Any unemployed Grads here?

crescend0

robin_banks wrote: »

It's a less academically challenging subject.

[FONT=&quot]I have both science and art A levels, but decided to follow my heart and go for a degree in graphic design. I can tell you now just because it's conventionally considered a non-academic subject doesn't mean I had to put in any less brain power/hard work than if I'd of pursued a degree in chemistry. So there.[/FONT]

Idiophreak

snowqueen555 wrote: »

Masters you can only get funding from the bank, LEA won't lend you.. I think. My sister needed a bank loan for hers

That's what Oldernotwiser was getting at.

It's easy to get on a *taught* masters course if you're going to pay for it. That's what I did, it's what my sister did etc.

The uni charge you £3k for a couple of hours' work per week, so they're not going to be too picky, are they?

Getting onto a funded masters is more difficult, requires a good grade in your degree, a strong application and often a relevant thesis.

One of my friends did an MRes (research-based) in the computer science dept while I did my MSc (taught)

I paid £1k in the end, as I was awarded a bursary by the uni, should have been £3k. Had to take out a bank loan. He was paid something like £10k tax free (iirc), so didn't need a loan.

There were also plenty of funded masters/doctorates going in the materials engineering department.

Most unis have a postgrad office - worth going in and asking what options are available.

Sharon87

robin_banks wrote: »

It's a less academically challenging subject.

And you speak from experience do you? :rolleyes: Or just the representation that Media degrees have been given? I can say now that the theory side was quite challenging. Yes there is a practical side, but so do scientific degrees as well as others.

Sharon87

Idiophreak wrote: »

Most unis have a postgrad office - worth going in and asking what options are available.

I wish I stayed on to do a post grad or Masters, would have cost more, but in the current climate it may have been useful, it would have given me the edge above other when I left (also gives me more time to get work experience). Oh well, too late now, spent all my savings moving to London!

snowqueen555

it seems most post grad stuff requires applications well in advance, most of the deadlines wee Jan 09.

What is everyones opinoin of applying through emails? Jocentreplus ads are largely through email cvs but I a not sure whether its just a waste of my time, that employees don't like checking emails

lynzpower

I know at my company the job I got was by sending an email- then Id phone the company to check its been recieved as sometimes it can a) alert them to your name and b) check i gets there as sometimes they dont.


I really really feel for you grads out there at the moment, and yet again despair of the idiots in our number that are slamming you all for bettering yourselves

I did an "academic" subject and it was very rigorous, worked like a trogan throughout my degree as i was told by:

parents
careers advisors
university staff
the media at large

that without a degree you are nowhere. At 17 how are you supposed to know that all these people are wrong? David Lammy was on the radio earlier trying to defend the extension of uni education to more people. Unfortunately I see it as an encouragement to get people into debt. If he was really convinced then I would have expected the government to have forced universities to do many more part time & evening degree courses, to fit in around earning a living and gaining some sort of experience. Alas.

I have to say, since completing mine, I do regret doing it , 10 years on, im not doing anything really relevant to my degree but am moving into the possibility that I WILL work in the field- yet there are very few opportunities and always have been.

Robin banks and others have you never heard "if you havnet got anything useful toi say then keep it zipped" :mad:

Oldernotwiser

crescend0 wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]I have both science and art A levels, but decided to follow my heart and go for a degree in graphic design. I can tell you now just because it's conventionally considered a non-academic subject doesn't mean I had to put in any less brain power/hard work than if I'd of pursued a degree in chemistry. So there.[/FONT]

Graphic Design and Media Studies aren't the same thing at all!

Oldernotwiser

Idiophreak wrote: »

That's what Oldernotwiser was getting at.

It's easy to get on a *taught* masters course if you're going to pay for it. That's what I did, it's what my sister did etc.

The uni charge you £3k for a couple of hours' work per week, so they're not going to be too picky, are they?

Getting onto a funded masters is more difficult, requires a good grade in your degree, a strong application and often a relevant thesis.

One of my friends did an MRes (research-based) in the computer science dept while I did my MSc (taught)

I paid £1k in the end, as I was awarded a bursary by the uni, should have been £3k. Had to take out a bank loan. He was paid something like £10k tax free (iirc), so didn't need a loan.

There were also plenty of funded masters/doctorates going in the materials engineering department.

Most unis have a postgrad office - worth going in and asking what options are available.

Spot on, that's exactly what I meant.

crescend0

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Graphic Design and Media Studies aren't the same thing at all!

I know but I've heard this ignorant "It's a less academically challenging subject" kind of !!!!! about all the creative subjects

starsinmycrown

sturll wrote: »

Or there was me, had 2 kids, a home, a temp job, coached a Rugby League team and still walked away with a Degree in Law & Accountancy.

What i did was to apply for a job on each Mon, Wed, Fri. In between those days i would be looking and researching potential employers. I spent at least 2 or 3 hours on each application - If they didnt get back to me i would phone and ask why.

Since i had kids to support i had applied to be an Officer in the Army and had been successful and due to start 8 months down the line. I knew i didnt want to be in the Army but knew i had to do something. That was the goal i set myself. Get a job before the Army date.

My biggest problem was work experience, they all wanted to know why i hadn't done much of it whilst studying. Some understood that it was impossible whilst being a single father to work voluntarily others werent as sympathetic.

Anyway, it paid off, i now hold down a great job which takes me all over the world and one whereby i expect to be earning in excess of 60k within 5 years.

For the person who says grads should not expect to be able to step above low paid jobs - I invested 4 years and 20k in my self to get my degree. I had my kids sitting wearing 2 jumpers because i couldn't afford to heat the house, we ate beans on toast so many times i can't bear to look at it now. There were nights the electric metre ran out and we just went to bed at 5pm. We didn't holiday, go out, there was even a time i had to send my son to the lost property at school because i couldn't afford him a school jumper.
I put us through a life like that with one thing in mind. And that was so that i could drag myself and my kids out of the working class background we had been dealt.

You are my new personal hero...:)

Yeah i agree, I've been working in minimum wage jobs before, and i backed myself into a corner and always knew i could do better, so i spent a lot of time and money doing a degree, whilst working in a chemist and as a waitress, doing a degree for 4 years with a view to being a teacher. But things have changed now with teaching in those years, and its no longer a "safe bet" jobwise- there are so many teachers out of work and 200 applicants often for one job. So i feel like I've wasted my time somewhat and i'm most likely going to go back to uni to train as a psych nurse, so at least i'll have two careers i can do.

Everything today with jobs and industry is really screwed up. That's the reason why we are in this boat, arguing the toss and looking for ways out and doing masters whilst simultaneously thinking of applying to macdonalds... It's worrying stuff.

I read today that there will be nearly half a million graduates this year, plus 18,000 immigrant grads. I agree that the market is totally saturated of "graduates"; half of whom can barely read or write and have no work experience or social skills. My mother said in her day, you went to university if you were bright, and it was a big thing. Not went to university just because you had nothing better to do and below average grades. My friend got into uni with DDE at a-level! Another friend was pushed into uni with EEE! Yet they keep on talking of "raising achievement", pushing more people into HE, who quite frankly shouldn't be there, leaving them no better off with their third in media and radio studies, and a competitive job market.

We need more industry in this country, and a path for people who have other skills. For most working-class hard workers such as my brother, there are few options. My brother has only one GCSE, but he works 12 hour shifts as a chef, today he walked to work at 6am in the snow for 3 miles. He gets up at 5am for work, is reliable, trustworthy, never late and has been in the same job since 16, when he cleaned grills there. His wages are rubbish and he wants to swap careers, but he can't easily. Because he hasnt got enough qualifications and hasn't the gift of the gap in a gruelling interview process. He can work, mend things, hes very useful, he has lots of skills, but no silly qualifications to get him into the door.

And speaking of which- interview processes? What's going on there? My mother's friend was made redundant at 50 and applied for a job stacking shelves in ASDA. She called up mum in tears, saying she'd never been so humiliated. She was asked to come for a two stage interview, with a group, doing a presentation, performing a MAGIC act in front of an audience, doing a role play, doing group tasks, then a formal interview where she was expected to know everything about ASDA and feel passionate about stacking shelves, before being turned down on the basis that "she wasn't the sort of team player they were looking for!" Staggering!

And the last part of my rant is based on these STUPID qualifications. The bane of my life when searching for jobs is damn NVQs. I once applied for a job I could clearly do, but it required an NVQ in "giving advice to young people". My friend is an experienced manager, but finds stupid vocational qualifications the barrier to applications.My friend was working for ten years in the same job- but she was told to apply for NVQ level 2, or lose her job! I imagine that conceivably she would be replaced by somebody with no experience, but a silly piece of paper.

Now they've changed the goalposts to this 5 A-C passes crap. Which is fine if youre young and youve been pushed to get this as the benchmark. But my friend who is 36, hasn't got 5 a-c passes. he has 4. and when he was at school there were no ucas points or pass quotas, thus he finds himself unable to apply for many jobs which state this as a requirement. Many people are therefore in a position where they didnt work to their full potential at school, have since proved themselves yet are still judged on their performance as a 15 year old. There are so many qualifications now for X,Y,and Z that its hard to change careers or direction or find a new job in another sector. I despair at the way things are today i really do, and it's no wonder we are sitting on here arguing about the best thing to do.

God.. what a rant....can you feel my despair?