University or Self-Employment?

If you were given the choice to either:

A) Go to university and complete a 4 year degree, with no real career aim

or

B) Take over the family business after college, and immediately begin work, but that work would only be guaranteed for say the next decade

Which would you choose and why?

Reply 1

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

Original post by Josh-7

If you were given the choice to either:

A) Go to university and complete a 4 year degree, with no real career aim

or

B) Take over the family business after college, and immediately begin work, but that work would only be guaranteed for say the next decade

Which would you choose and why?

It depends.

Is (A) Liberal Arts at the University of NeverHeardOfIt or Computer Science at University of Cambridge?
Is (B) a local drain unblocking company or Dyson Ltd?

Reply 2

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by Josh-7

If you were given the choice to either:

A) Go to university and complete a 4 year degree, with no real career aim

or

B) Take over the family business after college, and immediately begin work, but that work would only be guaranteed for say the next decade

Which would you choose and why?

Strictly speaking you can do both i.e. there is nothing stopping you from doing A then B; likewise, you can do B then do A later on, although you would feel less inclined to do so.

With A) if you're doing a 4 year degree, you're picking a specific subject. Why do a 4 year degree when most bachelor's are 3? Are you doing a foundation year? Integreated master's? Placement year? Year abroad?
With B) it depends on what the business is and why you want to continue the family business.

I personally don't want to do B) if I don't like the business or the role. Life is too short to do things that I don't like.

Also note, self employment implies you are working for yourself. If you are a director, you're technically employed in a limited company but you also file for self assessment.

Understandably, you are keeping the options vague because you don't want to disclose them. However, without knowing the specific subject of your degree or what your family business is in (for all I know, you could be the son of a director in a global conglomerate), it's difficult for me to advise.

On the other hand, a lot of your choices is based on your personal preferences.

I have came across a person who I worked alongside with for a while for example. He did a degree in hospitality because his family were in the medical field and he wanted to go into hospitality. He said that if his family was in hospitality, he wouldn't have done the degree and took over the family business. Go figure.

If I want to do a degree, I would pick a degree that would open doors to the sort of jobs that I would be interested in or would suit my personality.
Working in a family business often doesn't give you appropriate "work experience" (even though you do) because HR won't usually recognise experience not verified by family or close relatives - it needs to be unbiased and at arms length. If you can get experience through several similar companies before joining your family firm, then you can use it to improve your family business or move into other roles in the sector.
If you want to set up your own business, then that's a different conversation.

(edited 7 months ago)

University or Self-Employment?

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