Which leaves more doors open for careers?

Hi all, I am set to go into a law degree very soon... but having slight doubts about it all...

I am stuck between law, economics or PPE. One of the main factors here is graduate prospects.

I am not sure where I want to go after graduating - so wondering which degree leaves most doors open for decently paying careers?

In terms of the universities, I can either stick with Law at UoB, or do economics at UoB, or take a gap year and maybe get into Warwick PPE or Manchester Economics BA.

Thanks!

Define decent paying career. £30k? £50K? £100k? £15k?
Also define career. A few short years doing something fulfilling then long periods of time doing nothing fulfilling? Does it need to be in a specific sector? What makes you think you won't change jobs in 10 years or so? What makes you think you would be able to secure a long term role in the sector? What makes you think you your progress would be steady and opportunities would just open up and be ready for you once you have reached that level of seniority?

There are too many factors involved. The graduate job market is also ridiculously competitive. This is too difficult to define.

Do note, you can also go into 600+ different careers with just a degree in any subject as well as just your A Levels.

The only advantage a law degree would have over the other 2 degrees is that you won't need to do an extra year (out of pocket as well) to train as a barrister. For economics, you are more likely to be selected for economist roles with the GED or Bank of England, should you top it up with a master's.
Otherwise you can go into teaching or academic reasearch with the above degrees.

If you want to become a solicitor, you can do so with a degree in any subject via the SQE. You can also become a barrister after you become a solicitor.

Should for any random reason you want to switch fields, you can do a postgrad diploma/conversion course in law or economics. If you want to do an MA in PPE (there are only 2 in the country as far as I can tell), you would need an undergrad in any subject at the right grades. For joint economics master's (i.e. half economic degrees, not PPE), then you would need an undergrad in economics or the postgrad conversion course.

As one of the many posters who are looking to do degrees to get high paying roles, do note the most high paying jobs or roles tend to be in:
As you can see, the roles where you can earn a high salary generally tend to either involve a lot of people skills, risk/responsibilities, or expertise. These are not easy to find and there is usually a lot of competition involved. These also tend to go beyond what degree you have done.

Personal recommendation: do the subject that you have the most passion for and interest in. Unless it's in say architecture, healthcare, engineering, education, science, or academic research, then you have right to be concerned about your choices. (Law is borderline because of the barrister roles.)

Yeah my issue is I don't have a career path set in mind. I don't know if I want it to be fulfilling, or high paying. I don't know which sector or anything. I do want a certain level of comfort, like I would prefer not to work at Costa post graduation, but I have no idea where or doing what.

I know for a law degree for example there are skills that are transferrable - is this the case for PPE? What about Econ? I need a degree that is 'respected' by employers and can leave a lot of options open for me after I graduate. In 10 years yeah my job may be in a different area to after graduating, but its mainly where I can go straight after graduating.

Yeah my issue is I don't have a career path set in mind. I don't know if I want it to be fulfilling, or high paying. I don't know which sector or anything. I do want a certain level of comfort, like I would prefer not to work at Costa post graduation, but I have no idea where or doing what.

I know for a law degree for example there are skills that are transferrable - is this the case for PPE? What about Econ? I need a degree that is 'respected' by employers and can leave a lot of options open for me after I graduate. In 10 years yeah my job may be in a different area to after graduating, but its mainly where I can go straight after graduating.

I don't know if I want it to be fulfilling, or high paying.
Yeah, that's a poor mindset to have when you decide to pick a subject for uni. What's high paying now can not be in the future. Likewise, what's low paying now could be high paying in the future. You don't dictate market demand and set salaries yourself.
What's usually consistent is whether something is fulfilling to you or not.
What's fulfilling and what's high paying might not necessarily be mutually exclusive depending on the individual. I don't know enough about what's fulfiling to you, so I am drawing a blank.
Don't get me wrong though, I am not telling you to go and do a degree and expect nothing to come of it. I would otherwise telling yourself to waste 3 years of your life for no reason. Most degrees don't fall into this category though.

I do want a certain level of comfort, like I would prefer not to work at Costa post graduation, but I have no idea where or doing what.
There's nothing wrong with working at Costa, and there's nothing demeaning about it.
Comfort is also very subjective as you can work in a cushy office job and experience severe detriment to your mental and physical health. On the other hand, you could be in the great outdoors with minimal amenities, but be in the best shape of your life. Most jobs are not comfortable in one form or another e.g. you can be a high end CEO at a FTSE 100 company, but end up dolling out 14 hour days for 3 months straight. When you're working, you're usually not paid to sit around and be cushy.

I know for a law degree for example there are skills that are transferrable - is this the case for PPE? What about Econ?
Skills aren't typically gained through a degree. Employers emphasise relevant experience because that's where you gain your skills. You can't expect to be proficient in advising on law if you have never done it in practice for example. You can gain knowledge through a degree, but that's usually it. It's like me saying I can compete on Master Chef after doing a short weekend course on baking.
The knowledge you gain in a law degree can be transferred in a number of areas of life in various sectors, yes. With economics, you can do something similar, but it's only applicable in economic situations and where you require to apply stats. You can get similar knowledge with PPE (because of the economics component), but I doubt you would get many situations where they would require you to have extensive knowledge in philosophy or politics.
If you want a degree that gives you the basics in various skills that can be apply in a number of graduate positions, do something like maths, engineering, or physics; these quantiative degrees tend to require you to be proficient in maths, programming, and creative thinking.

I need a degree that is 'respected' by employers and can leave a lot of options open for me after I graduate.
Respected is something very subjective. One employer can respect a maths graduate because of the proficieny in maths and the ability for the person to deal with hard problems, but another can not respect the graduate because the degree is very theoretical and has no use of such knowledge in the company that does sales for example.
In most cases, most degrees are respectable. In fact, the government is currently weeding out courses that are of low grade and offer little return to students i.e. the Mickey Mouse degrees you're referring to. I think the term came about in the US where they got a bit too creative with the design of degrees and where they judge your application based more on the degree you got that other things about you (in the UK, it's more about what you did and what your experiences are for job applications than what you studied). If you want to read about it, see the following: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse_degrees
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/crackdown-on-rip-off-university-degrees
PPE, law, and economics are all reasonably respected choices. I would doubt many employers would diminish the value of your degree (if it means anything to them) just because you picked these subjects i.e. they're not underwater basket weaving or David Beckham studies.

A more productive approach in my opinion involves you thinking about:

These sort of questions can help significantly narrow down the options and give you a clearer picture of what you actually want. There are probably a longer list of other questions that you would need to consider.
If by the end of this your answers to these questions involve anything in healthcare, research, science, architecture, engineering, any high end jobs in tech, anything particularly quantitative, then I would err on picking any random degree. Otherwise, I think you're fine with most subjects i.e. pick the degree subject you like the most of than just fretting about the future of any particular one.

I don't know if I want it to be fulfilling, or high paying.
Yeah, that's a poor mindset to have when you decide to pick a subject for uni. What's high paying now can not be in the future. Likewise, what's low paying now could be high paying in the future. You don't dictate market demand and set salaries yourself.
What's usually consistent is whether something is fulfilling to you or not.
What's fulfilling and what's high paying might not necessarily be mutually exclusive depending on the individual. I don't know enough about what's fulfiling to you, so I am drawing a blank.
Don't get me wrong though, I am not telling you to go and do a degree and expect nothing to come of it. I would otherwise telling yourself to waste 3 years of your life for no reason. Most degrees don't fall into this category though.

I do want a certain level of comfort, like I would prefer not to work at Costa post graduation, but I have no idea where or doing what.
There's nothing wrong with working at Costa, and there's nothing demeaning about it.
Comfort is also very subjective as you can work in a cushy office job and experience severe detriment to your mental and physical health. On the other hand, you could be in the great outdoors with minimal amenities, but be in the best shape of your life. Most jobs are not comfortable in one form or another e.g. you can be a high end CEO at a FTSE 100 company, but end up dolling out 14 hour days for 3 months straight. When you're working, you're usually not paid to sit around and be cushy.

I know for a law degree for example there are skills that are transferrable - is this the case for PPE? What about Econ?
Skills aren't typically gained through a degree. Employers emphasise relevant experience because that's where you gain your skills. You can't expect to be proficient in advising on law if you have never done it in practice for example. You can gain knowledge through a degree, but that's usually it. It's like me saying I can compete on Master Chef after doing a short weekend course on baking.
The knowledge you gain in a law degree can be transferred in a number of areas of life in various sectors, yes. With economics, you can do something similar, but it's only applicable in economic situations and where you require to apply stats. You can get similar knowledge with PPE (because of the economics component), but I doubt you would get many situations where they would require you to have extensive knowledge in philosophy or politics.
If you want a degree that gives you the basics in various skills that can be apply in a number of graduate positions, do something like maths, engineering, or physics; these quantiative degrees tend to require you to be proficient in maths, programming, and creative thinking.

I need a degree that is 'respected' by employers and can leave a lot of options open for me after I graduate.
Respected is something very subjective. One employer can respect a maths graduate because of the proficieny in maths and the ability for the person to deal with hard problems, but another can not respect the graduate because the degree is very theoretical and has no use of such knowledge in the company that does sales for example.
In most cases, most degrees are respectable. In fact, the government is currently weeding out courses that are of low grade and offer little return to students i.e. the Mickey Mouse degrees you're referring to. I think the term came about in the US where they got a bit too creative with the design of degrees and where they judge your application based more on the degree you got that other things about you (in the UK, it's more about what you did and what your experiences are for job applications than what you studied). If you want to read about it, see the following: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse_degrees
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/crackdown-on-rip-off-university-degrees
PPE, law, and economics are all reasonably respected choices. I would doubt many employers would diminish the value of your degree (if it means anything to them) just because you picked these subjects i.e. they're not underwater basket weaving or David Beckham studies.

A more productive approach in my opinion involves you thinking about:

These sort of questions can help significantly narrow down the options and give you a clearer picture of what you actually want. There are probably a longer list of other questions that you would need to consider.
If by the end of this your answers to these questions involve anything in healthcare, research, science, architecture, engineering, any high end jobs in tech, anything particularly quantitative, then I would err on picking any random degree. Otherwise, I think you're fine with most subjects i.e. pick the degree subject you like the most of than just fretting about the future of any particular one.

Thanks for such an extensive reply! I would argue that working in Costa after spending £30k in tuition fees and 3 years of your life isn't for everyone though. Also, I would love to go into Maths / Physics etc but I did purely essay-based A-Level subjects, so that's impossible for me.

I was under the assumption that skills can be gained from a degree because my plan for a year was doing a law degree, and I thought the analytical and critical thinking skills are respected and transferrable to other fields of work.

I will look into those questions. I have taken a gap year so I have time to thoroughly think about them. But I think part of my issue is I don't know what tasks I can see myself doing day-to-day, as I have no idea what tasks there are out there. I guess I can get a feel with some work experiences here and there.

For fulfilling jobs - I want something where there is clear task identity with an ending, kind of like projects I work on over time and have a sense of completion after, but that may fall down to the management of employees by firms as well as the type of job I guess.

Thoroughly clear, real world advice, cant recommend this highly enough. Any young adult on TSR should review these criteria and ideas instead of focusing on dollar signs and prestige.

As for Costa, my cousin works for them and flies around the world procuring coffee. I earn a lot more but i am in an office all week. I know which one most people would prefer.

Top work,

Greg

Thanks Greg.

Just out of interest, what industry do you work in?

Hi all, I am set to go into a law degree very soon... but having slight doubts about it all...

I am stuck between law, economics or PPE. One of the main factors here is graduate prospects.

I am not sure where I want to go after graduating - so wondering which degree leaves most doors open for decently paying careers?

In terms of the universities, I can either stick with Law at UoB, or do economics at UoB, or take a gap year and maybe get into Warwick PPE or Manchester Economics BA.

Thanks!

You have exactly the same job prospects with all three with the exception of a very small number of economic policy oriented roles in e.g. the civil service, central banks etc, in which case you would need a degree usually with at least 50% economics content.

Otherwise they're equivalent in the long term - including for pursuing a legal career as a solicitor or barrister (50% of solicitors when surveyed by the SRA had a non-law undergraduate degree).

Pick whichever you find most interesting. Or if you find something else more interesting, pick that - if you always wanted to read cuneiform tablets do a degree in Assyriology. You have the same career prospects as with those three degrees, minus the economic policy roles.

I would love to go into Maths / Physics etc but I did purely essay-based A-Level subjects, so that's impossible for me
So, you have not decided to either do Maths or Physics as a private candidate? 2 A Levels in one year is doable, but it's like taking on 4 A Levels at once i.e. not comfortable. Also, if you intend to do the practical assessment for Physics, you should really book your assessment now.
The alternative would be to do a foundation year or an Access course. Neither would be applicable for all unis, but they would also get you in the door if you don't have specific A Levels and still open more doors than with your current A Levels. If you want to look into this further, feel free to ask.

I want something where there is clear task identity with an ending, kind of like projects I work on over time and have a sense of completion after, but that may fall down to the management of employees by firms as well as the type of job I guess.
Unfortunately yeah it comes down to management. With tight deadlines, you might also require to work overtime as well.
Typical jobs that come to mind include:
As far as I am concerned, unless you specifically want a 6 figure job, most of the above earn above national average wages i.e. above £26k (most earn above that even for grad roles). The only possible exceptions would be if you work as a paralegal, IT/engineering/architect apprentice, or a research assistant.

Project manager and law has come to mind before - I was set to do LLB Law at UoB literally this year, but cancelled because I was doubtful of my passion in the area. I will look at project manager roles - I'm guessing this type of job is achieved further into your career with experience though? I will look into it, thanks for all the help!

More or less yeah. There are master's degrees and professional qualifications for this (professional qualifications being preferred), but relevant project management experience trumps all (at least in the UK). As far as I know, you don't specifically need anything to get into the field.
Usually, no employer would in their right mind gives you a management role for any project until you have significant experience first.

Personally, I would rather have a degree in a technical field (e.g. programming, engineering) before moving into project management. Whether you would need this or want to do this is up to you.

Yeah I would but technical degrees aren't an option for me - I was incredibly dumb when picking my A-Levels. I picked Media??? And my best GCSE was maths with an A*??? Anyway, yeah....

Remind me again why none of the following are an option for you (I can't see you mentioning anything about them):


On the other hand, why isn't professional IT certificates something you're interested in?

If you're looking away from STEM, degrees in architecture and property don't require specific A Levels. I would still recommend going into engineering if that's what you're really passionate about though.

It was mainly economics I'm considering. The only thing I need for that is Maths - do you know what the situation is when taking one A-Level for a year? How will I get a predicted grade? Is it worth doing this if I find that its my passion?

Honestly, I may consider doing A level maths over a year - but it will cost and unis may not respect it as I am doing it on its own. And I need a predicted grade to apply.

do you know what the situation is when taking one A-Level for a year?
In what sense? How to go about studying it or taking exams? Whether unis accept this?

How will I get a predicted grade?
If you apply through an online course, your tutor should be able to give you a predicted grade, but you might want to check with the course provider/online college prior to applying. If you want to stay at an offline college for a year, you can do so but you would need to find a college that would accept you as some won't allow anyone above 25 to take A Levels. Needless to say, offline college tutors would give you the predicted grades by default.
Do note, in the former situation, you would need to pay for your course and likely arrange your own exams (unless the course provider arranges it for your). In the latter situation, you can take out Advanced Learner Loans to pay for the extra A Level as well as paying it for yourself.

Is it worth doing this if I find that its my passion?
I am biased when it comes to mathematical/quantitative subjects, so I might not be the best person to ask. However, I would still say A Level Maths is definitely worth having if you really want to do an economics degree. You would definitely be eligible for a lot of economics degrees with this A Level alone.
Personal opinion: anything that's your passion is worth doing, so long the costs aren't astronomical or require you to forgo years of your life just for the minute possibility of it happening.
Should you not decide to do economics for any reason, A Level Maths (being one of the most requested A Levels) would allow you to apply for degrees in various subjects:
See: https://www.mathscareers.org.uk/degree-courses-a-level-mathematics/

I don't know what your other subjects are other than media, so I am hesitant to say what else you would be eligible for. If you have a science, you should be eligible to do a related engineering degree in the subject.

I may consider doing A level maths over a year - but it will cost and unis may not respect it as I am doing it on its own. And I need a predicted grade to apply.
I can't comment on whether admissions staff would see your extra A Level differently, but if it open doors to where you want to go and study, it's still significantly better than keeping those doors closed from where you are now.
Having said that, doing a difficult A Level by yourself in a subject that's highly respected and requested for a number of subjects isn't something I think a lot of unis would brush off as not worth respecting I think. It's a challenging subject to being with, and by doing it long distance can show a lot of discipline and determination, at least in my eyes.