A Degree is What YOU Make it. (Is your degree worth the paper that it's written on?)

Member Name: katygriff

Product:	Is your degree worth the paper that it's written on?
Date:	17/11/05 (243 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: All the Studying Finally Pay's Off.

Disadvantages: Sometimes it is not the Right Choice.

The first bit of this review is my story and if you are not interested in that then scroll to the second section which is about my verdict on the topic.

-----

My story:

Now when I was in school and in sixth form we were told by our teachers that it was a good idea to apply for university because it would give us more options in life and it would give us a chance to continue studying our favourite school subject. We had just one one hour lesson about what to think about in the future in terms of what we wanted to do as a job. The advice we were given though was to think about what our favourite subject at school was and continue with this at degree level and begin to think about jobs in this area. Because Biology was my favourite subject I was advised to do that at university.

Thinking about it now this was a stupid idea for my school to encourage and I am disgusted to find that many schools are still adopting this technique so that more of the pupils decide to go to university. I know several people who are going through A levels at the moment and are being told that they should think about their favourite school subject and do that at university level. I am not saying that this happens everywhere and don’t get me wrong the school I went to was a good school but I just don’t think that young students at school get the right advice when it comes to thinking about degrees.

When I was that age and at school and to be honest panicking a bit about university because at eighteen I was still a right home girl and didn’t want to move away or even go to university. I also always underestimated myself and I generally thought I wouldn’t be able to handle a degree. At my school after listening to the teachers about how great university was like and how it should be a must for everybody there were only three people that rebelled and didn’t go. Now I am not joking when I say that these three students were frowned upon by the teachers for not going. When I think about it now too many people are forced like this to go and do a degree when it is not really what they want to do.

With me I knew I wanted to do a degree in Biology and my thoughts were that I would get my degree and then get a job working within a laboratory in a hospital analysing samples, that sort of thing. Now university is one of those places that you have to throw yourself into and this is what I did. I spent the next three years of my life having a great time socially and because I had moved away from home to go to university; I felt more grown up and very independent. My degree course was fantastic and I loved every minute of doing it.

However during those three years doing my Applied Biology degree I did a three week work placement at a microbiology laboratory in a local hospital. By the second week I was bored stiff and after three weeks I just thought I could not do this for the rest of my life. This was the first time that I thought about jobs after university as I had just realised that the job I had thought I had wanted was just not for me. At the end of the three years I did begin to panic I admit as I knew that I would have to finally go out into the big wide world.

After I graduated I decided that I would try and go for a medical sales job but again when I went out on a day with somebody that actually did the job I decided that I wouldn’t be very good at it. For weeks I was looking around for Biology jobs that I thought would and I ended up getting a job in administration for phones4u. I finished working there after six months because I hated the work ethic of the whole company but because I loved doing administration I decided to look for similar jobs. I did not completely forget about my Biology and went to scientific agencies to sign up but every job specification they sent me I just didn’t fancy it.

I found my current job on the internet and it is in administration which is nothing compared to what I thought I would be doing years ago but I love it. Only two of my friends from university are actually doing jobs in Biology now and although they are on quite a bit more money than me I have no regrets as I love where I am working at the moment.

-----

Verdict:

To quote the topic of this review some may say that my ‘degree is not worth the paper that it is written on’ because I have chosen a job that I could have got at eighteen with no qualifications and in a way it is true. There are too many people that go out to university and come out with a good degree only to put it to waste but I honestly think if you haven’t got a degree yourself then you cannot say a thing about this subject.

Since getting my current job I have been asked by everybody I know ‘did you need your degree to get it’ and when I say no they always look at me with a disapproving eye. This is exactly what I get every time and to be honest it got tiresome and I kept getting annoyed that nobody was acknowledging the fact that I love the job and am having a great time. I think that many people generally pick the wrong degree to do and teachers at schools must take some blame in this.

Do not get me wrong though as I absolutely loved my degree and would not change those three years for anything but thinking about it I should have done a business degree as I think that would have benefited me in life more. In the end though it was my choice to do what I did and I have got a degree which is more than a lot of people and I am proud of what I have achieved.

To come back to my current job I think that having the degree did help me to get it and fight off competition because even though it had nothing to do with the job it shows that you are willing to learn, good at studying and able to achieve targets. Even if you are not particularly proud of the degree you have done, you have to admit that you have learnt a lot about your capabilities while you were there. Now in my job I have been promoted to office manager and am doing very well indeed. I am loving being in a job that I enjoy and that I actually am good at and I don’t think I could be happier.

I think the main point I want to get over to everybody in this review is that people can change their mind and what you want to do with your life at seventeen (which is when you apply to university courses now) is significantly different to what you want when you are twenty one and I am sure most people will agree with that.

I do however have some advice for all those who are going through picking universities now and are undecided. What I suggest is whichever job you believe that you want, go and do some work shadowing with somebody who does that job. You will find that the majority of occupations will let you shadow people for a day or even up to a couple of weeks. By doing this at least you will understand a little of what the job entails and also it will give you an opportunity to ask questions about what the career is like. If I had done this before I went to university I may have had second thoughts about doing my course.

The other thing I will say to everybody is that a careers advisor is always a good person to go and talk to. I think that most schools will now operate this service and even if you are a mature student then it is a good idea to study the jobs that are available to you after doing specific degrees.

The final thing I would like to say is that if you are in the same situation I was in and done a degree and you do not want to do a job in that subject then do not worry as it is a more common problem than you would think. And to all of you that look down on people with degrees who do not use them to their full attention just leave people alone. Anybody who has done a degree will then decide what is right for them in a job. After all a degree is only for three years where as a job can be for a hell of a lot longer than that. Every degree is worth the paper it is written on because somebody has put in a great deal of effort to get that certificate.

In conclusion I think that if you are lucky enough to get the opportunity to go to university and then lucky enough to actually pass your degree then I don’t think it was a waste at all. The only way I would consider it a waste is if you spent three or four years of your life really hating doing your degree as then it would be a waste. If you are like me though and although I am not doing anything to do with my degree now I still loved every minute I was at university then nobody could call that a waste.

I am proud of my degree and my graduation picture will always be up on the wall to show that I was clever enough to get something I really wanted.

Thanks for reading.

xxx

Summary: I Would not Change Mine for the World.