Careers advice

Hi guys,

I was hoping to get some careers advice from you guys wether you are working in the fields I’m thinking about or studying to go into those fields. Il tell you a little bit about myself so you can get a clearer picture of my situation and where I’m coming from.

So I’m 25, I have probably about 3 GCSE’s and no A levels or any other forms of qualifications. My work experience has mainly been in customer service, call centre type stuff. I want to change my prospects and I know going to university can significantly change my future but I’m just completely unsure about what to study, I know a lot of courses I may not be able to get onto straight away which is fine Iv already considered redoing GCSE’s and getting some A levels if necessary and I understand that some courses offer a access year/foundation year.

The difficulty I’m having is there hasn’t ever really been one subject that I’m into so it makes it a lot more difficult to narrow down. At the moment the money is the priority. What kind of career can give me the quality of life that I want and then I’m just kind of comparing pros and cons for example course length, entry requirements, salaries, day to day work life/hours and other opportunities like owning a business in that field.

So Iv got 3 options:

1. Dentistry
- Pros - Guaranteed job with NHS, £30k starting salary and you will definitely see £100K+ a year so plenty of financial freedom to dive into whatever you feel like wether it be your own practise or a completely different type of business or even just retire early. Allegedly the workload reduces as time goes by Iv read that typically dentists work 3 days a week I’m not sure how true that is but if it is a 3 day week for £100k+ a year then it’s a big pro plus the job security
- Cons - it’s extremely difficult to get into dentistry and I have to consider the time itl take me to even meet the entry requirements before being considered for a place in a UK dentistry school. I may have to relocate to somewhere like Bulgaria because it’s apparently abit easier to get into the entry requirements are easier, so all together it might take me 2 years just to meet the entry requirements 5 years to complete the course in the UK 6 if done abroad so a very long time and it will be a tough time for a long time
- Conclusion - A very long road to be committed to but the financial rewards and job security makes it worth the time.

2. Engineering
- Pros - Course length is average degree length, entry requirements shouldn’t be a problem because there are foundation/access year courses available and I can do it on the Open University at my own pace so I can hold onto a full time job at the same time. Salary I don’t know an awful lot about but everyone says they are well paid and for all I know £25K could be well paid in their opinion so would love to hear from someone actually in the field, I imagine opportunities abroad would be good in the UAE and I know you need to specialise in a particular type of engineering to see serious money as with anything so would be interested to hear which fields in particular are lucrative
- Cons - There aren’t any real cons with doing engineering, it’s just I don’t know enough about it so i don’t know anything about what the day to day work life is like, I don’t know what the salaries are like, the job security am i guaranteed a certain salary, how competitive it is, do you need to brown nose to get to where you wanna be what opportunities do you have if you wanted to become self employed.
- Conclusion - I don’t know enough about it to make a conclusion the single biggest pro it has is just the study time so I’d love to know more about it to be able to make a accurate decision and hopefully posting here will get me that insight I need to make this decision.

3. Law
- Pros - Length of the course average degree length, again can do it on the OU so can hold down a full time job at the same time, commercial law is apparently where the money’s at don’t know how the business side of that works and I don’t know what kind of salaries you can actually realistically expect to see not sure what a day in the life looks like either. I think it’s a versatile degree that you might be able to slide into any sector with so your more flexible I suppose.
- Cons - i don’t think that flexibility is a good thing, I think specialising and sticking to one route rather than being neither here nor there is better and more financially rewarding, Iv heard you have to pay for the final year to be able to practise law and Iv also heard that these days a law degree doesn’t hold the same value it did once upon a time because everyone whose anyone does it and it’s a extremely competitive career path with a lot of brown nosing and work place politics which doesn’t appeal at all
- Conclusion - From everything Iv heard it seems like the degree to just have a degree to land yourself a job with a graduate scheme and plod along it doesn’t sound like it’s going to bring me the quality of life I aspire to have maybe I’m wrong but that’s why I’m here to find out.

Thank you so much for taking the time out to read through this lengthy post and making the effort to respond, I’m looking forward to reading through your responses and I hope if anyone else is feeling confused or unsure that this is the forum post that you stumble across at 3 in the morning and helps you make that decision that will change your future and your future generations lives forever. I am open to suggestions these three options are the only ones I sort of know about, if theres anything else you know about feel free to share, could be anything any field any job just give me the most detailed insight you possibly can. Thanks again

Reply 1

Missvo59

The first thing you need to do is decide which degree excites you the most or if you want a degree that will open many doors for you.
A good degree to have is a practical degree like business studies. You can cover a range of modules eg math, econ, stats, hr and these will all lead to a variety of jobs you would be suitable for. Also a lot of grad jobs allow any degree background but a well rounded degree like business studies could open a lot of doors.

If you wanted to do more specific degrees like law or dentistry then those are very long degrees that take years to complete or you will need to take on post grad qualifications in order to secure a job (law). If this is what you’re passionate about then go for it - just be prepared to go back to college to get a levels before you apply for any degree.

Good luck