College courses Vs Current situation (2 Viewers)

[roxy]

Yeah, one of my sister's chartered accountant colleagues left to become a wine taster. Basically just chucked in ten years of experience and went back to zero again. Fair play I say.

For me, I'm pretty much the same as Bellatrix. My degree is in communications, journalism, blah blah. And I am working in broadcasting now, not thanks to the degree but thanks to experience, some of which I had before I'd even gone to college. Which is perfectly logical - it's just that type of industry.
I'm less than a year out of college but I'm fairly confident that when I try to move ahead within the same field, having the relevant degree will certainly bulk up any application and it could possibly be the thing that makes you stand out from the crowd in an interview scenario. I guess what the degree does show is commitment to that particular field. Willingness to spend four years immersed in that world, learning how it works, is surely worth something.

But you just can't predict where things will go, really. In the place where I currently work, one of the guys from Sales is leaving to become a Garda.
Again, fair fucks to him. Just do what you want to do. You only live once.

 

[jane]

Me too, we need more jobs in think tanks, that would be great. And no harm to put a bit more thought into government either.

Yeah, I think so, too, except that right now, even universities are trying to minimise thinking in favour of efficiency.

To me, the best education isn't really compatible with any sense of profitable efficiency. Sure, it's about setting goals and meeting them within time limits, but it's not just about appreciating the end, but about the process, about all the butterflies you chase along the way that are just as important as the final 'product' you make, even if they aren't directly in it.

PS: You'll never turn me into an accountant, and if you do, I'm TAKING YOU WITH ME.

Oh yeah, and a guy I used to work with did an MA in archaeology, worked in archaeology for years, and then left to become a wine expert, which he totally loves more than anything.

 

[nofriendo]

it really depends. If you go to college to do something that you actually like, then you will make a point of doing your best to stay in that industry. I have friends who have no interest in business but did that for the sake of it. now they hate there jobs and are looking to get out. Same with my course i did IT with a bunch of people who hated computers and most dont work in the industry now! Just make sure you know what you wwant to do and do it, its simple really!!

 

[Rogue]

Yeah, I think so, too, except that right now, even universities are trying to minimise thinking in favour of efficiency.

It depresses me to fuck when I see more signs of that, I just read about loads of chemistry departments closing down because they're not attracting enough research students. The government is pulling funding out of universities and effectively setting them loose on tha market to become degree factories, pieces of paper not educations, one more nail...

To me, the best education isn't really compatible with any sense of profitable efficiency. Sure, it's about setting goals and meeting them within time limits, but it's not just about appreciating the end, but about the process, about all the butterflies you chase along the way that are just as important as the final 'product' you make, even if they aren't directly in it.

I'd like to see a return to elitism of a sort. Some people want the quickie degree, get the piece of paper and whatever training is needed so you can get on with learning your job. That's fine but you can't run that kind of educational institution the same way as you run old style universities which were based on giving the best education possible and understood that it was about time and immersion not about jumping through hoops. I'm not saying either is better or worse, it's just horses for courses: there's a difference between training and educating.

PS: You'll never turn me into an accountant, and if you do, I'm TAKING YOU WITH ME.

look into the numbers not around the numbers into the numbers 3,2,1 and your under...!zed

Oh yeah, and a guy I used to work with did an MA in archaeology, worked in archaeology for years, and then left to become a wine expert, which he totally loves more than anything.

He shoots and he scores, if you don't like it then note the bullet and get out, just be prepared for some life turning-about, but it's not as bad as it looks.

I like that Neilo doesn't like his job but it serves a purpose and doesn't get in his way, that's cool and probably the best middle ground.

 

[roxy]

Vooocational Guiiidance Counselloooooooorrrrrrrr

Vooocational Guiiidance Counselloooooooorrrrrrrr

Vooocational Guiiidance Counselloooooooorrrrrrrr

Vooocational Guiiidance Counselloooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[ICUH8N]

Accountancy: the wrongest profession

Oh and I am wholly in agreement with Jane's comment re: profitable efficiency, but freely admit that my judgement is coloured by the fact that I am planning an educational future which does not contain even a whiff of "useful skill" if one were to take a narrow view of it.
If you don't plan on taking up a profession (and I mean profession in the strict sense; Medicine, Law etc.) your third-level experience should be about filling your educational toolbox, learning how to learn, how to understand difficult concepts/complex ideas, how to communicate, rounding yourself as a human being. These skills will stand to you whether you plan a future in activism or as a faceless drone working in Unilever's marketing department. As numerous people have said, it's often as much about experience, not about the degree itself (so long as you have one)
There's a lot more crossover than you would think, in terms of people with qualifications in areas in no way related to their career. A friend of mine has a degree in photography, and now writes code for a living. He is far and away the best developer I know.

 

[roxy]

Accountancy: the wrongest profession

Well, whether or not you say that in jest, it's not exactly a fair comment. I'd never do it, coz it's not my bag, but for some poeple it is, so fair enough. My sister was always mad into commerce in school. She did accounting and finance in college, then worked while studying for her chartered exams. There was never any other real career contention in her head, I don't think. She's really good at what she does, and she enjoys it. And she's not drab by any stretch of the imagination.

One of my closest friends who's my age is doing the same thing. She's in her second year of work having done the accounting degree. She's going for chartered exams every year and when she's done, she'll probably be earning a higher salary than I'll ever hope to earn. It's just a path that was right for her, so to her it's not wrong.

 

[ICUH8N]

Accountancy apologists will be second against the wall when the freegans take over. Accountants are a necessary evil, if they enjoy it, so much the better.

 

[theoootini]

I'm just really wondering for future reference but, how did the college course you do affect your couurent career? Are you doing something directly related or are you doing something completly different?

i studied english for four years. i really enjoyed the course and didnt give much thought to what i was going to do after. then i spent a year working in a factory. back in college now in UL doing a postgrad in technical communication. i should be "employable" in a matter of weeks. writing manuals and what not. real world in t minus 32 days...eek

 

[Hott Indie Boy]

i have a degree in english and linguistics => terminally unemployable.
in a few months i'll have a masters in english => still terminally unemployable.
four years after that, i'll hopefully have a phd => slightly more employable.

my problem is that i never worked during college apart from one or two summer jobs, so i basically have zero experience and i can't even get a crap job, never mind one that i like. but on the other hand, i've read a lot of good books.

 

[theoootini]

i have a degree in english and linguistics => terminally unemployable.
in a few months i'll have a masters in english => still terminally unemployable.
four years after that, i'll hopefully have a phd => slightly more employable.

that was the situation i was in when i finished an MA 2 yrs ago. i wasnt 100% sure about going on for a phd. a phd is pretty much a commitment to academia i reckon. the longer i leave it the more unlikely it is ill go for one. especially if i get a half decent job from what im doing now

 

[Jerry Twig]

i have too much friggin education. although i essentially agree with jane, my first five years were dedicated to a subject which was personally gratifying but ultimately useless when it came to getting a job. i switched to a specialist field (academic with practical application) and things came together. so i wouldn;t entirely advocate Arts for the sake of learning. a degree is fine, but i think its more healthy to ask yourself the hard question as to what you would like to do for a living and then go for it. you'll never know unless you try.
i know this is a very general answer, but i'm in a bit of a rush!

 

[Hott Indie Boy]

that was the situation i was in when i finished an MA 2 yrs ago. i wasnt 100% sure about going on for a phd. a phd is pretty much a commitment to academia i reckon. the longer i leave it the more unlikely it is ill go for one. especially if i get a half decent job from what im doing now

yeah. i like the sound of an academic job though, it's the only career path that doesn't make me want to gouge my eyes out.
anyway i'll have to get a job to tide me over for a few months between finishing my masters and starting a phd, so i'll give this fabled 'Real World' a go and see how i get on.

 

[taubstumm]

i have a masters degree. it has got me jobs, even though it doesn't deserve to: a big chunk of the teaching of the masters was hilariously bad (one lecturer in particular was probably the worst teacher i've ever had), and as a result, i am essentially self-taught in a lot of the skills that my masters was originally meant to teach me but didn't. so in conclusion, don't do what donny don't does. go to art college instead or something.

 

[Hott Indie Boy]

i have a masters degree. it has got me jobs, even though it doesn't deserve to: a big chunk of the teaching of the masters was hilariously bad (one lecturer in particular was probably the worst teacher i've ever had), and as a result, i am essentially self-taught in a lot of the skills that my masters was originally meant to teach me but didn't. so in conclusion, don't do what donny don't does. go to art college instead or something.

was it a masters in international rad amazingness?

 

[taubstumm]

was it a masters in international rad amazingness?

yes, liadain, it was

 

[pete]

Yeah, one of my sister's chartered accountant colleagues left to become a wine taster. Basically just chucked in ten years of experience and went back to zero again. Fair play I say.

you sure that's not some sort of accountant euphemism for "sacked due to rampant alcoholism"?

 

[Hott Indie Boy]

yes, liadain, it was

i see, tom.

 

[Gambra]

Hmm, its all a bit confusing/scary for me at the mo. My top choice on the CAO is the BESS in Trinity (http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/courses/course.php?ID=66) and I have no idea where I'll end up, not that I really care like

Now I'm shitting it to get my points up..

 

[jane]

It depresses me to fuck when I see more signs of that, I just read about loads of chemistry departments closing down because they're not attracting enough research students. The government is pulling funding out of universities and effectively setting them loose on tha market to become degree factories, pieces of paper not educations, one more nail...


I'd like to see a return to elitism of a sort. Some people want the quickie degree, get the piece of paper and whatever training is needed so you can get on with learning your job. That's fine but you can't run that kind of educational institution the same way as you run old style universities which were based on giving the best education possible and understood that it was about time and immersion not about jumping through hoops. I'm not saying either is better or worse, it's just horses for courses: there's a difference between training and educating.



He shoots and he scores, if you don't like it then note the bullet and get out, just be prepared for some life turning-about, but it's not as bad as it looks.

I like that Neilo doesn't like his job but it serves a purpose and doesn't get in his way, that's cool and probably the best middle ground.

Yeah. I think in the Arts faculty, we just assume that the sciences are living large, but in fact, they're also suffering. Pure knowledge is losing out to that which is marketable. And I'm always hesitant to point out that there are huge, long-term benefits to knowledge for its own sake because I don't like to feed the arguments that knowledge should be a product of some kind.

There have been lots of debates lately in my own field about 'education versus training', but I feel like people aren't quite getting to the heart of the issue. They keep talking about it in the context of the university, rather than showing how the university can remain a place that can nurture knowledge for its own sake, but if we want to remain relevant, rather than make college the only place to learn, we can also facilitate learning outside the walls of academe. Not just going out and telling the rabble how it is, but acknowledging that people can teach themselves, and it's our job to make sure the rest of the world knows that we're not the only ones who can know stuff. There can be training, too, and college courses in archaeology should also include some 'professional' training, but I'm firmly in a third camp, which involves education for its own sake, but also doing more to play a role outside the university, so that we do not hold the monopoly on teaching and learning.

So I guess what I'm really saying is that it's not so much a return to elitism (because I have almost as many problems with this), but a reinvention of the university, where the philosophy of learning can remain true to 'knowledge for its own sake', but that it can be more inclusive, more flexible, so that this fabulous thinkin' and figgerin' everyone does isn't just confined to an ivory tower. That can be another prong in the fork to make universities more relevant to the world outside. Sadly, it only happens in little pockets, and still isn't very common.

I can totally see why someone would feel he or she wanted to do a course where there would be a job and a career at the end, but that wasn't for me. I couldn't have made my mind up that early, and I'm glad I didn't. I'm also glad that I went to a liberal arts college, where no matter what your major was, you still had a broad education.

And now I'm not even sure I'm going to stay in my field, but I do know how I feel about education, and I do know that I absolutely love teaching to little bitty bits, but it's upsetting to see that the system as it is now, and in the direction it's heading is going to make it harder and harder for people to teach and learn and think. It's just going to be about getting in and getting out.