From Studying Shakespeare to Selling Stella.

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by Ian Foster

After gaining your A-Levels a few years ago, you’re almost at the next finishing line. The last few years of becoming a day-time TV fan, purveyor of snakebite and black and an occasional attendee of those 9am lectures are about to show their true worth. The degree you (were meant to) have studied for is within touching distance (you hope!). Maybe, just maybe, the ultra-dull modules on 17th Century Poetry, renaissance this, romance that, have finally taken their toll? You no longer want to embrace the discipline that you once loved, so what do you do now? After the initial panic has subsided, and your thoughts about signing-on have vanished, sit down and breathe deeply. Pen and paper to the ready…

Your options…

What are your options? The world is your oyster and other clichés aside, you really do have many paths to choose from. You might decide that you don’t want to further your interest in your degree subject- this doesn’t mean the world is at an end. Time for a story… One of my friends went to University to study English Lit. The stereotyped career choice of the English student had entered his thoughts, that of teaching. This was until a work experience teaching assistant week had been completed. At this point, he sat down and looked at which graduate training programmes he could realistically apply for. 12 months later and he had completed his first year on a building society’s graduate training scheme. At this point, he wanted a change from the specific financial sector, and applied for a sales position with a brewing firm. He’s still happily employed by this company, and he’s come a long, and certainly varied, way.

Where to start…

Why not jot down what jobs you would/wouldn’t want to do? It might seem like an inane task- but until you try it; don’t knock it.

• List the job/career titles
• Add your personal pros and con’s for each one

Once your early-stage list is complete, you could:-

• Search for information on possible companies which might offer grad schemes in these areas
• Search for jobs which may not require specific degrees

Be prepared for the fact you might not know exactly what it is you want to do. I’m sure there are those 30+ year olds who still don’t know the answer to the question. It’s not 42 either. Having a serious think about this before you join the employed isn’t a negative step at all. You might find yourself bored of your lab-based subject area, and so want to work in a people-orientated career such as a social worker, for example. It might be vice-versa- fed up of the people-based social science you’ve studied during your Uni stint, you want to solve problems which require minimal person-person interaction. Every graduate is going to have a different mind-set after finishing their degree.

Further Studies…

After your first bit of research, you might find that you need to complete a course, or two, to meet the desired criteria found on them lovely application forms. You may be required to study a 6 week course in basic short hand, for example, if you were tempted toward a career in journalism. If you needed some grasp of particular software, such as an accountancy programme, you’d need to find somewhere to sit an intro course in this. (eg. visit website http://www.sage.co.uk/training/viewsapcourses.asp). Obviously, your needs are going to be individual- make a note of the required areas of skill and use the Internet as one source to find the relevant info.

Work Experience…

This is where you might have to be willing to put yourself out a bit- which is never frowned upon by an employer. Internships are an ideal way of getting your foot in the door- some are paid, some are not. An internship can range from a single week to a month, a few months to the best part of a year. A popular internship is taken up by students during the summer vacation- an ideal time as most students have a block leave of a few months. The downside is that if the position is unpaid- you’re working for free and not paying any of that overdraft off…

Other work experience options include:

• School and college work experience programmes
• Part-time and vacation jobs
• Work-based training schemes like Modern Apprenticeships and National Traineeships.
• Vocational and sandwich courses which offer work placements
• Voluntary work
• Gap Year projects
• Pre-university experience schemes like ‘A Year in Industry’

Alternatively…

Your maths degree was fun (!) but you’ve had enough of numerical formula and fancy getting into a hands-on career- Midwifery. Your current degree might aid your course application, but is probably going to have minimal impact toward becoming a midwife. In this case, you would most likely need to complete a Midwifery degree, so back into Uni for another few years. Lucky you! One final example is that you utilise your degree for further higher education. You might decide to apply for an unrelated MA/Msc/MEng- with a solid degree, this should be possible. Remember- there are plenty of doors for you to open- not just in your degree-related career…