Who can help Onebat with advice about PhDs or MAs? (Wanker's Corner 101 AND long)

[onebatmother]

Can any mother help me?

I am at a career crossroads, and floundering somewhat .

I'm fantasizing about completely re-training, but I'm uncertain which way to go. I resemble, more than anything, a 41yr old large-arsed Easter Bunny, paralyzed in the glare of The Headlights Of The Future.

But a vague memory has resurfaced from university days and I'd like you to tell me what you think. My degree was in English Lit from a University of London college, and I got a first. I seem to remember that one of my tutors told me that because of the first, I could bypass an MA and go straight to a PhD.

Does this sound right? And if so, might that still be the case? And if so, would it have to be an English literature erm... thesis thingy, or could it be in some other discipline which required critical thinking? My career so far has been in making (directing/producing) documentaries about "Society".

And if it could be in anything.. what can you think of? Anything, anything at all! It's quite likely that it will not be poss to go back to university bcs of finances, but if it is, I would really like to think that I had considered every option.

As a starter, I am interested in how and why people think. I've considered training as a psychotherapist, but I think it's a v v long process. Also not sure that I'm patient enough.

And that;s poss too literal an interpretation of 'how and why people think' iyswim. For example, I am also interested in the process of things, in culture, and how it is constructed; and why groups believe what they do. How the things that people produce reflect and disseminate the political necessities of their world - the power structures which underpin societies, etc, etc.

So people, politics with small p, power, pornography - all the p's really. Oh and cultures and what they express, erm, you know the kind of thing.

Obv v unlikely to be all of these - but I'd be really interested if anyone thought that they had, or knew of, a career where one gets to consider this kind of stuff (which -CRUCIALLY - pays a small mortgage)

I'm not sure that I want to continue being freelance: I'm a bit shit at it and there's an inbuilt anxiety which does me know favours. But it's not a deal-breaker.

Thank you, my dearies, for your attention to this matter.

I know this isn't helpful onebat as it sounds like you definitely want or need a career change, but I know what would make a difference to me is the realisation that there are crap bits of every job. When I am doing crappy corporate bullshit at work that stops me doing the real job (appraisals, accounting for time etc.) I think 'why am I doing this?' and I labour under this delusion that there are jobs out there where I would be happy all the time. I would appreciate being told that isn't the case

I also completely empathise with you on the feeling a fraud part. There are lots of people who I work with who have degrees much more relevant to the work than I do (frigging psychology qualifies you for nothing!), like international relations and politics, and I feel really out of my depth sometimes and I try desperately to 'gen up' reading the economist, listening to Radio 4, and have even considered an OU in International Relations even though I have a degree and an MSc and now I barely manage to juggle a toddler and a nearly full time job! I sometimes wish I could start again and I would chose a completely different path, and I feel like it is too late to start again (which is ridiculous, I'm 28) but I am so glad you don't feel that way and have the guts to try something else.

I always said I wouldn't do a job I hates, if I wanted to do a job I would just do everything in my power to get it. I did that the first time round and it was a bit of a disappointment. I would do something else, if only I knew what it was that I wanted to do...

YOur twentyfreakineight? Bloody hell bumper, you're doing pretty damn fantastically there.

Re career change: Prob is that my old job no longer exists - at least not for me, with children. It is simply not possible to do it without a five bed house, live-in nanny scenario. It involves working till it's done - and that is always unpredictable and frequently till the early hours. In the real world ie 2 bed house, childminder, it's just not poss. The ones that can have the live-in nannies.

I so vividly see your 'reading the economist/radio 4' picture. I think my problem is that I'm not interested in TV as a job/medium - only as an opp to think/research and maybe do something creative in disseminating what I've learnt. TV doesn't really work like that any more - disseminating not an obvious keyword..

at the risk of seeming a bit of a gadabout, I've started a new thread about what real jobs might result from further academic study.

{I hear you Soph}

Can I just repeat how completely overwhelmed I am with the fantastic and interesting advice and thoughts that you've all given. It really has made a proper, proper difference to my life-course So thank you.

Any other experiences or thoughts v welcome though. Sadly, I'm still floundering like a .. well, a flounder.

I feel like I have achieved nothing...which I know is ridiculous, but there it is. I am amongst people who have travelled, lived and worked abroad, done internships in Washington DC and all kinds of fantastic things, and, well, I have a child now, and very little money. And when I was young free and single I was busy working my arse off to pay for Uni, and never had the confidence to do it.

Anyway, this was your thread onebat, so I'll stop hijacking but will check out your new thread with interest. Glad you have found this useful.

If I described what I've done, it would sound quite cool. But it doesn't make me particularly certain or carpe diem, as you might have noticed

You are 20 freaking 8. By the time your kids are in school, you will be 36 at latest. You will be in an amaaazing position then. Smart, educated, life-experienced, available to a reasonable degree, and YOUNG, but crucially not so young that you look like a risk-taker. You've done it the way round that I would have done it, had I known what I know now.
Thanks so much for your posts.

onebat I think i have not got your email addie correct - cld u drop me a line at therefinery at gmail dotcom
Thnks

Hey Bumper, I do have a degree in International Politics, and very interesting it was too. I've never used it professionally though (apart from the skills in diplomacy and reading between the lines - very handy too in the NHS). I also have a Masters in Public Health, which now that I am working in the gaming industry is also not terribly useful! I think as people change careers more and more it's the transferable skills that count, as your academic life becomes more and more in the past, and it's what you know now that counts. btw unless you keep current, what you knew when you are at university becomes almost totally irrelevant in a field like IP/R as it is such a fast moving field, so I wouldn't worry too much. There are always opportunities in the future too, when your colleagues will have the babies and you will be the one ready for new challenges.