Written by Andrew Shanahan, Editorial Team, Graduate Prospects., 03/08/05.
For many students, career decisions may cause sleepless nights. From the moment that you selected your GCSEs, it feels like you've set in motion an unstoppable series of events which slam shut some career doors and open others. This is all well and good if you know which door you want left open but, if you're among those students who still don't know what to do in the 'real world', then it can be a scary process. Vocational degrees Those with a vocational degree may have a very clear idea about what they want to do after graduation. In many cases, this degree is the only route available for qualification into their chosen profession. Aside from these vocational degrees there are also courses whose graduates invariably pursue a career in a related field, although it is not essential to have a particular degree to enter that occupation. Research based on graduates of 2005 on What do graduates do? shows that: - 37.5% of IT graduates go into information technology professions
- 69% of graduates in civil engineering became engineering professionals
- 65.4% of those with degrees in building went into in other professional, associate professional and technical occupations (including occupations like architectural assistants, architects, quantity surveyors and building surveyors)
- 48.9% of mechanical engineers entered engineering professions
- 26.8% of accountancy degree holders went on to be business and finance professionals
Part of the reason for the low levels of degree-related employment for these subjects is that there was a downturn in demand in the labour market, particulalry in IT and Accountancy. Evidence already shows a recovery in these fields; the number of graduates being recruited into these areas has increased this year. Non-vocational degrees So what are you supposed to do if you have a non-vocational degree? Mary Palmer, an English Literature graduate, found that after her final year she still had no career direction. 'When I first graduated, I was unsure which career path to take due to the flexibility of my degree subject. Like most students, I thought that I'd be able to get a job which focused on the academic skills from my degree.' Mary's predicament is particularly common amongst arts and humanities graduates who find that their degree, although equipping them with good generalist skills, does not lead into an obvious career. In these situations a lot depends on what you want to do with your degree. It often helps to try and ignore your degree subject and focus instead on what you would do if you could choose from any career. The What job would suit me? section can help you clarify your career ideas, assess where your strengths and interests lie and point out how you can tailor these to a career and pinpoint areas of work that you might not have thought about before. Once you've highlighted specific areas of work that interest you can begin to look at how to present the skills you learnt during your degree as relevant qualifications for working in this area. Even seemingly unrelated courses and careers have transferable skills. All of those tutorials and seminars you sat through on your degree are, believe it or not, ideal training for the communication and negotiating skills that are pre-requisites in most jobs. If you feel you need some more specific skills to go into a career, then one option is to do further study in the form of a conversion course. Conversion courses usually last one or two years (often depending on how far you want to take the qualification) and are aimed at people whose previous qualification was in an unrelated subject. The option to pursue a further qualification should be considered carefully before you take it because it could end up costing you time, as well as money. Mary Palmer decided to pursue a Masters course after two years of working in jobs which didn't quite measure up to her expectations: 'I was not utilising any of the skills that I had learnt from my degree and placements that I had really enjoyed. I did a general research check on my earnings potential and promotion opportunities that I could have once I entered this new field. I made the decision from my research to convert to the full-time course because I'd have better career progression and earning power from doing the course in one year.' Although it's easy to put off thoughts about careers until you absolutely have to make them, a little bit of planning before you graduate will put you ahead of the crowd later. If you don't want to commit to a particular career there are still ways of spending your time constructively and building up relevant skills which will be of use when you decide which direction to go in. A popular choice for many graduates is to take a gap year and do some temporary work and then travel. This could give you good examples of taking responsibility and organising yourself to demonstrate to potential employers when you get back. The most important thing is to start thinking about what you want to do with your life and then work out how your degree can help make that happen. It's not a bad decision to have to make if you look at the huge range of opportunities that you have to choose from. Related topics
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