What am I supposed to do with this degree thing? Paper hat?

studentphil

Never have I wanted to publish any articles.
I agree finding a direction is key for the OP.

I would not think that a 2:2 was too bad in as the OP has a two subjects degree. Really a degree class is one number that sits in all your other positives on your CV, so there seems no reason why it is like a lead ballon pulling you down as it is so very small in your whole application.

With jobs it is luck if you are in the right place at the right time.

BigBouncyBall

Whining/rambling is what this place is for sometimes! You obviously love writting and i suggest you use some of those skills to write out a life plan for yourself. It sounds cheesy but i think it could help you get a bit of direction on things. I think its clear that for the moment (next year or so) you'll be busy completing this creative writting course, isn;t there a final project where you are supposed to produce a publishable document of some sort? A book, screenplay, articles of some sort? That will be a start to getting published wont it? From there its all up to you.

If you don't want to be a teacher then for god sake dont start investigating further training/PGCE.

Get your money's worth from your fees and go and see your careers advisor at university. We all know that a lot of the time they are pretty useless however they have to be better than moping around saying i dont know what to do with myself. They maybe able to point you in the direction of writing theropy courses.

Your signature speaks volumes for your attitude on forging ahead with life and "doing things".

lady_fuschia

Whining/rambling is what this place is for sometimes! You obviously love writting and i suggest you use some of those skills to write out a life plan for yourself. It sounds cheesy but i think it could help you get a bit of direction on things. I think its clear that for the moment (next year or so) you'll be busy completing this creative writting course, isn;t there a final project where you are supposed to produce a publishable document of some sort? A book, screenplay, articles of some sort? That will be a start to getting published wont it? From there its all up to you.

Thanks. I did do a sort of vague life plan a few months ago trying to work out what I wanted my life to be like in five years ten years etc - maybe I'll do some more work on that.

I've just started my dissertation piece (a novel) - it is suppose dto be publishable standard, although obviously that's no guarantee you will actually get published!

I think what I need at the moment, in the first instance, is just to make my CV look more like I did it on purpose!

studentphil

lady_fuschia wrote: »

Hi everyone, thanks for all the replies that appeared whilst I was off line!
You're right - I am getting a bit sick of hearing the tired old spiel about "transferrable skills" and how much respect employers have for degrees (degrees, degrees any degrees!) when it's not quite like that. It's not like I see the degree as worthless or anything, I'm glad I did it, it's more a case of not really knowing how to back it up in a way that looks something like a coherent career plan rather than just doing ...whatever...

I have just started keeping a blog, although I didn't think that particularly counted as increasing my employability! I registered with the CVS and they gave me two slots at fairs to do Creative Writing workshops, although drumming up the interest amongst people dropping in on their lunch break was virtually impossible. The second I did had only two participants, one who left halfway through because she had to get back to her kids.
Writing articles seems like a good idea, but to be honest, apart from my time obviously being pretty limited at the moment (MA and full time job), I don't know how to go about it - most newspapers and magazines employ their own staff to write for them.
Writing therapy is something that really interests me as well, but again, there seems to be a complete lack of information on how one gets into the field.
I actually found myself talking about going on a teacher training course the other day - I don't even WANT to be a teacher - it just seemed like something I could do that would at least lead to a recognisable career and semi-decent wage!
Thing is I love writing, I want to write, and the course has been really helpful in terms of developing my writing- I'm really glad I've done it in that sense. But I recognise I probably can't make a living out of story writing/ novel writing (virtually no-one makes their main income from fiction or poetry) and in terms of actual career advancement the MA is technically a waste of time.
The thought of working in advertising or something like that - all those yuppie-ish "graduate jobs" in marketing and sales that get thrown at English grads, just makes me want to shoot myself it sounds so soul-destroyingly awful!
It's not that I'm lazy. I am quite willing to work damn hard for a living. It's just that I feel like I need some proper quality advice on the kind of oppurtunities available and what I need to do to make myself more employable in the kind of job I might actually have some passion for some of the time. It's more knowing what to do that bothers me, not the actual doing it!
Does that make any sense or am I rambling and whining now?

It says to me that you are a creative person maybe more suited to freelance work in your heart, but yet you want this proper establishment career thing that goes against that. That does seem a puzzle

On a useful side, what about sending applications blind to every possible media, writing, newspaper place in your area that you can get to?

It is worth a try for maybe spending a few pounds on postage.

lady_fuschia

studentphil wrote: »

It says to me that you are a creative person maybe more suited to freelance work in your heart, but yet you want this proper establishment career thing that goes against that. That does seem a puzzle

.

That's so true!
TBH I'd love to do freelance as a career, but I'd just be really concerned about not having a guaranteed regular income.
I guess you can't have it both ways though can you?

dizzybint

If you've not found your local careers guidance office very helpful there are a number of useful internet resources. As the indifferent owner of a desmond myself, I found this website helped me to develop the necessary self-reflection skills and give a career plan some structure:-

http://www.graduatesyorkshire.info/grad-vcc.html

You do need to register to use it but I think that it's worth it to gain some objective understanding of where you are and how might best suit you to develop in the future.

I sympathise with how you feel about the employment prospects of degrees but at least you've done something you genuinely enjoyed - that has to stand you in better stead than others who may have chosen their degree based mainly on employment prospects but are now in the same situation as you.

Dead_Eye_Jones

I recently sat in on my company's interviews, we are a City based financial company, and had the 'pleasure' or reviewing cvs. tbh we had a mixed bag and 'degree class' wasnt a big deal really. We certainly werent there going - this person looks great but they ony got a 2.2! Some of my colleagues were chucking cvs out for spelling mistakes etc, tbh when you have to get through 50 or so you need some method of filtering, we just dont have the time to pick through them carefully sadly.

So we ended up interviewing a range of people with different academic records. Some people just interview really badly, it gave me massive confidence actually, becuase I know that just being able to speak and come across as normal puts you right ahead of the game. I mean, we are no massive top of the line company, but we do need people to hold a conversation without staring at the floor!

In the end we employed a couple of less acedemically gifted guys because they came across as being enthusiatic and confident. They actually seemed like thy wanted the job and had basic communication skills - which was more tha a lot of people had!

So my point, a degree is by no means a limiting factor, neither does it guarantee you a job in any way. Life can be real tough and you really need to throw your all into it if you want to get results.

Getting a job may be about being at the right place at the right time, but the harder you work, the luckier you get. This means contacting HR departments directly, getting to know recruitment agents, networking, and all the rest...

Best of luck!

Sobraon

I did start to write a long 'spiel' on this but to be brief, IMHO I would suggest the following:

Really listen to you heart (not your head). This is v.hard to do so to help -

Really listen to people who know you the best to help you reflect on what your motivations, aspirations and skills are.

Work out how these abilities/skills/interests you have can be combined with the learning from your degree(s) – these make you unique.

And the really important one - If money wasn’t an issue what would you do every day (after the first 3 month holiday!). (n.b. think about the ‘techies’ on IT help).

Talk to the people who know you best (and preferably love you) and reflect on all of the above with them. Remember what may be blindingly obvious to them may be completely hidden to you!

Now out of this a ‘job’ may or may not pop up but at least you will have a way of evaluating opportunities and looking in the fruitful places.

[FONT=&quot]HTH[/FONT]

Acc72

You poor thing Lady Fuschia - it sounds as though you have had a terrible life.

Hopefully if you carry on in an aimless self-pitying manner, somebody will knock on your door and offer you a perfect job with perfect salary, and maybe even a perfect partner and home to go with it.


Sorry to be harsh, but it seems to me that a lot of people these days say "I don't know what to do" and expect somebody to do something for them.

Why should they - the world doesn't owe you a living.

You firstly need to find a focus and then set yourselves targets. I once read that although a lot of people say "I want to be succesful" - they never actually get there because the goal is too vague.

If you do not know what you want to do, then how would anybody else know ??

black-saturn

I got a degree and 7 A levels at Grade A and none of them have ever served me any purpose what so ever. I wish I hadn't bothered with all the pain and strain of getting it and I hope to god my children don't want to go to Uni.