Best Degrees and Careers present and future ?

Meh, just seemed odd to follow my post up straight away with a comment of "Have fun getting a real degree"

Quite defensive of my beloved history.....
 
Do all of the above, then in 10 years time wake up one morning realising how miserable life is because you don't enjoy what you do :p

Enjoying what you do is quite subjective. Some adapt to their new careers, like I did. Others are fixated on a career and might change after realising it is not what they want to do. The way I see it is that you try something, and if you don't like it, change it and try again and repeat :-)

PS. I hated my degree (Computer Science) but I knew it will get me somewhere. I changed from Networking and I discovered the market was saturated and I hated the idea of being a techie.
 
Enjoying what you do is quite subjective. Some adapt to their new careers, like I did. Others are fixated on a career and might change after realising it is not what they want to do. The way I see it is that you try something, and if you don't like it, change it and try again and repeat :-)

PS. I hated my degree (Computer Science) but I knew it will get me somewhere. I changed from Networking and I discovered the market was saturated and I hated the idea of being a techie.

It is, but to completely ignore it is going to lead to misery. :)
 
30k+ and able to work up higher over the years. What sort of jobs have you got in mind that don't require degree applicants ?

If you want highly paid without the need for a degree then apply to one of the big supermarkets. (And I don't mean filling shelves... I'm talking buying, marketing, HR or senior in store management or one of the other office departments etc.)

We start our grads on an average of £35k - £40k straight out of uni. No degree? No problem. Anyone with a reasonable amount of leadership ability could join as a shelf filler and be earning that much within 2 years.

Within 2 years the decent grads are "Work level 3" which means Store manager/senior marketing manager/Project manager etc... etc... Salaries range from £60k-£100k basic with a 30% bonus, huge amount of free shares and copmpany car etc. Store managers tend to get the highest wages in that bracket due to the pressures and business acumen associated with the role but if working in a shop isn't your thing then the head office roles are very good also.

Of course from there the sky is your limit, with Store directors earning in excess of £160k basic etc.. etc... It just scales up from there.

Everyone 'poo-poo's' working for a supermarket for some reason but the rewards can be fantastic if you're commited enough. And it's something you can get into without any qualifications whatsoever.

EDIT: I'm talking about Tesco here but I believe the other large supermarkets are very similar in terms of graduate pay. The progression may not be as fast however due to expansion probably not being as agressive as Tesco.
 
*Please don't give the do what you enjoy lecture, I've been working long enough to realise I have no interests or hobbies that I can use and earn in work. I just want some decent Ideas on what degree or job area to aim for ?

Well i did geography because i enjoyed it, although this might have been down to all the trips and getting totally wasted on all of them, great fun!..

Either way in university i realised that people just talk nonsense the whole time, nobody likes my radical statements (particularly on here) , i've read so many books, closed them and then thought "this guy hasnt said anything really, just giving the tinest opinions of all time" And they all have PHD's.. Its essentially all bickering and arguing and nonsense. Nobody wants to be in a position to be proved wrong, and this isnt to the extent of random scientists comming out with cold fusion, they basically are going to get gang raped.

Its all just massive trolling really, if you argument isn't 100% solid, which it never is, in a couple of months 5 other people come out with an article basically saying you are a massive *********.

This is because of that but also because of this and that and this and that and mabye a bit of that and this and that and perhaps affected by all of the above and that and this and that and mabye although im not sure... However i am unable to say much more and recommend that more research is carried out..

Kinda thinking i should have done a science based degree, which to me is fairly simple, based on facts rather than opinions. And then i think if i did Law then career options would have been far more simple.

I got an A in geography an A in biology, a B in chemistry, and a C in media studies, and people say media studies is easy, its not.

So i wouldn't say do what you enjoy, i would say do what you are good at.

Anyway for jokes, someone just called asking me who my gas supplier was, told him i didnt know, then proceeded to tell him its "dnt know plc" :cool: + or -?
 
Just an update, I've found a job in I.T. and Server support, company has a good reputation and I'm learning a lot. The hours are long and the wage isn't amazing but they have a good personal development plan and I'm enjoying the work. Hopefully get a year or two worth of experience on my CV at least :)

They have asked me to choose some courses that they'll put me through as I progress, I'm thinking of a Cisco course maybe ? Or something in programming (Sage, DotNet . . .) What would be most beneficial? Anyone working in Networking or programming here ?
 

WOW!

Seems a lot easier to move up quickly and earn good money when on the front line.

It takes a while to progress within the marketing side (tesco itself) and normally requires a jump between a number of companies to get the salary increase.
 
WOW!

Seems a lot easier to move up quickly and earn good money when on the front line.

It takes a while to progress within the marketing side (tesco itself) and normally requires a jump between a number of companies to get the salary increase.

Maybe Gordy can advise (nice to see you back posting btw) but organisations with payscales and progression like that tend to also have fairly high drop out rates - that's often partly the reason for the remuneration packages being as they are. Not always but as with many things it's a case of "if it's really that easy then why wouldn't everyone do it?".
 
Maybe Gordy can advise (nice to see you back posting btw) but organisations with payscales and progression like that tend to also have fairly high drop out rates - that's often partly the reason for the remuneration packages being as they are. Not always but as with many things it's a case of "if it's really that easy then why wouldn't everyone do it?".

Spot on mate... I can only speak from a Store Managers perspective but the stress/pressure associated with the role is utterly immense. Which is exactly why 'everyone' does not do it. You're salaried for 36.5 hours a week but as an SM would rarely work less than 55-60 and I have frequently worked 70+ hour weeks. And of course when you are home you still have access to work Email etc... and since the business is 24 hour expect phonecalls at home.

Also yes... The drop out rate is extremely high, again due to the pressure. But all that being said... If you're good at what you do then this all becomes easier as you build a good team around you who are highly capable and elad them in the correct manner holding them fully accountable for 'their' responsibilties etc. My situation now is very different. I tend to work on average 50 hours per week which for me is quite comfortable and the senior management team I have working for me are quite capable of dealing with most issues as they arise meaning very little gets through to me so to speak. But it wasn't easy getting them there! And as I mvoe stores this will of course become a challenge all over again.

But... Thats the nature of the job and is what I have to be prepared to do if I want to be a director in a couple of years and ultimately work my way towards the board. How close i'll ever get to that is another matter, but the goal/vision is there.
 
Maybe Gordy can advise (nice to see you back posting btw) but organisations with payscales and progression like that tend to also have fairly high drop out rates - that's often partly the reason for the remuneration packages being as they are. Not always but as with many things it's a case of "if it's really that easy then why wouldn't everyone do it?".

Back posting = me :confused:

Drop out rates are undoubtedly high, I have heard enough stories about the Aldi Graduate Scheme, package available and associated dropout rates.

It certainly won't be easy but I can see how fullfilling it could be. Back when I was a young school boy in my last years I worked shelf stacking at a Sainsburys I was more interested about the business side of the store than just stack X and Y and learned a fair amount from some of the Duty managers.

One though was an ex-physcis grad and a bit of a smarmy geek, one of those who have power and now like to show it off and use it as much as possible on their subordinate’s. Anyhow I'm going off on a tangent here :p

Spot on mate... I can only speak from a Store Managers perspective ....

Always good to hear of your experiences and massive respect to your work ethic and current status!
 
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Back posting = me :confused:

Nice to see GordyR back is what I meant, sorry that I wasn't clearer about that.

If you're interested in the supermarket graduate schemes then no doubt it can be a great career, I was just checking if my preconceptions about what you'd need to do for it and how difficult it could be were anywhere vaguely close.
 
Back when I was a young school boy in my last years I worked shelf stacking at a Sainsburys I was more interested about the business side of the store than just stack X and Y and learned a fair amount from some of the Duty managers.

Engineering applications going well? :p

KaHn
 
I currently do a bit of freelance work and have worked part-time at Tescos since lower 6th form just because I still couldn't do without the extra income. I'm currently not enjoying the former much at all but have little idea what else to do with my life. Gordy has provided a bit of inspiration here! The thing I find funny is that at my store, which is fairly big, all but a couple of the managers are utter plonkers, who have trouble reading, writing, or displaying any signs of intelligence, and yet they're the ones in charge. I'll have a look at the graduate schemes later, not sure if front-line is what I'd really want to do, especially with things like working weekends frequently but equally there's something to be said for a job that gets you interacting with a lot of people rather than sitting on your arse in an office all day.
 
My advice...

Whatever you chose to do, make sure you get plenty of placements/experience in the labs and on all the different instrumentation.
 
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