What to learn in spare time

NotAGolf

NotAGolf

NotAGolf

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Evening all.

In a few weeks I'll be doing less hours at work meaning I'll have a fair bit of spare time so rather than sit about on my arse I want to do something constructive.

I'm off traveling in January and will be abroad for around 8 months, when I return I will be applying to a number of jobs, they will almost all be graduate schemes. I've just finished my degree at Reading and got a frist class degree in computer science so the job I get will most likely be software engineer or something similar. Still not 100% what job I want to do but I've been looking mainly at defence companies like BAE Systems, QinetiQ etc.

My main reason for this is I would prefer to do work where I do something more 'hands on' with computers. I'm not sure exactly how to explain this but basically I find something with a more visual/physical output more appealing, something I can see taking shape. For example, working in a bank doing number crunching and analysing statistics doesn't appeal to me, neither does anything related to networking. However things like developing a program that can model terrain (this was what I did for my dissertation btw), or tracking a target on cctv I find more interesting as I can physically see what I have created. Sorry I probably didn't explain that very well! :o

Anyway. What I actually want to know is what could I do in my spare time that would improve my chances of getting such a job and progressing in it.

Some of my thoughts so far:
- Learn a new programming language
- Learn a new application or set of applications/toolkits etc
- Work on my maths as this is the worst grade over all my years in education (grade D at A level, although I did get A* at GCSE and A's and B's for maths modules during my degree)
- Work on interview techniques and assessment day type tasks

Obviously doing all of the above would be beneficial but I don't have enough time. Neither do I have any money to spend on courses and the like. I would also like to do some work experience as I don't have anything useful at the moment, but again I don't have the time or the money to do that.

Any ideas?

Thanks very much for any help.
 
Pilky01 said:
Do some freelance programming or design work or whatever and build up a portfolio.
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Sounds like a good idea but I have no where near enough experience to do something like that. I hadn't done any programming at all before uni, whilst there I obviously learnt a lot but I still consider myself a novice when it comes to programming. And I have no experience in web design either so that doesn't help either!!
 
uknowist said:
Learn to play the Sitar, its guaranteed to improve your job prospects.
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This, or any other musical instrument. You will find it relaxes you and gives you a common bond with a great many people. With a 1st class degree, tbh you shouldn't have difficulty getting a job, and I'm surprised you don't already have a milkround job lined up.
 
caff said:
This, or any other musical instrument. You will find it relaxes you and gives you a common bond with a great many people. With a 1st class degree, tbh you shouldn't have difficulty getting a job, and I'm surprised you don't already have a milkround job lined up.
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Thanks for the encouraging words, I hope that turns out to be the case. I put that down to hard work over talent though, which is what i'm worried about. It's a lot harder to show that you give 110% at everything than showing you can program in 100 different languages and can do the entire 17 times tables up to a million in less than a second in an interview!!

On the music side of things I've never really fancied it. My dad plays bass in a band, both my brothers play the guitar quite well and all I do is get criticised for my taste in music by all!!!
 
How about just have some fun, go out with friends and stuff or play on your Xbox. Life does not have to be about constantly improving yourself. What is the point if you are unable to enjoy it.
 
i've gone back to learn further maths, something i need but have always said i would do later. iam finding it hard learning algebra etc...
Never did my alevel in maths signed up on a 1st year maths degree, i'm hoping i get the HEcert in maths, iam finding it hard, just spent 3 hours learning the basic stuff.
Have 5 days to inequalities, quads, simultaneous equations, partial fractions, indices, transpositions.
 
What's the big appeal about learning a language then? Is it just showing you have the ability to learn something or would it actually be useful in the commercial world (obviously if you were a multi-national it would be but otherwise?).

In reply to starfighter; don't worry I'll still be having fun, this won’t consume all of my time!

And in reply to digipeep; yes my English does suck and it always has done!
 
Well you said you were off traveling for 8 months, are you going to an English speaking country?

If not then you would be best learning at least some basic language skills for the country you are going to.
 
Smit said:
Well you said you were off traveling for 8 months, are you going to an English speaking country?

If not then you would be best learning at least some basic language skills for the country you are going to.
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Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore, everywhere else we're going is English speaking. I will learn a few important phrases but I think I'd be better off learning a language that is more common such as French Spanish in the long run??
 
WantoN said:
Just to throw it out there for the SA lads...

Why not take up some sport/fitness activities? :p

Ant :cool:
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Hehe, yea I've seen you posting in SA. I spend a fair bit of time reading in there. I go to the gym 4/5 times a week to put on some mass. Have been going to the gym regularly for a good few years, not made any real progress until the last few months where I've knuckled down and sorted my diet and routine.

I do spend a fair bit of time learning things about the whole bodybuilding side of things but I won't be taking it as serious as some of the guys on here. I don't have the intention of ever becoming a bodybuilder or anything, it's just a little side hobby that keeps me fit, healthy, strong and hopefully improve my appearance a little!
 
Nullvoid said:
It sounds like your dissertation ties into it so why not spend some time reading up about geographic information systems (GIS)?
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Yea I did find it interesting. Wouldn't mind going into something involving GIS and the like. The only concern I have is that as I'm still not 100% what career pather I want to take, I'm trying to keep my options as open as possible.

I think by doing a graduate scheme with a large company I'll hopefully be doing more varied tasks which wont tie me down to a particular job compared to starting a job in a fairly specific job with a small company.
 
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