Anyone else's degree end up being worthless?
Discussion
How did you deal with it? Carry on that path with a postgrad? Pivot to something else? A 180 and did something completely different and unrelated?
Decided to go back into further education as a mature student and graduated last year. Around 16 months on and i've now reached the conclusion that a First, from one of the best Universities in the country, ain't worth the paper its written on. (Funny, people think i'm a huge success because of that certificate, a right brainy b
d, but I feel a total and utter p***k for falling for it. 4 years and 30 grand down the toilet (I know its not totally worthless, I did learn alot, visited great places and made good pals).
Decided to go back into further education as a mature student and graduated last year. Around 16 months on and i've now reached the conclusion that a First, from one of the best Universities in the country, ain't worth the paper its written on. (Funny, people think i'm a huge success because of that certificate, a right brainy b
d, but I feel a total and utter p***k for falling for it. 4 years and 30 grand down the toilet (I know its not totally worthless, I did learn alot, visited great places and made good pals).NaePasaran said:
(I know its not totally worthless, I did learn alot, visited great places and made good pals).
Sounds well worth it to me.You should be proud of your achievement and enjoy the other benefits it has brought you.
I wish I'd made more effort back when I was a younger - I was too preoccupied with beer and women's bottoms.
Absolutely as others have said, education is a benefit in and of itself, and should not be measured by the earning potential someone subsequently derives from it.
However, I suppose if the reason you went back as a mature student was specifically aimed at that, you might feel differently.
However, I suppose if the reason you went back as a mature student was specifically aimed at that, you might feel differently.
I guess you have to look at the overall skills you get rather than the specifics, although that is like buying a 10 year old Kia Picanto for £50k and then trying to find the silver lining in having spent 10 times what you should have spent.
One of my mentees did a Digital Media degree, and it looks like with me faffing about trying to figure things out with social media, FB ads, SEO etc I've learnt more than him that is actually useful to a business, in a shorter time and without drumming up nearly £100k in debt.
One of my mentees did a Digital Media degree, and it looks like with me faffing about trying to figure things out with social media, FB ads, SEO etc I've learnt more than him that is actually useful to a business, in a shorter time and without drumming up nearly £100k in debt.
Panamax said:
If you want a useful degree it's best to study something useful.
IMO fees should be lower for useful courses to help steer people in a sensible direction to get long term value from their studies.
Sorry if this derails the thread somewhat but I think my earlier post addresses this so I’d be keen to know your thoughts. IMO fees should be lower for useful courses to help steer people in a sensible direction to get long term value from their studies.
Who decides what’s useful and how do we measure utility?
I think there are some specific cases where expectations are wrong. I’m sure I read somewhere that many multiples of people study criminology vs the number of people actually required by the police.
But I tend to lean the other way. If someone’s passionate about a subject and wants to devote 3 years to broadening their mind, debating with others, improving self discipline, I’d call subsidising that an excellent use of taxpayers’ money.
My job history... I got a "starter" job. Most other "starters" were graduates, but not all. That got my foot in the door. Then I got jobs based on experience.
Then I got fed up and changed industries - I firmly believe that I could have got that job with no GCSEs and simply based on an interview.
Then I decided I wanted to get a Professional qualification, which required a relevant degree or masters, and having the degree meant I could get the relevant masters in 1 year instead of doing a 3 year relevant undergrad degree.
The Masters was of some use when I went for the professional qualification, but not much.
So yeah, degrees have helped me, but not much beyond the "might have helped me get a foot in the door, and the masters I needed before the Professional qualification".
I know someone going to university this year... he is going to a top university to study a subject he loves and which offers him genuine opportunities to either go into very well paid work, or academia, both of which he is open to, in theory. For him a degree is a no-brainer, IMHO.
For people who want to become doctors or lawyers ditto.
For other people, not so much. Woke is destroying the arts and social sciences, and genuinely, I'd rather someone with BBB at A level, and common sense, than someone with AAA and a woke degree.
Then I got fed up and changed industries - I firmly believe that I could have got that job with no GCSEs and simply based on an interview.
Then I decided I wanted to get a Professional qualification, which required a relevant degree or masters, and having the degree meant I could get the relevant masters in 1 year instead of doing a 3 year relevant undergrad degree.
The Masters was of some use when I went for the professional qualification, but not much.
So yeah, degrees have helped me, but not much beyond the "might have helped me get a foot in the door, and the masters I needed before the Professional qualification".
I know someone going to university this year... he is going to a top university to study a subject he loves and which offers him genuine opportunities to either go into very well paid work, or academia, both of which he is open to, in theory. For him a degree is a no-brainer, IMHO.
For people who want to become doctors or lawyers ditto.
For other people, not so much. Woke is destroying the arts and social sciences, and genuinely, I'd rather someone with BBB at A level, and common sense, than someone with AAA and a woke degree.
Not me, but my nephew.
Did a degree in English, couldn't find any meaningful employment. Ended up working in an opticians. Loved it, did various dispensing courses and eventually applied and was accepted to do optometry. Passed all the exams last year and has just finished his final qualifying exams to practice unsupervised.
Did a degree in English, couldn't find any meaningful employment. Ended up working in an opticians. Loved it, did various dispensing courses and eventually applied and was accepted to do optometry. Passed all the exams last year and has just finished his final qualifying exams to practice unsupervised.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen over the years many of my children’s friends do degrees followed by masters, that have no relevance to the employment market. They were mostly influenced by their teachers and clueless parents.
In many cases they have become depressed and despondent with life having to take minimum wage jobs that require no qualifications. A few of them, learning the error of their ways undertook degrees in subjects that would lead to employment and / or the professions. This of course has incurred enormous debt and wasted 3 to 4 years of their lives.
I like many of my friends would never support our children in any form of higher education unless there was a direct correlation with the employment market.
In many cases they have become depressed and despondent with life having to take minimum wage jobs that require no qualifications. A few of them, learning the error of their ways undertook degrees in subjects that would lead to employment and / or the professions. This of course has incurred enormous debt and wasted 3 to 4 years of their lives.
I like many of my friends would never support our children in any form of higher education unless there was a direct correlation with the employment market.
TomTheTyke said:
Who decides what s useful and how do we measure utility?
If you use salary as a metric I don't think the top 5 degrees have changed much, and even with the advent of AI these degrees will still get you a decent salary (Obviously not by PH standards).https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c892dv0qy2jo
I've done a member of post graduate qualifications, from PG Cert to Masters/PhD. Pretty much every one has helped with career progression, and I learnt new things through each one. I'm currently thinking about what to do next but the day job is busier than ever so time is tighter than ever.
Learning is fun, but not always associated with more income. If you can learn and than boost your income through you should count your self lucky.
I did the 3 sciences at A Levels and went into a science degree but realised I didn’t fancy a life in the lab / academia. I pivoted to another area entirely after graduation for 2 additional years which had direct career applications. But while doing my job applications I took a Summer temping job in a call centre for a telecoms company and ended up working in telecoms / IT ever since.
I learned some key skills which have always helped like how to collect and analyse data, how to assimilate knowledge quickly, to be curious and ask questions. The biggest though is a love of learning things. Even now, I try and complete at least one new professional certification every year along with continuous people/ business management learning.
It might sound trite but life is a journey and gaining knowledge and experience is never wasted. Your degree was not a destination, just a point along the way. You highlighted the positives; concentrate on those: Optimism is much more helpful than dwelling on the negatives.
I remember saying when I was 18 that I didn’t want to work in an office and that’s what I have done for 30 years! You don’t know where things will take you.
I learned some key skills which have always helped like how to collect and analyse data, how to assimilate knowledge quickly, to be curious and ask questions. The biggest though is a love of learning things. Even now, I try and complete at least one new professional certification every year along with continuous people/ business management learning.
It might sound trite but life is a journey and gaining knowledge and experience is never wasted. Your degree was not a destination, just a point along the way. You highlighted the positives; concentrate on those: Optimism is much more helpful than dwelling on the negatives.
I remember saying when I was 18 that I didn’t want to work in an office and that’s what I have done for 30 years! You don’t know where things will take you.
My dream when I was 16/17 was to go to Uni to do an Engineering based degree and get into motorsport, that never happened.
A local company was poaching students from college to start apprenticeships, so the temptation to start earning and learning at the same time was too much to resist for me, so went a different direction, still in engineering but completely different industry, luckily I got accepted and managed to forge a half decent career over the last 20 odd years, although I'm definitely not passionate about my work.
Part of me wishes I'd stuck to my original dream, but money was really tight back then and I'd never have wanted to put my parents under any financial pressure or take on loads of student debt myself, so I've never set foot in a uni lecture theatre in my life.
A local company was poaching students from college to start apprenticeships, so the temptation to start earning and learning at the same time was too much to resist for me, so went a different direction, still in engineering but completely different industry, luckily I got accepted and managed to forge a half decent career over the last 20 odd years, although I'm definitely not passionate about my work.
Part of me wishes I'd stuck to my original dream, but money was really tight back then and I'd never have wanted to put my parents under any financial pressure or take on loads of student debt myself, so I've never set foot in a uni lecture theatre in my life.
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