Choosing a course.

Patrick20

Lokolo wrote: »

Although I slightly agree with Olly (cool name ) the OP has to be realistic. I like football but doesn't mean I should become a professional footballer.

Im not sure if the OP really has a decent idea to be honest. Leaving a supermarket job after 2 years, dropping out of HND course. He just seems to be wombling about picking something that looks interesting rather than career wise, which is pretty stupid unless you are rich and don't need to work.

When I chose my course I took careers and interests.

I like computers, gaming. I want to be a programmer for a career, good money and fun job.

Courses I could have gone on, Software Engineering, Computer Games Technology, Computer Games Programming.

I went for the latter. I now have a placement job at a decent company as a Software Engineer and hope to impress them for a chance at a graduate position. I start on Monday EEEEK.

http://www.prospects.ac.uk <-- for types of jobs

I'm not trying to become a footballer. I've not even suggested any courses yet so you dont know if I'm picking something for interests ir career wise. I was actually planning to do the same as you and pick something were I'm interested and has a career at the end of it. The HND electronics course went more to the career side though and because I couldnt keep interested. I think interests are more important because it gives you more of a chance to suceed.

ps I was also thinking about getting into the gaming industry. I'm learning C++ programming myself, but thats more of a slight interest at the moment. I found this course and it looks pretty interesting, ive never heard of it before Psychology with Interactive Entertainment | Glasgow Caledonian University Website

Patrick20

Btw thanks a bunch for everyone helping me with this. Usually alot of threads are filled with people posting just for the hell of it. But everyone here has genuinely helped me in one way or another.

QuirkyChemistry

Sounds like a very particular but potentially interesting course. Have you done any psychology before? Just asking because a lot of people find psychology is not what they expect. It involves a lot more case studies and statistics than people realise. Best bet is to go to an open day and get a feel for the place.

olly300

Patrick20 wrote: »

ps I was also thinking about getting into the gaming industry. I'm learning C++ programming myself, but thats more of a slight interest at the moment. I found this course and it looks pretty interesting, ive never heard of it before Psychology with Interactive Entertainment | Glasgow Caledonian University Website

If you are interested in getting into the gaming industry as a programmer you are better of doing a related degree as the university department should have links with industry.

If you enjoy programming then you will find you tend to spend all your spare time at home doing something related to it. So rather than fit your interest around a course that you may lose total interest in after a few months you are better of doing it from the beginning.

Patrick20

olly300 wrote: »

If you are interested in getting into the gaming industry as a programmer you are better of doing a related degree as the university department should have links with industry.

If you enjoy programming then you will find you tend to spend all your spare time at home doing something related to it. So rather than fit your interest around a course that you may lose total interest in after a few months you are better of doing it from the beginning.

I'm interesting in the games industry, and programming but Ive done a bit of programming in my previous electronics course and I have to say I dont think I can deal with the finding faults in code. It can get tedious to say the least.

I would rather get another job in that industry. I'm sure my slight knowledge in programming would help in working in a team but I dont want to do it for a living.

olly300

Patrick20 wrote: »

I'm interesting in the games industry, and programming but Ive done a bit of programming in my previous electronics course and I have to say I dont think I can deal with the finding faults in code. It can get tedious to say the least.

I would rather get another job in that industry. I'm sure my slight knowledge in programming would help in working in a team but I dont want to do it for a living.

Your best bet is then to research the jobs available in the industry, see what degree you need to do them and what mandatory courses there are on the degree.

I also suggest you look and ensure there are enough jobs for the number of graduates available in the UK, and if you don't mind living elsewhere, then look at the numbers of jobs aboard. Otherwise you may find yourself with the relevant degree but having to do something else because you can't get into your chosen career in the UK or aboard.

Oh and having knowledge of programming doesn't help if you work in certain jobs in the IT industry for example it's no use to a Project Manager. Project Managers deal with people, politics and budgets. All they need to know is what work is being done and how long it's going to take so they can inform the relevant groups of people and work out the budget. (This is a vast simplification.)

Lokolo

Computer Science <---

During my first year, we did Comp Science Modules, which is basically everything. Programming, Networking, Hardware, Proj Management blah blah blah.

You can then specialise somewhere. Something to look at?

MrsManda

Don't worry about your current qualifications until you have decided what you want to do. I have poor A-level results so when I had chosen a course I contacted the course tutor at the university I was interested in, gave him my background and asked what I needed to do to increase my chance of getting a place. I was at the time doing a 10pt OU course to prove to myself that I was able to still study after five years and was told that the fact I was able to show I was capable of studying at that level meant my a-levels didn't matter so much. I got an interview after going through UCAS and got my place.

If there is a specific job you are interested in doing, try to get a work placement/voluntary work to try it out and see if its still something you're interested in doing. If it still appeals to you, you'll have some experience which is always good on application forms and you can find out what you need to do to get a job in that field. Looking at person specs on job adverts for the role you're interested in is also a good way of finding what you need to do to get into that role.

If you find a course you are interested in but still not 100% sure, you could try the Open University's OpenLearn resources which allow you to access course materials and try them out at home for free.

HTH

Patrick20

The voluntary work idea is a good one but I currently don't have the time to take my time over choosing. I really need to get my finger out and start preparing. I'm giving myself 1 month max to choose the courses I will be apllying for. UCAS allows up to 5 different courses/universities to choose so if I narrow down my choices to 5 then I can wittle it down when i know which universities would take me.

Patrick20

And again thank you everyone who has helped me, and anyone who contributes in the future. I hope everyone doesn't mind but would it be ok, when this thread has run its course would it be ok to move all the suggestions and sites to visit to my first post? So that other pre-students can be helped by this thread aswell and dont have to trawl through?