Big dilemma for DD - what would you do?

[Blackenedsoul]

DD has accepted an offer for her Uni of choice to study Media in September. She’s been looking forward to going, had planned to live at home and travel the 20 minutes in every day.

She had a part time job for a few months in a local office attached to a very small but very busy manufacturing company. She’s very well thought of and works in the office on a Saturday, doing admin, answering enquiries, emails, booking appointments etc.

Today they’ve offered her a full time, permanent post in the office and have offered to start training her up in the use of their accounts systems etc, give her more responsibility. The salary is 18k to start rising to around a max of 25k once fully trained.

This has come as a bolt from the blue, DD really enjoys the job and thinks she’d be happy doing it full time but at the same time was also happy to go off and have the Uni experience, make new friends and study and have fun.

She’s aware that lots of students leave Uni and end up falling into admin roles vey much like this and is now wondering whether bothering with Uni is worth it.

We’ve told her the decision is entirely hers but she’s really finding it hard to decide.

So, the great of mumsnet - what would you do?

And it's bookkeeping this girl is going to be trained to do, not accounting or an accounting qualification. Bookkeeping, and the company's 'system', which may or may not be a transferable skill.

There is a significant difference between what the OP posted and what many posters here read..

a media degree is not worthless,
a degree is a degree whatever the subject

I would take the job as I have done similar.

Sure the job is 25k max (which isn't that bad) but she could sideways step into another job from there using some of her transferable skills.

@AbsolutelyPatsy a degree is a degree whatever the subject
Not true at all I’m afraid. There is a huge difference in average earnings post degree depending on subject (and where you study). Medicine, law, economics grads will likely start on a far higher salary than graduates of eg dance, drama and possibly media.

Job 100% my most successful friend is the one who took an admin job rather than going to uni. She earns way more than any of us uni graduates now, bought a house before any of us, and is beyond happy with her choices.

Deferring for a year is a great idea. I would only consider not going at all if the job had a clear career path and qualifications like accountancy or it was linked degree you do while working like the Police.

Defer and take the job.

Honestly, if she's studying a subject like media, it suggests she's more likely going for the social life than for the educational aspect, sorry if that's unfair!

But for the cost of Uni, I think that nowadays you need to be doing a traditional subject that employers will take seriously or a vocational one.

So maybe she could defer, take the job, see how it goes, and then decide?

In the first instance, defer and try the job for a year. Fantastic employability experience.
Then consider part time study with work. She’ll have a better chance at placements or jobs relevant to her subject with some work experience. It’s always great when young people show that they’ve thought carefully about their career path and planned it rather than leaping straight into university.
However, even if she dies go to uni full time after a year, it’ll look brilliant on her CV.

Take the job, she's going to save 3 years of debt to end up in the same place at best. There may well be an opportunity to take accountancy qualifications with her employer.

In normal circumstances I’d say go to University, but because of the pandemic I’d defer for a year and see how things stand this time next year.

And there is nothing wrong with going to University for the social life as well as the study.

deferring for a year wont be right for the company though, the want to train her up to keep her, not to lose her in a year.

Does she want to be an accountant?

She didn't apply for a degree in accountancy, which suggest this isn't a career plan at all. If she hadn't been offered this job, would she have applied for it?

My fear is, I know so many people who got to their late 20s, having bobbed along doing a job they got, taking opportunities within the company, and realised this wasn't what they wanted to do with their life and retrained then. Except if you're a woman, going back to uni and then graduating at nearly 30, puts you in the position of looking to start a family before you are established in your new career. Any later than that and it becomes even harder to retrain as you have a mortgage and commitments, dropping back to a new starter wage or even nothing as a student isn't an option (unless she has a wealthy partner).

I would defer the degree for a year and work, but she needs to do some serious research and thinking, what does she want to do with her life?

Dont set her up for being one of those people who hate their job every day for 30 years.

If she wouldn't consider an accountancy degree, this probably isn't the long term career for her.

I was in a similar situation as a teen (started working on a casual contract and then went for permanent contract at 18 and then went to uni at 21) so I’d seriously consider taking the full time permanent position.
Working full time for a few years before I applied actually helped me get a part time admin role in the university which paid my rent for my time there.

The job offer doesn’t change anything, it’s not like it is an amazing opportunity, is it? I would encourage your daughter to go to uni and stay part time at the job, like the initial plan. Don’t condemn your daughter to these boring office jobs so soon in her life. I could understand if it was her dream job or a really good offer. If she defers uni for a year, she then won’t do it... she’ll be sucked in by the daily routine of an office job like we all are and we all hate. I would save that sort of decision for later in life when we have more constraints and many times are obliged to accept those jobs to fit it with the rest of our lives. She is so young, I would want her to go out there, have fun, meet loads of people.

If she is that diligent and hard working she will get another offer

Is she living at home could she request staying part time alongside her degree?

I think she will regret at least not trying the degree

From what you've said, she struggled to chose the degree and has no firm ideas of what she wants to do. At her age, that's fine (hell, I'm in my thirties and not sure what I want to do).

But in that situation, and with a decent job offer on the table I'd be hesitant to 'use up' my degrees worth of student finance at this stage, just for the uni experience which if she's living at home won't be the full experience anyway.

A degree is a degree, of course, but as this thread demonstrates there is a certain element of snobbery regarding media (unfairly, I think - I suspect the content both uses the same skillset and is more relevant in the modern world than my English lit degree) and if she ends up applying for grad schemes she may well encounter that snobbery.

Having said that, I don't think either of the options are terrible. What is she leaning towards, OP?

Honestly there is a third option, could she consider changing her degree subject? Marketing, journalism, English, business? Generally anything is perceived as a better degree than a media studies one. If she could then uni would be the better option, if it’s only media studies available for her, then she’s better off in the job.

I kinda done what your daughter is now having to think about nearly 30 years ago. I stayed in the job...then wished I hadn't and spent the rest of my life at night schools and doing jobs I hated through gritted teeth.
Honestly, I'd take the full time degree course over a job. Doing a degree while living with parents is a lot easier than when you run your own home and work full time.

Reading this I was thinking "take the job" but actually I did just that and now at 30 I'm retraining in something which I nearly did a degree in. I still vote take the job but I'd be wanting them to put her through aat bookkeeping or similar

Take the job. Uni will still be there in a year or two.

@Bluntness100

Honestly there is a third option, could she consider changing her degree subject? Marketing, journalism, English, business? Generally anything is perceived as a better degree than a media studies one. If she could then uni would be the better option, if it’s only media studies available for her, then she’s better off in the job.

Take it from me, not journalism.

Depends on the media degree and institution. If for example Bournmouth (where it's their area of expertise) and if it has job placement potential then I'd want her to do the degree. If it's somewhere less prestigious or industry focussed (yes, even at a Russell Group) then I might think twice.
In either case I'd suggest deferring. Media degrees are patchy, but with a year's worth of solid work in the mix she'll be in a much stronger position. Lots of production type jobs need financial and accounting skills so could be a great mix!

And well done to your DD. she's obviously doing plenty right at a tender age!