is a politics degree really worth it?

Anonymous #1

conflicted. should I do this degree or not? what jobs could I get?

Reply 1

999tigger

Original post by Anonymous

conflicted. should I do this degree or not? what jobs could I get?

https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/what-can-i-do-with-my-degree/politics

Reply 2

Hlic123

I’m a 1st year. You really need to do what you enjoy without worrying about jobs etc otherwise you won’t engage with the course - opportunities present themselves work wise.

Reply 3

Zak96

Depends on what you want to do and where you want to end up.
If you want to be a politician, unless you're doing PPE at Oxford, it won't make much difference other than "you went to uni", might as well do marketing :wink:

and learn to target yourself haha.

If you want to get into politics, get involved with your local party association of your political party that you support and canvass, canvass, canvass and make friends till they like you enough and tap you on the soldier. What parties care about is you kissing whip ass, your work experience, community engagement, if you've done something that will bring shame to your party and if you support your party leader.

If you want to be an academic though, sure, it's definitely worth it if that is what you want to research, write about and teach.

Reply 4

returnmigrant

There are a thousand jobs out there for Politics grads - and most of them have nothing to do with politics.

Like English, History and numerous other subjects they do not train you for a specific job. You will find Politics grads in everything from Banking to Teaching, from Hotel Management to Oxfam. This is because it gives you all this :

* the ability to research, source and examine information thoroughly
* the capacity to critically analyse evidence and construct coherent arguments
* excellent written and presentation skills
* intellectual depth
* teamworking skills

Here are the info pages from Uni Careers pages that tell you what their grads have done :
Kent - https://www.kent.ac.uk/ces/student/degree/politicsandir/index.html
Exeter - https://www.exeter.ac.uk/careers/research/degree/politics/
St Andrews - https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/careers/exploring-your-future/course-matters/using-your-degree/internationalrelations/

Reply 5

asyia.iftikhar

If you want to do a degree about social change that seems more hands on than politics you could look into BA (hons) Innovation and Skills for Social Change at Leeds Beckett University? More info here:

https://courses.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/innovation-skills-for-social-change/