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?

@JournalistEmily

I can’t believe ppl are saying £25k is not a great salary. She must be 18/19!! It’s a great salary. Starting at 18k is a pretty good salary if you’ve just finished school. As you can tell by my name I’m a journalist. Is that what she wants to be? If she knows what she wants to do and it needs a media degree then go to uni. But if she’s just doing it for the experience I think I’d be tempted to defer. I went straight into work at her age (trainee journalist) then got a degree from 23-26 when I knew i wanted to study for studying’s sake. It worked really well that way round. I felt much more focused on learning and not just getting pissed! And working so young made me more well rounded I think as I could appreciate lots of different types of people. I def think it made me a better person, plus I earnt some money so didn’t get in loads of debt when I did go to uni. Bless her, she sounds sweet but I think it’s fair to say that she’s so young if her heart isn’t in uni at the moment it will make no difference to her long term if she works a while first and decides what she wants. Good luck!

Emily, for a journalist you’ve badly misread, it’s not 25k now, it’s max 25 when fully trained and has accountancy qualifications.

So no. Not a great salary.

@Bluntness100
You’ve misread too. There are no accountancy qualifications on offer. Only that the company will train her in their accounts.

University. She can work the whole of the life, she has an amazing chance to go to university which will open more doors and increase her income earning ability in the long run. To me this decision is simple.

She’s doing quite frankly a pointless degree. Not worth the debt.

I’d defer for a year, work, make some money and then go to uni and perhaps a 2022 start would be a more typical uni experience than the current pandemic version. As her mum I’d probably not expect her to pay rent or anything but to save as much as she can so she can enjoy her uni experience. And if she is valued that much she could probably keep the job part time and go to uni. I did a media degree (journalism) and with lectures and tutorials I was only in 9 hours a week. Of course a lot of self study but could easy fit a job around it.

I am an editor and have worked in media for 20 years in various large publishers mainly in London. In all my years of recruiting, neither I nor other publishers/editors have ever employed a graduate with a media degree. English/History/Law/Economics - basically mainstream subjects are much more highly valued. (In fact once, my publisher said when shifting through CVs for a reporter role to just invite anyone from Oxbridge for an interview?! I dont agree with this but it does demonstrate the thinking that still exists in the media world).
The only benefit I can see to media course are the media law aspect but most publishers run their own internal courses for that. Likewise, there are many editorial courses that publishers also send grads on to get up to speed with the journalistic process and style etc. The key is getting a foot in the door, which unfortunately means a good solid degree and some experience such as writing your own blog etc or writing newspaper pieces for the local rag.

I think neither the media degree or the job offer she is passionate about. If she could see a reason or a future with either it wouldn’t be a dilemma.

I opt for saying neither and looking at the careers she does envisage herself doing and looking for opportunities to gain experience in those type of industries no matter how tenuous the opening and even offering to work for free to gain some experience and learning on the job.
Then look to change her degree choice to one that is more relevant or look at shorter courses that might be on offer or even look at getting a job in one of her chosen fields as some of her career choices aren’t necessarily dependant on a degree.

@JournalistEmily if you’re a journalist (as am I) then you’ll know a media degree won’t be the slightest bit useful for getting into the industry.

25k is a decent salary for a school leaver and someone in their first job, yes, but if it can never progress beyond that it won’t seem decent forever

As someone who studied a frankly pointless degree I'd say JOB

Could she call up companies to ask about the contact details of the manager/supervisor of the departments she is interested in working in and then email in to see if there are any internships or even if she could shadow/work for them for 2/4/6 days/weeks so she could learn about what is involved with web content writing/copywriting/marketing/pr work involves. Even if she could talk to someone about the realities of their day for an hour and email in to every company department in the area and beyond.
The likelihood of someone replying would be slim but you might get someone who would speak to her and show her what a particular job involves.
Or getting a job even going to a temp agency and working in whatever capacity in those type of companies so she can build up a CV and get her to decide what type of work she does or doesn’t want to do long term.
I think the choice between a job which she would feel duty bound to stay that has a very low long term wage and wasting money on a degree that isn’t exactly what she needs to do for the careers she wants are rubbish choices and I can see why it is a dilemma.

I would walk away from both and live precariously for a year doing temping work in both the companies that she wants to work in and doing other things just to get experience of many careers and really finding out which type of career she wants to pursue and which degree if any she really needs to do

I would face the year with a structure that she will only work for a place for 1 week max at any one time. That way she can get 50+ times the experience and at the end of it her cv will look amazing
Fwiw my dd has this last week done 3 days working in one industry for 2 different companies. Done a shift as mixologist in a cocktail bar and will be working in a shop tomorrow selling shoes.

I didn’t misread actually. £18k starting at 18 is ok. Then moving up to £25k - when still a teen or early 20s - is great. Not sure what planet you live on but if I’d earnt £25k at 21 I’d have been cockahoop....

Depends. Is there progression in the job? She sounds motivated so I'd say go for it.

Don’t give up uni. I have a lot of friends that did that for a ‘well paid’ job and who are stuck in their late 30s in a capped salary job being overtaken by people simply because they have a degree.

Defer for a year til Covid all done with if anything but the regret is worth it long term!

JournalistEmily
But £25k is as far as it goes.
Great when you are 21 but 31,41,51 without any other experience and it isn’t that great.

@doodlejump1980

I would defer uni for a year.

1. It’ll give her some money to cushion some of the costs of uni.
2. Hopefully covid restrictions will be lifted by sept, but she might find her course is online and she’ll be missing out on the uni “experience” of norm. Freshers week etc.

Agree with this

@Bythemillpond

JournalistEmily But £25k is as far as it goes. Great when you are 21 but 31,41,51 without any other experience and it isn’t that great.

There's no obligation foe the girl to stay in the job for the rest of her life. She could be on £25k at 21 then moving on and steadily up. It's a terrific start. Fgs some of you have very small imaginations. Can only guess none of you have earned when young.

In all likelihood she may regret not getting a Uni degree in the future, my brother choose a similar route, took the job over the uni place, and it is his biggest regret now and he never did manage to do that degree.

If she really wants to try the job, she could do as others suggested and defer for a year. However if it was my daughter we would be encouraging her to further her studies and get a degree and try to discourage her from taking a job straight after school.

She can get a university degree at any point. It is not now or never, by any means.

Of course £25k is a great starting salary for a young person but it’s no good at all if that is the most she can earn in life.

I also think people need to realise that doing a ‘media studies’ degree doesn’t necessarily restrict you to media work. Just as an English degree doesn’t mean you have to become an English teacher.

Many companies now are recruiting for their graduate schemes from any degree discipline. So long as you have a degree.

It’s also my experience that good graduate jobs do not just go to those with traditional subjects at RGs. The students who get good jobs are those who are looking for work experience, looking for spring weeks and internships from year 1.

At this present time I would say work for a year then decide about Uni. She is more likely to get the full university experience next year than this year. Plus she will have a nice cushion of money in the bank.

Many companies now are recruiting for their graduate schemes from any degree discipline. So long as you have a degree

That is not the whole story. A degree is the minimum requirement, yes. But Candidate A, with a 3rd in Media Studies from a former polytechnic, has a mountain to climb to be hired over Candidate B who has a 1st in Natural Sciences from Cambridge.

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow

That is certainly still the case in some sectors like law. But many companies now run university-blind recruitment processes.

Many companies now are recruiting for their graduate schemes from any degree discipline. So long as you have a degree..

True, but it's highly competitive. If you had two great candidates and were struggling to decide between them, would you go with the history grad or the media studies one?

That is certainly still the case in some sectors like law. But many companies now run university-blind recruitment processes.

What about further down the line? I'm an EA but have got jobs that only entertain RG graduate candidates across the board.