Yes Its That Time Of Year..

[Davetrials]

Im this close | | to crying cos i have no idea what to do with my life, and its starting to get serious.

[Dan Clark]

Oh, on a sidenote, I read in the papers at the weekend that there are more students currently studying media studies than there are in the whole media industry in the UK. Wonder how many will get that dream job in media at the end of it...?

This may be because everyone always takes media because its such a doss

[JT!]

Im this close | | to crying cos i have no idea what to do with my life, and its starting to get serious.

Get into the pornography bussiness. You like your camera, you like your ladies. Good logic if you ask me.

[Lunja]

My advice:

Go to Uni.

Have the best three years of your life.

Discover things you never knew about yourself.

Gain some independance.

Make the best friends you'll ever have.

And who cares if you don't get an amazing job at the end?! It's all about the experience. You'll be a happier person for it.

If you don't like academic work, look for vocational style courses. I'm doing media production at Lincoln, and apart from two essays in each of two semesters, all your other work is practical. You try each of filmaking, Television studio production, digital animation, graphic design, photography and scriptwriting, and then specialise is two of them. If media isn't your thing, you can even do motorsport studies at Lincoln, where your project is to build a working race car!

Have a look round the UCAS website and type in anything that interests you, ie films, cars, bikes, and something will come up.

Good luck! Hope this helps.

[poopipe]

^^

thats good advice.

University is fun, it's also your last opportunity to get drink and drugs subsidised by your parents. If you're worried about debt, try not to borrow too much money. Get shitty part time jobs or sell drugs to pay for it.

Don't expect to come straight out into a well paid job - unless you're very lucky it won't happen for a while cos nobody trusts you with a decent salary until you've held a job for a year or two. You'll probably have to take a job that you could have got without going to university in the first place but after those couple of years are done with you'll be in a position to start earning some decent money and you'll be glad you went.

[Ali C]

being grown up sucks

[manuel]

My advice:

Go to Uni.

Have the best three years of your life.

Discover things you never knew about yourself.

Gain some independance.

Make the best friends you'll ever have.

And who cares if you don't get an amazing job at the end?! It's all about the experience. You'll be a happier person for it.

If you don't like academic work, look for vocational style courses. I'm doing media production at Lincoln, and apart from two essays in each of two semesters, all your other work is practical. You try each of filmaking, Television studio production, digital animation, graphic design, photography and scriptwriting, and then specialise is two of them. If media isn't your thing, you can even do motorsport studies at Lincoln, where your project is to build a working race car!

Have a look round the UCAS website and type in anything that interests you, ie films, cars, bikes, and something will come up.

Good luck! Hope this helps.

amen to that response - definately go to uni if you can .. as in you think you can actually do the course you want to... If you can go through uni have fun and get a degree, youre laughing.

LOAN REPAYMENT - threshold is 15k i believe (although it may have changed since ive been)

Im a postman at the moment (perfect bike riding job) and i earn around 16k - I pay back 4 quid a week - not exactly killing me.... although ill probably up it to take care of the interest...

RJ

Edited May 10, 2006 by manuel

[Simon]

Here comes Simon to f**k things up. \o/

f**k college/uni. Personally. No course at Uni or College could teach me what i wanted to know. I can 100% assure you, if bob went to a web design job interview with 2 years in college and 3 at uni, but no sites to his name, he'd get turned down straight off. If john went to the same interview, dropped out of college after 1 year but had done 5 or 6 sites, showing progressiong and understanding of the market, he'd get handed the job on a plate.

It really depends on what you want to get into. Some job areas require 10 years in education, some require you just to know the market and have a portfolio that proves this.

So er, yeah.

[F-Stop Junkie]

I can 100% assure you, if bob went to a web design job interview with 2 years in college and 3 at uni, but no sites to his name, he'd get turned down straight off. If john went to the same interview, dropped out of college after 1 year but had done 5 or 6 sites, showing progressiong and understanding of the market, he'd get handed the job on a plate.

It's a fair point, but a specific example. How do you get a job doing webdesign in the first place? If you've dropped out of college, who would employ you to do webdesign then? Do websites for mates, and then present those to an employer? Couldn't (wouldn't) you do that at Uni to get the same experience?

I was offered web design work for a multinational bank based largely on my University background. Big employers look for safe candidates with proven qualifications. It may be different if you're looking for a Soho Web 2.0 media enterprise to employ you.

[tomturd]

Here comes Simon to f**k things up. \o/

f**k college/uni. Personally. No course at Uni or College could teach me what i wanted to know. I can 100% assure you, if bob went to a web design job interview with 2 years in college and 3 at uni, but no sites to his name, he'd get turned down straight off. If john went to the same interview, dropped out of college after 1 year but had done 5 or 6 sites, showing progressiong and understanding of the market, he'd get handed the job on a plate.

It really depends on what you want to get into. Some job areas require 10 years in education, some require you just to know the market and have a portfolio that proves this.

So er, yeah.

You missed out William. Who has made 5 or 6 sites, shown progression and understanding of the market, worked in industry for a year, and has a degree under his belt.

I'm planning on starting my own business of some sort - got a couple of ideas but nothing certain yet. My degree won't be used specifically for anything at all, and I doubt it will come in *that* handy for whatever I decide to do.

It will however give me something to fall back on if my business fails. It shouldnt be hard to find a well paid job to live off for a couple of years before trying to start a business again.

Plus the last 4 years have been pretty awesome - If I could go back and do it again, I would, without a doubt.

[Al_Fel]

I've read quite a bit of this but not all of it. Let me just ask you this...

Who is better at riding trials? Us knob heads who chat about it all day? or the people that actually get off there lazy arses and do it?

Schools and education are a good thing but the only real way to learn something is by doing it.

[Dr. Nick Riviera]

there's not a lot of theory to trials.

being a surgeon is different. you cant learn by trial and error

[Al_Fel]

I don't mean go out with a knife and start cutting people I mean watch how someone else does it and let them show you step by step sort of thing.

[tomturd]

I don't mean go out with a knife and start cutting people I mean watch how someone else does it and let them show you step by step sort of thing.

Thats how they do do it though... my mate doing medicine at Cardiff started off working on dead bodies for 3 years and now she's working on live ones. She obviously had to go to uni/medicine college to do that though.

You are right in that you have to practice to get good at something no matter what, but some/lots of professions require studying as well.

[Has anyone seen my shoe?]

I've pretty much got my plan sorted now.

Finish College

Go to Uni (Mech Eng) and get a sponsorship (where they pay my uni fees and then some)

Join the Army

Leave or stay according to wether I enjoy it or not.

The fact im going in with a degree means I get to be an officer straight away (second lieutenant) and the pay is good.

Also ill be joining a techinical corps (REME) so i'll be doing the stuff I enjoy.

[munkee]

I've read quite a bit of this but not all of it. Let me just ask you this...

Who is better at riding trials? Us knob heads who chat about it all day? or the people that actually get off there lazy arses and do it?

Schools and education are a good thing but the only real way to learn something is by doing it.

You have a very odd view on life. I had no idea what i wanted to do when i was at school, i decided to go to uni and then the big dillema.. what would i study. I was always good at engineering style things and i always had a interest in it. Decided to do civil engineering purely because of the amount of money and the growing industry. Since ive been on the course (2nd year now) as sad as it sounds ive been blown away by how diverse the field is. I know your saying that if you want to learn something you have to go out there and do it.. but from what i have seen is by going to university i have learnt an array of modules which have broadened by knowledge of civil engineering. Giving me the oppertunity to go down whatever route i want with the basic knowledge of the job im going to be doing.

Your making a very narrow minded decision which will affect the rest of your life. I like to have choices and thats what going to university has given me. I dont have to work in civil, i dont have to do anything but its helped me in making my decisions along the way. To top it off im a lot more employable with my degree than someone without. As i mentioned before the modules i have covered allow me to apply to many different companys that do different things, not just one. If you were to take the "practical" route after school its going to be a lot harder to interchange between different parts of the industry.. since you will only know your own trade. Everyday through the university we receive emails saying "blah blah company is looking for year out students, postgraduates etc..." it seems to me that its going to be a lot easier to get a job through uni than if i hadnt. Atleast im not sat in the job centre wasting my time..

my £0.02

[Krisboats]

I would say definately finish college, you've got half way through so another year isn't going to be that bad. I messed up my final year of A-levels and have had to retake the year at college in a bid to try and improve my grades so i can get off to uni after they rejected me last year. Seems like just going back to correct my mistakes has gone down well with them as i've been offered an unconditional place this year.

I am also going to be starting a foundation course in art and design, i love doing art and i love doing work with computers and this foundation course allows me to try out a bit of everything... from making silly looking fashion style clothes to doing arty paintings to working on computers to create cnc'd parts to incorporate into a 3D artwork model.

After looking through the leaflet on what i can do at uni after a foundation course there are so many things i could do that would interest me, and i'm sure the majority of people would rather have a job they enjoy rather than a shelf stacking job that pays well. Who would have thought i could do a uni course, paint some pictures and go into the world working as one of the people that designs and creates spaceships and things like that for films?

I still don't really know what i want to do with my life but i figured this way it'll be easier to make a choice because i'll have had a try at loads of different things that interest me.

Maybe try the same thing? Definately finish your A-Levels... you'd be a fool not to as just going around with GCSE's is going to put a brick wall on how far along you can get with jobs before you start them. It's very unlikely you will be given the chance of being a manager of a local store/department later on in life without some kind of managerial/higher level training. But with your A-levels thats already going to broaden the things you can do.

Go to see your careers advisor at college, or in the local town if your school doesn't have one, thats what they're there for they get paid to help you so go and see them. I can almost guarantee that you'll come out with ideas about things you can do with your life that you'd never have thought of by yourself.

[Has anyone seen my shoe?]

Whilst on the subject of uni and stuff I want to do Mechanical Engineering and I have heard there is somekind of pre foundation or foundation course to get your stuff up to scratch if your not to confident.

Anyone who knows anything about this can you add me to msn ilostmyleftshoe@hotmail.com

[Michael Hardman]

Im pretty happy right now got a job working in a school as an LSA (learning support assistant) I love it good fun, I'm doing something thats worthwhilde and the staff are great to get on with. Must add theres some hotties there that are single and young.

I'm off to uni in September to become a qualified teacher then hopefully I go work in the school I'm currently in on £26k I think plus bonuses becasue its in Newham.

Had my assesment from the borough and I get a nice shiny new laptop for free to help with my studies.

My savings for uni are going great guns and I will have the money I need for my course fees in 2 months time plus I have a summer job, marking GCSE paper.