Have I made a big mistake?

Shicky

Shicky

Shicky

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Joined
13 Jan 2007
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Location
Belfast,Northern Ireland
Essentially this is future/work oriented. Recently i've been looking lots at enjoying your work and general happiness in life stuff - from places such as TED and some of its contributors.

Now I've just finished a computer science degree and will hopefully come out with a first, worst case scenario a 2:1; my CV is generally pretty glowing with lots of experience domestically and internationally; finally im pretty good with people and wouldn't be considered the average computer science guy.

The above has meant I was able to get plenty of job offers and options for further study/random stuff. Now I decided to go for a graduate job with a finance company which is growing rapidly, if I want a large wage this is definitely the route to go down. After 3months training I will be in the field and can essentially be sent anywhere in the world - travel is something I am very keen on and have sought after it. However this company has a reputation for being hard work, I do not shy away from this but the thought of working my ass off just for more pennies or to get some other dude a promotion is becoming unsettling to me now when previously I didn't feel like this. Computers are something I find very interesting but can I see myself loving going to work everyday? Right now im not sure.

On the other hand I had a few PGCE offers, teaching being something I think I would be good at (yet to be proved of course.) I just see teaching as a different day each day, not sitting behind a desk all day everyday, something dynamic, something engaging, something meaningful, something where I could imagine enjoying coming to work everyday. Then again perhaps that is all a bit romantic.

I figure worse case scenario I do the 2 years graduate training for this company, see if I hate it, if I do I have leave after the training period and go into teaching then. But giving up 2 years of my life seems a little steep? I also imagine doing the PGCE would be less banter when im a decent few years older than others but who knows. Have I done this wrong?
 
you don't give your age?

you wouldn't be giving up 2 years of you life doing graduate training, it will be very valuable.
 
Go and work in a real company for a few years - if anything it will be more experience for a future teaching career and will make you a better candidate, IMO
 
Don't go down the teaching route - it's a total cop out. (unsatisfying)

I wouldn't go for the travel job either, that would get tiring very quickly. (depressing)

Get the best 9-5 steady job you can get. (good)

(i'm a senior developer btw)
 
I can't speak from experience, but I'd imagine a few years of life experience will make you all the better as a teacher - I wouldn't consider it a waste of 2 years at all.

If you don't enjoy it, then at least you won't have any regrets, whereas if you went straight into teaching and didn't enjoy it then you could end up wondering what would have happened had you gone for the finance job.
 
do the graduate thing! if you don't like it then do your pgce or join the circus or do whatever you want to do! you don't want to look back and think what if.
 
Before considering a PGCE talk to some people that teach in this area. And would it be in College or Uni where you're looking to teach? Remember, students may not be as keen as you are (in fact most probably won't).

The travelling thing is kinda fun when young but as someone else pointed out eventually it may get you down when your a bit older and looking to settle down..

It isn't something we can tell you to do really, rather to have a good long thing about it, talk to your family and see what they think, they know you better than us.

Slightly off topic: How did you find studying Computer Science? Did you take a year out/apart of a sandwich course?
 
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Id say get a 9-5 job. I looked at teaching but just looking at what kids are like nowadays made me think again.

Ive been in a couple IT roles where life is not at all boring. My current job no day is the same :).
 
I'm just finishing my PGCE. It's very hard work and for the first part of my course I found myself coming home and working until about 8oclock. That said it's getting a lot easier now. The same things you mentioned are what drawn me to teaching in the first place and I can say as a job it ticks all those boxes. How old are you? I took a year out after uni before starting my PGCE and I'm pretty much the youngest on the course.

Don't go down the teaching route - it's a total cop out. (unsatisfying)
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I don't know where you have got that idea from.

Id say get a 9-5 job. I looked at teaching but just looking at what kids are like nowadays made me think again.
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You'd be suprised at what kids are actually like when you're teaching.
 
I was in the exact same position as you, just finishing my first year teaching. Can't say that I wouldn't have enjoyed being in IT but it didn't appeal and I love what I'm doing now. The only thing to realise is you won't using be much/any of your Comp Sci stuff teaching unless you're lucky enough to teach Computing.
 
.Lethal said:
Before considering a PGCE talk to some people that teach in this area. And would it be in College or Uni where you're looking to teach? Remember, students may not be as keen as you are (in fact most probably won't).

The travelling thing is kinda fun when young but as someone else pointed out eventually it may get you down when your a bit older and looking to settle down..

It isn't something we can tell you to do really, rather to have a good long thing about it, talk to your family and see what they think, they know you better than us.

Slightly off topic: How did you find studying Computer Science? Did you take a year out/apart of a sandwich course?
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Im 23 - unrelated I know but someone asked above.

I enjoyed bits and pieces of it, the problem is I try to be the best at everything I do, in computer science I do not see this as a possibility for me. My thinking is in my graduate job I will do well, but im not going to be groundbreaking.

I am not a poor programmer - for example I haven't been unable to complete an assignment or project to a first class standard, but most of my friends can do the same thing I can, much quicker. I found I didnt really enjoy programming as using MVVM principles or object orientation in general made my head want to explode.

But i really enjoyed modules related to networking, computer architecture, anything multimedia, Artificial Intelligence, Concurrent programming - essentially the things that were a little different from the standard stuff. I just have no desire to be a developer sitting on my ring all day! Though plenty of friends adore it.

My course was 4 years in total, in the third year I did a university exchange in south korea for a year. Half was spent in classes, other half in a research lab. Really really enjoyed the experience, explains my desire for travel now.
 
kiwi said:
I was in the exact same position as you, just finishing my first year teaching. Can't say that I wouldn't have enjoyed being in IT but it didn't appeal and I love what I'm doing now. The only thing to realise is you won't using be much/any of your Comp Sci stuff teaching unless you're lucky enough to teach Computing.
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This is my only issue, I can imagine teaching ICT being dull as hell?
 
Shicky said:
This is my only issue, I can imagine teaching ICT being dull as hell?
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I suppose it depends on your personality really, but three things that stop it being dull for me are:
1) having a WAY better knowledge of computers than any other teacher makes you pretty important to other staff
2) my comp sci knowledge is great for padding the gaps left in A-Level topics with more detailed information
3) trying to teach students how to do something you consider easy is harder than you think so that prevents most things from being boring.
 
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