After a degree in Politics/International Relations.

Politics & IR
Aberdeen
Well I'll probably be unemployed after, going to go for a masters! (Gave up my naive UN idea after first year!)

Political Science
BUE/Loughborough (dual degree)
Currently interning for an international NGO's Cairo office.

is the money good?

Well, I only get compensation for travel and lunch so no, not really =D

It's all about experience and beefing up a CV, though.

now i feel that a degree in politics and ir is pointless. no one gets paid well after this degree...its actually **** i should have done law!

now i feel that a degree in politics and ir is pointless. no one gets paid well after this degree...its actually **** i should have done law!

Well if you want to do law you will have to do the conversion course afterwards. Quite a lot of students on law conversion are politics grads.

As for whether you get well or not....depends what you do. In general I would not say politics grads go into the top paid careers apart from the ones who do law conversions. Quite a few look to go into working for a political party or a lobby group etc, if you do that then its interesting work but don't expect top pay. Similar for if you work for an NGO or so on, you will usually need a period of unpaid work first and again pay is low. The problem with the "save the world" type jobs is that students at uni expect that all the top graduates want to go for high paying finance jobs so if you want a more ethical career you can get one, but in some ways those type of jobs are more competitive than it is to get into the financial ones, even though the pay is low. There are a lot of Oxbridge 1sts floating around the NGOs and that sector. It's probably a vocation for the rich kids with a conscience, which is why unpaid interns are widely used.

I suppose you get a share of politics grads who just go off into general financial jobs anyway, you can apply to the Big 4 for accounting and so on. A small handful will get into the Civil Service fast stream but you are talking very very hard competition to break in there.

Forgive me if this sounds mean - it's nor intended to - but I've seen you posting a lot OP about employment and money fears with a politics degree. I totally agree with the previous two (excellent) posts that most people don't do politics degrees because they want to earn megabucks, and so as far as that's the case I just don't think you're going to get the reassurance you clearly want. Firstly because most of the posters here are undergrads and so won't have a career, bur also because the 'I did an IR degree, I earn 200k working in an IB' types are so rare. Most politics grads I know aren't penniless and they've got a job somewhere. The more ambitious have jobs they love and find fulfilling, the less ambitious have jobs. They're all on OK money but none on megabucks. Quite frankly if a whopping pay-packet is all you're fussed about you probably *are* doing the wrong degree - not because the two are incompatible but because there won't be many around you wanting the same things. Law or economics would be a better choice. If what you want is a fulfilling career that pays enough, then great, there are plenty that a politics degree can lead into. As with all things though it is mostly up to you and how far you're prepared to put the effort in.

now i feel that a degree in politics and ir is pointless. no one gets paid well after this degree...its actually **** i should have done law!

Forgive me if this sounds mean - it's nor intended to - but I've seen you posting a lot OP about employment and money fears with a politics degree. I totally agree with the previous two (excellent) posts that most people don't do politics degrees because they want to earn megabucks, and so as far as that's the case I just don't think you're going to get the reassurance you clearly want. Firstly because most of the posters here are undergrads and so won't have a career, bur also because the 'I did an IR degree, I earn 200k working in an IB' types are so rare. Most politics grads I know aren't penniless and they've got a job somewhere. The more ambitious have jobs they love and find fulfilling, the less ambitious have jobs. They're all on OK money but none on megabucks. Quite frankly if a whopping pay-packet is all you're fussed about you probably *are* doing the wrong degree - not because the two are incompatible but because there won't be many around you wanting the same things. Law or economics would be a better choice. If what you want is a fulfilling career that pays enough, then great, there are plenty that a politics degree can lead into. As with all things though it is mostly up to you and how far you're prepared to put the effort in.

I would like to add that earning the big bucks depends on you as an individual. If you are the sort of person who wants to say "I am a good candidate because of my degree", you won't get far. If, however, you have genuine passion and believe, then you are more likely to earn a lot of money.