Careers after university. Did life turn out like you thought?

[olympicfan]

I'm curious....what did you all study at university and what are you now working at? Was your degree necessary/helpful for your career?

Physics and Medicine (some of it concurrently), and an education diploma (before I decided to finish medicine). Started medical postgrad training then tried to do a PhD but failed to progress. Morphed into a violin teacher. Now back in a part-time clinical job that's about to finish, working on finding another one (17 year gap between hospital jobs!). The lab work I did may help with one possibility. Working with children is a common theme though as I've mainly done paediatrics.

Absolutely not. Studied psychology and criminology with the view to move back home and work in one of the local four prisons as a psychologist. Got a dead end job out of uni during the 08/9 recession and never moved home or got back into it. I'm an account manager.

DP has an LLB and is in finance also having never used it.

He is successful and earns well even by Mumsnet standards with student loan repaid. I earn more than I expected but not as much as I hoped. My student loan appears to be a constant financial reminder and I'll probably die with it 😂

I like the swerve from medicine into violin teaching.

My husband’s cv has a similar big twist in that he did three degrees in a particular field and then, immediately after finishing a doctorate, went into a completely unrelated field, starting as an unpaid intern.

I studied English lit and the dream was to go into publishing. Instead I fell into my first job in the civil service purely to help me pay back my student overdraft. I never used my degree in that sense but I felt it has opened doors jobs wise. Dh did mech eng and went straight into graduate IT job and as I merely had a job and not a career I became a trailing spouse. Then I was diagnosed with an incurable life limiting illness that saw me quit my job and become a sahm which is what I have done for the last 20 years. That enabled Dh to climb in his profession. He loves his job and I love mine.

I don't think going to uni was elitist, I come from a very working class background, I had a capped grant payment and had to take out student loans and live in an overdraft. I have lived in some hovels (silverfish in the carpet hovels) whilst studying and my parents couldn't afford to give me more than the odd £10. I came from poverty and I didn't want to continue to live in poverty, education was a way out. I had an older sister who was much smarter than me and helped me see that.

Not at all, I did a BA, got into my dream grad scheme, which was a field i stopped working in after a year, bumbled about for a bit, retrained via a masters and now work in STEM, I didn’t know my job existed when I was 18!

Engineering degree and now a software developer. I don't use my degree at all, other than maybe broad numeric literacy and logical problem solving skills.

@Parker231 it's been amazing, I love my job and nursing gave me the opportunity to be where I am in my career today. I left school with 2 GCSEs, was diagnosed with ASD as an adult which explains why, despite being academically capable, I did so badly. If I hadn't found my place by going to university (having attended college in the evenings to gain the additional qualifications to get in), I would definitely not be embarking on a PhD now. There are so many different career paths and opportunities within nursing, it's hard work but I wish your dd's friend all the best with her career

Did you apply for any engineering jobs, @BringOnSummerHolidays ? Or just go straight into software development?

@CurlyhairedAssassin I have never had a proper engineering job. I moved to software on graduation.

Like @Tibba, four degrees in English Lit (or technically, one in medieval studies with a lit bias), and academia. I'm now more or less outside academia (still publishing a bit) and work in a plant nursery, where the Latin from my degrees comes in handy but that's about it. Oddly, though, I never completely bought the whole 'but degrees teach you transferable skills' thing until I worked did a totally manual job, and actually, I do think it's surprisingly useful.

History degree. Went into employability after university working in the charity sector. Joined the civil service after sitting in one too many redundancy meetings and have progressed from an EO to SEO in the last 7 years but that includes one previous maternity leave and one current. Hoping to progress to G7 next year or so

LLB law degree and then LPC and LLM. I'm a solicitor now so yes related but LLB not necessary as can do any degree and then convert. Absolutely adore my job

I was brought up by a single mother in a two bedroomed council flat in a deprived area.
Hardly elitist

But also not thick. Well done you.

My original comment was in the light of another thread where many parents said they were not using MN because of elitism and how all DC quoted were going to uni and were very bright. Then up comes this thread only for people who have been to uni which is clearly not very inclusive. It’s not even about DC. Millions have been to uni from all sorts of backgrounds now. When I was 18, no one from a secondary modern went and about 50% from grammars. Brains isn’t about where you live but it’s still well under 50% of the population who have been. It’s just a bit sad that so many are excluded from this general thread. Sorry I derailed it though.

I think university will be a lot less inclusive going forward. The tuition fee isn't a problem but it turns off those who are less likely to understand it's a tax for 30/40 years. But the maintenance grant is not enough to live on, and it's hard to support yourself for 3 or 4 years at university. It benefits those who are from wealthier backgrounds or live in bigger cities like Manchester and London (with many universities to choose from while living at home).

@TizerorFizz - Did you miss this was on the Higher Education board? You would have a point if this had been posted in chat but I just don't see how it's elitist in higher education. Yes I suppose someone could be in Higher Education doing a diploma and not have moved onto a degree, but that is pretty rare in reality and I don't think assuming the vast majority of people on this board are interested in degrees in some way is a leap!

For me - degree in economics not really relevant to what I do now (lawyer) but having a strong undergraduate degree is absolutely a pre-requisite and also gives me a background in business/numeracy which has helped over the years.

It’s not even about DC

But it might well be Tizer. I'm posting on this for the first time but I've followed it, because I'm interested in people's paths in relation to their degrees. Out of pure nosiness and because I have a young person in UG study right now.

I think the topic is really relevant for those parents who have DC that don't know what they want to study, where it might lead them etc and ultimately, whether leaving uni with a circa £50k debt is worth it. Value is different by individual, and not all measured by earnings alone as many HE threads demonstrate.

I entered work life post O levels but this didn't hold me back in my corporate career, though I was questioned plenty on why I didn't go onto HE. I would not change it if I had my time again, but it is different times now. But not every thread can be about EVERYONE, and we are in danger of mistaking inclusivity for something else, losing the ability to discuss topics without offending those who've taken alternative paths, and yet argue that their views (which are anecdotal) must be the way forward.

Your views are often valid, your delivery is often challenging, but don't lose sense of the intention of a thread and inadvertently making it about yourself. I mean that as kindly as possible.

HE is not just degrees. It’s a shame if people believe it is.

Don't think ALL do, but if the header is HIGHER Education then it's a good place to house most degree related threads.

Not wanting to be picky, but MN do also have a FURTHER Education section, again, full of all kinds of threads relating to life beyond school? Neither seem elitist to me, just areas that a poster can do either or in!

Yes. I did a law degree (LLB) then went immediately to study LPC and got a paralegal job in-house straight out of uni (around 2010 when the 08 recession was still impacting the availability of training contracts in law). After a few years paralegal work I qualified as a Charted Legal Executive via CILEx (exempt from all CILEx exams and study as already had LLB and LPC qualifications) and then submitted application immediately to SRA to cross qualify as a solicitor. Still working in-house as a solicitor a decade later!

Do often wish I'd done something more creative, like writing... but I like my job in the whole and it pays well.

A Cautionary Tale.
I was a mature student hoping to do something other than retail. I was 36, married, and hoping to upgrade my skills. I studied a jt hons course in IT and English Lit. It was the first time someone in my family had gone to Uni, and the first time at this Uni that they had mixed humanities subjects with IT.

The English was fine, but on the IT side not so good. They often had no tutor in place and so a student from another university would be roped in to babysit us. Their attitude, "Do whatever you did last week." Er, this is our first lesson in this subject. "Then just do your homework from other classes."

By the third year, the first years and second years students were covering subjects we never would, and despite extra cramming in the library and online, our degree was obsolete before we graduated. To add insult to injury their careers advice was hopeless. I was looking for guidance and they just pointed out the latest vacancies from the job centre, which I had already read.

Twelve months after graduating (15th in my year), I finally managed to find a small admin job, but it was not what I went to Uni for. I had hoped to go into publishing but found that despite assurances to the contrary from Uni, we had done all the wrong software, without which they wouldn't look at you past the CV stage. After many years fruitlessly trying to get a better income, doing any job (grape picking, delivering mail, etc., and some years unemployed), I ended up in a supermarket.

There I have had great interaction with lovely customers and staff alike (many of whom also have degrees and no luck finding suitable work in our locality). However because of the repetitive nature of the work I have developed muscular skeletal problems and am now facing early retirement as I am unable to do my job properly. I went to Uni to better myself financially and just ended up worse off, without the active retirement I was looking forward to.

Think carefully, make sure that there are jobs where you live or can travel to, especially if you are tied to one place. Don't end up with student debts and low income. Start a pension as soon as you can, I had too many low paid jobs early on, to cover payments to a pension as well as contribute to the household bills. Good luck.

I totally agree with this.
Just sorting student finance for DD now, as she has chosen to study Ed Psych in Bath. Beautiful part of the country, but oh my, expensive!
Her maintenance loan (once it has been recalculated, may just cover her accomodation. It is totally for the more wealthy or for those who have a choice of other universities for study at.

Totally off topic I know, but never mind.

@CurlyhairedAssassin I spend quite a bit of time researching subjects. As much as I have read fiction I do love a delve through non fiction, absolutely love statistics. May try and volunteer for a charity doing research. I was away last week and spent the week hill walking and swimming in the sea off of England. This week I’m at a community allotment twice. Dressing the window and changing all the displays in a shop I volunteer in, been out to dinner, going to a funeral sadly. May go along to a social prescribing event linked to the allotment, will be making lavender bundles for the event.

Very mature graduate with BSc Hons in applied human biochemistry MSc Medical/Science communication. Did work in healthcare after graduation as a liaison between clinical staff and non clinical professionals but shifts and 7 day working caused burnout.Made the decision to take the pay cut now working for a charity as an advice worker allied to healthcare, much better work life balance less income but much happier.