The Biggest Decision Of My Life

manveruppd · 14 Jul 2007 at 01:34

Dude, it's only the first year, in many universities it doesn't even count for your degree classification! Everyone wants to make money but are you in that much of a hurry that you can't wait 2 more years to finish your degree? Even if you work harder than any other undergrad in your course you'd still be having more fun than your average young professional working full-time at some badly-paid trainee post!

kkthxbye · 14 Jul 2007 at 01:57

im having abit of the same problem, had some family problems and it was showing at uni so i stopped going and signed back up for sep to start all over again, i have till sep to make up my mind wether to go back or join raf

freshy · 14 Jul 2007 at 05:21

the original poster seems to have been captivated by the notion of the city, without really knowing anything about it. whilst he must be commended for taking a forward thinking outlook on his career there are numerous problems, of which some have been outlined.

the city is the most ruthless place for hires, where having a degree is no longer enough but now the onus is one the top bracket of oxbridge, lse, imperial and warwick. first year analyst work does not really use any degree specific material per se - but the basic skills are quite similar. if you cannot grasp these qualities (evident in poor results) you will not be an attractive option. gone are the days of past years when school leavers could get into IB more easily.

however, you do have some options available to you. i would stay clear of any schemes (post a level etc) as the selection process will probably be too rigorous and might be a challenge to get through. you could go the some recruitment firms and start temping, say in admin or basic back office procedures. you might be able to carve a career out but it will require thought and hard work - you will never be able to be in the more prestigious positions because why these firms no longer need to take risks on one person.

another option is to get into trading for small brokerage houses, where you need no degree. here you will earn peanuts, but they will fund the exams and offer nice bonuses. trading of this type is very much the hard sell though, bear this in mind.

you need to focus on what you want to do rather than the allure of the city and its captivating presence, highlighted by your lack of specifics.

you could get a foot in the door in reception or front of house roles and then move your way around, although there will be a glass ceiling. however, a front of house entry receptionist level can earn 25k easily in an IB.

in summation you need to steer clear of graduate type jobs if you believe you cannot succeed in a degree. this thread is not about the whole can you do well without a degree; because you want the city environment the outlook is much different.

depending on your uni - which is it out of interest? - it would be more worthwhile to change course to something more manageable. recruiters don't really care about the subject, provided it is one of a large pool of widely respected courses. maths would have put you in a great position for the most quantitative of divisions but IB in many cases does not require too much maths of that ilk. a city recruiter would rate a history degree from lse over a maths degree from bradford.

SoSolid · 14 Jul 2007 at 09:12

As has already been said by a few people on here, I would either stick out the course for another 2 years - this will go very quick, or I would change course altogether and sign up for something a bit less demanding. I am studying mechanical engineering and am enjoying the course more than you seem to be enjoying yours. I have a friend who is studying maths with management and he was absolutely hating the maths side of things at one point, he had 3 A's at A-level but was struggling in certain areas and just hating the maths in general.

Maths is a hard degree, my other friend has gone to cambridge and has just finished his second year. He had 4 A's at A-level but has only managed to muster up a 3rd class in each of the 2 years he has been there and he was seriously one of the cleverest people I have ever met, maths is not easy do not judge yourself too harshly for struggling with certain aspects of the subject. I would urge you to think about staying on at uni and doing one of the well respected course, a degree will set you in good stead.

neocon · 14 Jul 2007 at 10:25

doublehelix2 said:
Molecular bio to banking...Bit of a stretch..Can I ask why the change?

after 3 years of practicals i'd had enough of the lab. i'm not that sure my reason for doing mol. bio. were that solid in the first place. basically i thought genetic engineering would be cool, but it turns out to be a tad complicated and boring. didn't really want to do a masters and phd either.

just want a well paid job now so i can have the money to buy all the things i want and go on holidays. materialism is important to me.

DAVEM · 14 Jul 2007 at 10:29

demon8991 said:
I recently finished my first year at university studying maths with computers I enjoyed it very much but always knew I wasn’t up to the standard to come out with a good degree in it. I finished this year with 2 passes and 2 fails, I am now faced with the big decision whether to search for employment or not and stay at uni, I have been looking at banking and financial jobs in London and hope to gain some experience there.

I am very money driven and want to earn lots (as we all do) but I have very good numerical skills and thrive in problem solving.

I know I am of degree standard intelligence but I don’t think I'm quite good enough to get the 2,1 degree I wanted in maths, changing choices leaves me very limited as my two strong a levels were in maths and ICT, with a D in chemistry.

What are the chances of getting a good job in London and progressing quickly and earning big without a degree, just through hard work and experience alone?

If you dont mind me asking grades where your "strong" alevels? Employers do place quite a lot of importance on Alevel grades. If you're looking at Finance then you could get on one of the "Alevels only" training programmes with one of the big four (I know at least PwC have this option).

Without a degree and / or Alevels about BBB you're likely to struggle in Finance I think.

SoSolid said:
Maths is a hard degree, my other friend has gone to cambridge and has just finished his second year. He had 4 A's at A-level but has only managed to muster up a 3rd class in each of the 2 years he has been there and he was seriously one of the cleverest people I have ever met, maths is not easy do not judge yourself too harshly for struggling with certain aspects of the subject. I would urge you to think about staying on at uni and doing one of the well respected course, a degree will set you in good stead.

IMO maths is not one of the harder subjects, it's not like social science where the marking is very subjective (if you don't agree with the marker, they give lower marks :mad:

).

Best

David

Fusion · 14 Jul 2007 at 10:41

DAVEM said:
IMO maths is not one of the harder subjects, it's not like social science where the marking is very subjective (if you don't agree with the marker, they give lower marks ).

But you can not study all year and probably still pass a social science course by writing off the top of your head, as testified by the waves upon waves of those sporting such degrees. Try doing this in maths and see how far you get.

[TW]Fox · 14 Jul 2007 at 11:23

Fusion said:
But you can not study all year and probably still pass a social science course by writing off the top of your head, as testified by the waves upon waves of those sporting such degrees. Try doing this in maths and see how far you get.

I would suggest that the waves of social science students is more becuase more people find them interesting and appealing than the fact Maths is harder. After all, until you've tried the course yourself you wouldnt know whether Maths is hard or not.

Perhaps a better judge would be the pass rate for Maths v Social Science, but of course again it will distorted by the sort of person likely to pick Maths.

>:|sh4d0w|:< · 14 Jul 2007 at 14:04

Kronologic said:
All degrees have to fall into a certain level of expectation and skill in that subject matter area. At the end of the day a 2.1 in Flower Arranging should be equal to a 2.1 in astrophysics; in content, expectations, challenge to the student and prestige.

Likewise a 2.1 at Cambridge is equal to a 2.1 at Bucks Uni. (in everything but prestige however I am told this is a popular misconception as the value of the degree is no less)

Unfortunately banking (one of the OP's considerations), is not geared this way.

Nash · 14 Jul 2007 at 14:23

My advice is to listen to freshy. I agree with him that the "ultimate career" these days is seen as being in a IB in the City. It's not going to happen for 999 out of 1,000 people. That's no reason to not be ambitious though. Just be realistic at the same time.

Good luck

daz · 14 Jul 2007 at 14:28

It's probably easier to pass a social science course (english lit, history, law) than a science or maths based course such as maths, physics or engineering - but getting a first is probably just as difficult.

It's a lot easier to fail the latter types of courses, but then likewise it's easier at the other end to get 90+ for modules. Whilst if you get a first in a social science it's like to be 70-80.

doublehelix2 · 14 Jul 2007 at 15:12

daz said:
Not true these days.

O RLY?

Seriously though, why do you say this? There seems to be more work for trades than for some of the graduates..

daz · 14 Jul 2007 at 15:22

doublehelix2 said:
O RLY?

Seriously though, why do you say this? There seems to be more work for trades than for some of the graduates..

There are a lot of eastern europeans coming over with the requisite trade skills, and because of the media hoo-ha about the amount tradesmen were earning, lots of kids thought it would be good to do a plumbing course or apprenticeship at college. Perhaps it's not the case up and down the country.

[TW]Fox · 14 Jul 2007 at 15:29

daz said:
It's probably easier to pass a social science course (english lit, history, law) than a science or maths based course such as maths, physics or engineering - but getting a first is probably just as difficult. .

I dont think anyone except somebody who has done both a social science and an applied science can say for sure. Both have pro's and cons - with maths, it's either right or it isn't which can be a lot better to study with than learning other peoples opinions and theories..

mattx2 · 14 Jul 2007 at 15:50

[TW]Fox said:
I dont think anyone except somebody who has done both a social science and an applied science can say for sure. Both have pro's and cons - with maths, it's either right or it isn't which can be a lot better to study with than learning other peoples opinions and theories..

As someone that did a Business and Comp Sci degree I can say that both parts of the degree had hard and easy parts. But you can write absolute bs for a business essay and still get marks you can't do the same when writing a program. But there where people on the course that just couldn't grasp simple business ideas and some people that just couldn't write a piece of programming if their life depended on it.

Thats why most jobs will only ever ask you to be good at one or the other most people cannot manage to be good at both.

So it really just depends on what your good at and what you want to do no point doing applied mathematics if you want to become a lawyer or English lit if you want to become rocket scientist

[TW]Fox · 14 Jul 2007 at 15:57

mattx2 said:
As someone that did a Business and Comp Sci degree I can say that both parts of the degree had hard and easy parts. But you can write absolute bs for a business essay and still get marks you can't do the same when writing a program. But there where people on the course that just couldn't grasp simple business ideas and some people that just couldn't write a piece of programming if their life depended on it.

True but I wouldnt have thought you'll get very good marks if you just write a load of BS.

mattx2 · 14 Jul 2007 at 16:21

[TW]Fox said:
True but I wouldnt have thought you'll get very good marks if you just write a load of BS.

Yes, maybe a slight over exaggeration on my part, but I handed in some pieces of work I thought where absolute drivel but still got 60%+ for. It’s just the nature of qualitative marking. I was never happy with how they marked my work on the business side of the course, not enough transparency.