what to major in later on

pls help im currently sitting for as levels : general paper, business, IT, and math (im more into statistics)...

the schools kinda pressuring us to start searching for universities and honestly i have no idea of what to major or where to go?

any ideas? any suggestions or advices will definitely help. thank you ! (sorry for the sh*t english)

Reply 1

Katiemick8

Look at uni websites, order uni prospectuses, thats where I started

Think about a subject you find genuinely interesting, not just because you have fun in the class etc, but a subject youd happily read a book about

If you really don't know look into doing more vague courses like business or computer science - thats a really valuable major for employers these days

Try looking on job sites like the national careers service, they have a list of job profiles that might inspire you, and you can see they majors you need for each one

Dont forget you can do a dual honour etc
A lot of unis to courses "with enterprise" or "management" which might be good for business

Reply 2

Rabbit2

The "stock" answer you get when you ask for career advice is: Well, you need to do something you LIKE! Ok, I like collecting bottle caps, so i'll make a career doing that!! *******s!! With what i could possibly make from that, i will end up living under a bridge!!

That is going at it backwards! What you should ask is: "What can i make a decent living at"? Make a list of those careers you could go into - where you could (realistically) make about double what it would cost you to provide a flat and support (food/clothing/transportation/medical care) for yourself and any dependents where you presently reside. Include only careers that you have a reasonable chance of succeeding in. Hardly any of us will be a member of the next "Beatles", or star athletes, etc. The careers that are normally considered as producing reasonable income are things such as: Law, engineering, IT, medicine, perhaps banking. Banking has the disadvantage that it has a large number of very low paid employees - who mainly never break out of the lower levels [this is based upon stories i have been told by bankers i know - i have never worked in banking myself]. The others i listed have many, many 'subdivisions' which involve work in disparate areas. I tend to think that i could find a 'niche' in most of them, where i would be fairly happy. Each of them require fairly intense exposure to academic studies. This is one reason that they command relatively high salaries. Detailed academic knowledge requires work to come by, and consequently is rewarded.

Another thing to consider, is that slightly over half of all marriages in western society end in divorce. The woman usually ends up 'stuck' with the kids - particularly if they are small. In my mind, this (if anything) justifies educating females more than males. A guy can live in fairly 'rough' conditions. I know, because in 40+ years of doing engineering, i have done so. No heat, no running water, no refrigeration, i've done it all. Sometimes in combination. No bed? No problem - i'll sleep on the concrete!! [And have done so.] No cooking facilities, ok - i'll eat "C" rations - cold, if i have to. C rations? They're in the back of my truck!! In case i have to leave in a hurry. No housing? Ok, i'll sleep in the truck (or outside) [and have done so].

If the gal is trying to feed/house/keep clothes on 1 to 3 kids, whilst improving her position by furthering her education - she's got a tough row to hoe!! She's much better off, if she's already earning $80k+ working in an IT job. In that case, she can hire all the day care & household help she needs, even if she's living in one of the 'higher cost' areas - like the US. Overseas, she can live like a queen, with both a housekeeper AND a nanny for the kid(s).

As to work assignments, if you are willing to go overseas, and put up with somewhat uncomfortable living conditions [this is easier to do when you are younger & don't require much medical care - specifically, you are NOT on 'maintenance medication' - like high blood pressure or diabetic drugs - these may require periodic 'monitoring' by a MD]. Your pay is often directly related to the 'inconvenience' you are willing to put up with. I 'did' a nearly 3 year overseas tour in the near east, and came back with enough 'dosh' to buy 2/3 of a single family house [3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, single car garage, 1/4 acre lot] in the D.C. suburbs. Today, that house 'lists' for about $300kUSD, and the loan is paid off. I paid $37,800 for the house when i bought it in November of 1971. Most people have absolutely NO concept of the 'worth' of money. If you run the purchase price against an 'inflation calculating' program, it turns out that the purchase price almost exactly equals the current 'listing' price. Hence, i have made exactly NO!!! money by owning the house. Converting the house to 'loaves of bread' or 'gallons of petrol' results in exactly the same number of 'commodity products'. Hence, no gain!

When everything you own fits in a suitcase, and you have no real estate, or other possessions to protect - it's easy to be 'mobile' and jump from one assignment to another, regardless of where they are. Don't think you are going to 'make a fortune' living in Paris, London, Washington, D.C., etc!! Everyone wants to go there. In addition, the living costs are very high - probably higher than where you came from [unless it happens to be Paris, London.....]. In order to make money on an overseas assignment, you have to go to places that NOBODY else wants to go to!! A place so inconvenient and uncomfortable that they have to BRIBE people to go there. My overseas post was listed on the [US] State Department's "Level 3 List". This was loosely defined as: "Isolated, extreme hardship post". The only other place on the list was Lhasa, Tibet!! When we ordered something by mail (from the states), it generally took 6 weeks to 2 months to arrive. You ordered your toothpaste by the case of 12 tubes!! I'm NOT kidding. We got a 35% salary 'bonus', plus all the overtime we wanted. The overtime, holiday pay, night differential, etc all added up. At one point - working over a Christmas break period, i figured that i was making about 15x my normal rate of pay!!

I considered the different professions i listed above. I selected engineering, because a> my 'patients' wouldn't die on me, [and i thought that this would really bother me], b> there was less 'paperwork' than Law [although i have done legal work in connection with engineering - principally in contract negotiation], and c> i like 'making things work', and seeing the results of my labour. There was also less [i thought] memorization involved in engineering than their was in medicine and law.

I would suggest finding 3 to 5 people actually making a living doing each career you are considering, and going out and interviewing them (individually). Make up a list of questions ahead of time. Things such as: "How much do you make"? [Remember that, as a student, ANY number they quote will seem huge!!] Remember that housing, clothing, transportation, have to come out of that. Divide by 5 to 10, to put it in 'student' perspective. "Where do you see yourself in 5 yrs, 10 years?", "How hard is it to get a job in xxxx?", "If you had your education to do over, what would you do differently"? Also ask them what other professions THEY considered when making a career choice. Take the answers down in writing, take them home and re-copy them [to write them up neatly, and add to what was said], and think over the answers. If you think of other questions, don't be afraid to go back on your interviewees, with more questions. When i did this, the three (out of five) interviewees that helped me the most, i went back to 4 times each. Don't forget to thank them for their time & trouble!!

Remember that, with inflation, you have to 'double every 10' - that is, in order to stay even, a number has to double every 10 years just to maintain the same value. [This is generally true with the inflation that we have experienced in the west since WW2. If you pay £20,000 today, in 10 years, it must be worth at least £40,000, to have not lost value over the period. As an example, the house i paid $37,800 for in November 1971, today 'lists' for about $300,000. That is the same amount of money - i haven't made a dime on it. In addition, i have had to pay taxes and insurance on it for all that time. Salary quotations that seem outrageous today [particularly from the perspective of a student], will seem to be verging on penury in a few years. Best of luck!!!