I can't understand the mentality of ''Drop Outs''

Bingo. There's an alarming number of people here who seem to think their degrees are going to be a gateway into a higher class of work that's denied to people who didn't go to university. There really aren't that many jobs that you need a university degree for and for most of the rest the "experience" headstart that people who don't have a degree can get on you will more than make up for your academic superiority.

Seems these days that a lot more employers are specifying a degree as required to apply for a job - even though a degree isn't needed to do the job.
As government pushes degree education more and as more people go for degrees, I suspect that problem will become more common.
Higher class of work maybe, but not as high as many people want.

These "degree required" jobs tend to ring kind of strange with me though. Most of them seem to be recruitment, management-training or sales. All areas where lots of people do as well from getting in on the ground floor and working their way up (without having a degree).

20 years ago many jobs just specified O levels or GCSEs. Haven't seen one of them in quite some time.

Seriously? Then you've not been looking. There are LOADs of jobs around that only ask for GCSEs as an entry requirement.

Bingo. There's an alarming number of people here who seem to think their degrees are going to be a gateway into a higher class of work that's denied to people who didn't go to university. There really aren't that many jobs that you need a university degree for and for most of the rest the "experience" headstart that people who don't have a degree can get on you will more than make up for your academic superiority.

Yup. It seems to be "must get into uni or I'll die", but when they finish there...they haven't a scooby of what to do.

Yup. It seems to be "must get into uni or I'll die", but when they finish there...they haven't a scooby of what to do.

What someone thinks they want to do with their life at age 18 (or 17 when applying to universities) can be quite different from what they later figure out they want to do with their life.

I learnt about the subject matter of my degree decades before I applied to do it, I think I've made the right choice. Though to me the knowledge gained comes second to gaining new skills.

People are so brainwashed and think that if they do well academically; everything will be nice and happy when they finish. I hate to burst the bubble, but reality dun work like that.

This is exactly my point.

People (on here mostly) need to realise that if they DO screw up in their exams, drop out or whatever, that there are always loads more options. Academia ain't everything. Look at my mum: expelled from two different schools with NO qualifications and managed to work her way up, and now shes the manager of a shopping centre/mall thing. People are so brainwashed and think that if they do well academically; everything will be nice and happy when they finish. I hate to burst the bubble, but reality dun work like that.

Grades and fancy jobs aren't the be all and end all. "Being a lawyer" sounds great in theory but waiting tables is a much more pleasant and less stressful way of life tbh. You don't have to 'get somewhere' to be happy.

so she stayed and ended up becoming a lawyer? and what if she hated it? what if she didnt want to do that? what if she *shock horror* actually did not think that getting a high paid job was the be all and end all of everything? Maybe shes actually happy doing what shes doing.

to quote bruce almighty - some of the happiest people in the world go home at the end of the day stinking to high heaen.

If your friend pursued your dream of going to college/uni becoming a lawyer and making a mint and getting the big house and the white picket fence and the 2.4 children. and absolutely hated her life? In which case her life is wasted.

Money doesnt make you happy and if waiting tables does make her happy then shes richer than you will ever be.

Of course if shes a dosser and simply couldnt be bothered then i take it all back

waiters, cleaners, dustbin men, etc.

most people on this forum wouldn't be these, or at least this wouldn't be their highest achievement in life.

Funny you include dustbin men but not teachers. I know a lot of binmen earn more than teachers, their salary is very respectable, on average only a few hundred less than a teacher and where would we be without them?

Funny you include dustbin men but not teachers. I know a lot of binmen earn more than teachers, their salary is very respectable, on average only a few hundred less than a teacher and where would we be without them?

I don't understand this idea that not having a degree condemns you to working in some sort of "underclass". Maybe the people who feel this way should ask successful people they encounter whether they have a degree. I'd wager many of them don't.