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Doing well without a degree

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posted on 8/1/17

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

posted on 8/1/17

Welback

Have you studied the invisible hand and sll that bollox?

That's about all I can remember from my economics A level

posted on 8/1/17

I went to uni studied Business Management but I haven't exactly set the world alight and it took me a few years to get a fulltime job after uni. I personally feel uni these days isn't beneficial at all as it doesn't always guarantee anything. Maybe in the past it would have but certainly the last 10 years or so I don't feel it has.

posted on 8/1/17

comment by Scruttocks (U19684)
posted 2 hours ago
comment by DaStuDogg (U9291)
posted 11 minutes ago
Grad schemes take graduates from any background. I did Economics as well, but found it less interesting the more I went into it. Ended up in a completely different field and haven't looked back.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
When was that Dustu? I've heard Grad schemes have become either incredibly tough to get on (the good ones) or a bit of a new way to exploit cheap labour... obviously there must be better ones out there though.
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Sorry for the belated response. I did this a year and a half ago.

I think the application processes can be quite tough, but there are so many places where you can get sample assessments and advice like Wikijobs, which was a massive help, in my experience.

posted on 8/1/17

It's silly that so many people do it just for the sake of it as it's so stressful. Please tell me that nothing in the work place is as stressful as exams
_____________________

No, I cannot tell you that.

comment by Biglaa (U5954)

posted on 8/1/17

I dropped out in the final year (mid 90's) because I couldn't bring myself to do a 40k word dissertation on utter bs. The whole uni thing was completely demoralising, I saw people I would consider to be clinically stupid walking away with Desmonds but unable to tie their own laces or count the change in their pockets without help. So I refused to finish it if it was really so utterly pointless that a chimpanzee with an attention span of more than the average goldfish could get a degree.

If you're intelligent and hard working, unless you have a specific area you want to work in then a degree is a waste of time. Attitude and aptitude will get you way further. Especially if you are willing to move- I earn double in Germany for the same job I was doing in the UK. Most of the people I know with degrees work in completely unrelated fields to their study.

posted on 8/1/17

Just knuckle down and get on with life. It's the only surefire way to be successful.

Be willing to fail. Fail. And fail again. Eventually you will get it right.

If you don't know what to do, just do something. Anything. It will either work or it won't, but it will grow you far more than standing still twiddling your thumbs.

Uni was never for me - 5 years ago I would have told you that I regret not going. Present day I'm damn glad that I didn't. That's how life works.

posted on 8/1/17

Plus you can usually bullsheeet some experience. I think most people start out with honest CVs but it won't take long before the truth becomes the minority

posted on 8/1/17

I did French for a degree and what got me hired was a year working over there rather than anything I learnt at uni.

posted on 8/1/17

comment by dat guy welback (U10469)
posted 2 hours, 12 minutes ago
comment by Tiddles - Firminos manbun (U17634)
posted 24 minutes ago
I went to uni straight out of high school because that's what everyone did. I dropped out before my first year had finished.

Took a job at a cheese factory, 5 years on I'm now running the factory, make about 50k a year and get 4 weeks paid leave every year to travel to other countries and explore.

I'd personally say uni degrees are extremely over rated. When employing someone I'm more interested in who they are as a person than if they have a piece of paper.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Out of interest how did you go from just working in the factory to running it?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Without tooting my own horn too much, I'm quite intelligent. My boss who owns the factory is very wealthy and has made a career out of running multinational factories, manufacturing cars etc.

He worked out I had a brain and good work ethic, and most important is the right temperament. Need to be a people person and get the best out of others, when the previous factory manager left he promoted me rather than search externally for someone else and I've done a very good job.

If your talented and have a good work ethic people pick up on it. That's more important to people than a degree a lot of the time, it's just about getting your foot in the door.

posted on 8/1/17

comment by Sideshow (U11809)
posted 2 hours, 18 minutes ago
Killing everyone else in the factory
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Game of thrones'd the lot of them.

posted on 8/1/17

comment by Tiddles - Firminos manbun (U17634)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by dat guy welback (U10469)
posted 2 hours, 12 minutes ago
comment by Tiddles - Firminos manbun (U17634)
posted 24 minutes ago
I went to uni straight out of high school because that's what everyone did. I dropped out before my first year had finished.

Took a job at a cheese factory, 5 years on I'm now running the factory, make about 50k a year and get 4 weeks paid leave every year to travel to other countries and explore.

I'd personally say uni degrees are extremely over rated. When employing someone I'm more interested in who they are as a person than if they have a piece of paper.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Out of interest how did you go from just working in the factory to running it?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Without tooting my own horn too much, I'm quite intelligent. My boss who owns the factory is very wealthy and has made a career out of running multinational factories, manufacturing cars etc.

He worked out I had a brain and good work ethic, and most important is the right temperament. Need to be a people person and get the best out of others, when the previous factory manager left he promoted me rather than search externally for someone else and I've done a very good job.

If your talented and have a good work ethic people pick up on it. That's more important to people than a degree a lot of the time, it's just about getting your foot in the door.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That's good, shows the benefit of working for a firm without a huge number of tiers between owner and staff as well though.

Mobility can be a lot more difficult even for very talented people depending on who they work for.

I've heard a lot of nightmare stories from fairly senior people at some of the biggest companies around. Very much the opposite of what you described - They constantly have graduates from the "big two" unis who can't tell their arris from their ear when it comes to the real world of work.

A lot of these top guys came through the ranks without a degree or anything close but as you said had a great attitude, people skills and were obviously intelligent.

Makes me think that now a lot excellent potential is wasted precisely because the biggest companies fail to look beyond oxbridge.

posted on 8/1/17

comment by Tiddles - Firminos manbun (U17634)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by dat guy welback (U10469)
posted 2 hours, 12 minutes ago
comment by Tiddles - Firminos manbun (U17634)
posted 24 minutes ago
I went to uni straight out of high school because that's what everyone did. I dropped out before my first year had finished.

Took a job at a cheese factory, 5 years on I'm now running the factory, make about 50k a year and get 4 weeks paid leave every year to travel to other countries and explore.

I'd personally say uni degrees are extremely over rated. When employing someone I'm more interested in who they are as a person than if they have a piece of paper.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Out of interest how did you go from just working in the factory to running it?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Without tooting my own horn too much, I'm quite intelligent. My boss who owns the factory is very wealthy and has made a career out of running multinational factories, manufacturing cars etc.

He worked out I had a brain and good work ethic, and most important is the right temperament. Need to be a people person and get the best out of others, when the previous factory manager left he promoted me rather than search externally for someone else and I've done a very good job.

If your talented and have a good work ethic people pick up on it. That's more important to people than a degree a lot of the time, it's just about getting your foot in the door.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
4 weeks leave is 20 days that's pretty poor for a well paid job of 50k...

posted on 8/1/17

comment by palmers_spur - you have a woman's hand my lord (U8896)
posted 29 minutes ago
Welback

Have you studied the invisible hand and sll that bollox?

That's about all I can remember from my economics A level
----------------------------------------------------------------------
in a level the invisible hand used to explain everything I swear. These days it's just random mathematical models trying to explain the world. Can be fairly interesting I suppose but I'm just not very good at it

posted on 8/1/17

comment by If anyone can, Emre Can... Britain just failed its IQ Test. (U3979)
posted 17 minutes ago
comment by Tiddles - Firminos manbun (U17634)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by dat guy welback (U10469)
posted 2 hours, 12 minutes ago
comment by Tiddles - Firminos manbun (U17634)
posted 24 minutes ago
I went to uni straight out of high school because that's what everyone did. I dropped out before my first year had finished.

Took a job at a cheese factory, 5 years on I'm now running the factory, make about 50k a year and get 4 weeks paid leave every year to travel to other countries and explore.

I'd personally say uni degrees are extremely over rated. When employing someone I'm more interested in who they are as a person than if they have a piece of paper.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Out of interest how did you go from just working in the factory to running it?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Without tooting my own horn too much, I'm quite intelligent. My boss who owns the factory is very wealthy and has made a career out of running multinational factories, manufacturing cars etc.

He worked out I had a brain and good work ethic, and most important is the right temperament. Need to be a people person and get the best out of others, when the previous factory manager left he promoted me rather than search externally for someone else and I've done a very good job.

If your talented and have a good work ethic people pick up on it. That's more important to people than a degree a lot of the time, it's just about getting your foot in the door.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
4 weeks leave is 20 days that's pretty poor for a well paid job of 50k...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm guessing that's not his "holiday leave" that 4 weeks is an additional thing in which he gets to travel overseas as part of the job.

comment by Kav H (U19426)

posted on 8/1/17

Never went Uni either - look back at all my mates who graduated recently and do regret it to an extent with all the social events and so forth at times. However as I am training to be an accountant, which my company pays for I am not riddled with the £30k+ debt as they are. I was fortunate in that I managed to get a job not too long after leaving school with full study support offered in the motor industry. Now part qualified and close to becoming a chartered accountant without paying a penny as well as driving spanking new cars every 6 months I feel it might have been a justified decision.

OP my advice would be - work hard at it. If you dislike the course, drop out of it or take time out to analyse. We all have different paths in life: I would never criticise anyone wanting to attend Uni as the life skills and knowledge it offers can be invaluable but on the other hand it can be a drag if the course you do ends up being unenjoyable as well as racking up massive amounts of debt. All the best

posted on 8/1/17

comment by Kav H (U19426)
posted 9 minutes ago
Never went Uni either - look back at all my mates who graduated recently and do regret it to an extent with all the social events and so forth at times. However as I am training to be an accountant, which my company pays for I am not riddled with the £30k+ debt as they are. I was fortunate in that I managed to get a job not too long after leaving school with full study support offered in the motor industry. Now part qualified and close to becoming a chartered accountant without paying a penny as well as driving spanking new cars every 6 months I feel it might have been a justified decision.

OP my advice would be - work hard at it. If you dislike the course, drop out of it or take time out to analyse. We all have different paths in life: I would never criticise anyone wanting to attend Uni as the life skills and knowledge it offers can be invaluable but on the other hand it can be a drag if the course you do ends up being unenjoyable as well as racking up massive amounts of debt. All the best
----------------------------------------------------------------------


Same career path as me

I did accounting and finance at uni. Decided I didn't want to go into it after. However after some years I decided it was a pretty good career path and now work in accounting.

My degree would have been pointless had I not made the decision to eventually complete my post degree qualification. Now I'm glad I have a degree as it exempted me from 7 professional examinations.

comment by Kav H (U19426)

posted on 9/1/17

Yeah Palmers that's the good thing about doing a degree in accounting you do get the 7-9 exemptions depending on whether you do ACCA/ACA/CIMA etc. Obviously I had to do each exam but even after graduating after 3 years, someone in my position would be at a similar stage to me but also be in debt. Not to mention I would have gained 3 years of solid experience while working and studying.

It really is swings and roundabouts I suppose. Different paths for different people. Everyone has a route in life, guess it's just about trying to enjoying it as much as you can.

posted on 9/1/17

comment by Scruttocks (U19684)
posted 16 minutes ago
comment by If anyone can, Emre Can... Britain just failed its IQ Test. (U3979)
posted 17 minutes ago
comment by Tiddles - Firminos manbun (U17634)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by dat guy welback (U10469)
posted 2 hours, 12 minutes ago
comment by Tiddles - Firminos manbun (U17634)
posted 24 minutes ago
I went to uni straight out of high school because that's what everyone did. I dropped out before my first year had finished.

Took a job at a cheese factory, 5 years on I'm now running the factory, make about 50k a year and get 4 weeks paid leave every year to travel to other countries and explore.

I'd personally say uni degrees are extremely over rated. When employing someone I'm more interested in who they are as a person than if they have a piece of paper.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Out of interest how did you go from just working in the factory to running it?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Without tooting my own horn too much, I'm quite intelligent. My boss who owns the factory is very wealthy and has made a career out of running multinational factories, manufacturing cars etc.

He worked out I had a brain and good work ethic, and most important is the right temperament. Need to be a people person and get the best out of others, when the previous factory manager left he promoted me rather than search externally for someone else and I've done a very good job.

If your talented and have a good work ethic people pick up on it. That's more important to people than a degree a lot of the time, it's just about getting your foot in the door.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
4 weeks leave is 20 days that's pretty poor for a well paid job of 50k...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm guessing that's not his "holiday leave" that 4 weeks is an additional thing in which he gets to travel overseas as part of the job.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry I should have been clearer. I get a month, it's about 30 days. I said 4 weeks because 4 weeks in a month.

It's not totally amazing in terms of paid leave, but because we're somewhat seasonal I don't get 3 or so weeks off over Xmas like most people who work in an office, Xmas is our busiest period.

But it's enough to let me travel for a month and not have to worry about he bills, so I'm happy enough.

Looking at moving over to America in a year or so though, tillamook is the factory I'd like to move to.

posted on 9/1/17

You're right Kav.

My older brother is ACA qualified. He had a place at Reading uni but didn't go and started his training at 18. Now he works overseas and earns excellent money. The qualification is a very good one.

I thought I wouldn't like accounting but I do actually quite enjoy it. I'm decent with numbers I think.
The only think I hate is box ticking and filling out forms when I do audits. It's mindnumbingly boring!

comment by Samir (U2630)

posted on 9/1/17

I suppose everyone's experiences are different, but as has already been said, you can still have a successful career without a degree and there are countless examples of it.

In my final year at Brunel University studying International Politics and for me, it's been a life-changer. The way I think now and my perspective is completely different to when I started in 2014. In fact, even this time a year ago, I didn't have the same mindset that I do now. I know this is somewhat irrelevant to the topic at hand, but one of the things I've been so grateful for at university is the people I've met who have told me their experiences and got me to really understand things from a point of view that I had never considered before - and this isn't just limited to my peers, but also my lecturers who have taught me things that I now have an avid interest in. It's because of these interactions and conversations that has made me now know what field of work I want to go into.

In general terms, I don't think it's as overly important as it once was. I mean, I guess it's certainly more competitive now than it was back in the day when only something like 12% of the population went to university, and now there is a larger quantity of people going, but I think unless you're going into banking, architecture or any other STEM type area of work, where obviously a degree is important as well as the reputation of the university, it's not that critical.

Nevertheless, now more than ever, I feel like employers look at what activities students have done from their time at university outside of academia.

My mum works at Deloitte and she was telling me how when they're recruiting for their graduate programmes, they apparently now blot out the university students go to and the degree classification because they want to see what else the student has to offer that will be of practical use.

So, in a roundabout way, even graduate schemes are putting less emphasis on degrees/university reputation and more emphasis on extracurricular stuff.

comment by Biglaa (U5954)

posted on 9/1/17

I remember even in the 90's, Boots had a graduate scheme for their IT guys- but they wouldn't touch anyone with an IT related degree.

posted on 9/1/17

comment by Samir (U2630)
posted 35 minutes ago
I suppose everyone's experiences are different, but as has already been said, you can still have a successful career without a degree and there are countless examples of it.

In my final year at Brunel University studying International Politics and for me, it's been a life-changer. The way I think now and my perspective is completely different to when I started in 2014. In fact, even this time a year ago, I didn't have the same mindset that I do now. I know this is somewhat irrelevant to the topic at hand, but one of the things I've been so grateful for at university is the people I've met who have told me their experiences and got me to really understand things from a point of view that I had never considered before - and this isn't just limited to my peers, but also my lecturers who have taught me things that I now have an avid interest in. It's because of these interactions and conversations that has made me now know what field of work I want to go into.

In general terms, I don't think it's as overly important as it once was. I mean, I guess it's certainly more competitive now than it was back in the day when only something like 12% of the population went to university, and now there is a larger quantity of people going, but I think unless you're going into banking, architecture or any other STEM type area of work, where obviously a degree is important as well as the reputation of the university, it's not that critical.

Nevertheless, now more than ever, I feel like employers look at what activities students have done from their time at university outside of academia.

My mum works at Deloitte and she was telling me how when they're recruiting for their graduate programmes, they apparently now blot out the university students go to and the degree classification because they want to see what else the student has to offer that will be of practical use.

So, in a roundabout way, even graduate schemes are putting less emphasis on degrees/university reputation and more emphasis on extracurricular stuff.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It seems like you've properly engaged with your degree which is good as that's the point of it. I'd say that the majority of the people don't really like their degree and are just doing it as they think it means that they'll be more likely to get a good job but as you say I'm not sure if it makes much of a difference for most jobs

posted on 9/1/17

Respect to you accountants also. I did an accounting module last year and found it pretty baffling.. like a completely different language

comment by Biglaa (U5954)

posted on 9/1/17

Seems that happens a lot! We had an accounting module on my course, and I was the only person in the year to pass first time

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