You just had the greatest 3 years of your life. You did well in your exams you made lots of friends. But now you're in debt of up to £20,000, you must say goodbye to your uni friends, and you have no job.
What now?
Are you now living with your parents again or are you still living with your friends? Have you already found your dream job? Are you now going to study a postgraduate course?
oh dear...were you one of those people who studied their subject due to the sheer enjoyment, and never worried one bit of how marketable it was in the job market?
oh dear...were you one of those people who studied their subject due to the sheer enjoyment, and never worried one bit of how marketable it was in the job market?
Doing something because you like it... the HORROR.
If I was in that situation I would just be sitting there going Ahhh!
oh dear...were you one of those people who studied their subject due to the sheer enjoyment, and never worried one bit of how marketable it was in the job market?
Even if you have a job, the reality that you're about to leave all your friends and be lumbered with a lot of responsibility is pretty sobering.
Even if you have a job, the reality that you're about to leave all your friends and be lumbered with a lot of responsibility is pretty sobering.
Why?? I worked in an office for three months full time (didn't know anyone there) and didn't find it any different to be honest. You just get on with your work and get paid at the end of the month.
Why?? I worked in an office for three months full time (didn't know anyone there) and didn't find it any different to be honest. You just get on with your work and get paid at the end of the month.
Well university is a very different experience to working. When you leave university, the friends you've come to rely on for three years will disappear to different parts of the country, and you won't have the safety blanket of the university system to help you if you screw up. Your social life won't be the same again. I don't have a problem with working - I'm doing it now - but that doesn't mean that leaving university isn't a really tough experience whether you have a job at the end of it or not. It's a massive life change.
i haven't even got there yet and i'm worried!
ill make the best of friends then have to leave them, i might have a boyfriend then have to leave him cos we want to do completly different things, and this feels like all i've been doing my whole life leaving people behind....pretty depresive but hey maybe it'll be okay
I don't quite see why it would be a bigger change than going into work after leaving school. You are in a similar position that you don't have your schools support nor will you see your friends (all went to university). I guess I might be different in the sense that I do not rely on my friends for anything, I have always got things done on my own (mostly without parents support, except financial help maybe).
I don't quite see why it would be a bigger change than going into work after leaving school. You are in a similar position that you don't have your schools support nor will you see your friends (all went to university). I guess I might be different in the sense that I do not rely on my friends for anything, I have always got things done on my own (mostly without parents support, except financial help maybe).
Yes, but you're in work prior to going to university. I assume you're still living with your parents, although you say you don't rely on them? You still have a life plan (at least for the next three years), and the work you're doing is quite temporary. A lot of graduates drift into temporary work with no idea what they want to do long-term, and that's difficult to deal with. It's particularly difficult if you need to move back in with your parents for financial reasons. Even if you are out on your own with a graduate job, it's likely to be the first time in your life you will have responsibilities with no second chances - my trainee account friends, for example, are one failed exam away from being fired, and that kind of pressure just doesn't exist at university (and you don't have the time or the social circle to blow off steam in the same way you would at uni).
I'm not trying to be awkward, but I find it difficult to hear people being dismissive of how difficult the transition can be without having experienced it.
oh dear...were you one of those people who studied their subject due to the sheer enjoyment, and never worried one bit of how marketable it was in the job market?
Christ, its obvious you haven't been to university yet.
well I could be speaking from the point of view of my relatives and people that I know. I know that tells me jack **** of how the transition will be like for me, but with some hard work and perseverance everything works out just fine (again, using the people I know as case examples lol)
Last edited by prospectivEEconomist : 24-08-2008 at 10:06.
Graduating will be a strange experience, but not necessarily a negative one for me. I've got a year of uni to go yet, but it's weird knowing that this is my last summer holiday.
I'll be continuing living in the same place, though. I'll be living either with, or very close to, my best friend. So, for those reasons, saying goodbye isn't an issue for me.
I have a job in place, providing I can keep it for the next year; and from that position I can then begin the search for a career knowing that I've already got the financial stability I need.
Really, I don't have any worries or concerns about graduating and getting out there in 'the real world'; but I'll miss university a lot.
OP: When my older sister graduated she went to the nearest big city (Bristol) met her future husband and then travelled the world
Not a bad set of plans, I have to admit.
oh dear...were you one of those people who studied their subject due to the sheer enjoyment, and never worried one bit of how marketable it was in the job market?
Nope.
Originally Posted by IlexAquifolium
university is a very different experience to working. When you leave university, the friends you've come to rely on for three years will disappear to different parts of the country, and you won't have the safety blanket of the university system to help you if you screw up. Your social life won't be the same again.
Yes, at least you are being realistic. This is why I started this thread - I'm curious as to what graduates are doing now or what the current students plan to do after they have graduated.
So come on now people, my questions have not been answered. Are you now living with your parents again or are you still living with your friends? Have you already found your dream job? Are you now going to study a postgraduate course?
So come on now people, my questions have not been answered. Are you now living with your parents again or are you still living with your friends? Have you already found your dream job? Are you now going to study a postgraduate course?
I'm still living with my other half, as I did at university. I'll be doing postgrad at another university which is pretty scary! I'm still finding it pretty tough knowing that my friends have moved for the most part, it's odd adjusting from seeing them every day to having to travel across the country if I want to visit them. In a lot of respects I'm enjoying life post-undergrad. It's nice to finally have the degree and to be earning some money, and I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into some research. But for me this feels far more like the frightening transition to being an adult than leaving home and going to university did; people cut you a lot of slack at university that simply isn't the case once you're doing your own research or holding down a job. There's not the same throng of people around to pick you up if you fall down and you're expected not to make mistakes. That said I've made far stronger friends than I had before I went to university and I've matured a lot as a person, so I'm far more able to cope with that responsibility.
oh dear...were you one of those people who studied their subject due to the sheer enjoyment, and never worried one bit of how marketable it was in the job market?
Isn't this why we have personal development file or something? Not all of us wish to study vocational courses like golf management at Manchester or accounting at LSE. My degree has a nice balance of academia and vocational compatibility with very good options of further, advanced study.
Are you now living with your parents again or are you still living with your friends? Have you already found your dream job? Are you now going to study a postgraduate course?
As tokyorose said, life does not happen as you plan it. Completely 100% so accurate. I left uni, bf and I split up, I moved back home.
It has been so difficult going from uni to 'real life' ... getting a job was very difficult despite trying all year etc - eventually got a temp job with plans to go to New Zealand for a year.
Got booked to go to NZ, booked on the flight and everything - then I got offered my dream job out of the blue (after the company turned me down a few months ago)... and so I cancelled NZ and am now about to move to London.
Have had literally, 2 weeks to plan to move, and am moving next weekend. Its crazy. Just got used to living at home, and im leaving again. I am gutted about NZ, but I cant refuse the experience this job offer will give me, even tho its london, and that was really the last place I wanted to move. I'm more scared of moving there than I am of moving to New Zealand! lol.
So that's my life after uni so far. Glad to hear other people are finding it kinda the same difficulty as me! Oh and as for my uni friends, they all just seem to be disappearing... who knows. You really do rely on them for 3 years, and for me, a lot of them have just dropped away. It's sad really.. but there you go, that's life.
i wonder for those that left uni, how do you actually feel? Im still in college so im still a bit behind but when i think of it, it really saddens me that life just wont be the same anymore.
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Uni is over. What now?
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(again, using the people I know as case examples lol)
