Careers

[nrgizerbunny]

I went to school, got gcse's, a levels and a degree. now i'm an engineer and started my job after leaving uni.

i hated uni while i was there but in hindsight i think it got me to where i was. A lot of my friends didn't go to uni and they don't get paid anywhere near what i'm on - that might sound arogant but its not supposed to.

having said that i do have a rather large amount of debt hanging over my head, but as its not from the banks its no so bad! I would be tempted to stay at uni just because if you go back you'll have to fork out 3k+ a year!

[jaxx]

uni and all that never appealed to me, i was more determined to get a job and earn dosh, even the school tried to beg me back as i aced alot of my GCSE... but they got the finger

some may argue unis the best bet, degrees and all that.. but i went into work at 16

6 years later... two proffesional qualifications, fluent in three CNC programming languages and now training as a full on CAD techncian and high level Quality Control...

and i dont mean to brag, but im 22 and earning very decent money !... bought my first car and insurance out right, owned two brand new cars fully paid for and now own the mr2 aswell as a top spec yaris! with no debt in anyway regarding loans... ok so ive got a credit card or so, but hasnt everyone!

(god that does sound hideous!)

so thats all about me!

[Blaze]

Well i went to school, got good gcse's and went and did my AS levels but i was bored and didnt go back, so i ended up working for mr.t full time!

I dont have a clue what i want to do, i think at 18/19 im still not ready to make that choice, for the moment its and okay job but i dont see myself here for the next 20years and if i did id be scared!

I know i can do so much more with my life and i will but while im sill thinking im getting paid for an okay job! but i will be going back to college next year for evening classes in something!

[Ryan1985]

I got 8 Standard grades and 6 Highers (dunno what the equivalents are) and I've just started my 3rd year in uni and have transferred from BSc Computing to BSc Networking and Computer Support. I doubt I'll end up working within the computing industry but you never know and its a decent degree to get. Next year I go on a placement and alot of companies look at experience now and if you have good experience without a degree they may well take you over the person with a degree with no experience so I get the best of both worlds, a degree and experience! :D

After my placement I may well do a years teacher training course and go teach some primary school kids, very decent money and lots of holidays and being male I'll be head teacher before you know it!

[alanbradley]

Go for it on the teaching Ryan - a mate of mine is doing that as he just couldn't figure out what to do once he'd got a really good degree in Physics and Astronomy and then a Ph.D in Physics. He's loving it and will be a really good teacher

So what's my line...

Well, I did okay at my GCSEs, mainly B's in the days before everyone got A's... and even took a couple of them a year early (Maths and French). Up until the end of my GCSEs I really wasn't sure what I should do with myself - I'd purely chosen subjects I enjoyed. I decided I wanted to become a car designer as I've always been interested in anything with 4 wheels or more as well as general "how stuff works" type things.

I decided that I would do Maths, Physics and Art even though I wasn't particularly good at (although keen on) Maths and Physics. 2 years and B in Art and D in the other two I'd made the grade for a course called Product Design Engineering at Glasgow as I'd been persuaded to go for a more general deisgn degree. Well, I loved the practical side and the design projects, but was total rubbish at the engineering - it was just so dull and taught by people who, in the main, didn't give a toss about the students and only cared about their research grants. I should add that those lecturers who cared were excellent though. Well, I flunked the engineering almost right throughand, coupled to a bad choice right at the start of my final year meant that I ended up with a 3rd...

No worries though as Uni is only (imho) a very long-winded way of getting your first job and after a few months of job hunting (Product Design jobs don't, sadly, grow on trees these days) I landed a job up here in the middle of nowhere. I guess I must be okay at it as I've almost doubled my salary in 3 1/2 years. I'm now, though, finding each day a bit "samey" and think its time to move on, despite the fact that in the main - and despite my moaning - I do, actually, enjoy my job.

Still aren't many out there though

What all that is leading up to is:- do what you enjoy, not what people might think you should be (I would be a lawyer ) and that exam results are not the most important thing. I got my job be being keen!

Good luck

Alan

[Chuck04]

thats great advice alan and he is totally right. At the end of the day, its all well having everyone say i think you should do this, i think you should do that, dont get me wrong it always great to take advice from other, it helps put everything into perspective, but at the end of the day no one apart from you know how you are feeling inside!. if your heart is not in it, then it will only drag out and put u down!. if u dont enjoy the subject ull soon find it very hard to keep urself motivated.

Just have a think, what do u want to do, what do u want to achieve, easier said than done i know, but hey thats life, full of ups and downs and unanswered questoin! just enjoy it! just dont let it get u down