Do you think ‘take what you enjoy doing’ as a degree is good advice?

[Timetakesacigarette]

At school, dd was encouraged to take what she enjoyed and is subsequently part way through a Chemistry degree at a very good uni (but not Oxbridge). She’s struggling to get internships/work experience but her friends who took maths/computer science or finance are faring better (a lot didn’t get the top grades she achieved). She could have taken medicine (but her heart wasn’t in it).
I feel guilty as I wasn’t clued up about Stem and was happy to go along with what she/the school wanted. My friend pushed her son to do maths (even though he wasn’t keen) and he’s is now a high flyer earning very well.

I’m hoping it all pans out in the end but the grad market seems difficult now. She will need to earn a decent amount as we can’t support her financially very well in the future.

She has a couple of friends on degree apprenticeships. They’re not enjoying it all that much but at least they’re earning well for their age and will have the experience and a degree at the end.

This is interesting. I have an eng master and PhD and went to work for an engineering consultancy. It was the worst experience of my life. This was 20 years ago so hopefully has changed, but the pace was slow, people worked 9-5, pay was low so there was no ambition it was full of people doing the minimum they could to get their salary and I was asked at interview with another engineering firm if I was married and what my husband was doing and why I needed to work as he was in finance…. Went to industry, then to management consultancy and was way way better. I would not advise any women to go into engineering.

@Commonmum Engineering is a very broad area of work. So what sort of engineer are you? Are you chartered? My DH had an engineering consultancy and had robust HR policies. You cannot say all engineering employers are the same as your experience - that’s obviously ludicrous.