highly enough. Loads of employers want maths graduates so it was easy enough to find a job. 4 years on and my salary's nearly doubled, and I'm a manager.

No offence, why choose history unless you want to be a history teacher or a librarian?

many people choose a subject they enjoy studying or are good at but do not want to go into employment in that area because lots of employers look for the qualification (i.e. educated to degree level) and not the subject, they want to know what standard you can learn to.

agree that many people nowadays fall into uni without their heart in it though, i was guilty of that and dossed about all the time in my first two years but am know determined to knuckle down in my final year. i'm at the right place (uni), just doing a subject i don't really have any passion for but at the time of choosing i just went for what i was good at.

probably motivated by fear of failure, mind.

Sad thing is that having contacts is much more important to a lot of people than the education/skills they have. I have a respectable CV and have a fair amount of work experience in a fair few areas of work, however i've found it hard to get work this summer, unlike a lot of my mates who managed to get jobs through parents, friends etc regardless of their CV. You'll get a break at some point hopefully.

I got a degree BA with Hons .. doesnt help at all .. spent a year getting a job when I left uni and ended up on bottom pay

Best thing to do is do maybe A Levels .. and then get a job .. maybe work experience is your chosen field when u do those A Levels

thats true, contacts are vital

my thick mate who's dad owns a big building company has just done 2 placements which he'd never have got without the contacts, and all his dad had to do was ask once and it was all sorted. he basically got offered a job at the first placement, grant thornton the accountants, which is a shocker - i'd never employ him, not so sharp on the uptake and there must be loads of people better than him just not getting a look in because they can't clear the first hurdle.

It makes it even worse though when they are able to get the experience too so unknown future employees will think they're going to be very good too. It's a vicious circle and it's a sad part of life.

It took me 3 years (one of which was work experience) to finally get a job in  the field I wanted to (related to my degree). I was forced into two years of temping simply to pay off debts and save enough to pay for the years voluntary work experience I needed.

In the end I wouldn't have got my job without a degree but the work experience was the thing which tipped the balance in my favour.

Now I've had a pay rise every year and the opportunity to complete vocational training relative to the industry paid for by my employer. Hopefully I will continue to progress even though i'm a few years behind what I planned.

A couple of my friends who didn't go to Uni or complete their degrees are on higher salaries but have not got into the industry of their choice.

I did a PhD, which was brilliant and I'm happy in where I work now, only problem is even though I haven't been out of work since, there are very few jobs in my area that aren't on short term contracts - i think if i wanted to change now to something in industry with a bit more job security and better pay I'd have to drop right down to graduate trainee.

I'm pretty sure that there isn't much I couldn't do or learn very quickly - but convincing an employer that you can learn whatever skills you need quickly, without having the experience, is difficult.

Well I am going to go to uin next year whatever you miserable lot say!
Although you do all make good points.

I think that in some areas having a degree related to that job will show an interest in it and will perhaps convince them that you are the right sort of person for the job, even if you do have to start from the bottom.

Of course you will now all tell me I know nothing and I am wrong

You know nothing and you are also wrong

No fair play really.

I never went to college or uni. I hated the thought to be honest.
I got a job straight after leaving school and worked ever since.

Vocational qualifications are the way to go unless you jump into Uni and do a vocationally orientated subject like law that will eventually lead into an entry position in your chosen field.  Provided you pass that is.

I’m struggling to think of any of my mates from home or friends from Uni, aside from the solicitors, teachers and architect who have actually needed their degree in their chosen field since graduating.  It’s all about vocational qualifications nowadays especially in the technical and financial sectors

Because psychology provides the knowledge for anything from management to working on curing disease. sociology graduates will usually become economists

Dunno, I was always pretty sceptical about how much difference my (fairly good) degree would really make now that I'm 15 years out of college and in work, until I was looking for a new job last August/September and found a lot of places were stipulating at least a 2:1, some further differentiating by insisting it must be a science degree or even Oxbridge. With 15 years experience behind me, I'd have thought that would have counted for a lot more than my degree, but seems some employers still use it to sift CVs. Seems daft, but there you go - had it not been for my degree, there's a lot of places I wouldn't have even got a phone interview.

I think that's right - the degree's all about getting your foot through the door in the first place. Of course there's careers where a degree is pointless, so you have to be clear on what you want to do before you decide on university or a job.

The people that piss me off are the ones who do a Film Studies degree at Coventry Polytechnic and then expect employers to be impressed!

So true  :D

I'm doing some graduate interviewing in October which should be a giggle. The kids of today say some funny shit. They're all so confident too, until we ask stupid questions like "How many clocks are there in England?"  :P

and what if they wanted to work in the film industry?

i'm not going to bother going to university now. you've all persuaded me that it'll be a waste of my time and i will never achieve anything.

in fact, where are the razorblades?

Then I think employers would be even less impressed!

with the university maybe.

yeah

I think the point has been missed somewhat. Surely if you're just going to university to get a job then you'll probably come out hating it. You should go to university to study something which you are genuiniely interested in, job at the end of it or not.

I went into a job with training after my A Levels as money was tight, andf i wasn't sure i'd be able to put in enough effort to make a degree worthwhile. I've ended up doing pretty well, but now i'm a bit specialised (not in a spakky way) i would find it hard to leave for something different on similar money. Which is a bugger, as i like the way i live, yet 4 years down the line realise i hate my career.

If i had gone to uni, i would have done as Ben says. Do something you will enjoy for a few years, it'll make it easier.

I have the same prob mr Currant, the only job I could probably do is a similar job at another government authority. Damn GIS  :(

Are you in the Civil service then Bird?

Surely once you're in with the mafia you can jump about departments?

Exactly why I did history.  I would teach, but I hate kids, or anyone much younger than myself.  Its not personal, I just find I can't get on with them.

Local Government Dazzza, it sucks, I have already jumped dept 4 times  :(

I go to to Plymouth uni and do a course which is considered by many as a "Mickey Mouse" course (it's not media or film though, I have qualifications in that field though  :oops: ).

When I started Media Production at University of Bath I was one of a dozen students on the department... When I completed the course the incoming year had 100 students. It's ridiculous really but Uni' s encourage it and are building bigger media departments because they want more students and therefore more funding.

Studying Media and Film is pointless unless you're very talented, got good contacts or studying in or around the media hubs like London, Bristol etc etc... I know for a fact that some businesses disregard applications with MEDIA on the form!

Bugger, did a brief stint with the civil and the beauty of it was once you're in you can side step all over the show to a completely different department/job.

Once you're in you're in.

Tis true, but gets very boring after 8 years  :(