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Original poster

Big dilemma for DD - what would you do?

686 replies

Blackenedsoul · 21/04/2021 20:49

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?

OP posts:
ICouldHaveCheckedFirst · 22/04/2021 09:26

Take the job. Don't ask for an apprenticeship - the salary is only about £11k! Get the on-the-job training, maybe ask about support to do AAT as previously suggested. We'll done to her.

DazzlingHaze · 22/04/2021 09:33

Personally, I would take the job. I have an honours degree and have found there are very few jobs that it's of any use in without having also completed a masters that costs thousands of pounds. Friends doing a range of different degrees have found the same. Some of them who still live at home have gone on to do a masters degree but it's not an option for me atm due to personal circumstances. I'm trying to get an admin job now and keep getting knocked back for not having admin experience, even for entry level jobs. It seems that work experience is what most places are looking for nowadays.

stonecoldhippo · 22/04/2021 09:35

I agree she should take the job, do the training and if she’s not keen to carry on, save as much money as she can and when she’s 21 she can apply to uni as a mature student. Universities have quotas for mature student so are pleased to consider slighter older people. Plus by then she might have more idea where she’s headed. I agree media studies does not automatically lead to a good job.

BashfulClam · 22/04/2021 09:40

I’ve got a media degree but I work in a finance role. It’s a good course you learn about law and economics as part of it which are really interesting. If she is actually unsure about which course to take I’d say to defer now and take the job. In the year she should learn to drive (major life skill), save as much as possible and then take stock of where she wants to be...oh to be 18 with the world at my feet again...

bananaboats · 22/04/2021 09:40

I would def tell her to take the job, she can always go back to uni in the future

Crumpledandcreased · 22/04/2021 09:51

I would advise her to take the job, defer uni for a year and use that year to think about what she wants from her degree. Most people will only be able to get funding for one degree and if she's not sure if a media degree is definitely what she wants to do she could come to regret it. Lots of people on here will give advise based on their experiences, which is fine but they may not be aware of the changes to student finance. Having spoken to students who are devastated that they can't change courses after doing 2 years because they can't get a loan covering 5 years on a degree I would advise that she makes sure it is what she really wants. I think the days of going to uni at 18/19 for the 'experience' are finished for a lot of young people, unless they have money behind them.

UniversitySerf · 22/04/2021 09:52

Take the job but defer for a year and then all options are still open. DH and I have a combined 52 years working in higher education. So we have mooched round campus for years. For those saying what about missing the experience. People still get drunk and regret kissing that guy they do module 2 A1 with but it’s changed and is all now very business like. The golden years of HE are truly over. I was a young thing newly qualified and managed a few years as staff before tuition fees were brought in by Blair.

In fear of upsetting some but some degrees are not worth the debt and media studies is one of those risky ones.

Jubilate · 22/04/2021 09:55

Is she going to uni for the degree or the experience?

I'd worry that when it comes to regrets, not going to university is going to sting more than 'I could have taken a job after school and ended up on the same pay'.

But rationally, I can see the appeal of the job. She could have the money for a deposit on a house in the time that her peers are graduating...

Jubilate · 22/04/2021 09:56

@UniversitySerf

Take the job but defer for a year and then all options are still open. DH and I have a combined 52 years working in higher education. So we have mooched round campus for years. For those saying what about missing the experience. People still get drunk and regret kissing that guy they do module 2 A1 with but it’s changed and is all now very business like. The golden years of HE are truly over. I was a young thing newly qualified and managed a few years as staff before tuition fees were brought in by Blair.

In fear of upsetting some but some degrees are not worth the debt and media studies is one of those risky ones.

Yes, I've done two degrees. 12 years apart and one vocational, but they were very different experiences.
UniversitySerf · 22/04/2021 10:10

Jubilate I love mature students they work their arses off , often with children and other stuff to juggle and they often get the best grades. The oldest student we ever had was in his seventies.

SwanShaped · 22/04/2021 10:14

Job. Especially if she doesn’t have a particular passion. And isn’t leaving home for uni. What career path does Media lead to?

Woodlandbelle · 22/04/2021 10:18

I would usually say university - absolutely.
But in this instance when we have covid (likely to be online learning) I would defer University.
Earn money and see if she wants this role.
Then start uni in 2022

Nataliafalka · 22/04/2021 10:28

univeristy. It will give her time to work out what she wants to do unless her final aspiration is £25k pa in a family owned manufacturing firm............

Puzzledandpissedoff · 22/04/2021 10:40

(University) will give her time to work out what she wants to do

I know I'm an old gimmer, but can't say how much it frustrates me that so many take on vast debt without any real thought as to the purpose

Since the Blair days of fiddling the unemployment figures "all must have prizes", we've somehow got to the point of a degree being demanded for jobs where vocational training/apprenticeships would have made more sense, leaving Uni for the highly academic and those pursuing a career where they genuinely needed it

It's starting to change again now, but for me the days when we return to that can't come soon enough

cathcath2 · 22/04/2021 10:45

Yeah, I would defer for a year if possible. She needs specifics of what the job is offering, what happens if she wants to go to uni in a year etc.

I'm not basing this on her actual degree; I'm basing this on the fact we might still be on remote teaching etc in September and if she waits a year, she might actually get the uni experience!

ittakes2 · 22/04/2021 10:47

I think she would be crazy to turn down uni in a career she is interested in for an office job. She'll be bored out of her mind working full time and regret not going to uni. Its much easier and more fun to do uni when you are young. Once she is used to getting a full time wage she will find it hard to give that up to study full time.
I would encourage her to go to uni and keep her sat job as a sat job. Since they like her they will keep her on and I bet a full time position will come up again if she changes her mind in the future.

MissSmiley · 22/04/2021 10:54

@Blackenedsoul

She has no specific job in mind after her degree. It took her ages to decide what course to do at Uni as she doesn’t have a particular passion. She loves creative writing and was thinking along the lines of web content writing, copywriting, marketing, PR type work. She’s not really interested in doing an official accounting course (she hates maths and got a B at GCSE). I also worry that long term she’ll be bored and wish she’d gone to Uni. I know DD and once she’s accepted the job she won’t want to leave and let them down - she thinks the world of her employers and as they are a small family company she’ll end up staying out of duty.
I got a B in my GCSE maths, I retrained and did AAT which you can do as an apprenticeship when you're young, I'm now moving on to CIMA and I wish I hadn't done my arts degree in the first place, I could be earning mega bucks by now if I'd started in accountancy
FreeButtonBee · 22/04/2021 10:57

Take the job, defer uni and really push the accounts side.

If she enjoys it then apply to accountancy firms to do an apprenticeship. If not then leave after a year and do the Media degree (or look to change to something else)

trilbydoll · 22/04/2021 11:01

The bonus of working in a small company is you're more likely to get experience of a bit of everything, admin, accounts, HR, marketing etc. At least if she did it for a year she might have a clearer idea of what she does and doesn't like?

Y0Y0 · 22/04/2021 11:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SamW98 · 22/04/2021 11:11

@Puzzledandpissedoff

(University) will give her time to work out what she wants to do

I know I'm an old gimmer, but can't say how much it frustrates me that so many take on vast debt without any real thought as to the purpose

Since the Blair days of fiddling the unemployment figures "all must have prizes", we've somehow got to the point of a degree being demanded for jobs where vocational training/apprenticeships would have made more sense, leaving Uni for the highly academic and those pursuing a career where they genuinely needed it

It's starting to change again now, but for me the days when we return to that can't come soon enough

I spent many years as a manager in a large, multinational financial company and over the years have interviewed 100's of people.

Definitely in the last 2/3 years (before covid) there has been a shift away from the degree at all costs mindset for recruitment and more towards apprenticeships and on the job training.

I have seen quite a few kids come in with GCSE's onto an apprenticeship programme who have absolutely excelled and are either progressing through our company career ladder at a young age or passed their exams (as part of their apprenticeship) and moved on to investment banking firms in The City and have excellent careers in front of them

I'm definitely of the same mind as you that a degree for the sake of it isn't the only way to a bright future.

cass5 · 22/04/2021 11:51

Uni, from both a personal as a professional standpoint, this is an opportunity that should not be wasted. If it was my daughter I would be doing everything I could to promote and support her aspirations. For me this would be a no brainer.

chittychittybang · 22/04/2021 11:52

The bonus of working in a small company is you're more likely to get experience of a bit of everything, admin, accounts, HR, marketing etc.

Agreed. She should get plenty of experience if it's a small company, and she may well end up doing a lot of marketing/copy writing/digital media if that's where her interests lie. Maybe it's worth her discussing this with them, and explaining that she doesn't want to go down the accounts route but would prefer a wider breadth of experience in the job.

Immaback · 22/04/2021 11:53

Uni - 100%

zafferana · 22/04/2021 11:57

If she doesn't have a specific career/job in mind at the end of her degree then I'd encourage her to defer the degree for a year and see how the job goes. If she wanted to do something specific that required a degree in media my advice would be different, but without that it seems pointless to me to get herself into a mountain of debt for a fairly wishy-washy degree that she's not sure how she will use.

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