Stuck on choosing an efficient degree to study at Uni

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  [Deactivated] on 12/01/2018 - 11:29

  +3

  most job markets are already saturated

  do a trade, you'll be better off.

  • 

    byleth on 12/01/2018 - 11:52

    Thanks for your response, could you name a few? I've heard taking an apprenticeship in IT and electrical related jobs can be rewarding starting from the early stages.

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 12/01/2018 - 11:56

      Anything construction.

      I know someone that did a science degree, now works as a eyecare salesperson at an Optometrist

      • 

        byleth on 12/01/2018 - 12:13

        I'll give that an indepth look and consider looking around trade jobs if giving a go at uni doesn't work for me. Thankyou!

      • 

        singlemalt72 on 12/01/2018 - 16:37

        +3

        What a crock - anecdotes are not proof
        Don't do a degree where there is a lack of job opportunity of a large pool over qualified people looking for work.

        You may hate a construction or trade job and prefer to be in an environment that suits a more academic pursuit.

      • 

        byleth on 14/01/2018 - 16:00

        @singlemalt72: Yeah, it'll be my last go to option if things don't ever work out for me. I do prefer to be in an office environment compared to hands on labour, but I wouldn't mind expanding my alternatives. Thank you!

  • 

    2ndeffort on 12/01/2018 - 12:45

    +9

    Absolute Rubbish, worst advice you could get. The EASY ENTRY jobs market has been smashed. There are loads of high paying jobs leading to good careers that you can get if you are smart with the right qualifications. I have work for people that I cannot find. Some of these jobs having a degree is enough if you are good enough (regardless of the degree) and i can get you up to $1100 a day on a 6 month rotating contract maybe longer (ie gets renewed every 6 months). Almost all of the work i would have is for Comms, Systems and reliability Engineers. I also have loads of work for GOOD!! Business Intelligence developers. (I say good because i have hired loads of people that claim they know what they are doing right up until i hire them, then they admit they've never done it befoer and lied on their CV (hoping I will then train them up). At this point I sack them for being dishonest and useless!!

    Look for industries where there is massive barriers to entry. i work in the defence Industry and you cant get a job without having a Security Clearance. I managed to get my Uni Student son onto a defence Project and he managed to get a Security Clearance as a result. Now he is working over summer break as an undergrad earning about $250 a day after tax. He is doing basic project management tasks and there would be loads of people better qualified than him BUT none of them have Security Clearances!!! On the odd occasion I put up adverts onto sites like Seek, linKedIn etc i get smashed with thousands of applicants. realistically i have staff that filter most of them out. We dont even look at what uni grades or which uni people went to. If I need an RF Engineer with a security clearance and you have an electrical engineering degree and a security clearance i am interested. I am not necessarily more interested because you did honours at Melb uni over somebody with a basic degree from LaTrobe etc.

    The Government is pouring loads of money into the defence Industry, we will be building Ships, Submarines and Armoured Vehicles here in Australia. There will be blue collar jobs for tradies but the higher paying jobs will go to the engineers, scientists and programmers, simply because of supply and demand. it will be much easier to find people to train as welders and fitters than it will be to find professional engineers and computer scientists. i say this as somebody that is reasonably senior in the industry and has been working in it for 30+ years.

    • 

      byleth on 12/01/2018 - 13:14

      What you said was interesting to me as someone who is young and don't have much knowledge on the real world. I've been growing up with the basic notions of jobs and what they spoon fed at school. Having these sorts of advice and explanations really gives me a bigger outlook into the demanding job industries from a different perspective.

      I thought about looking into engineering but find the physics side of it complex and I'm worried that I wouldn't do well because my maths isn't that good either. But taking on an apprenticeship could be another option for a more hands on approach than just uni. I'll definitely be looking into this as well as the current options I have. Thanks heaps!

      • 

        2ndeffort on 12/01/2018 - 13:39

        +2

        When you look for a job what you are doing is selling into the labour market. You are selling your energy, time and talent for a return. A couple of years ago i went with my son when he was at high school to their careers counsellor. She asked him what he wanted to be and she had flow charts for common careers like engineer, accountant etc. At the meeting i was thinking of my friends, particularly the successful ones and realised that there is no pathway to what most of them do. Most of them set out on other paths and somewhere along the way a branch opened up and they raced down that direction.

        If you wanted to open a shop at your local Westfield and it already had 50+ shops selling mobile phones, why would you open up another mobile phone shop!! You'd be mad, the competition would be crazy and you would have to have extremely low prices, maybe even unprofitable just to try and stay afloat. Better to find some kind of goods that people need and are prepared to pay for that they cant get at that Westfield. if you are the only shop in your Westfield selling those goods you can charge higher prices. Simple example but the jobs market is the same. The easy, common jobs that everyone follows from the career counselor's flow chart have been smashed. i have a friend who is a doctor and he was telling me a few weeks back that he is looking to sell his 2 practices and get out of medicine because the government is training so many doctors he doubts it will be profitable in the future, so many clinics are opening up. i dont know much about medicine so I cant verify but the point is that you need to see jobs as literally just another demand and supply marketplace but not for goods….for your labour.

        Anything that is easy to get into, doesn't really require much qualifications and where you are easily replaced by somebody else will have literally thousands of applicants. You wont get paid much because if you demand more $$ they will just replace you with the next cheap person. If there are thousands of kids graduating uni with that degree chances are the competition for jobs will be fierce. Once again, a couple of years ago i was with my son at Monash Open Day. We went into the Business/Law Faculty. the queue for Law was down the corridor, out the street and round the corner. Same for accounting, marketing etc. Over in the corner was a lonely desk with 2 bored people and nobody asking questions. the desk was for quantity surveying. I was amazed. I asked my son why nobody would be over there, why were they all queued up at accounting? he looked at me strangely and said ….Duh…what even is a quantity surveryor…..everybody knows what an accountant is, they get jobs and make good money. i explained to him that every big infrastructure project uses quantity surveyors to do all of the estimating, work out hom many tons of concrete are needed, how many hours of labourers etc etc. Those big mega million dollar estimate reports the State Governments get made up prior to building a road or the mining companies prior to building a mine. Lots of that work done by estimators and quantity surveyors. I've been out of that world for a few years but they used to make crazy money and good ones were very hard to find. The mind boggles at what some of them would have been making in the mining boom! Basically Supply and demand, few kids study it so few at the other end qualified people. if demand outstrips supply jobs are easy to get and wages go up! Either that or you join the long line for Law and Accountants and complain why you spent years studying law and there's no jobs at the end.

        Somewhere out there are loads of niche areas that high school kids dont know exist. Not enough people are training up for those jobs because they dont know what they are. Do some research, find those careers and study that!

      • 

        byleth on 12/01/2018 - 14:04

        @2ndeffort: Yeah, I realise that after highschool and final exams, alot of people don't really have the time to invest on doing extensive research on other careers paths than those ones that are already commonly known to be 'well paying' and 'successful' such as law,business,accounting,engineering,medicine etc. I wanted to get a better understanding towards other lesser known jobs as well, since alot of young people will only be exposed to a wider range as time goes by from switching jobs up into adult years.

        I feel that if I followed that path, I would be turning a blind eye and competing with alot of people and probably ending up without a proper job for a while or so when there could be a high demand for a well paying job no one knows of. I'll definitely continue to look around a bit before settling on my choice.

        Again, thanks so much for your time to reply!

      • 

        Icecold5000 on 13/01/2018 - 22:20

        @Huehue:

        Shouldn't be telling you this but try building surveying. Diploma course to start off with. From the ads I've seen a lot of employers like councils want you to work while studying. To get accreditation you need Australain experience which rules out 457s.

      • 

        byleth on 13/01/2018 - 23:15

        @Icecold5000: Had a brief look over building surveying and it doesn't seem like the type of field i'm interested in. It looks pretty decent though if you were to do a diploma&traineeship at the same time for the work experience. Thanks for your suggestion!

      • 

        Icecold5000 on 14/01/2018 - 00:13

        @Huehue:

        Maybe the best way is to find a job you're interested in and use LinkedIn to see what qualifications or career path people went though.

        I don't want to sound like a dick but both the degrees you mention are either career dead ends (lab assistant) or highly competitive because so many people (attractive females) study marketing as it's an easy major. I think you really need to articulate to yourself why you want to study something. Plumping for a science degree because it has lots of majors to chose from is not a valid criteria to make a decision on. Wanting to avoid maths with you will have to do first year math or stats for commerce and higher level stats for marketing seems to be avoiding reality.

        Maybe you should analyse what kind of person you are and what strengths you have to play on first.

        Property is good. You can study it at Deakin online. The course itself is easy but nobody cares about grades (suck it law grads). The industry isn't dominated by prestige peacocking G8 grads. If you get into a big corporate firm it's easy to transfer into other teams like valuation, property management, project management, sales or leasing. If you're good you can make a lot of money fast depending on your personality and the market.

      • 

        byleth on 14/01/2018 - 13:10

        @Icecold5000: Yeah, I was worried about that, and honestly right now I still don't know what I enjoy doing hence why I'm juggling around with the recommendations and looking around a bit more. I wanted to avoid degrees where it comprises of heavy and advanced maths.

        I'll try searching around LinkedIn to get more ideas. Property and real estate sounds alright although I don't know if it's currently in demand. The salary is pretty average as well. If I were to study it, it would preferably be at uni as well as online doesn't work for me. I will try having a look at it though and if it sounds suitable for me I'll put it on my preferences on uac. I'm pretty flexible with my interests as well because I don't really a career path locked in mind. I have until March 5 to make a decision anyways if I end up being accepted for the course.

        Cheers!

      • 

        Icecold5000 on 14/01/2018 - 15:11

        @Huehue:

        Salaries are pretty much irrelevant in real estate. What matters is the commission component. What do you think 1% of a $70,000,000 building sale is? If you want a nice safe salary then do a BA and go work for the APS and hopefully retire in 40 years with your house paid off.

        If you're actually good at something and can solve people's problems then you'll have no issue with work. if you're mediocre then it doesn't matter what degree you do you'll end up in the same place. That's why I said its better to look at what your strengths are.

      • 

        sane on 14/01/2018 - 15:51

        @Huehue:

        Property and real estate sounds alright although I don't know if it's currently in demand

        You don't need a degree for hawking property, and it won't help. It's down to 'sales' (which you can get training in, though a degree is still worthless) and the connections you have.

        It's also only as good as the market, so if the market turns down (and it's currently at the top of a big bubble) then you get little to nothing.

      • 

        Icecold5000 on 14/01/2018 - 16:51

        @sane:

        Talking about commercial not residential. Most of the old school guys don't have a degree but the worlds changed. To get a look in you'd have to have done a degree nowadays. If you want to manage or sell residential property in Logan then a degree is useless. If you want to get into institutional sales selling office buildings to investment funds then it will be necessary.

      • 

        byleth on 14/01/2018 - 16:56

        @Icecold5000: I get what you mean, I'm probably being narrow minded instead of looking at things in the long run. Big commissions or sales don't happen often and if so theres a whole bunch of competition as well. Wouldn't a BA on it's own be pretty useless if I can't secure a job or would it be better to do an apprenticeship/traineeship? I actually haven't heard about APS until you mentioned it. I reckon my skills in communication and problem solving would improve either way whilst working up towards seeking employment once I finish up.

        I'll give it some actual thought to see what kind of careers would suit me. I do want to end up doing something i'm good at rather than doing something I think I like and lack the skills for.

        Thanks for your advice!

      • 

        Icecold5000 on 14/01/2018 - 17:35

        @Huehue:

        Yes. You are correct. But if you don't want to do maths which is required in science then it's a possibility. Maybe you should do a year of manual labour on a building site to get some perspective. Bright side is if you hate it then it's going to be good motivation to get a career that you really want to do.

        Big commissions and sales happen all the time in property however if you don't work in the industry you'll never hear about it. If you're good with people and can convince them why the hell spend your life knocking the hell out of your body by 40?

      • 

        byleth on 14/01/2018 - 17:55

        @Icecold5000: Yeah, my dad does labouring and I've went with him to work a couple of times to put myself in his position before. It's strenuous and heaps physically demanding which I realised didn't suit me and I couldn't really imagine working my life around that no matter if the pay is above average.

        My people skill would only improve if I engage in it. Right now I have not much of communication skills or anything of a strength that would make me stand out against alot of people, so maybe with marketing it wouldn't really be useful. Although I think I'm pretty anxious when it comes with communicating against a wide audience, I'm starting to think of a career path where I'm a bit limited to a small group of people/single clients so it's more manageable. It is a skill that develops overtime with experience though which I'm willing to work with.

        I'll give it alot more thought as I still have a while to make my decision. Thanks for your input!

      • 

        Icecold5000 on 14/01/2018 - 19:28

        +1

        @Huehue:

        Good luck. Don't forget when you're young you can change a lot and make some big mistakes so make them now. As you get older your margin for error changes radically

      • 

        byleth on 14/01/2018 - 21:14

        @Icecold5000: Thankyou! I appreciate every advice that I can get from people who has gone through it already so I want to be more prepared before hand.

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  fossilfuel on 12/01/2018 - 12:00

  +4

  I've been to a careers counsellor before and they just told me to do what I enjoy.

  This pisses me off and annoys the (profanity) out of me. Don't listen to them, their advice is absolutely garbage. Do something that you show/have interest in AND will maximise your chances of getting a job. As a career, you want stability/regular income. Don't choose something that you show no interest in, you will end up hating it and once you're too far in, you don't want to transfer. Doing what you ENJOY will NOT GUARANTEE you a job nor stability.

  If you're into business and that sort of stuff, I'd look into a combined Commerce and Science degree. If you don't have the marks for it yet, choose a degree with business/science units and work hard for a year to get a credit/distinction average then transfer.

  Not sure what is in the market for people with a science degree. With a commerce degree, you have an opportunity to gun for internships at large companies. You start off with hard and long work with relatively mediocre pay but in the long term, you will be better off. Sorry I can't give you more information about it, I don't work in that field but have friends who have taken this path.

  • 

    byleth on 12/01/2018 - 12:24

    +1

    Yeah, I guess I just needed some sort of advice though it was useless because they kept giving me crap for having too many interests which didn't relate. I was going to do commerce/finance but maths isn't my forte so I felt that if I did do the course I'll just be setting myself up eventually to failure. I'm always willing to give it a go and put more into my studies if I end up picking commerce as I do feel that with that degree can be very rewarding in the long run. Thank you for the advice, I appreciate it!

    • 

      fossilfuel on 12/01/2018 - 12:26

      +2

      Commerce and finance is not all about maths. It's more about grasping concepts and interpreting graphical information. More maths related, you'll be going into actuarial territory.

      • 

        byleth on 12/01/2018 - 12:38

        I'll definitely look into it before making a decision. I always steered around Commerce because I wasn't keen on doing any heavy maths but it doesn't measure up to actuaries and accounting/finance. Thanks again!

      • 

        fossilfuel on 12/01/2018 - 12:40

        +1

        @Huehue: no worries, all the best mate and shoot us some more questions if you're stuck

    • 

      sane on 12/01/2018 - 13:57

      +1

      but maths isn't my forte

      You are not going to have a good time with science or medical then. Commerce tends to be simplistic maths at most.

      At the same time, personally, I wouldn't take someone with a commerce degree seriously, need experience first, and then an MBA if you have to.

      Suggest you get better at maths, and pick a degree that looks towards the systems end of things

      • 

        byleth on 12/01/2018 - 14:11

        Some of the degrees offer introductory level maths which should be fine. I don't want to overdo it and pick a course with a unit I know I'll have trouble with completing. If it's simplistic maths, I reckon I could pick it up. Yeah I already went ahead and looked up jobs in those fields and almost, if not all required a couple years of experience which is pretty normal. Thanks for your advice!

      • 

        sane on 12/01/2018 - 14:21

        @Huehue:

        People come out of school into university science courses thinking that the spot of calculus they have done will stand them in good stead.

        Then they hit things like QM and find calculus is the colouring crayons in comparison.

        The reason I point towards the systems end of science or engineering is because it gives you a good grounding in the science/commerce bridge, and tends to have the big bucks if you can do it well.

        And you shouldn't, with luck, hit any five index tensors.

      • 

        byleth on 12/01/2018 - 14:38

        @sane: That's understandable, I can see your point. Those were some of my concerns as well and I want to be prepared as much as I can expect it in the future. Cheers!

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  Halo375 on 12/01/2018 - 12:25

  +1

  I have a bachelors and masters degree in Marketing. In this field the degrees are valuable but experience is ESSENTIAL otherwise you will struggle to land a generalist marketing job straight out of uni. I’m happy to answer any marketing questions you may have.

  • 

    byleth on 12/01/2018 - 12:57

    What did you major in marketing? And with getting experience towards landing your job what did you do? One of the main concerns that straight after uni majority of the jobs corporates offer generally require at least a year or so of experience in the field. Thanks for your reply!

    • 

      Halo375 on 12/01/2018 - 13:50

      I completed a double business degree at monash majoring in marketing and management. With a business degree you don’t really have minor majors but I focused more on strategic marketing and eMarketing subjects.

      I didn’t get work experience and it really made it hard to find a job in marketing (hence why i recommend experience so much). I ended up working through a business via taking a customer service rep role and going from there. Experience in a customer facing sales role would also help you - depending on what sort of business you wanted to work at.

      • 

        byleth on 12/01/2018 - 14:54

        Ah I see, then it would be pretty efficient to get a casual job in retail for some work experience whilst studying if I end up choosing a business related degree. I'm still abit uncertain whether or not I want to pick up marketing as I have so many interests and options to pick from so I can't think of any questions, but I appreciate it, thanks heaps!

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  peterpeterpumpkin on 12/01/2018 - 12:30

  +1

  I wouldn't do a straight science/medical science bachelor's degree unless you actually see yourself working in those fields (interest doesn't count…trust me) or plan to do post-graduate medicine. You always hear these days that law is the new arts degree but science has been a sideshow for a quite a while now. There's a reason many BSc's "unexpectedly" become secondary-school teachers.

  If you don't have a degree or diploma "legally" required to perform a job you'll mostly feel like your degree is used for "peacocking" after a couple of years.

  Best of luck with your decision.

  • 

    fossilfuel on 12/01/2018 - 12:43

    Fortunately, Physics teachers are in relatively high demand at the moment, especially in south West Sydney. A Bsc and an Mteach would be quite a good combination if OP wants a relatively higher chance of stability and employment. 32 hours a week for 40 weeks a year is quite good but teaching is not for everyone.

  • 

    byleth on 12/01/2018 - 12:48

    That sounds reasonable, I have a relative who has a degree for the Bachelors of Biomedical science. She ended up going back to tafe to get a cert 3 in pathology and got a job as a scientific officer. I felt that the degree she got was kind of a waste because she could've gotten the job with the cert 3 itself without going through 3+ years in Uni.

    The main concern for me is my degree being for show and not really taking me anywhere, as you have said so I'll be thinking twice before committing to a science related field. Thank you!

  • 

    Davo1111 on 12/01/2018 - 14:25

    The problem with Med Sci is that you've got a big cohort of people, including those who want to do post grad medicine. You're also competing with those who flunk out of postgrad or pass and can't get a job. IMO overqualification is a thing, but for entry level jobs i think it would be less of an issue.

    Not 100% sure what you mean by peacocking.

    • 

      peterpeterpumpkin on 12/01/2018 - 16:08

      The word "peacocking" is just me trying to sound trendy (and not using it in the PUA-sense :)). I've seen the peacock's tail analogy used a few times in this context before so I'm not being that original/creative (e.g. http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/careers/is-going-to-uni-… or https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/7hk82i/the_degree_re…).

      • 

        Davo1111 on 12/01/2018 - 17:12

        ahh ok, im not sure i see it as Peacocking, just employers use it as a straight discriminator for culling the heard of applicants in entry level jobs. and tbh i get it

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  2ndeffort on 12/01/2018 - 13:16

  I've posted above. I work in the Defence Industry. The Government is pouring $$ into the defence Industry and there are literally generational projects being approved that will provide thousands of jobs. There will be blue collar jobs welding submarines together etc but the nation will need a generation of engineers and scientists to support it all. Most of the new projects are incredibly technical and complex. Although many of the things being built are based on existing designs there aer all manner of complexities around integrating different components into an existing design or developing better solutions for local problems that lead to loads of engineering work. Because of the complexity and the need for a Security Clearance there is a very small pool of people capable of doing the work and massive barriers to entry for newcomers. Literally being able to get a security clearance (Australian citizen with no criminal record) will set you aside from loads of applicants. I know Security Clearance eligibility is a show stopper, doesnt matter how clever or experienced you are, without a security clearance you arent even allowed onsite.

  My recommendations would be for electrical engineering or Data Science. I see government and Private industry opportunities every day. Right now i am looking for 2-3 experienced (not graduate) engineers with RF or Satellite Comms experience. I also see an increasing demand for IT developers and Data Scientists. there is massive upside in this and I believe it will be a huge industry in the future. Software engineers, Systems Engineers, Cyber Security experts there a literally hundreds of jobs. One of the biggest risks for many of these big national projects is whether or not the nation can find enough qualified people to do the work. There wont be as many entry level jobs for unskilled people. They wont need as many storemen and security guards but they will need a whole new generation of engineers and project managers.

  • 

    byleth on 12/01/2018 - 13:39

    Thanks for the recommendations and taking your time to reply and sharing about your work, it's really fascinating. Definitely worth having a look around to see if I have a liking to any of them. Cheers!

  • 

    Icecold5000 on 14/01/2018 - 00:16

    Don't they do some deep background check on you for security clearance? If all that required is a clean criminal record how hard is that to get?

    • 

      BargainShopaholic on 14/01/2018 - 11:10

      Yes you would think a clean criminal record is all that you’d need, but unfortunately it’s not that clean cut.

      Defence related jobs mostly require a minimum of Negative Vetting 1 security clearance. The ones above it are NV2 and Positive Vetting which are very hard to get.

      These require not only a clean criminal record, but a comprehensive psychological assessments. This involves appointments with a designated psychologist where they make you do several tests, then they ask you intrusive questions about things you’ve never ever thought about.

      Also, because defence related jobs relate to national security, they also ask you intrusive questions such as your entire education history and relationships history, including the names of your ex’s, names of your close friends. They also need to know your entire family’s details, including family members residing overseas.

      There are many things that go into obtaining a NV or above security clearance that unless you’ve been subjected to one, it is hard to understand.

      Security clearances also cost a LOT of money, you can look up the cost on the AGVS site. So they only request security clearance Vetting for people they decide to hire. However, If you don’t pass the vetting process, they cannot hire you and they end up wasting money which is most likely tax-payer funded.

      I currently work in the APS and have baseline security clearance (which is the bare minimum and on lower rank than NV and PV).

      I applied for jobs with NV and PV requirements, both times blazed through the interviewing process, and were required to undergo the vetting process, failed both times. I have a clean record.

      From what little they could tell me, my personality is considered to be too open-minded which would make me more susceptible to be swayed by conspiracy theories and possibly question and challenge authority.

      I’ve also spoken to some colleagues who have PV and they said it could also due to the fact that I was born overseas and that I have family members that work for the foreign government, which could increase the odds of espionage or corruption from my end should I get access to top secret national security information :/

      And don’t even think about lying on your applications, because for the PV vetting process, they pretty much have folders and folders of your entire life records, plonk it on the table in front of you, things that you have either forgotten about or weren’t even aware of!

      So yeah, security clearance is not as easy to obtain as you might think.

    • 

      2ndeffort on 15/01/2018 - 13:22

      There are levels of Vetting for Security Clearances. The lowest level is 'Baseline'. The amount of background checking increases (along with the cost) as you go up to higher levels of clearance. There is a cost for a clearance but people cant just apply for a clearance and pay, you need to be sponsored by somebody to get a clearance in the 1st place.

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  Davo1111 on 12/01/2018 - 14:02

  +1

  • I agree with careers Councillor - do what you enjoy. On the extreme end i'm sure you've heard of people who have been convinced they need to become a doctor, then slowly die on the inside in a career that they don't have any interest in. It's also considerably easier to get motivated for something you have an interest in.
  • Take advantage of the wide 1st year study options. In my case i wrote down the majors i'd consider "wanting", then worked my way down to look at first year prerequisites for second year courses. There will be some courses that they will all have in common. Do those, then try and pick other courses outside or loosely-related. (some unis will force you to pick a course or two outside your faculty anyway). I did psychology and compsci which were completely unrelated to my degree, and well, i learnt a LOT. I still reference it today, even though i knew those courses were not for me.
  • There will always be "phases" of degrees, and imo try and go against a trend. Also, a higher ATAR course doesnt mean more $$$.
  • RE trades - imo it has long term reliability, but pay is average. Being a person who is able to communicate efficiently pushes you up the ladder faster. There is also a risk that down the line you could be superseded, so imo it's important to be multiskilled. For example, i went for a job interview for servicing PABX systems, there are 2 people in sydney who could diagnose a certain age of systems (and can charge a shitload), however, if the technology moves to cloud PABX, your job may be completely phased out.
  • Leaving uni with a generic degree and NFI what you want to do is a quick way to continue that pattern of not getting a job.

  RE: arts degrees - you'll get a lot of flak for it if you do it. IMO in most cases it supplement to another degree, they generally don't go well by themselves. Same with generic commerce degrees tbh. People will strongly disagree with that, but i think arts should generally be postgrad.

  • 

    byleth on 12/01/2018 - 14:32

    Yeah, with your first point there's alot of people (including me at one point that considered) who wanted to jump in on jobs that people regard as high paying with good outcomes. I think most end up dropping out or switching courses because it was kind of forced instead of having a genuine interest for it so it doesn't work out. It's really hard to pinpoint what my interest really is because there are so many factors that made me kind of steer clear from it. Especially with the fear of constantly wasting my time swapping courses if I end up feeling like it's not the suitable course for me.

    I'll definitely be revising over the majors when I settle down with the choice of degree I make. I had a brief look at some of the majors for the degrees I was interested in and always had trouble choosing the one I ultimately want. And you're right, I don't want to leave uni with a generic degree or studying a degree and not knowing what I want to do so I want to plan ahead for now.

    With trades theres been alot of different opinions on them. I guess it's pretty much subjective although I'll be open if uni doesn't work out for me.

    I don't ever think I'd do an arts degree though, I never saw myself landing a job with the use of it but I guess it would be a good supplement to another degree as you said when applying for a job for more recognition.

    Thanks alot for your advice!

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  Lando on 12/01/2018 - 14:25

  +1

  Don't listen to anyone who says do a trade when you smart enough for a professional job. Bunch of uneducated fools

  • 

    Davo1111 on 12/01/2018 - 14:31

    high end tradies are very difficult to find from my experience - and they get paid significantly more than me.

    btw, being a "tradie" doesn't mean you have to dig holes and smoke all day.

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  diceman99 on 13/01/2018 - 10:34

  Your counsellors recommendation of doing what u like. Is prob good advice. At least for 5 years.
  But honestly after a while it will become monotonous.
  It doesnt really matter what job you get. You will get sick of it.
  People develop and change over time.
  You will find the tradie start to become a builder and then start financing deals.
  A nurse might eventually become a clinic manager.
  I think the trick is to find a job area where there are oppurtunities or the sector is developing

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    byleth on 13/01/2018 - 12:18

    Yeah, I was just worried about switching courses over too many times if I'm constantly feeling like I made the wrong decision. I don't mind what kind of job it is as long as it's enjoyable and is able to keep me at least financially stable all and it being readily available. Thanks!

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    smux on 14/01/2018 - 02:28

    Exactly, work can't be fun all the time. When you reach a point where you don't enjoy the work as much as you used to, then earning lots of money while doing it becomes more important. If you get a degree that doesn't lead to high paying jobs, you'll just be torturing yourself for no reward.

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  TheDolphin on 13/01/2018 - 11:14

  Pick a field where they can't export your job to China, India etc. For example many IT jobs can be done remotely these days but you need a bricklayer to be on site

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    byleth on 13/01/2018 - 12:24

    There has been alot of people dropping out of hs to take an apprenticeship whether it be labour work or bricklaying because it's decent pay. I'm still looking around for jobs that aren't too overly competitive on the market. Thanks for your response!

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  pennypincher98 on 13/01/2018 - 11:46

  +1

  Take the Bachelor of Business in Marketing (or the medical science, but that's maths and is HARD so know what you are in for).

  Do NOT take the Bachelor of Science. You can transfer from any degree to a B Science degree without any credit, GPA or other requirements. It's not that easy getting into the other two. To be completely honest, if you don't like maths you'll probably bomb out and fry in medical science.

  Everyone always needs a marketer for the business. The whole business industry is kind of futureproofed as a robot can't market something the way a human can.

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    byleth on 13/01/2018 - 12:33

    +1

    Yeah I applied for Bachelor of Science because I thought it was a pretty broad degree with tons of different majors I can pick from instead of being restricted. My maths is pretty basic as I've done general maths in HS and it was okay to me, but I don't want to risk putting myself for maths beyond that haha.

    I was unsure with med science because some people have said it's not that great unless you continue on to med school and do medicine. I also heard some people not really being able to get a job, or they started to do to completely different degree to that right after.

    Out of those three right now, I think I'm leaning more towards Marketing if I don't get any other offers from uac as it seems to be the best option out of those.

    Thank you!