stuck in a rut - need to move on from admin

cuthbertlilly

bristol_pilot wrote: »

A 2:2 in sports science is worthless, sorry. You are going to have to train from scratch if you want a professional career. AAT is a good option.

spors science is actually different from sport studies, which I studied.
another inane reply there bristol_pilot, why not think about what to write to help people? you sound like one of those right-wing media studies hating journalists.

cuthbertlilly

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

Could not have put it better!

why? can you not string a sentence together?

cuthbertlilly

janninew wrote: »

This is very true! You would struggle to even get a job in a gym with this degree! My ex has a degree in Sports Science and decided when he had finished that he wanted to be a personal trainer. The degree did not qualify him and he had to spend another three thousand doing a diploma in Personal training, the degree was truely worthless!!

Working in a gym would require you to do further training in gym instruction at a level 2, the YMCA do this qualification for around five hundred pounds!

Good luck.

not at all true, because I've worked in a gym and it was ok. the knowledge and skills (i.e. physiology, motor skills, anatomy, first aid, etc) gained from a degree (level 4 qual) far outdo that from a level 2 gym qual (which, admittedly is more vocational). a degree entitles one to work as a gym instructor, but personal training is more specific and would indeed need a more specific qualification.

two-for-one

Gosh, you can be pretty vitriolic rj2009.

Wonder if anyone will bother to post any more replies!

cuthbertlilly

lfcsja wrote: »

Sorry to go slightly off topic, but I've always thought a 2:1 was a good result? Excuse my ignorance, but I've never been to uni so don't fully understand the scoring system.

coffee_prince wrote: »

ATM My degree is worthless too, got a 2:1 which is okay but stuck in retail atm...

Sports trainers don't get a lot, and the ones that get the jobs have a qualification for it. The hours are random, my friend only gets £6k a year but its not full time hours of course

A bit off topic but I think they should split degree classification into upper 1st, lower 1st to distinguish between someone who gets 69% and someone who gets 60%, I'd certianly benefit from it

a 2.1 is a descent result as is a 2.2 or indeed any achivement in higher education. to suggest otherwise is not only insulting but myopic, but a lot of people on these boards probably don't recognise that not all of us have a golden spoon. for example, if someone, say a single mother got a 2.2 from the open uni, would people say "worthless degree"? be positive people, otherwise as the saying goes "if you haven't got anything good to say, don't bother saying it"! rant over.

OrangeProse

Back to your original question... I think, to be honest, your work experience is going to be more relevant moving forward than your degree, as obviously now it's a six year old qualification.

Unless of course you've completed further training or been heavily involved in sports since you graduated, in which case the degree (and its subject) has more bearing.

Are you able to consider further training to develop your career? I think actually you might reconsider the ACCA/CIMA route. If you're already working in an accounts role you might find an organization that is willing to sponsor you - in return for a commitment from yourself in terms of staying with the company for a period of time after you qualify, of course. If you're already doing the kind of role where you look after budgets worth millions, then I would imagine that you're already quite an attractive proposition for accountancy. What's more, accountancy at this level is a terrific career and can take you all over the world. You could even combine the two 'threads' of your experience and interests and work in sports accountancy?

Journalism is a different kettle of fish and would again require further retraining. You can do a 'top up' NCTJ course at several universities (Liverpool is apparently excellent) which is a fast-track to the NCTJ qualification and takes less than a year. Obviously it's highly competitive but it is a great qualification and can open doors into journalism.

I guess the degree would open the door to a Personal Trainer qualification, if you were so inclined. Premier International are, apparently, the best (I'm sure you already know this). It does cost about £6,000 but you can apply for a Career Development Loan - a lot of the training companies will help you with your application.

In my opinion there is no such thing as a 'useless' degree. (Well, apparently one university in Holland offered a degree in 'Madonna Studies' - i.e. three years studying the famously publicity-shy vocal sensation; that's possibly the only one.) The problem is that with so many people now completing degrees, they're not the 'instant job kit' that they used to be thirty years ago. The way I see it, they just help with opening doors - the graduate still has to make the effort to walk through them.

OP, I know how you feel, by the way. I came out of university in 1999 with a degree that I didn't know what to do with (when you're 17 and choosing your course negotiating the peculiarities of UCAS is quite enough and you don't always pay much attention to career options!) and I spent a few years travelling and doing retail work whilst I worked out what my path was to be. Eventually I found it, and I worked bloody hard to get into it, but it was worth it. And actually, having a few years of experience of the wider world helped me in the end. I was more mature and knew my own mind a lot more.

I can't tell you what to do but I can wish you all the luck in the world.

Horace

rj2009 wrote: »

whoever mentioned Richard Branson Horace?
you need to learn to post constructive replies, and yes you were meaning to be rude!
i never said that I didn't want to study, just not sure about 3 years of accounts study. get with it Horace.

No one mentioned Richard Branson - I did as you seemed to be complaining about starting jobs at the bottom of the tree.

You also need to learn to write properly, you certainly alluded to not wanting to study! Perhaps you need to find something that you want to do instead of whinging about what you have - only you have the power to change what you do and certainly not people on an anonymous forum. If you want to use your degree then use it and don't whine on about only wanting to work 9-5 and lack of career prospects and lack of money, go back to your university and speak to your careers centre and ask them for some ongoing help.

I guess, you are the type of person who only wants to hear what you want to hear and god help anybody who dares to disagree and form an opinion of you from what you, yourself have written!! As you have been quite vitrolic towards people - I get the feeling that you are a troll and I for one certainly won't be responding to anymore of your posts.

Be thankful that you have a job - there are millions out there that don't!!

paulwf

So rj2009 what about my suggestion of being a rep for a sporting goods company?

cazziebo

rj2009 wrote: »

cazziebo, did you cut and paste your reply from elsewhere?
my "basic admin" job involves overseeing a £1.5 million yearly budget is spent correctly and all sort of other office tasks (you've just made an assumption).
excuse my ignorance, but from where I come from a 2:2 degree is not a bad achievement overall! (bearing in mind 30% of my cohort got 5 A-Cs at GCSE).
i'm not using excuses, just looking for some useful input as to interesting careers that are not desk bound and sufficiently different from admin. drop the psychologist bit and only post back replies when you can come up with constructive efforts.

What a rude, ignorant and uneducated response!

I was wrong, it's not your poor qualification or lack of motivation that's hindering you, it's your stinking attitude.....

Maybe when you grow up you'll recognise that myself and other posters are being constructive.

janninew

rj2009 wrote: »

not at all true, because I've worked in a gym and it was ok. the knowledge and skills (i.e. physiology, motor skills, anatomy, first aid, etc) gained from a degree (level 4 qual) far outdo that from a level 2 gym qual (which, admittedly is more vocational). a degree entitles one to work as a gym instructor, but personal training is more specific and would indeed need a more specific qualification.

If you look in the papers for gym instructors/assistants most of the time a Level 2 gym instructors qualification is essential! I have worked at Total Fitness and JJB Gyms in the admin and recruiting department and they would always employ somebody with a YMCA qualification over a degree. A decent gym would require their instructors to be on the Register of Exercise Professionals which having a degree will not give you access to, but having a Gym Instructors qualification would.

May seem unfair, but is very true and i have first hand experience! Of course gyms can recruit people who are not on the register as its not law, but i think more and more gyms are starting to insist on this.