Final year angst (1 Viewer)

[xrockridgex]

So I am in my final year in college and currently doing my first semester exams, and have been a doing a fair bit of thinking about what to do with next year. I havent applied to any of the big corporate graduate programs (which was part of the plan at the start of the year) or looked at any of the recrutiement pages or sites. I seriously doubt I will be in full time employment in this country during the coming year.

The only plans I have for after college comprise of either running for the student union or going to teach in english in Turkey before travelling around the middle east for a while.

Anyone able to share what they were thinking about doing at this time in college and what they ended up doing after graduation?

 

[theweeyin]

I decided to do a teaching degree so I could stay at the same place as my (ex) boyfriend - look at me now!!

 

[Lili Marlene]

I had a good 4 months unemployment

 

[classic seanc]

I had a good 4 months unemployment

Me too. It sucked ass.

 

[frona]

I hated my diploma year so much I never went back to do the degree. Years of unemployment, factories and call centres followed. Now I'm a secretary and because of the call centres and factories I LIKE IT!

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

i had no plans at all and flitted about doing various random things since finishing my arts degree when i was 22 - dole, furniture deilveries, dole, factory, library, roadie, dole for ages, college, more libraries, next im going travelling. sorry, that was no help.

 

[Super Dexta]

Didn't know what to do so did masters.
Finished masters, still didn't know what to do.
Worked on and off for a year, was mainly dissatisfied, decided to do another masters.
Halfway through second masters. Still don't know what to do. May have become addicted to buzz of working towards specific piece of paper.
Sure it'll all be grand.

 

[ravishinrikrude]

i'm trying to pass college without looking at a book. it's fairly hard as i found out this week.

 

[jane]

I went and did a crazy boot camp to learn fluent Latin about three weeks after I finished college, then I went straight into a master's. Then I took a wee few months of down time and worked on a PhD proposal and went straight into a PhD which I've subsequently (tentatively) ditched (I'm on leave for 18 months to make up my mind). Much of it was because I couldn't think of anything else to do. That was fine for the masters, but it's not a good enough reason to do a PhD. It's not the reason I thought I was doing it, but deep down, it was a combination of not knowing what to do with myself, and total insecurity that I felt could be alleviated by having "Dr" in front of my name. Both very poor reasons. Also, I like research and writing and communicating, which are part of thousands of different jobs.

The moral is: don't do anything more than a one-year course if your reason is that you haven't a clue what to do. I'm glad I have an MA to fall back on, and I can go back to the PhD, but I'm none the fucking wiser at 32.

I still wish I'd done something like sewing and fashion design. Or English lit. Or something more practical. Or social anthropology. Or law.

See? Not a fucking clue.

The thing is, though, try not to worry. You're probably interested in a lot of different things but not insanely excited about any one of them, which is normal, and a sign that you're not just eager to get stuck into a single thing to be done with it. It's likely that if you did jsut have one single idea in mind, it might be a way of denying the fact that very few people know what they want to do at 22. Or in my case, 32. And Shaney, are you 32 yet or wha?

So do what you want. Travel around, work in silly jobs. Try different things, dip in and out of part-time courses. See what you like. Very few people stay in the same career for life anymore, and you can always change.

 

[xrockridgex]

It's not the reason I thought I was doing it, but deep down, it was a combination of not knowing what to do with myself, and total insecurity that I felt could be alleviated by having "Dr" in front of my name. Both very poor reasons. Also, I like research and writing and communicating, which are part of thousands of different jobs.

Yeah I am totally committed to not doing a masters next year as I think if I did it, it would be for those reasons rather than really wanting to do it for its own sakes. I definitely would love to do masters/PHD at some point but I think I need to stay away from college for a while.

 

[paula]

i'm in the middle of final year too. i think my parents expect me to go straight into a masters/permanent job as that's what my cousins, their friends kids have done etc. i think though because the way things tend to work here, picking yr college options in the middle of sixth year etc, i just picked a degree for the sake of it and because i had to, without much thought, which is what i don't want to do with a masters. anyway, my current line to my parents is, i'm getting 'work experience' in areas i'm interested in for the next couple of years to see if i like them or if i just like the idea of them. erm, hopefully that works and i don't end up in a call centre for the next five years or something.

 

[ernesto]

final year sucks balls.

well, back to fucking college work i go.
fantastic.

 

[zero_hero]

Years out can be great. I did it and when I went back it made things so much clearer and college was easier to be there. cos I knew it was definitely what I wanted

 

[Froog]

i got the dole for three months, then moved to dublin for a job. almost did a masters but badly wanted some money after being broke for 4 years.