What to do afterwards?

Loster

This is not strictly money saving (well, at all, actually) but it is very important to most graduates.

What do you do next?

I graduated in June of last year with a 2:1 Philosophy degree and have spent most of that time in a low paying IT job at the uni I got it from.

I am lost as far as where to go from here is concerned. I have considered a Masters but have such disparate interests and talents that I can't think now what I would study.

Paying off my rather large student loans is an imperative (£53/month interest they're accumulating - sheesh) and so a graduate job is a prospect but I can't get the idea that they are, in the main, spirit sapping, out of my head. The place where I work now (and all those I've worked in in the past) seem to contain mainly unthinking people; repeating their way through their daily grinds without any soul in their work. I imagine, in a graduate position, I would have this plus the cut-throat-ness of big business. I feel life spent in the service of non-meaningful goals does something terrible to thinking, creative people. They lose their spirits somehow.

Anyway, that's getting pretentious I imagine.

The remaining option is going it alone. Starting websites; writing; creating financial packages for people (I am partial to a complex Excel spreadsheet). This is the difficult route. One Martin exemplifies I feel.

Well, anyway, does anybody have any relevant advice or heartening personal stories to share on this. I would be grateful.

Help! I'm lost!

lethal_2

What I think you should do if you can is leave your job as you will be more motivated to get a graduate job, and as someone else posted in a thread earlier to work voluntarily in uni department or other business part time. just keep trying, and dont forget the agency.

lethal

DrFluffy

Do ALL the professional courses you can do while with your employer, and start looking for something else.

Set yourself deadlines, but DO NOT LEAVE UNTIL YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO GO TO, as I'm guessing by the comment about the interest building on your SL you are not loaded...

What uni do you work at? Find out about the local 'Milk Round' and start going to their graduate fairs etc. to network, find out whats out their and find out how to make your application as strong as possible by finding out exactly what they look for. Also, refamiliarise yourself with the careers service...

Oldernotwiser

Yes, I agree; nothing looks worst on your CV than a period of unemployment and these periods have a habit of stretching out! Don't get too hung up on the idea of a "graduate job". You can't expect that automatically nowadays and often you have to start at a lower level than you might like.

If you want to start working for yourself you can start in a small way alongside your daytime job. This will give you financial stability and also the challenge that you find lacking at the moment. Stop looking down on the people you work with; most of us are just trying to get through life as best we can. A little humanity and humility go a long way.

Good luck.

tazzababe

Well if its any consolation your not alone. I should be graduating this summer and have absolutley no idea what I'm going to do. I changed career plans last year, and hoped to get on a teacher training course- unlucky there because the course is full. So I have to find myself a job, one that I am going to enjoy and that will benefit both myself and my daughter.

I'm sure whatever you put your mind at you will achieve- good luck:T

Loster

I thank you all for these replies

lethal - what do you mean by the agency?

DrFluffy - Setting myself a deadline for leaving is a great idea. I've already sorted my finances through budgeting - now it's time to budget my working hours. I have to say though that Graduate Fairs and all of that CV stuff (i.e. marketing yourself) make me a bit woozy. Graduate fairs at this uni (Preston) seem to contain mainly companies like McDonalds and Hertz rent a car. Not for me.

Tezzababe - your point about being able to achieve anything I put my mind too was very inspiring - as was telling me I'm not alone. Thanks for that. Hopefully you'll get on the teacher training course next year?

Oldernotwiser - Your idea about working for yourself alongside your full job is a good one, and one I think I will follow. Also, your point that humanity and humility is certainly a true one, though I hope you will agree that it is also OK to know when you are not "in the right place": when your natural creativity is not encouraged (the opposite in fact: suppressed), where you have consistent bureaucratic frustration and the intimation of being a lower class worker all the time. I frame these problems in terms of the people around me in this job who just repeat, repeat, repeat the messages of managers... and your respond has humbled me a bit for doing that. There are healthier ways to approach everything I suppose.

Here's to our futures.....

pavlovs_dog

is there any possibility you could try the setting up webistes/excel packages etc as a sideline, to see

1) how uou find working for yourself
2) if it is a viable source of income
3) whether its a job you could stick at
4) whether you can get the contacts and the contracts necessary to survive as a small business?

this way, you wont be jeopardising you main source of income. if its successful, you wont be starting from scratch when you quit your IT job.

you can get lots of info on starting your own business from the uni career office. your local bank and the princes' trust may also be able to help get you off the ground with a loan or a grant.

you might want to look at the small business and the tax board as well, to get your head around how registering as self employed works, tax returns, paying your loan off etc.

good luck with it all

melancholly

you could try going to other NW unis to their fairs:
http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/recruit/profile/fairs/graduate/
http://www.liverpoolfairs.org.uk/

you could try lots of other relatively local unis too

piggy73

I Used to work at a Uni & providing I worked over a certain number of hours per year I was able to go on many of their courses for free :-)

Also the Uni offered loads of IT courses for it's staff - also free.

My husband (also working at the Uni) managed to get the dept in which he works to pay for his Masters - which for him is the main perk of his job.

Good luck

PJ

lush_walrus

It sounds to me that you may be feeling as if any job will be unsatisfactory? Which isn't necessarily the case if you find the area you are genuinely interested in. But, maybe your problem is identifying this.

When you initially chose to study Philosophy, where did you visualise you would be working on completion? If you had an aim then, that is where you should try to focus yourself again now perhaps.

And what careers did your fellow students go into?

It's not easy finding where you fit in the job market, but there are lots of levels inbetween the mundane and the cut throat end of business, in any discipline.

With potential Masters, perhaps try to think practically along the lines of which will lead to careers and which are academic. Philosophy is linked to many different disciplines (I studied philosophy of art as part of my architectural education) and perhaps gearing into where the skills are useful in the workplace may help give you direction.

There are pleasing jobs out there, not all of them are unsatisfactory, but I hate to say it, if you do not find a direction and go for it, you may find yourself caught up in jobs that do not interest you. Try to focus your mind on areas that DO interest you, rather than fear those that DONT!