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What jobs do you do?

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I'm asking because I'll be graduating in June and I don't know what I want to do. I have such a mental block when it comes to thinking about this, the only job titles I can think of are things like "teacher" "doctor" etc as if I'm reading off some primary school flashcards.

As it stands I don't really have any burning ambition to be or do anything, my aims at the moment are to earn enough money to save a deposit for a house, and to then have children. But I need a job for that, and I think that I'm worth more that £5.52 in Morrisons really so I need a proper grown up job.

The uni had a careers fair last week but it was shit, it was just law firms or banks, neither of which I have any interest in whatsoever and it's not the kind of thing I think I'd be accepted into doing anyway.

I'm borderline 2:2/2:1 at York at the moment so I could get onto a graduate scheme but I don't know what kind of things are out there.

I know this is rambling but any help is great, thank you!
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Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    get yourself on Aldi's graduate scheme! pays about £30k and you get a Audi car as well! (ties in with your supermarket experience and your graduate status)

    think they train you to be a area or regional manager
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I know someone doing that, he gets 39K. He got a 2:2 and has a masters.

    Not sure if that would be the sort of thing you'd be happy doing though?

    Don't worry too much about not knowing. I still don't.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i dont do that however, i wish i did.

    i am a project manager for a small privately owned company only turning over about 5m a year, so its quite a close knit thing. some of the time its great fun, other times (such as now) its the pits. worst time of year for my particular industry.

    but it pays the bills
  • littlemissylittlemissy Posts: 9,972 Supreme Poster
    You decided against the teaching malarky then? Or just keeping your options open?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I haven't decided against teaching but I think it's too late for me to apply for that this year as I don't have any classroom experience. I had thought about getting a job for a year and then trying to get some classroom exp as well, and then applying next year, unless the job I had was good enough. I'm just very confused about it all really.

    Koe I will look into Aldi because I have 4 years + retail experience and it's about the only thing that I know how to do.

    As for project management, what does that mean? Job description please! (This is what gets me, I don't know what titles of jobs mean either :o)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Im a youth worker
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    welllllllllll....its hard to sum up and you wont really want to do it.

    im basically in control of orders getting delivered to peoples schedules.

    i liase with designers, suppliers, contractors, sub-contractors, architects and make sure everyone is working to the same schedule.

    we do quite a lot of well known brands, can be interesting, can be soul destroying. its not for the weak tho. i've been doing it nearly 3 years and seen dozens of people come and go who just cant handle the stress.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Oh I see, project managing for building. Project can be anything! You're right though, I can't see myself doing that.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Don't just look at the areas that your degree is in either.

    I'm a trainee accountant and I got a job at a practise straight from college.
    There's a guy in the office who did a Uni course in something completely different and he's fine.

    It's good money too :)

    You can do anything you want! :D
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    koe_182 wrote: »
    im basically in control of orders getting delivered to peoples schedules.

    i liase with designers, suppliers, contractors, sub-contractors, architects and make sure everyone is working to the same schedule.

    we do quite a lot of well known brands, can be interesting, can be soul destroying. its not for the weak tho. i've been doing it nearly 3 years and seen dozens of people come and go who just cant handle the stress.

    That sounds really interesting, how did you get into it?

    I'm currently a letting agent. Until a few months ago, I was a trainee accountant on a graduate scheme. My degree is a 2.2 in accountancy from a decent university but i think i lost interest in it. I don't know what i want to do when i grow up though.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    That sounds really interesting, how did you get into it?

    got it through a agency originally believe it or not, started out on a more sales admin side of things tho, then mowed my way in to project management (you can get qualifications in it but i learnt it all on the job) and now im the head Project manager in the company.


    sounds a lot more glamourous than it is, pay isnt fantastic, can be long hourse, 12 hour shifts 5 days a week have been regular in the last couple of weeks.

    xmas will be quiet tho! woooo
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    :lol:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    koe_182 wrote: »
    sounds a lot more glamourous than it is, pay isnt fantastic, can be long hourse, 12 hour shifts 5 days a week have been regular in the last couple of weeks.

    :lol: Anything is better than what i do - my STANDARD hours are 11 hour days 5 days a week, plus a 6 hour day at the weekend.
  • **helen****helen** Deactivated Posts: 9,235 Supreme Poster
    The key to finding out about different jobs and career related stuff is research, then a bit more research and networking - so starting this thread is obviously a great way to go :)

    Have a look at our article on what's your perfect job if you haven't already and see if you can come up with some more specific questions about careers.

    Is it a tough one, but you are definitely worth more than minimum wage and I would bet my bottom dollar that something will turn up for you :D
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    try not to start freaking out, i remember my mum saying that when she graduated her job title didn't even exist..it's her perfect job and it involves all the things that she is good at
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's not unusual not knowing what you want to do when you're older, I still have absolutely no idea what I want to do.

    I think you'd be quite good at my job, to be honest. It's interesting and it's helping people.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote: »
    It's not unusual not knowing what you want to do when you're older, I still have absolutely no idea what I want to do.

    I asked my mum about it (who is 60 and retired three years ago), and she said she still doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up. I think very few people do!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's not even so much a case of what I want to do when I grow up, I need to know what to do in a few months time, and I can't think of anything I might be good at or enjoy, except perhaps write a book of Harry Potter standards and be minted for life. But that isn't going to happen!
    Thanks for all your replies though :thumb:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    What's your degree in?

    Of people who did my course in Film and TV:
    I work in admin, currently looking into teaching.
    Two friends work for the Dr. Who writing department.
    One works at a makeup counter and is training to become a makeup artist, plus doing some freelance stuff.
    Two work for student services in a university.
    One has just finished working teaching English in Japan. I don't know if he's going back.

    Of people who did other courses:
    My cousin did law and is now a cop.
    My other cousin did drama, then went back and trained as a nurse instead.
    A third cousin trained as an outward bounds instructor and now works for a company promoting and renovating nightclubs.

    And all of them took about half a year to a year after uni to get into those jobs.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    English Language and Linguistics (EVERYONE asks if I'm going to be a teacher. I guess they can't think of any other jobs either!)

    I wish I had a skill or an interest!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Considered working for a bank?

    Not investment banking, more general banking.

    Some of their training schemes just want graduates, and it ties in a bit with your retail/customer experience.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    English Language and Linguistics (EVERYONE asks if I'm going to be a teacher. I guess they can't think of any other jobs either!)

    I wish I had a skill or an interest!

    You could be the next Noam Chomsky.

    But teaching can lead to a whole host of other things. It's not like doing a teaching degree condemns you for a life in a classroom full of kids. If you do a PGCE (at least the one I'm looking at - secondary English), it also counts towards a 3rd of your masters, so you can complete a masters in Education in just a year of part time work. That qualifies you for teaching in colleges, or even universities in certain countries. And if you can't get on a course for the 2008 academic year (and I don't see why, since only the primary teaching applications are near finishing right now) then perhaps think about teaching abroad to see if it's for you. A lot of the Asian countries and some less developed countries don't require any qualifications other than a degree. But you will need to save up about a grand for airfares and stuff.

    Otherwise, look at jobs in the publishing industry. My friend got a job proofreading, before she got into the BBC, and her degree was combined Film and English Lit. You never know, this time next year you could be writing the "autobiography" of a talentless celebrity.

    ETA: just googled it, and Editorial Assistant is the job I'm thinking of.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ooh yes, I could be Kerry Katona's ghost writer!

    My course isn't "English enough" for me to be able to teach at Secondary school level, so it would have to be primary school. Did I say above why I was thinking of applying this year but it's too late now and don't have any classroom exp.? I had thought about working and then applying next year but doing a PGCE and then everything else takes a long time. I really just want a job now. I'm a bit fed up of being educated.

    Oh and I don't want to go and teach abroad. I've done TEFL 1 and will being doing TEFL 2 next term and really really really don't want to teach ESOL. It's not fun at all.

    Chomsky is not my favourite person! Did you know he never ever studied children, and based his claims about child language acquisition on adult syntax? I don't know how he got the respect he did about that, making claims about how children learn without ever having studied the way children learn.

    I never want to do research into anything either! Uni has shown me that I don't want to do that and I don't want to do postgrad either, with the exception of maybe a PGCE.

    Scary Monster, what type of things does banking involve then? My maths is absolutely terrible so if it's anything vaguely numerical then that's probably a no.

    I don't mind working in retail at the moment but I don't want to do it forever and although I have good customer service skills and am always nice to people it doesn't mean I like doing it!

    Doing something wordy does appeal. Hey Helen, can I come and work for thesite and write articles for you? I can spell really well! :D
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    How is your degree not English enough? Mine's English enough, and mine isn't even English.

    Oh, and as for Chomsky, he's mainly famous for his politics, not his linguistic studies I would guess.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Because it doesn't contain enough literature. The only English parts I have done have been History of English and TEFL, the rest has been mostly linguistics.

    http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/lang/current/docs/handbookFinalmaster.pdf
    Last page of that^^
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ah I guess studying film counts as textual analysis, whereas you didn't do much of that? Plus I've got an A-Level in English Language too, which might've swayed it.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've got English Language A Level and English Advanced Extension Award and we did textual analysis in that but I haven't done anything like that on my degree. I have done a LOT of phonetics and phonology (which I really like), TEFL which is boring, History of English which is interesting but difficult, Forensic phonetics which sounds really exciting and is interesting when you are being lectured but overrated, difficult and frustrating when you do it yourself, child language development, which is the most interesting thing so far, and sociolinguistics which again is interesting and I enjoy learning about it but I never want to research anything myself!

    No textual analysis at all, the only texts we looked at were in Old English and that was to see the derivation of Present Day English. My whole course has really about people and descriptivism.
  • **helen****helen** Deactivated Posts: 9,235 Supreme Poster
    Hey Helen, can I come and work for thesite and write articles for you? I can spell really well! :D

    :) You're more than welcome to do some voluntary writing for TheSite.org to get experience under your belt. But hey, seriously, if you're interested in writing then there are lots of options available. Obviously there's journalistic stuff like reporting/feature writing. Then there's sub-editing, copy writing, technical writing - the list goes on.

    I reckon you may well be suited to the field of publishing - take a look at some of these job types on prospects.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thanks Helen, I'm having a look at that now.

    What sort of voluntary writing would it be? I'm interested and would like to find out more :thumb:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Was your degree a BA or a BSc?

    Sorry, not helping, just being nosey.
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