What job can high achieving DS go for?

[ural]

He's just finished his first year studying Classics at Cambridge, so is pretty high achieving I suppose. He's really passionate about history, the world, etc he really likes "material culture" aka stuff.. He loves architecture and design, buildings.

He's considered law, which seems to be a viable option, but is scared he might get bored. On the plus side it earns a lot of money.

Depends - he needs to get a shit tonne of experience in something.

Environmental law / property law/ planning law?

All perfectly doable with a classics degree from cambridge. I'm a solicitor and only about 50% of the people I work with have law degrees - it is certainly not a black mark to do something else and then the PgDL.

If he thinks that sort of thing could be interesting he could go and temp at the local authority which shows commitment and is also useful to them as well (and likely to be more interesting work than he'd get in a city firm!)

As a Cambridge Classics graduate myself, I’ve found accountancy a very good career path. I took an aptitude test at the careers service, did some summer work experience and ran the business side of a student theatre tour of Europe, which gave me enough experience to get over the non relevant degree hurdle: I’ve since found it really useful to have the broader abilities from my degree as well as the technical accounting ones, and I’ve carved a niche I like in charity finance (much more interesting than public practice!). But I would agree with others who said he will need more than his degree to get into a training scheme.

avalanching I say it as it seemed to work for the seven of my DC who've passed that point and half of those are humanities graduates. All are in competitive jobs or hold competitive job offers (as in highly sought after; not all are incredibly well paid).

The DS currently at the end of his second year did lots of travelling around last summer but no internships which I think was a very good plan. One of his friends did a long, dull banking internship the net result of which was to convince him it was absolutely not for him. DS on the other hand went back to uni with energy, had a really good year in terms of extra curricular things and has just got a very, very strong first to take forward into his third year. I think you have to look at these things in the round.

I meant to put six not seven avalanching. The DS currently at uni going into third year is my # seven and doesn't have any job offer.

@goodbyestranger good for them, I still don't think it's good advice, you need experience to stand out and to find out what you do and don't like, I'm not one for leaving that to the last minute.

He could think about accountancy, banking, management consultancy, law, teaching, doing a masters or PhD, civil service fast track, architecture. Lots of options!

The second year vac is easily early enough. Very few vac schemes for law are for first years for instance; the same with the top banking internships. We obviously disagree on this but there's more to life than whacking oneself out being a lemming. Lemmings don't actually stand out either, by definition.

Civil Service? Highflying neice with language degree is doing very well.

One of DDs best friends has a starred 1st Classics degree from Cambridge and she is a Barrister. She is not bored. Around 45 % of Barristers don’t have a law degree and having another academic degree is not a problem at all. Just takes longer to qualify!

I think visiting careers evenings and the careers service at university next term is a start. Then think about what a career might provide intellectually and whether it will fulfil an interest or curiosity. Don’t think too niche at the moment but look at information given by various professional bodies and employers such as the Civil Service.

The whole point of university is to prepare you for your career

Is it? A lot of people on here sound like parents from the 1950s, "You need to get yourself a good steady job, lad, and no more muckin' about with them fancy university types." (That would be the pil...)

Working life is long and, in this day and age, highly unpredictable, so if you haven't decided exactly what you want to do at the age of 20/21 it is really not a problem.

Also - those saying you need a vocational degree for accountancy/law - ABSOLUTE PIFFLE !!!!!!!

Also, an academic law degree isn't vocational. Again, by definition.