To ask you to plan my life out for me?

[Darkonea]

I'm finishing university soon and I'm really struggling on what to do with my life, career-wise. I know mumsnet is full of thousands of people with all kinds of career experience so I'd love some advice!

My degree is in a social sciences/history field, don't want to give too much detail as could be outing. I attend a 'top' university and I'm on track to graduating with a first. I am fairly young and don't yet have any dependents.

I want to spend a few years travelling the world and living in lots of different places. To do this I need to have a job which I can do either remotely or is one which is in high demand all over the world and will allow me to get a work visa from places like Australia, New Zealand, possibly the US etc. From my research, it seems like web development or graphic design could work as can be done remotely and are in high demand everywhere?

After travelling, I would like to do something involving the outdoors and nature. I love forests and woodlands and have looked into doing a forestry degree, anyone know anything about this? I also love the idea of being a forest school teacher. My ultimate goal is to be able to buy a few acres of land either in the UK, New Zealand or elsewhere and grow my own vegetables and have some rescue animals, ideally working from home. I'm unsure whether I will want children.

I also know that long-term I want to have a career which helps people in some way.

I have a job offer for a corporate role which will allow me to earn and save up money to then do a masters or a training course to allow me to move into a more suitable career.

Any ideas?

How are you planning to segue from a social science/history degree into web or graphic design? Both of them require technical skills that are courses and qualifications in their own right.
(Also incredibly well-populated industries with a glut of experienced and qualified people.)

TBH, if I were you, I'd go for the big corporate, because within that you probably get opportunities to live and work abroad in different roles, and time to think about what it is you really do and don't want. And also likely make decent money and benefits, so you can set yourself up to change things up later in your career. Potentially even help with the NZ expatriation idea too - ie get over there with the corporate, then and strike out into the forestry idea.

I think this idealistic vision of "travelling" just puts you back a few years later than all your academic cohort with not a lot more than a few pairs of crappy elephant trousers to show for it. Do it when you have more money and life experience to know if you want a holiday somewhere fancy or a meaningful experience.

My plan would be to take courses and get qualifications in whatever I decided to venture into after saving up by working the corporate job.

The corporate job isn't really something I see myself enjoying or wanting to work in long term, it's really just to earn enough money to pursue other qualifications

So really what you are questioning is your eventual career, not the immediate next step, by the sounds of it.

As I say, take the corporate, it could give you the exact opportunity you want, but even if not, it's paying your bills while you work out where you want life to take you.

Don't be too rigid about what you think you want now though. Sometimes the oddest ideas are the ones which fit you most perfectly!

I'm thinking that I'll probably only stay in the corporate job for two or three years but would like to be doing evening or weekend classes maybe to prepare me to move into a job which I can do remotely or is in demand anywhere.

I suppose my main question is about which jobs can be remote and done anywhere and then secondly, what are some decent paying jobs to do with nature and the outdoors.

I know my plans and desires may change over time and that is fine too, I will hopefully be able to adapt. I just know that this is currently the course I want to take and want to make sure I get the right qualifications to allow me to do it!

Anyone?

Definitely take the job with the corporate named firm, work hard and do well, as that will be your stepping stone to any other job you want. I (by sheer fluke and blagging) at your sort of age having spent a couple of years bumming about in gap-year type jobs managed to ace an interview at 'big corporate company' when I didn't exactly have the right qualifications. As a consequence after 3 years and 2 promotions of working there, that opened doors for me to work at other very good companies: getting head hunted twice and landing a rather nice post for a multinational. (and despite still not having quite the right qualifications, but by then I had the experience they wanted)

Teaching is a very portable job and would fit in with the forest school plans. Nurses are always in demand too.

Personally I would rake the corporate job for now.
But you want to travel and gain life experience whilst you - I totally get that.

How about volunteering/TEFL? Doesn’t pay well/at all, but gives you the life experiences you crave; and you may make contacts / gain experience that could put you in a better position in a couple of years.

You’re going to struggle getting visas for countries based on the route you want to go down (although forestry may be possible with some previous voluntary experience).

It’s a shame you weren’t able to take a gap year before uni to determine if it really is for you.

On the whole, I would take the corporate job for safety and security. But I get your anxieties - if I had my time again, I wouldn’t take my own advice and travel while young enough to enjoy the experience

I see what you mean about a portable job and people talking about teaching aren’t wrong, but then would you want to do it in the UK... I wouldn’t.

Graphic design and web development fit the in demand criteria - from personal experience of trying to recruit for both of these regularly I would not say there is a glut of (decent!) people. However they are very different disciplines that both require some natural aptitude.

In terms of wanting to travel short term (next few years) I would try something like TEFL. If you’re looking for a longer career in several different countries throughout your life big corporates with the opportunity to transfer are the way.

From personal experience graduating with a First Class STEM degree at a top University and having a graduate training programme offer from a corporate firm I would take time out to travel if I were you. I've taken 3 years out now and am returning to a corporate graduate programme so haven't exactly lost anything just gained 3 years of incredible experiences. It definitely changes you as a person! I backpacked through Asia before heading to Australia on a WHV for a year where I worked as a farmer. I took home £1000 a week as a farmer with all my living costs paid for. Go for it!

The corporate job is the one to take you all
Over the world. If you work for say, Bank of America, glaxo Smith Kline, you’ll easily find similar jobs or even transfers. Boring as it is you’re better off being an accountant than a web designer

Take the corporate route and you can travel all over the world and get paid for it. Some of your ideas re web and graphic design need natural aptitude and talent - plus people often want those people working with them - not in remote places. There seems to be a romantic notion that if you are a web designer you can work just about anywhere but in my experience this just isn't the case (I am in IT at senior management level and around 250 engineers in my reporting line so I do know the industry). Foresty and similar work (e.g. land ranger) need volunterring experience as lots of people want to get into the job but have little experience of how the work actually pans out.

I know someone who did graphic design, they did their masters at the Royal College of Art, it's very competitive & your first degree is not art related

I was reading a blog recently, where a lady lived in a yurt on a farmer's land. She worked as a woodland craft person teaching children/adults a couple of days & the other days, she helped on the farm. I believe she didn't pay rent for the yurt.
Looked idyllic, but I don't think that it would be so much fun in the winter !

I met a fit, young, strong man on my travels whose job was to cut down trees in a forest. He had completed a special course & was self employed.
I was surprised, because I've seen machines on wheels do similar in other places

I would suggest that you take the opportunity to take the graduate job offer in the corporate company. Do not under estimate the competition/ requirements to get a good job offer.
Then I would save up money for traveling & you can do another course or volunteer in the evening/ weekend.
You are young, so you have time to change your career, travel etc
Good luck

@31 that yurt life sounds amazing, definitely something I'd love to do!

The farm in Australia also sounds great, @Boo what kind of farm work were you doing?

In regards to Graphic Design, ive done a couple of internships where I've ended up doing some graphic design as part of them both, so I'd have a couple of things to put on my CV to start with and good references. Obviously if I then did a graphic design course I'd make sure to get as much experience as possible!

Ive never had a year off to go traveling
However, I do work for a large company & my wage allows me to pay all my bills, pay into company pension & have money spare for hobbies/ emergencies.
I've booked a month off for holiday to travel in Indonesia at the end of the year. Not every company will allow a month block of holiday, so I feel grateful.
Whilst living in a yurt may be romantic, when you are young. The corporate job, pays well & has better long term benefits !

I understand that @31 but a corporate job really isn't what I want out of my life long-term. I know I'd look back and regret not being more adventurous with my choices

Graphic design is a pretty corporate though? I’m not quite understanding the pull with that. It’s poorly paid, very competitive and not a particularly well known “shoe in” job in Oz or Nz as far as I know?

If I did graphic design it would be with the aim of working remotely so I could travel and work online at the same time. It would only be for the years I travel and then id retrain in something else

Maybe web development would be better? Anyone know any jobs which can be done remotely?

It doesn’t really work like that though does it? There are plenty of graphic designers, a company in London don’t have to wait around for someone in the Australian outback to deliver work for them when they have a million choices on their doorstep

Graphic design is one of the most common 'digital nomad' jobs I've seen going, alongside web design and development, and thousands do it. Many companies are entirely online and prefer remote workers to having to pay for an office space.

I've worked the corporate job & enjoyed volunteering with animals at weekends outdoors. The animal job paid NMW for those who were employed there.
My corporate job has included fun things like charity fund raising & volunteer days, so its not all been work, work & you never know who you will meet or what friends you will make
I've traveled to some amazing holidays eg New Zealand, Borneo, Asia, Mexico, all over UK, Europe
I am older than you
I have friends my age, who would love to have property, private company pension, sick pay, holiday pay, life insurance, Xmas party, regular working hours, foreign holidays like myself & I know that I am very fortunate
Oh ! I am off now to work my 12 hour night shift...