Good idea?bad idea? Holp :(

Andr3w

Andr3w

Andr3w

Soldato
Joined
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England
So im starting my second year of my btec course in sept.(btec in software development = boring as hell :()

Anyway i have to start deciding if i want to go to UNI at the start of sept 07 and if so what i want to do there, as you can tell by some of my previous posts.

I really enjoyed IT until i started this course, now it has become more of a chor than a hobby =/, if i did go to uni i would do this course .

What i have been thinking is, do i want to go to uni? I have days where i really want to go, want to learn about web design/2d art etc and have lots of friends, but then i have days where i just want to go out, get a first job that is pretty well paid and either in, or not in the IT industry,that way i can get a flat, a car etc and no debt.

I dont really know what im asking here :(, i just need guidence on your life experiences really, i am going to talk to the careers as soon as i get back in college to see what sort of jobs i could do,but i know they wont help, they suck.

If i was to say go straight into a job, would it have to be in the ICT industry, as i have no other degree's =/. I do have 10 GCSE's though, the only experience i will have by then is 2years working in a garden center,which is bascially retail =/.

What types of jobs did you guys go into, thats if you didnt go to uni and switched direction entirly!

I really dont know why i posted this,im just confused about what to do with my life and dont want to mess it up. =/ sorry if i bored you!
 
If you do decide to go to uni do a traditional degree, non of this new degree crap, IT well forget it the money now is crap, you dont get paid that well for the amount of out of hours learning you do.
 
What do you mean by traditional degree?

Does anyone know of any websites that can give you options and ideas of what to do?
 
crashuk said:
If you do decide to go to uni do a traditional degree, non of this new degree crap, IT well forget it the money now is crap, you dont get paid that well for the amount of out of hours learning you do.
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Worst. Post. Ever. :mad:
 
Andr3w said:
What do you mean by traditional degree?

Does anyone know of any websites that can give you options and ideas of what to do?
Click to expand...

IMO there are basically 3 types of courses that one can do at uni.

1. Traditional, non-vocational degrees
2. Traditional, vocational degrees
3. 'New' degrees.

Category one incorporates things like the scienecs and humanities - Physics, mathematics, english, geography etc....

Category two are things that lead strongly (though not always) into a career - medecine and law are probably the best examples of this.

New degrees are things like 'Bruce Springsteen studies'. Avoid.
 
crashuk said:
IT well forget it the money now is crap, you dont get paid that well for the amount of out of hours learning you do.
Click to expand...

What the hell are you talking about? The money isn't crap in I.T, it's one of the world's largest and fastest growing industries, it makes people a lot of money.
 
Guys before we start please dont argue as i need lots of advice lol!

Thanks for clearing that up visarge
 
Visage said:
Category two are things that lead strongly (though not always) into a career - medecine and law are probably the best examples of this.

New degrees are things like 'Bruce Springsteen studies'. Avoid.
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Visage, I don’t quite understand how your logic differentiates between no 2 and 3.

A law degree would certainly be beneficial and lead onto a law career, just as a Bruce Springsteen degree would lead onto a career in the music and/or entertainment industry.

To say that a non-standard degree is of any less use than a traditional degree is surely overlooking the fact that the lead onto different things. Why study quantum physics if you want to become a hairdresser? Is a car mechanic any less valuable to society than a doctor?

On topic, Andrew, I would have to say definitely go to uni. Even if you don’t see it being particularly usefull, the experience alone is well worth the time spent and nobody should miss out on it. Make sure you choose a course you will enjoy, and similarly don’t let others put you off any courses you might like to do because ‘They aren’t proper’.
 
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Locrian said:
Visage, I don’t quite understand how your logic differentiates between no 2 and 3.

A law degree would certainly be beneficial and lead onto a law career, just as a Bruce Springsteen degree would lead onto a career in the music and/or entertainment industry.

To say that a non-standard degree is of any less use than a traditional degree is surely overlooking the fact that the lead onto different things. Why study quantum physics if you want to become a hairdresser? Is a car mechanic any less valuable to society than a doctor?
Click to expand...

Yes - I can see where you're coming from.

The distinction that I would make is that the content of a law degree is fairly constant across institutions - employers can reasonably expect the law degree at Imperial to be broadly similar to that at Kings, or one at Oxford/Cambridge. One can also assume that graduates from universities of similar repute would have similar abilities.

OTOH, if someone goes for a more 'obscure' degree then there is a lot less for potential employers to base an opinion on, no matter how well matched the subject is to the job.

There's no hard and fast dividing line, though, obviously.

EDIT: As for my 'Avoid' comment, I should probably have expanded it to suggest that, if you're not 100% sure what you want to do then avoid it - a highly focussed 'niche' degree can be quite limiting - especially when the OP doesnt have a clear idea as to what career he wants to go into....
 
The thing is if i go to uni i will be staying at home (dont ask :o). And i dont know if its for me =/

I want money, people have been telling me if i dont go to uni i wont earn as much money and life will be harder :s, surely this isnt true :(?
 
Andr3w said:
The thing is if i go to uni i will be staying at home (dont ask :o). And i dont know if its for me =/

I want money, people have been telling me if i dont go to uni i wont earn as much money and life will be harder :s, surely this isnt true :(?
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Its impossible to say, tbh. Sorry.

You'll get loads of people saying 'I didnt go to uni, and now I earn xxxxxxx billion pounds a year', and so going to uni seems like a waste of time. But then people are a lot less likely to shout up if their story is 'I didnt go to uni and now I have sex with tramps in order to eat'....

Obviously the same argument applies for people who *did* go to uni.

There's a lot of empirical evidence that, for certain areas, a university degree can add up to a significant increase in ones earning potential. Also, for some careers a university degree is essentials (such as Law and Medecine).

What career areas where you looking at?
 
Thats the thing, im not entirly sure what i want to go into, so im looking for iedas of what people have gone into etc
 
If you're really that undecided I would suggest taking a year out.
I couldn't decide what I wanted to do but felt pushed into going to University by my college because a gap year was seen as a terrible thing to do by them. Ended up doing a degree I hated and not enjoying it in the slightest.

A year out is nothing in the grand scheme of things, get a job for that year, save up. If you decide you want to go to Uni, the money can go towards you having a decent time at Uni, but make sure you study hard.
Either way, it'll give you that bit extra time to work out exactly what you want to do at this current point in your life :)
 
If i did take a year out, i would want it to be in the indursty i'd like to work in (not decided that yet), so that if i didnt like it after a year i could go to uni
 
Andr3w said:
If i did take a year out, i would want it to be in the indursty i'd like to work in (not decided that yet), so that if i didnt like it after a year i could go to uni
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But that might defeat the object of you taking the year out to figure out what you want to do :p
I'd still recommend it though. Amazing how much a year can change your view on what you want to do.
Just don't use Uni as an excuse to not go out to work, it's too expensive to do it that way. Make sure you figure out what you want to do degree wise otherwise it's pointless.

Ultimately though, we can't really help you figure out what you want to do if you have absolutely no idea.
 
Visage said:
IMO there are basically 3 types of courses that one can do at uni.

1. Traditional, non-vocational degrees
2. Traditional, vocational degrees
3. 'New' degrees.

Category one incorporates things like the scienecs and humanities - Physics, mathematics, english, geography etc....

Category two are things that lead strongly (though not always) into a career - medecine and law are probably the best examples of this.

New degrees are things like 'Bruce Springsteen studies'. Avoid.
Click to expand...

What would a class a degree in Management as?
 
Why not do some research into different industries, and perhaps get some experience in each? Then you can make an informed decision (on your own thought) about what you want to do.

My two pence.
 
Does anyone know of any websites that can give you options and ideas of what to do? Or say, gives you different job ideas?
 
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