To ask what degree do you have/would you do?

[AnotherSillyNameChange]

Just that really. I am 28, went straight into work after college. Triple Distinction in a BTEC in Performing Arts, but I went straight to a job in customer service and stayed there. I progressed to management, got married, had DC and now I am back in work (no longer management) on a low wage and thinking it's time to better myself and go for a real career that I love.

So, what would you recommend? Im thinking of doing a degree with the OU as a starting point and would like to have a career in mind to help me choose.

My strengths: I have great communication skills, my written English is very good too and I tend to have a knack for sales (after years of dealing with people!). I am outgoing, friendly and upbeat and like working in a job where I interact with lots of people.

What I want: a decent salary (35k+) and a job that I'm proud to say I do. Decent working hours, preferably no weekends! A good working environment with a team I can become part of and enjoy working with.

So please tell me, are you similar to any of the above and if so, what job do you do? And what degree did you need/get to do it?

(P.s after having said my written English is good please excuse any typos! I am very tired tonight!)

Psychology degree from the OU and I’m a housing officer now on 25k (will get a pay increase to 30k next year). I could have got a better paid job if I’d continued with post grad studies and specialised in something, but I wasn’t able to afford to do a masters or PhD. My friend has a law degree and a masters from a good uni and she earns less than I do as it’s such a competitive market. It’s the most popular degree course apparently

I have a history degree which was enjoyable and intellectually challenging, but completely useless for what I ended up doing which was working in IT. If I had my time again I would have done a computing degree.

Software developers, project managers and software testers routinely are on salaries of £40k plus, but you have to enjoy it and have the mind for that sort of thing

Just adding to pp. If you're interested in Psychology (and this also sounds a good route for you), make sure your course offers GBC at the end of it. Without graduate basis for chartered membership, you won't be able to apply for professional training in a specialism (e.g. clinical, educational etc). Psychology has a statistics component so you will need to feel comfortable with that. You have a good range of skills that would lend to applied psychology. It's a long route though. After OU it's work experience then 3 year doctorate. The last 3 years is often with a bursary (in region of 15k to train). That's after you've got GBC.

There's also social work. Lots of work available but incredibly hard working environment. There seems to be more work in children's so ial care but lots if pressure. You have to really want to do a job like that.

This is a really interesting thread!

It seems there are a few things at play! Your starting point of identifying what are the things that you enjoy and are good at is great. You can use these things to help you focus in on an area that you would like to pursue.

Regarding my own journey - I did similarly to you (BTEC Perf Arts) and have since had a few careers, I reckon I'm on number 4 now!

I have never had a degree but have been in senior leadership positions and earned in excess of £35k. I've since left that job and now earn much less than £35k! The key to me has been in following what I've most enjoyed, been interested in at any given time and let that guide me.

So in relation to study/degree I'd say do it if it will fulfill you and is something you care about. I don't think it is necessary to get you a well paid job in an area you love. I know when I've been recruiting I'm more interested in the person, their experience and their skills and I don't care too much about the degree. Again I'm not saying don't do one - just be clear why! And of course there are certain jobs/careers where a specific degree is essential.

Why don't you look for a more challenging and better remunerated job in sales if you are skilled and have a good track record? A degree won't necessarily help you at all.

I'm late to the game in the sense that I only finished my (OU) degree in my 30's. I did a social science one and whilst very enjoyable is not going to help much on the career ladder. If you do decide to do a degree choose one that is likely to open a door that offers progression.

Social work requires good people skills and lots of writing!

A friend of mine did a conversion course several years ago into social work and is very well paid with agency work. She is a single parent so the agency work suits her better as she can pick and choose what she does.

As you have no specific career in mind and you are going to use the OU why not register for their 'open' degree and take a couple of units you think will be interesting.

You can then either specialise if you find something you really enjoy or continue on the open route.

I studied PPE. I am a campaigns consultant. I was on £50k-ish by 30. It's been hard work with lots of travel, but all about communication and dealing with people skills. It's been a very happy and fruitful career for me.

I went to university as a mature student and I studied English lit. Prior to this I did one OU module while working a full time but easy job. Personally I found it too easy to shirk (I was much younger at the time though and pretty lazy!) and scored much lower on it than I hoped, which is why I ended up just doing a typical degree course.

I now work in IT, which is completely unrelated to my degree and the only GCSE I got a D grade for! You don't need a computer science degree to work in IT, although if you want to code or do a very technical role it's very sensible, but there are so many roles which allow you to be creative, organised, lead, work on varied projects and manage your own work load etc. The pay for most IT roles is usually decent too, with typical office hours. I was lucky and really did fall into it, then have moved on from there, but as someone who used to trot out 'oh I'm not technical' I love my job and have flourished. I would highly recommend. Jobs which don't involve coding include project manager, business analyst, software tester, business manager etc.

I'm currently doing a Psychology degree through the OU and I love it. My employer pays for it, as it's directly relevant to my work as a User Researcher.

Like you, I went down the BTEC route (in Airline and Airport Operations, no less ) got a job within travel but then stayed there. I have worked hard the past 10 years though and I do now have a good career and a better salary than I ever thought I would.

If I had my time over, I would have done my A-levels and gone to university but on the other hand, maybe actually knowing what I want to do at 30 is better.

I did my first degree in English and History and really enjoyed it, but it never lead to a "proper" job (mostly because I just did it for the enjoyment rather than with a job goal in mind). My other friends who did English have been very successful though, doing law conversion courses or working for charities/ publishing companies/ doing further qualifications to become accountants etc.

In my mid 20s I went to medical school doing the accelerated graduate course, but I withdrew half way through after having DS rather unexpectedly! I graduated with a degree in medical science instead. I've been a SAHM since then but next year I'm going to go back to uni either to do the Physician Associate Msc which will let me do clinical work, or an Msc in something else MedSci related with the hope of going into medical research.

Honestly if I had my time over I'd have skipped the English degree and done medicine as an undergraduate, with the goal of being finished with specialty training before having kids, but hey ho, hindsight is always 20:20!

Airline and Airport Operations sounds interesting lifechanges! What did the course include?