To ask your career advice? What industries/areas would you recommend going in to?

[FloraDiesEarly]

Just continuing the other thread about salaries and jobs etc, several posters say they wouldn't do their job/route again and others saying they've done well at law for example, but with cuts/difficulty of obtaining training contracts etc wouldn't recommend going into it now, what would you recommend entering? What is doing well/pays well/predicted to grow in the future?

I am a recent arts graduate in my early twenties, but am considering different options, so any advice is welcome(!) or it can be for anyone MNer that wants it, or just a place to give your two cents

[TheHouseOnBellSt]

What do you want to do? I think many people make the mistake of choosing a profession that offers "security" only to find x years down the line that they hate their job and wish they'd followed their heart. I know a number of unhappy teachers, one miserable policewoman and a marketing exec who is so frazzled she cries every morning on her way to her high pressure job.

[RealityCheque]

What did you plan on doing when you decided an "Arts Degree" was a plan?

[BaguetteMaid]

I have a degree in the arts and found myself at a production company producing commercials. After almost ten years I'm pretty senior there now and would heartily recommend it.

It's creative, challenging and you get to see the ads you've worked hard on on the tele!

Our office is mainly women and it's a very friendly place to be.

Good luck!

[Sazzle41]

I dont think an arts degree means you would find law or banking very rewarding - often very old style and formal still, very corporate which being into the arts I would think you might find rather stifling. How about marketing? Its more 'creative' the personalities are more chilled , lots of ways to express yourself, lots of team socialising and clients and you can often wear jeans/dress down daily. I prefer corporate on balance because i am not a fan of ditzy or chaos and life runs smooth. In Marketing i liked the more chilled laid back people & atmosphere but found tho they tend to be clever and creative it was constant fire fight re panics and surprises due to ditziness at all levels. Its horses for courses!

[overthemill]

Reality check - there is no reason why people should do an arts degree. It is a valid choice. It isn't always possible to do a vocational degree like medicine and no reason why you should know what you're going to do when you enter university. That's why universities have careers' services! You are a bit snidey. What's your amazingly worthwhile degree in?

[sparechange]

What are your strengths? What do you hate? What areas of the world interest you?

I work in PR and would highly recommend it as a career if you enjoy and have a talent for writing, and have good people skills and confidence.

It is a huge industry, so you can work for a bank or you can work for a fashion label depending on what floats your boat, and it is also very possible to move within industries, so go from working for a tech company to a fashion company to a financial company, as you move up the ladder and as some industries do better than others.

The massive importance of social media and reputations means PR isn't going anywhere, and you can hop between industries that are growing.
90% of jobs are probably concentrated in London so unless you get really lucky, you'll have to at least start your career living there.
Starting salaries are around £25k but it is very realistic to be on £50k after 5 years and £100k after 10 or 12 if you pick the right career path.

[Issie339]

Hi Flora I did an Arts (English) degree (a while ago now!) and went in to Retail Buying. I like it because it's a mix of creative and business/analytical and is a good career path with good pay after a few years.

It is competitive to get in to but isn't as well known or competitive as some of the other creative type roles (Advertising, TV, PR etc.) I would really recommend it.

If you're more creative look at the end of the scale where the Buying role is more creative (homewares, gift, toys etc) and if you're more analytical look at the more business/numbers end of the scale (white goods, grocery, technology etc). You also have to be very good with people, organised and confident (there is negotiation involved!) Starting salaries about £20-25k but Buyers/Senior Buyers can easily earn £45-60k and you can progress up from there.

[mimishimmi]

Scala programming. Huge demand and hard to fill roles.

[grovel]

Digital marketing (eg Mediacom).

[itilqueen]

If you're technical, analytical or scientifically-minded, anything in the IT discipline (spans so many sectors, great perks, v. well paid, flexible, well respected, and we need more women) or engineering/physical sciences.

Your world will open up. It does require an interest and competency in it to succeed though.

I've worked with people who have an arts/humanities background, admittedly many of them had come into it from the "specialist->IT focus" side over a period of time, or having landed on a specific project, or they're in more people-focused roles on the team (rather than hands-on-technical), but I would recommend it 100% to a graduate of any particular subject, and do!

More varied backgrounds/entry points into the profession are needed. Please consider doing some more research into the sorts of roles that might interest you.

[FluffyPersian]

I work in I.T. Security and it pays incredibly well.

However... If you aren't technically minded and don't really enjoy working with computers, I don't see why you'd necessarily choose that.

Equally, one of my sisters works in law and has worked for 2 of the 'Big 4' companies... one, she hated, the other, she loves and the salary is pretty decent as well - She got a 2:1 in Law at an 'OK' uni... but it wasn't Oxford / Cambridge etc..

I would hate going into law, it seems really boring to me and far too professional, whereas a lot of I.T. companies are a lot more laid back and less corporate which suits my personality.

I knew I wanted to work in I.T. when I was 9 and started programming with a BBC Basic.. I loved it. I do think you need to do something you're passionate about as I think even if / when I have children, I wouldn't want to give up my career or even allow it to take much of a back seat.

[FloraDiesEarly]

Wow, thanks for all replies! My arts degree is in music, it was the only thing I was interested in at the time, so I didn't really think much beyond university.
I don't even know what Scala is mimi so I'm off to look that up!
Regarding jobs in the IT spectrum, I know very little about a lot of IT - would I just look up coding or something online and go from there? Or see what IT jobs require and see what I need to do?

[Noseypoke]

Mimi, how would you get into scala programming? What's the pay like?

[cluecu]

Software development or software testing. I am an IT recruiter so am aware of how in demand such candidates are and women aren't represented enough

I wish I had been a tester but I didn't even know it was a job before I worked for a software company

[YeOldeTrout]

Audio design in computer games is a growth area. You'd have to be good at composition specifically. It might new quite detailed & repetitive as composing goes.

[BeakyMinder]

If you've got a music degree, especially if theory/musicology based, you'd probably find it easy to learn to code - it's a similar sort of thinking style

[borisgudanov]

Well another IT discipline you might look st if you aren't into cutting code but have the right kind of mind and some business background or interest is business analysis. Business analysts talk to business people in plain English to find out exactly what a system needs to do and then specify it in more or less formal language to the technical people who will build it. So you are like a translator or interpreter between business and technical teams. Languages used for this which you could google include Unified Modelling Language (UML), use cases, less formally business requirements and functional requirements, and project methodologies include waterfall and agile. I did that for 12 years then specialised in data architecture; now I design databases, and there's a whole discipline around that too.

[Justanotherlurker]

I'm an Oracle/Microsoft certified DBA managing terabytes of data passing through our network every minute. I have cut code for years in multi nationals and i would say don't just come into this field because you are female, whatever is said it isn't really under represented with the majority of PMs/BAs and devs being female it is now on aptitude rather than equality employment (especially at the multi national scene) and a music degree isn't really going to make the first draft of CV's without any real worl dev experience (no amount of code academy/googling will make any difference) sorry.

[FloraDiesEarly]

I appreciate your honesty just, that's what I came on for. Several people (in RL) keep suggesting law, sort of forgetting you can pay thousands to do the quals and get nothing from it, so I appreciate the frankness of people actually in the professions friends/family keep telling me to go into!

[itilqueen]

the majority of PMs/BAs and devs being female

I wouldn't agree with this at all, but I realise it depends on what industry you actually work in. Media vs financial services (investment management, banking or insurance) vs oil energy vs games development vs healthcare IT vs education vs public sector vs renewable energy... it would vary massively, but in all the industries I've worked in myself, females have been massively under represented at every level (I've never been managed by a female, for example). None of my heads of department, or senior managers in our IT department, are female.

So whilst I'm not saying the quote above is untrue, it does need context; and for many many industries there is still a dearth of female talent, and it looks like there will be for some time unless things change.

it is now on aptitude rather than equality employment

Hopefully that's always been the case though..

a music degree isn't really going to make the first draft of CV's without any real worl dev experience

I agree 100% with that though, amateurs can turn pro if they take the right training/courses/degree/do real careers research and find out what paths they need to consider to get to where they want to go.