To ask what your degree was and what you do now?

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And how much you earn?

One thing that I have learned on MN is that hard work isn't enough and that you need to work smart too. This is something I am really trying to instil in my dc; they are coming up to uni age and I don't think the school are giving them great advice. There is a massive assumption that everyone will go to university, but no.push toward degrees that have better earning potential or are in demand. Our family circumstances have meant that I am a carer for disabled ds, and therefore I can't help the dc much financially in life. I really, really want them to have the best chance at succeeding in life rather than going to uni for 'the experience' and I'm nosy so like to hear what everyone does too.

Forgot to add I also did an mba and that’s what got me the consulting gig really, was on a much lower salary before. Got a scholarship to do the mba. First degree was at oxford and I found history even at oxford wasn’t that useful, but maybe it was just because I was clueless.

@thousandflowers It's definitely not a job to go into to make your millions! Though you can earn more working privately. I'm fairly recently qualified, and about midway up the pay scale - as a regular EP you can earn up to about 50k, then a bit more for additional responsibilities, and more still if you take on a more senior role.

@Runbitchrun I still applied for jobs requiring degrees even though I didn’t brave one as my experience should be enough to prove I’m qualified

I found I had no problem getting jobs that required degrees without having one

I have a phd in computer science, I work in IT security which is an extremely lucrative field.

Ecology, then Midwifery. Midwife, 37k a year.

I do think a degree is useful. I have a friend who didn’t go to uni and she ended up working in various admin jobs, earning 19k. Not that there is anything wrong with admin but it wasn’t what she wanted. She did an Open University degree, got a first and a place on a civil service graduate scheme. She’s now the same grade as me and will no doubt move upwards.

I have a couple of friends from when I was airline cabin crew. They went straight into it after sixth form college. Unfortunately, they are now both redundant and after a over a decade of flying, they are finding that an NVQ2 in Cabin Crew isn’t much use outside of airlines.

I’m really glad my mum encouraged me to go to university, I was desperate to be an air hostess but I’m glad I got my first in nursing - even though I’m not working as a nurse. It’s certainly opened doors for me. I can’t impress on my own children enough the need to have a profession and specialist qualifications.

English Literature and French then a PGCE....am a teacher.... always wanted to be!

[quote Cat0115]@Moonhorse me too. 21 years teaching, 10 as HoD but you earn '£10,000 more than I do... Are you in Londonshire?[/quote]
I am in Londonshire! Inner Londonshie, plus TLR for being an SLE.

Crazy how much difference that makes, I know.

Law, no longer practice as a solicitor. Currently career for my autistic children, two are sever.y autistic. I have successfully fought for their rights self representing at tribunal

Carer for my autistic children....

Degree in Acting and now a police detective

I studied Criminology (which was very new at the time) and I'm now a Probation Officer. I had to do a second degree in Community Justice to become a qualified PO, which was a piece of piss given that I'd studied a lot of it previously. It doesn't pay brilliantly but is a perfectly acceptable salary.

@Moonhorse you get a TLR for being an SLE? I've been an SLE for 3 years... No TLR.. Clearly a colossal mug! 🤣

I studied law, and became a solicitor.

Economics - never earnt more than 20k, never used it. Now sahp
My Dh - politics and masters in politics too from a RG university, he's a bus driver.

Don't know why it went so wrong:(

Business Administration - I run marketing for a cyber security co.

They are sort of related, but more by luck than judgement. I was just in the right place at the right time.

Seen a few mentions of Economics (including my own) on the thread.

I would highly recommend it as it includes a good mix of maths, modelling, (economic) history, politics, policy - depending on which modules you choose, or where you choose to study it (mine was very mathematical which as I loved maths suited me fine!) so it's relatively straightforward to find something to enjoy about it.

It also looks good to employers - even if you don't use it to go into financial services like I did - it's analytical, sort of STEMs-y and considered to be pretty rigorous.

Education degree, psychology conversion masters, doctorate. Now a psychologist earning 75k.

German and French (Joint Honours) plus 2 postgrads. I am semi-retired now, but have spent the past 32+ years living in Europe working in IT as a business analyst or project manager (freelance).
My lifestyle probably wouldn't be too compatible with "family life" - whatever that is, but the earnings are good to very good (well over 6 figures per annum).

BSc Hons in Social Anthropology. MSc Social Work. This was in the late 70's, early 80's. I had been in relevant work for many years prior to my first degree. I didn't have to pay any fees and we had book grants in the vacations to encourage individual research. I worked in Child Protection Services for 50 years until I retired three years ago.

Sorry, should have added that at the beginning of my career, I earned £2.5k pa. At the end, £40k+. Not vast amounts, but I loved my job.

I would echo what some people have said about choosing a degree they were interested in because that still kept career options fairly broad at that stage, as a lot of entry roles / grad schemes etc just require a degree of requisite standard but in any area. Shows you can think critically and work independently - the jump from A level is quite marked in terms of independent learning I think, you can either apply yourself (and ask for help if you need it) or you don't.

Something else though which I think I hugely benefitted from - I was extremely shy when I was younger and never really felt like I fitted in at school. At university there was such a variety of people that I found 'my' people, and also found a sport which I loved and all the social side that went with that. Lifetime friends and interests, together with the year abroad due to doing a language degree, which made the world of difference to my confidence, and I think has had a very lasting effect of my life after university. I had the time of my life at university (yes of course there was a lot of parties and drinking and I suppose a lot of 'wasting' time (I'm of an age that paid tuition fees but far lower than they are now) if you look at it one way considering the debt you come out of university with and fact at that stage I still had no idea what I wanted to do for a career, but for me, the experience overall of which the academic side was only one part of, has had an enormously positive effect on my life.

I think it's a shame that fees / the level of debt you come out with now makes that rather prohibitive, or at least maybe steers people away from subjects (mainly arts based) that might not so obviously lead to lucrative careers, although as the many varied and interesting backgrounds of the people posting here shows that's by no means a given, clearly you very much can do an unrelated degree and then end up with an interesting and lucrative career.

English Literature and Cultural History. Part-time professional gardener - 7k topped up by UC and PIP. I'm autistic and so is DS1 and working more is not feasible.