Careers Advice (now closed)

Finishing your course and still not sure which career path to take? We have a careers advisor on hand to provide advice.


Advisor for this Q&A

Christine Schofield, Careers Advisor

Christine has been a Careers Advisor for 14 years and is employed by North Lindsey College. She works with school pupils, college learners and adults.

Started to study Criminology in September and it just isn't the right course for me. I'm really interested in working in a pharmacy but unsure where to start. Any advice would be great!

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I am currently studying Journalism at university.


However, I am now half way through my second year and still unsure about what topic I want to specialise in.


I have enjoyed finding stories locally and getting my own quotes to write a fresh angle on the stories this year, so I feel that I would prefer to work in newspaper/magazine; but I don't know what subject I want to cover (eg fashion, sport, travel)


I also want to start a blog but again, without having a specific topic I don't know where to start.


I am studying abroad as part of the Erasmus programme soon so I plan on blogging about that but I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how they decided on what specific area of journalism they want to specialise in?


I know I have another year left at university, but I am worrying that I am going to leave without a clear plan/idea of what I want to do!

Could you suggest any really good Career advice websites / resources available ?

Working with students myself, and having lots of stories of students that haven't received great careers advice, do you have any recommendations as to where people can go, if not their school/education institution to get good careers advice?

We ran a survey on The Student Room last year, that showed many students hadn't been correctly advised and as a result, ended up doing A levels that wouldn't contribute to the career path they had in mind. Do you know if additional support out there if the student doesn't feel confident in the advice they're given?

What companies in the UK can I work for as a native English speaker with a degree in Italian and Spanish if I still want to use my language skills in the UK apart from being a teacher.

Hi,

I have two options open to me.

Option 1

Carry on doing my A-levels go to university and read economics have a great time at university like I have always wanted to do. Then try to get a career in an investment bank....

Option 2

Go and work for my dad as a electrical engineer earning a good salary while I'm training 2 days a week in college. Have a lot more leisure time and enjoy myself with money to enjoy while I'm young. (He has an Electrical engineering company worth over £1.4m).

Your opinions?

Thanks,

Hi Christine.

I am struggling a little with regards to setting off on my desired career path. I would love to be involved in making geographical/travel documentaries. I have a 2;1 degree in Journalism from Cardiff University. I'm just unsure of how to even begin finding relevant experience. Documentary presenters such as Simon Reeves are a real inspiration for me.

Would just appreciate your thoughts and advice, thank you very much

I will keep this as brief as I can.. I'm 25 and currently work in a terrible low paid job. I studied business for years and got to uni but dropped out due to health/family issues which was in some ways a blessing as I was losing interest anyway and don't really want to work in a boring HR department. I dabbled in a bit of computing at college after uni but decided to not go forward due to having my doubts that it would get me anywhere.

I've debated and debated with myself over what I should do with my life. Returning to uni is not an option as I won't get funded and I need to feed my kids (I have two) which are my main priority over anything. I've toyed with ideas of starting a business but the challenge,finances and uncertainty is beyond me and I can't take that risk. I'm getting older and still not achieved anything substantial. I do believe my downfall comes from finding everything boring and quitting as soon as I get bored or the rewards seems too far away or uncertain.

If someone turned round and asked me what my dream job would be I'd say game design possibly even Android games, but it won't happen so forget that idea as I can't afford to go to uni.

So I've concluded I need to do something that I stand a minimum of 50% chance of getting into and a 50% likeage for, which would be IT support. I wouldn't mind a nice helpdesk job with opportunity to advance... Without a degree how can I make this happen? Am I making the right choice? I've always told people to follow their dreams but along the way things happen and it's not always possible and you then have to face reality and come out of the dream world.

I apologise now for punctuation/spelling I'm typing on my new phones which isn't easy.

Thanks to anyone who can offer me advice.



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