I’ve been worrying about work and jobs for a while, but with several people I know talking about it a fair amount it’s started to move gradually to the front of my mind. I keep getting asked what I’m going to do when I graduate and the problem is that I still have absolutely no idea what I want to do when I leave university. I was thinking about doing the Graduate Diploma in Law at the BPP law school, but I went to their open day a couple of weeks ago and they didn’t impress me much. I also heard about the amount of examinations I’d have: seven written exams, six of which are three hours each, and a four thousand word dissertation. I’ve no problems with the latter assignment – knocking out four thousand words on a subject that I’m interested in isn’t that difficult – but given how useless I am at exams I don’t think it would be a good idea to take a course that relies heavily on this method of assessment.
I also felt a bit out of place when we were going round the table in the first presentation saying who we were and what subjects we were either studying or had graduated in. I was the only person doing even a vaguely science subject, everyone else was either doing some form of language (mostly English or French), and when I was speaking to one of the lecturers afterwards I got the feeling that I’d probably be the only computer science student if I chose to do the course. That doesn’t bother me too much, as I don’t mind being different (in some ways it’s an advantage because it means people remember you), but I do feel it might single me out a bit. I’ve also missed the deadline for the first round of applications because the online application form doesn’t actually submit anything for you, instead it just gives you a web page to print off and send to the central admissions centre, together with a referee’s details and a cheque for ten pounds.
The two areas of work that interest me most though, unsurprisingly, are law and politics. I really don’t have much interest in pursuing a course in computing, mainly because there aren’t enough areas that interest me within it. The only aspect I really enjoy is programming but even that usually involves maintaining someone else’s horrible legacy code rather than writing something new. I certainly don’t fancy wasting away the next forty years of my life fixing other people’s poorly written and badly documented software if I can help it.
Unfortunately, law is a very difficult area to get into, and without either a degree in law or the graduate diploma route I wouldn’t be able to go on to train as a solicitor or a barrister. That leaves politics, for which you need no qualifications whatsoever, but I don’t think I’m charismatic enough to win a seat in the House of Commons as an independent candidate and I don’t agree with enough of the policies of any one particular party to join them.
I suppose I still have a little time to worry about work, and at the end of the day I think I will always be able to get a job that pays enough to cover rent and bills. There’s a few graduate recruitment fairs on next week that I want to go to, although unfortunately most of them are on Wednesday when I’m down in London. I also need to book an advice session with the careers department and see if they can point me in the right direction, or at least a direction.
Why dont you take a year out and go traveling – that way you can see some of the world and also “find the inner you” etc etc!!
Don’t worry about it. I’m 26 and still have no idea what I want to do with my life.
I’m not sure if travelling is my thing, although I did get a book about places to visit before you die (I hope no one’s trying to tell me something there!) for Christmas and there are some things I’d like to see. I don’t believe all that “find your inner self” stuff though.
I am not sure if traveling should really be used aas a get out clause if your heart isn’t in it 🙂
I’m intrigued by writing off a tech job though, you evidentally have a passion for tech (as do I) and this makes the job I do really quite enjoyable. I do patches of development and major system administration plus lots of fruity stuff. It might not be a no-hoper y’know.
“plus lots of fruity stuff.”
I bet you do.
I don’t know why I’m not keen on tech jobs, I think it’s partially because a lot of people I know who work in the computing industry dislike their jobs and my experiences in the sector haven’t been that good either, with one or two exceptions. I guess I just feel happier and more enthusiastic when tackling other areas such as law and politics, they interest me more in general.
Go travelling.
Seriously, I wasn’t all that keen when I graduated. Now I’d love to have the opportunity to take a good chunk of time and see more countries, rather than having to save a bunch of cash then go away for a couple of weeks at a time.
Try visiting somewhere random in Europe for a week, see if you could get into doing it. It won’t cost you too much and it’ll give you an idea on whether you could get your teeth into it.
I do want to go away at some point anyway, although that probably doesn’t count as travelling. I’m not sure how I’d manage in Europe – my French is somewhat rusty, my Spanish almost non-existant and the only German phrases I’ve ever been “taught” were a couple of things that Lizzy’s cousion told me (and I can’t even remember what those were!).
Hi, I’m a friend of Kirk’s. Reuters, the company I work for, do technical graduate schemes which might suit you. Let me know if you want any details, as Reuters is quite a nice company to work for, and looks good on the ol’ CV.
Hello Tanya! How did you get here? 🙂
Hello Kirk! I followed the link on your blog!