What was your degree and is it relevant to your job?

Brian Marwood said:
I'm genuinely curious as to whether early study choices were suitable for the eventual career path and nothing to do with status and financial worth.

There is a part of me that questions whether doing a degree in teen years is always worth it and whether it would be better to get people in the workplace first and give them and opportunity to do a degree sitting alongside workplace learning in the early 20's would be better when they have a clearer idea of what they wish to do.

I feel the majority of degrees these days are to get you through the door when they should be making you suitable for the career instead.
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I am genuinely a believer that the experience of university learning/living is a good experience.

Other than cost there is much I like about the US college system - I like the idea of continuing multi-subject learning (minor and major studies) and most vocational studies being post-graduate.

Obviously the issue with a system that values learning for learnings sake is that it is more difficult to justify the cost - which is why the US system can do it - because it is private. We should value as society having deep thinkers that value learning and sharing of best practice.
 
Ravshoutsatbeck said:
I am genuinely a believer that the experience of university learning/living is a good experience.

Other than cost there is much I like about the US college system - I like the idea of continuing multi-subject learning (minor and major studies) and most vocational studies being post-graduate.

Obviously the issue with a system that values learning for learnings sake is that it is more difficult to justify the cost - which is why the US system can do it - because it is private. We should value as society having deep thinkers that value learning and sharing of best practice.
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Not how I would have put it. However similar to my views I think.

A degree teaches people how to take in complex information. It also helps teach people to present information/arguments. This is a general skill.

The other skill taught is the knowledge of a specific subject.

There is one thing I would add to almost all degrees. It is an insight into effective writing.

In particular, understanding the audience. Then writing to an appropriate level of complexity. For the target audience to understand.

There is also an element of growing up. Particularly if you move out of your family home. To attend higher education.
 
Ravshoutsatbeck said:
I am genuinely a believer that the experience of university learning/living is a good experience.

Other than cost there is much I like about the US college system - I like the idea of continuing multi-subject learning (minor and major studies) and most vocational studies being post-graduate.

Obviously the issue with a system that values learning for learnings sake is that it is more difficult to justify the cost - which is why the US system can do it - because it is private. We should value as society having deep thinkers that value learning and sharing of best practice.
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Not all US universities are private. Both my kids went to (very good) NY State universities without costing me a fortune as we were State residents.
 
Mine was in Modern Languages, and I did a PhD in that area, ultimately. I know work in Higher Education in a leadership role, still in languages.
 
Left education after hating school, with just a handful of O levels and without a clue as to what I wanted to do. Ended up doing a series of jobs to which I was ill-suited, all the while playing in bands and doing am-dram - both pretty incompetently if I'm being honest. Eventually in my mid-30s I got the chance of doing a 2 year Performing Arts dip. I've worked across the sector in the 25 years ever since and will never retire.

My only regret is not realising it was an option a lot sooner but when I had my one careers interview at school he said my options were BSC, ICI or Smith's Dock - all apparently 'jobs for life'. Funny ol' world!
 
I did a combined honours degree in English and American Studies at Birmingham Uni. Hated the English side (dull literature for the most part) but loved American Studies (great literature, fascinating history and culture). I did a one year media studies module and a one year television and film production module. The latter obviously had some bearing on my career and gave me an understanding of the basic grammar of telly.

For most of my working life, writing and photography/visuals have been at the core of what I do. But I can trace that back to my mid- teens when I started learning about photography, and did my CSE Art almost exclusively with a camera and in the dark room. At the same time I blagged a job writing for the Evening Gazette, covering Billingham Synthonia in the winter and Stockton CC in the summer. I also did freelance gig reviews for the music press. So the seeds of what turned out to be my career as a music video director (susrprisingly writing plays a big part) and television producer/director were already sewn before I went to University.

Once I'd learned how to format scripts (in the TV and Film module ... 2nd year of Uni) I managed to get work writing corporate video scripts for a production company in Wolverhampton. I got paid £200 per script, and they maybe took me a day to write. Insane money in 1982.

I blagged my first music video job by buttonholing Robert Lloyd in the corner shop .... "I can make music videos...I've got a camera....need any doing?". Surprisingly, he said "Yeah, but there's no money. I've got these punky schoolgirls called We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It. We're putting an EP out. You can do something for that". And so it was, with £50 to buy super 8 film stock, that I shot the "Rules and Regulations" video. Warners came up with a grand for me to telecine the footage and edit it. And my career was born.

I've never once had to make reference to my degree as I have been self-employed ever since that moment in 1985.

What has made my career if not a degree? Number 1, chutzpah! Self-belief. Blag .... plenty of people will tell you that you suck. Ignore them. Number 2, the skills and knowledge that I started to build from a very early age. I'm still learning now.

The degree is still partially relevant, but it has only ever played a tiny part in my career.
 
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I did comp sci, work as a software engineer now, so yes, the knowledge is relevant to my work. Never had to show my actual degree to anybody though.

Didn't realise many Teesside Uni comp sci alumni there was on here!
 
borolad259 said:
I did a combined honours degree in English and American Studies at Birmingham Uni. Hated the English side (dull literature for the most part) but loved American Studies (great literature, fascinating history and culture).
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I know its a stereotype, but you saying that made me laugh.
 
SmallTown said:
It seems like all of us!
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From 1973 I was taught Basic. As part of studying O level Computer Science. I took the exam in 1975. I then took the A level in 1977. I think both of these courses relied on Teesside Poly for the technology.

I wanted to do a straight Computer Science degree and wanted to move away from home. Hence ending up studying in London. Then working there for around 27 years.

I did consider Teesside Poly. However my careers advisor pushed me towards a university. As mentioned earlier they wanted me to do Maths. They were also pushing me to try to qualify to study Maths at Oxford of Cambridge. The compromise was a Computer Science with Maths degree at Queen Mary College. Like Teesside Poly it had a good reputation for Computer Science at that time.
 
I've never really understood it. Get a job or apprenticeship straight from school, start at the bottom and earn £70k+ in the five years it'd take to do Uni instead of getting into 70k's worth of debt, have 5 years experience and already be climbing the ladder rather than trying to find a job with next to no experience or life skills.

I have recruited literally hundreds of people in my time and I'd take someone aged 23 with 5 years actual work experience over someone with a degree every single time.
 
PooliePete said:
I've never really understood it. Get a job or apprenticeship straight from school, start at the bottom and earn £70k+ in the five years it'd take to do Uni instead of getting into 70k's worth of debt, have 5 years experience and already be climbing the ladder rather than trying to find a job with next to no experience or life skills.

I have recruited literally hundreds of people in my time and I'd take someone aged 23 with 5 years actual work experience over someone with a degree every single time.
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Not possible for some industries, I agree a better balance needs to be found between academia and practical or trade skills, but if you think you could work your way up to 70k a year in 5 years in a white collar job with no degree you are very mistaken.

A lot of white collar jobs are now asking for a masters for entry level positions!

Both have their place but a better balance needs to found.
 
JonnyHistory said:
Not possible for some industries, I agree a better balance needs to be found between academia and practical or trade skills, but if you think you could work your way up to 70k a year in 5 years in a white collar job with no degree you are very mistaken.

A lot of white collar jobs are now asking for a masters for entry level positions!

Both have their place but a better balance needs to found.
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I don't mean 70k a year, that's what you would realistically earn in total (and probably more) in the first 5 years though, as opposed to getting into 70k worth of debt and coming out jobless.
 
I went to Uni in the 90's in Plymouth on a Comp Sci course and the required reading was a book written by a professor at Teesside University. Cannot for the life of me remember his name.
NYboro said:
Teesside always had a great reputation for Comp. Sci.
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