The Student Room Group

(Slightly Premature) Midlife Crisis

Hi, this is my first time posting here, and hoping I can get some help to decide what I'm doing with my life and get past this crisis I seem to be experiencing lately...

I'm 22 years old, left education after college and have been working in the civil service since. The money is decent, and hours convenient, but the job itself is pretty soul destroying. My big ambition has always been to make a career in music, and taking this job allowed me to afford all the gear and equipment needed to set up and run my band.

Recently I've become exasperated at the lack of opportunities with music in my area (Swansea) and had the realisation that no matter how good the songs I write are, there's only a slim chance of me ever making it. I've found myself in a position with nothing else to fall back on, and terrified that I'll be stuck in a rubbish job on the edge of the civilised world for the rest of my life.

So the solution I've thought about is going to uni.

Graphic design has always been a big interest to me, and I still design posters for gigs/ album artwork etc on a regular basis. At A Level I had an A* for graphics, and outside of music, it's a career I could see myself happy in.

Is it worth me making the leap to return to education and uproot my life at this point? Is a career in graphic design achievable in this day and age? Is it too late now, and would I be looking at starting in 2016? And is it possible to get in with A Levels or would I need to look at an Arts Foundation course?

Sorry for the rant. This dilemma is all consuming for me at the moment, and I need to decide where I want to be going in life! Appreciate any input anyone has with this!
Reply 1
I went to uni aged 44, jacking in a 20+ year career in IT. So no, it's not too late for someone half that age :smile:

You need to contact a few unis and ask what qualifications you need. They generally prefer a Foundation or Access course to A Levels, and the mature student entry won't be the same as the advertised school leaver requirements. It will also differ between unis and courses.

You've missed the start dates for this year by a few weeks, so you'd start a Foundation/Access course in 2015.
Reply 2
Go for it you are still very young! Life is too short to stay in a job you hate.
The fact that you still actively pursue graphic design still shows that you have a passion for it, its a shame to waste it.
It is easire than ever to home study A-levels with textbooks from amazon, videos from YouTube and Khan Academy, online tuition and paying as a private candidate at an exam centre. You just need the time and motivation.

I'm not sure what A-Levels you would need but art might be tricky I would read the spec on the exam boards website and if it's possible to find a tutor to guide you. But even working on a portfolio and taking an art class somewhere may be a possibility.

I would have a look at where you would like to study and call the administrator and ask what they would accept from a mature student then work out what you need to do.
I'm your age, I totally get that feeling of being cast adrift. You have dreams and it is bugging you that your current job is not as satisfying as you want it to be.


Drop everything you're doing and apply on UCAS right now. You still have time to make it into 2015... give yourself that option before you make your mind up when it is too late!
Consider also applying to HND or whatnot courses you think is appropriate.

Secondly:
Your vague interest in Graphic design is just not going to cut it when there are people (like me) who want it more than you. Art is in my blood. Only a handful make an 'okay' career out of Art, and only a few make it 'great'. Unfortunately, 90% of the rest will come out of university unemployed (at least not in their dream field) with the feeling that all their money has been sucked out of their wallet. Are you sure you are willing to risk this?

If you find your job with decent money/hours depressing right now... you haven't met soul destroying. Soul destroying is doing freelance design work for pennies, and being rejected a million times by employers, then realising your degree has been entirely worthless all along.

I'm not trying to deter you, just trying to make you realise it is a degree that will NOT guarantee your a career whatsoever. I still think you should do it if you think this is your path to follow.

That being said, you'll still be in a dilemma so just go do your applications now before you regret not filling it out. Now. :biggrin:
Your age isn't an issue. If you're not happy in your current job and you can see yourself being happy doing something else, go do it. I agree with Klix88, you need to contact individual universities and ask them if they'd consider your application with your old A levels or if they'd prefer you to do an Access course or an Art foundation diploma. The better universities probably will want to see some sort of portfolio of work so you should definitely consider doing a foundation diploma.

Original post by coffeecakey
IYour vague interest in Graphic design is just not going to cut it when there are people (like me) who want it more than you. Art is in my blood. Only a handful make an 'okay' career out of Art, and only a few make it 'great'. Unfortunately, 90% of the rest will come out of university unemployed (at least not in their dream field) with the feeling that all their money has been sucked out of their wallet. Are you sure you are willing to risk this?


I think you're being rather unfair. You don't know the OP, you have no idea how much he wants this. Where are you getting that figure of 90% from? It sounds made up to me. Rather more than a handful make careers out of art/graphics, it is a rapidly growing industry. Most graduate jobs don't require specific degrees anyway so please stop insinuating that the OP will become some destitute jobless graduate, that is unlikely to happen given the OP's demonstrated worth ethic and work experience.
(edited 9 years ago)
edited: Don't want to hijack thread, put simply I wrote what I thought was best as I have been in that spot before and I have heard it said to me before.

I'm sorry if it sounded that way... :confused: I did add:
"I'm not trying to deter you" and " I still think you should do it if you think this is your path to follow" plus advising him to apply for 2015 as it really is not too late to do so.


But you're right, perhaps I should not have typed it at all. Once again I'm sorry if it came off as harsh and unfeeling, that was wrong of me. I'm not the best at being motivational :redface:
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 6
the people who make it are the ones who knew they had no chance and pursued it anyway and the people who didn't let the possibility of failure dissuade them from giving it their all

there's no point working towards goals you know are possible - only through chasing impossible dreams will you reach your full potential

At the very least university is 3 years to find yourself.

Good luck, champ.
Reply 7
Rather than committing to a 3 year and £27k degree, you could also try an intensive portfolio building course to get you ready to work in the graphic design industry. I went to an open evening at http://www.shillingtoncollege.co.uk/ and they seemed pretty good, but there might be similar offerings near you.

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It sounds like you’ve got a mature perspective, but you’re only 22, so you’ve got plenty of time. You’re sufficiently dissatisfied with your job that you want to make a change, but it doesn’t sound like you hate it so much that it’s killing you (e.g. you’re super-stressed and get physically sick because of work). Further assuming that you don’t have a mortgage (or other significant financial ties) and you don’t have dependents, you’re in an excellent place to make a major change in your life.

I’m going to largely sidestep the whole “can I make a living in the arts?” issue because it’s such a huge and contentious topic. But I would certainly encourage you to not just repress your ambitions simply because they’re “unlikely to work out” - whatever that means. There is not much in life I’m certain about, but I am pretty certain that ignoring your ambitions on that basis alone is a recipe for disappointment later in life.

solipse’s comment about investigating cheaper options into your desired field is certainly one worth investigating. But so is the HE route. As Kaiju hinted at, going to uni gives you time to develop yourself in a supportive environment (at least that’s what I’m hoping, since that’s my plan for when I start at uni hopefully in 2015). You may find that if you have to stay too long in your Civil Service job, your passion, while never disappearing completely, will get eroded (I’ve been in exactly that position myself in the past). So, the “pursue your music/graphic design on the side while holding down the day job” approach is certainly valid, but it may not be the best option for you.

Have a look around at HE courses and see what grabs you. If you do decide that it is the right route for you, as a general principle, my advice would be to choose a course that really interests you, rather than trying to endlessly second-guess “what the marketplace wants” and base your choice on that. Giving up your soul-destroying job to study a subject you’re interested in is a positive move; giving up a comfortable salary to do an expensive course that you don’t enjoy and which keeps you too busy to earn a decent income is, I’d suggest, a negative move. (I’m not an expert on breaking into the music or graphic design professions, so I freely admit I may be wrong on this point.)

A further comment I’d add, if you do decide HE is the way forward for you, is that you may want to act a little more cautiously than coffeecakey has urged you to. HE is an expensive option. If you do find out you also need to do an Access or some other preparatory course to get into uni, finances may become even more of an issue. For Access courses at least, while you can get a loan to cover the cost of the course itself, you can’t get much (if anything) in the way of institutional help with living expenses. And Access courses are, if you choose the one year route, a full-time commitment you wouldn’t be able to do it while keeping your current f/t job. So the challenge you have to overcome is how to keep up with the demands of the course while still being able to eat. Based on the assumptions I made in the first paragraph of my post, you have a job that is tolerable for you in the short or medium term as long as you’re simultaneously plotting your escape route. I’d suggest getting started on that escape plan right away, but carefully consider the form it will take. Meanwhile, use your earnings to build up as much of an HE savings fund that you can.

I’d say it’s better to tread cautiously but confidently than to dive into this half-arsed. But if you do decide that you want to go to uni in 2015 and that’s manageable…fine, go for it. However, what I would urge you to do is take positive action. Don’t fret about this so much that you don’t do anything at all. I can virtually guarantee there will be naysayers at your current workplace who will cast doubt over your ambitions, but you have to be strong. Keep moving towards your goal and don’t let them put you off. Good luck!
Reply 9
Sorry this is a bit of a delayed response, but thank you so much to everyone that's replied. I agree with the consensus that it's better to struggle towards something you want to do rather than give up on your dreams altogether. As the Butthole Surfers said, ''it's better to regret something you did, than something you didn't do.'' I have friends who know have mortgages and families and I feel lucky in a sense that I don't have these ties at least.

I feel as if I would be ready in myself to apply in 2015, but perhaps I'm better waiting and saving up in that time. But the age factor comes into it again then, if my job has done one thing to me, it's made me feel a very old 22.

An old school friend of mine recently got a job with Apple in California after graduating from UCL. So I know it's possible. But in order to get into a good university, I feel an Art Foundation BTEC may be needed? Is there any way that this can be done part time does anyone know? Or would it be an idea to do a foundation year at the uni I wish to attend thereafter?
Reply 10
Original post by Kastrol
But in order to get into a good university, I feel an Art Foundation BTEC may be needed? Is there any way that this can be done part time does anyone know? Or would it be an idea to do a foundation year at the uni I wish to attend thereafter?

Rather than having a "feeling" about uni entry requirements, I would seriously recommend that you ask some unis and find out the facts. Admissions Offices are used to questions like this and they'll be able to give you facts. If you find a course which really appeals, you could even make contact with the course leader, introduce yourself and maybe ask a couple of intelligent questions. It never hurts to possibly have your name seem familiar when the applications roll in.

You can ask them about BTEC or degree Foundation Years.

There's no point starting to make plans based on what you feel might be the case. If it turns out not to be, you'll have wasted a year and a bit of money.
If you're doing a fine art degree, then many 'good' universities prefer foundation.

If it's not a fine art degree, ie; computer arts / animation etc... you can get away without doing foundation art. You just need to show proof of your passion through your personal statement and with your Portfolio. Unless you feel like your portfolio is really weak and if you feel like you'd be behind the average joe art student, there is no need to take the long route.

There are portfolio building courses (mentioned earlier) and summer art courses (some which are pricey! UCL foundation fine art summer course is one some students take to boost from highschool to a top university).


In the end, maybe you should take foundation art and apply to university through that route... it sounds like you're still unsure, so the foundation year will give you a really good idea if this is what you want? There is still time to apply on UCAS :smile:
Original post by Klix88
I went to uni aged 44, jacking in a 20+ year career in IT. So no, it's not too late for someone half that age :smile:


May I ask why you ditched a career in IT? I was thinking of the IT route myself and I'm 31!
What did you study in Uni afterwards and why?
Reply 13
Original post by BritishBlu£
May I ask why you ditched a career in IT? I was thinking of the IT route myself and I'm 31!
What did you study in Uni afterwards and why?


24 hour callout for ten years does tend to dampen ones enthusiasm. The money was good but I had no time to spend it. Routinely in the office 7:15am to 6pm Mon to Fri, then worked for a while when I got home. Often woken in the small hours to sort out a problem or help tekkies decide what to do. Usually worked at weekends. Occasionally worked up to 24 hours straight without sleep. Had holidays cancelled for me a couple of times.

You can only keep that up for so long, so I paid off the mortgage, saved some money and ran away to study archaeology. Just because it fascinated me.
Thank you so much. (^_^) I'll bear it in mind.
Reply 15
Original post by BritishBlu£
Thank you so much. (^_^) I'll bear it in mind.


If you have the stamina, most people find it's well worth doing for a while. Some even thrive in that arena and make very successful lifelong careers. And after all, it allowed me to pay off my mortgage more than seven years early, then save up to support myself through six years of uni study. I'd be hypocritical to warn others off it, but there are traps to beware of and I'm glad I got out when I did.

The trick is to try and stay in control of it. The safety nets are a) Save as much as you can and try not to get into the habit of spending any excess as you earn it, b) Try to recognise when/if you're on the edge of burnout and jump before you do yourself some serious damage.

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