The Student Room Group

Do you feel as if you had good career advice growing up?

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Original post by Little Popcorns
Erm wow I'll have to take your word for it!

The information is in the public arena. The scheme was also used by Barnardos, Salvation Army, and the C of. E Church.
Reply 21
no. the advice i was given was crap
you guys do expect quite a lot from your schools

the fact they say

"aim high and get good grades so you can do what you want"

is sufficient information

the rest you OUGHT to get yourself
Original post by TrojanH
you guys do expect quite a lot from your schools

the fact they say

"aim high and get good grades so you can do what you want"

is sufficient information

the rest you OUGHT to get yourself


Are you serious lol
To say it was "absolutely ****ing useless" would be an understatement. Schools only care about sending you to university, and universities just don't care in general. I had 1 meeting with a uni careers adviser and it was the same regurgitated tat that she'd clearly said to every person she'd seen that day.

TSR is a much better resource for CV help, interview prep & techniques, possible sectors to enter than any careers advice you'll get in schools and i'm not just saying that because i'm part of the team.

Also anyone who is old enough to remember Connexions will surely remember how useless they were! The adviser I had was brilliant on a personal level, but on a career level they did virtually nothing for me.
The advice from the organisation that run career help at my school was abysmal.

One of my friends was told that equine eventing was a good career expectation, she could leave school and go straight into it with her horse.

Another was told that she could be a fashion designer on £40k after leaving school with GCSEs. After two years, £60k. Believe it or not that information came from the .gov website and she STILL believes this today - she doesn't want to apply for jobs for less money.

I was told going into STEM was 'really hard', not worth it because of poor pay and that most women didn't consider it. Maybe I should choose an easier career.

I still can't get over this horrendous advice. Don't listen to them!
Not really.. For a long time, I thought that doctor, engineer, lawyer and economist were the only careers that existed. That's probably why it took me a really long time to accept that Literature was the ideal uni course for me
Original post by Rhaenys10
Not really.. For a long time, I thought that doctor, engineer, lawyer and economist were the only careers that existed. That's probably why it took me a really long time to accept that Literature was the ideal uni course for me


I thoughtly similarly until I discovered the prospects website by googling, on my gap year. I'm really glad I did because I'm not great at science and pretty poor at Maths so for most of my school career I believed my options were really limited.
Original post by jelly1000
I thoughtly similarly until I discovered the prospects website by googling, on my gap year. I'm really glad I did because I'm not great at science and pretty poor at Maths so for most of my school career I believed my options were really limited.


It's not like I didn't know there were other jobs too, but I didn't think they could provide me with stability and a reliable income in the long run. Right now I'm on a gap year too, and I'm planning to apply to uni again for an English and Mod Langs course.. Last year I was rejected from my dream uni, and I honestly would've rejected myself too, as I applied for Economics and Management.

I was under the impression that hard work and ambition alone would be enough, but I was obviously wrong.. I feel like passion is way more important..

Best of luck doing what you love!
Nope, I had to google everything myself
No
Reply 31
Nope, don't see the point when schools have a careers advisor when their information is like 10 years old. As others have said, some felt really limited with careers "You can be a fireman/policeman/teacher" and that's it.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Rhaenys10
It's not like I didn't know there were other jobs too, but I didn't think they could provide me with stability and a reliable income in the long run. Right now I'm on a gap year too, and I'm planning to apply to uni again for an English and Mod Langs course.. Last year I was rejected from my dream uni, and I honestly would've rejected myself too, as I applied for Economics and Management.

I was under the impression that hard work and ambition alone would be enough, but I was obviously wrong.. I feel like passion is way more important..

Best of luck doing what you love!


True, I knew of course about retail and hospitality work but with, all due respect to those that work that sector, I always knew I was trying to aim higher. I had no idea about the different options in the not for profit sector- in charities, government, NGO's, tthink tanks e.c.t until I started googling and thats how I determined I had a real interest in the policy side of things.

Hard work and ambition are two important components but passion is another important one too. I've since finished with university study having done a BA and MA, I'm now in a Policy Internship but I lost the opportunity to get a couple of internships because I didn't demonstrate enough passion at interview- it's not that I wasn't, but it took me a while to be able to convey it. Then work experience is essential too, I wouldn't have got any of my interviews and ultimately my internship.
Original post by Yammy
Nope, don't see the point when schools have a careers advisor when their information is like 10 years old.


Or the careers advisor had 20 part time jobs and supposedly that qualified them

Posted from TSR Mobile
Kind of

I told her my plans and she recommended BTEC

She also gave me a website called plotr
Reply 35
Original post by Princepieman
Or the careers advisor had 20 part time jobs and supposedly that qualified them

Posted from TSR Mobile


Our school just had a new careers advisor, he used to be a business and accounting teacher. No idea how he got this role.
Yep! Growing up I've always had a plan about what I'm doing with my life, even if they were completely different to my current plan. Parents always helped me out following my heart whilst bringing my brain along :smile:
anyone else?
There was a tiny bit from school, which was useless, and my family couldn't give any. I ended up learning everything I know from attending networking events and just learning from my mistakes
Original post by Allie4
do you remember bloody Connexions?

all my careers advisers told me to go to them and that they'd help me with apprenticeships in the career of my choice. but they never did.
went to them several times and all they ever did was give me leaflets and brochures - some that i already had - with standard information that i already knew about and no help whatsoever. place was run by chavs as well

and then they called me once to say did you think connextions helped you well enough and i was just honest, i was like sorry but they were no help whatsoever, all they ever do is give me stupid little booklets with information of what the apprenticeship is but thats about it and they were like oh sorry, what is it you wanted? so i told him in detail what i needed help with and he said ok i will now send you all the relevant information and sources you need... and what did i get? - another copy of the same damn booklet i already had!!!

waste of my damn time!
Connexions was actually terrible, they made me far more confused than I already was.

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