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Do you have a degree?


DA Baracus

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Got a 2:1 in Accounting and Economics 13 years ago, never worked in accounting or Economics but have spent my post-uni life in Financial Services. At a bit of a crossroads now as I’ve pretty much hit the ceiling in terms of what I can do with my current professional qualifications (uni one was only useful for getting my first graduate job) but the idea of going to the next level there doesn’t appeal to me as all the jobs it opens up are ones I don’t really fancy and I’m getting more money at the moment as a contractor than I would in those jobs.

Toyed with the idea of going back to uni to do a related postgrad to open up a career change or doing an OU course, don’t really fancy the former as I’d still be surrounded by people 10+ years younger than me and the latter seems like a ballache. So I’ll probably just coast until something or someone shakes me out of it. Like the grim reaper.

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11 minutes ago, Fuctifano said:

Got a 2:1 in Accounting and Economics 13 years ago, never worked in accounting or Economics but have spent my post-uni life in Financial Services. At a bit of a crossroads now as I’ve pretty much hit the ceiling in terms of what I can do with my current professional qualifications (uni one was only useful for getting my first graduate job) but the idea of going to the next level there doesn’t appeal to me as all the jobs it opens up are ones I don’t really fancy and I’m getting more money at the moment as a contractor than I would in those jobs.

Toyed with the idea of going back to uni to do a related postgrad to open up a career change or doing an OU course, don’t really fancy the former as I’d still be surrounded by people 10+ years younger than me and the latter seems like a ballache. So I’ll probably just coast until something or someone shakes me out of it. Like the grim reaper.

 

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I feel that degrees do not have the weight they once had.


Certainly with undergrad courses. I graduated back in 2006 and got a good relevant job so quickly that I had to get the day off work for my graduation. Had to reapply for roles after redundancy recently and seems to be case that you now need a Masters for entry level. Pain in the arse when you have almost a decade more relevant experience than a recent graduate but some HR jobsworth won't take that into consideration.
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1 hour ago, Granny Danger said:

Sadly higher education is too often seen only in terms of employment opportunities.  Don't get me wrong, I realise that this is an important aspect but it means we do not necessarily appreciate education for education's sake.  As well as specific employment related skills higher education should be about critical thinking and widening a person's general knowledge not just about providing the skills to do a range of jobs.

The better educated the populous the better the society IMO.

 

Agree with this. There's many jobs that require a degree at application level but not at the day to day level once employed. My degree was pretty much redundant once I started working on the contracting side of construction. I could easily have been trained for site engineering/management on the job.

My Mum always questions why the Nursing degree came about for this very reason.

I agree with your last point also but would state that "education" takes many forms.

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Would agree with all of the above, I knew fine well a degree in History/Politics wasn't going to do a huge amount for me in the job front, and despite having a huge interest in the subjects the way it was taught at uni sapped the enthusiasm out of me. Always been tempted to re-enter at third year level on a P/T basis with the OU or something, but not at least for another five years or so.

With regards to SLC being incompetent, I did a month or so working in the Student Finance England call centre. How anyone got their money each term is a mystery, what an absolute disaster of an organisation.

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One of the reasons some employers ask for degrees is to differentiate and lessen the recruitment burden. I was an HR manager for one of the last textile mills in Dundee and whenever we advertised for jobs there would be 100-300 applicants. I wouldn't have had the hard neck to say a degree was required but can see why some might for jobs even only slightly higher up the ladder.

I don't think many employers actually think a degree in itself is particularly useful, certain very specific jobs excluded, but it does at least give a good indication of the existence of certain skills. Plenty without a degree have those skills but it's harder to identify and with enough applicants with a degree why bother?

I've came across pretty much an equal number of incompetent people with degrees as those without so I'm unconvinced that it necessarily is a good indicator of likelihood of success in a job but I'm not sure we have anything better.

I don't have a degree, just the usual O Grades and Highers and a Diploma in Business and a Diploma in Personnel Management plus a few job-related things. Definitely the diplomas helped me in my initial career in HR and later in my job in teaching. Had I got a degree I'm not sure it would have made any difference as I always worked in the rough and ready end of manufacturing industry and taught overseas where they struggle to distinguish between overseas qualifications.

I'd still encourage my son to get as good a qualification as he can (or I can afford to pay for seeing as I'm in the Philippines) because being over-qualified is rarely as big a problem as being under-qualified.



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I don't have a degree (I travelled around the world teaching various outdoor sports like climbing, kayaking, skiing etc. until I was 25) but I wouldn't say the lack of one has held me back (I'm 35 now). I had a great time in my previous "career" but it was never going to be something I could do while raising a family so I knew it was time to settle down and get a "real" career.

Feeling that I had the disadvantage of not having a degree to overcome, I think it motivated me to be more aggressive and take more risks in applying for the "next step" rather than settling in the same job as long as I otherwise might have done. Salary wise, I think I compensated for not having a degree by the time I was 31 and have progressed at a similar rate since then. 

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The social life was the biggest part of getting a degree for me. Managed to whittle my final two years down to little over two hours per week. That left so much time for enjoying life. I could have gone straight in to work but then I'd have missed out on four years of sheer hedonism. 

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58 minutes ago, Shandon Par said:

The social life was the biggest part of getting a degree for me. Managed to whittle my final two years down to little over two hours per week. That left so much time for enjoying life. I could have gone straight in to work but then I'd have missed out on four years of sheer hedonism. 

Depends where you worked.

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4 hours ago, hk blues said:

One of the reasons some employers ask for degrees is to differentiate and lessen the recruitment burden. I was an HR manager for one of the last textile mills in Dundee and whenever we advertised for jobs there would be 100-300 applicants. I wouldn't have had the hard neck to say a degree was required but can see why some might for jobs even only slightly higher up the ladder.

I don't think many employers actually think a degree in itself is particularly useful, certain very specific jobs excluded, but it does at least give a good indication of the existence of certain skills. Plenty without a degree have those skills but it's harder to identify and with enough applicants with a degree why bother?

I've came across pretty much an equal number of incompetent people with degrees as those without so I'm unconvinced that it necessarily is a good indicator of likelihood of success in a job but I'm not sure we have anything better.

I don't have a degree, just the usual O Grades and Highers and a Diploma in Business and a Diploma in Personnel Management plus a few job-related things. Definitely the diplomas helped me in my initial career in HR and later in my job in teaching. Had I got a degree I'm not sure it would have made any difference as I always worked in the rough and ready end of manufacturing industry and taught overseas where they struggle to distinguish between overseas qualifications.

I'd still encourage my son to get as good a qualification as he can (or I can afford to pay for seeing as I'm in the Philippines) because being over-qualified is rarely as big a problem as being under-qualified.
 

That wasn't Tay Textiles on Hillbank Road was it?  I worked there for a few months during the summer holidays - good money for unskilled labour but one of the other students on the labouring gang broke his foot on the first day and got zilch compensation.  My grandfather was a blacksmith-welder there. Nepotism, cannae beat it.

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That wasn't Tay Textiles on Hillbank Road was it?  I worked there for a few months during the summer holidays - good money for unskilled labour but one of the other students on the labouring gang broke his foot on the first day and got zilch compensation.  My grandfather was a blacksmith-welder there. Nepotism, cannae beat it.


I had a really crap job in the very late 70s for the summer at the Dura Street mill for Tay Textiles. It was being shut down and i was doing basic labouring around the factory. I recall using industrial floor cleaners and the boss never happy that the floor was as good as it could be so it went on and on. Hated it!
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On 19/01/2017 at 15:14, Shandon Par said:

The social life was the biggest part of getting a degree for me. Managed to whittle my final two years down to little over two hours per week. That left so much time for enjoying life. I could have gone straight in to work but then I'd have missed out on four years of sheer hedonism. 

That was pretty much my experience. I was 22 when I started uni, graduated at 26 having done the bare minimum to scrape a 2:2. I only really went for the nightlife and because I wanted to move away from Montrose. I worked full time for 5 years before going. I don't think I'd have lasted even a year if I went straight from school at 17.

I've a boring as hell dead end office job, that doesn't relate to my degree. I've pretty much given up hope and resigned myself to a lifetime of drudgery.

I'm still under the old loan system that has a higher threshold, about £27k and I still haven't paid a single penny back. It was sold to a private company called Erudio. As much as I disagree with privatisation, they have been easier to deal with than the SLC.

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I took out a loan in my last year because the bursary went down. I see no hope of me having to pay it back any time soon and I'm somewhat amused by the yearly letters adding about £12 in interest each time. Maybe I'll become a trophy husband and not bother with an income.

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I have a MA in Philosophy and a Postgradute MSc in Information Management. Working now in a library/academic research management job so it was worth it I suppose.

I will almost certainly never pay back the student loans though, I think the interest adds more than my repayments are worth each year. I don't especially give a f**k either.

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