Discovering Higher and Degree Apprenticeships with UWE Bristol, get free advice >>

Urgent! Career Help!

Guys I really need help and advice please, I need to decide on what career I want to do in the future and I'm so stuck and don't know what to do. Everyone else knows what they wanna do and it makes life much easier, and I feel so lost. I'm 16 and starting Year 12.

Here's why I am interested in each degree I may want to do

Medicine- As a kid I had really bad eczema and the dermatologists weren’t helpful in my area, it took so long before I came to a good one. I don’t want anyone to go through that pain ever again (sleepless nights, emergency appointments, crying, having bad looking skin.) And a little side reason, is cus I would get fulfilment out of helping people. But idk if I’d like Biology and Chemistry that much, I was okay with it during GCSEs

CompSci - I have always loved computers and technology as a child and I like using them, I also am really good with tech support and software, but I haven’t coded a lot. At GCSE I enjoyed computer science.

Law - I like memorising and reciting laws, I feel knowledgeable and powerful for some reason. In GCSE history I memorised all the laws, their dates, what it contained for fun. In law you are helping people too if they’re innocent, I’d say I’m also quite good at English.

Physics - I always watch physics videos and I love physics too it’s so interesting seeing how everything can be calculated and I like learning university level concepts (without the maths) for physics from YouTube videos. However I don’t know if I’d like maths that much.

Economics - Because it is good for getting into Finance and makes money, although, A-Level Econ looks interesting so far

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

Original post by Ishti54

You're not making ths easy.

In terms of your A Level options (if you want to keep all of these options open) are: all 3 sciences + maths

What concerns me is that you're not sure if you like biology and chemistry that much and you're not particularly keen on maths.
Maths is a required subject for many of the CS, Physics (mandatory for all physics degrees), and Economics degrees. If you don't like maths, you're in trouble.

From the sound of things, law would be a better fit for you, but I am just speculating and I am not doing you justice by probing your further.
Law degrees tend to ask for high grades in 3 A Level subjects of your choice (with some preferring them to be essay based and many strongly recommending that they are academic, as opposed to vocational).

Whilst you can technically go into any of the roles you mentioned via apprenticeships and don't necessarily need a degree, the only disiciplines that need at least degree level qualifications (even if you go through apprenticeships) are medicine, law, and physics. Should you wish to do degrees in these subjects is up to you.
If you want to do a degree in one subject but then later changed your mind and want to switch disciplines, you can often do conversion courses or master's degrees should you need to. The problem is that there are some disciplines where the only option to switch discipline is to do another bachelor's (which would likely require self funding under the ELQ policy). The disciplines that I can you would have problems with are physics and medicine; every other discipline has conversion courses or master's degrees that accept undergrads in any subject. So if you want to keep your options open, I guess it comes down to whether you want to do a degree in medicine or physics (unless you're happy footing a bill for £27k+ yourself).
If you want to become a solicitor, you can do so with a degree in any subject by doing the SQE (you won't need to do the PGDL).
A degree in physics should have enough programming content to let you go into tech roles, should you wish.
Although it's expected for you to have at least a master's in economics before becoming an economist, I have seen various roles at the Bank of England and government civil service streams where you might be able to get away without doing an economics degree (although I would still recommend you have a master's in it). For one, I have seen graduates in chemistry and phsyics working as economists in think tanks.

Although I don't have very thorough knowledge in each of these professions, I can give you an idea of what the careers are like based on my working knowledge (ideally you get this information from people who actually work in the fields i.e. do a lot of networking and asking appropriate questions about the careers that you can't find on Google):
Medicine - long hours, continuous exams, very competitive; if you don't like studying biology and chemistry, you're in trouble. You need to be very passionate about the field to even stand a chance and survive the arduous journey of becoming one, especially one that takes 10+ years to qualify in. It should be the only thing you can see yourself doing and would ever want to do. You do end up helping people, but more often than not you're not really saving that many lives on average (they say the average doctor saves 8 lives in the span of their careers). A lot of regulations to keep up with. You also get some very ungrateful and rude patients. Very long hours generally, and even longer when coupled with the learning, which never ends. What you say and what you accept is often monitored with scrutiny, sometimes with good reasons but also with not (e.g. recent pandemic). I personally have issue with how healthcare is managed, and I guess it's why a lot of health professions are walking out; however, management would claim and preach different, even many of them don't actually have a medical background and know very little about how to be a doctor. Job roles for junior doctors is also competitive currently (for reasons beyond me).
CompSci - some say you would need a degree for this. However, you might be able to get by with an apprenticeship or profesional IT certificate specific for the role. The degree is necessary if you want to work in bioinformatics for the NHS or go into academia as far as I know. Most roles in tech expect you to be learning all the time, especially new techniques, languages, and what new tech does; the industry is changing all of the time, so nothing stays still. You would be problem solving all of the time, and oftentimes that can end up being very frustrating. Some of the jobs you apply for may ask you for a long list of requirements, but 80% of the tasks can end up being very elementary stuff (a HR problem with their job descriptions). Some jobs also expect you to multitask and expect you to be the jack of all trades, when it's a 2-3 person job (another HR issue). When there is a rush for a deadline, you're expected to work quickly and do long hours. The work is often meritocratic, but you also get very ungrateful managers (correct me if incorrect) who expects the world from you even if it's for something that's impossible to do (see Steve Job's work culture - whether you agree with it or not is up to you), especially if your manager is narcisstic and knows next to nothing about tech. Your employability is always dependent on your skills and experience as opposed to your qualifications (that can be out of date within a few years).
Law - don't necessarily need a degree to become a solicitor, but you would need one to become a barrister (LLB or PGDL, not a BA or other degrees). The biggest gripe is getting a training contract, as it's very difficult to get one in general (I consider this a matter of office politics as well as restricting opportunities for new entrants at the benefit of incumbents - an economics issue). It's a cutthroat industry, and it can attract many toxic personalities. It's an industry that also attract many of those who enjoy helping people though. Law that is taught in theory doesn't always pan out the way it should in practice. Those that you help are your clients, irrespective of what you think of them, and your role is to present your client's case to the best of your ability. This can involve long hours (a lot of overtime), and there is often no excuse for negligence or being too tired/too much work. If you want to go into human rights, it's a difficult field to get into, difficult field to succeed in, and there is a lot of hoops to jump through, notably it requires you to spend a lot of long hours. As well as helping people, law can sometimes be used as a weapon depending on the person welding it.
Physics - physics can be a very low paying role, since you're likely to be going into academic research. The hours are long, the uni expects you to do a lot, and you often have to do a lot of prospecting for grants for research (sometimes the people you're trying to get funding from can know next to nothing about what you are trying to accomplish). Academic research often doesn't produce any information that provides "economic utility" to society, so it's often not as well funded as say engineering (an overlapping discipline that does). Having said that, physics researchers often snub those in engineering, because their work is not as groundbreaking or theoretical. If you do come up with a theory, you're often goading the experimental physicists to prove your theory (irrespective of whether it can be done or not), so you can claim glory and fame. Job prospects in physics is also very limited: it's very competitive to get onto a postdoc (i.e. you don't really get a choice of where you work - beggars can't be choosers), and even if you manage to you would have to spend a good 10-20 years before you get tenure (an official job) whilst in the meantime you're just temping as a researcher or the assistant. Most of the research in physics focuses on the extremely big (astrophysics) or the infinitisimally tiny (quantum) because a lot of the physics in between has already been discovered i.e. you need a lot of funding for the specialist equipment. Expect a lot of challenging times in this line of work. A physics degree does however allow you to go into various disciplines such as quants, economics, engineering (a big one), programming, bioinformatics, any role that requires a lot of maths, as well as teaching. You're not explicitly/directly helping people per se, but if you want to do something that helps people whilst relating to physics, consider biomedical engineering and medical phsyics (both of which will involve maths). Much like medicine, a lot of what you can say and do say is heavily monitored by the uni. It's also said that the higher you go in physics, the more theoretical the work - if you're looking for something more vocational, engineering is a better fit. It's also said that the treatment of physicists in general is not particularly pleasant, either by management, some colleagues, or by people who fund them. Also physics can be used as a literal weapon (watch Oppenheimer the movie for reference).
Economics - mostly a theoretical subject, but you can get roles where you can apply statistics to the theory; and in a lot of cases that's what you are, an applied statician. Much like physics and medicine, what you can and do say is heavily monitored and scrutinised. Most of the funding and work in economics come from politicians and the public sector, which inevitably has its issues and strong biases. Even if you have strong evidence and substantial data to back up your claims and work, politicians might often ignore your advice or results (so even if you want to help, your hands can be tied for reasons beyond your control). Any good work that you do is often accredited to the person responsible for making the decision i.e. not you, and it's often the biggest cheese of them all. You can work as an economist in the public sector or as a researcher in uni. The salaries tend to be high and tend to be comparable to that of consultants in medicine and senior partners of major law firms, but they also come with an insane amount of competition.

In case you're interested in the pay offs of getting a PhD/masters' in certain subjects, see the following article: https://www.businessinsider.com/emolument-humanities-phd-cost-2016-5?r=US&IR=T Although the article is dated (not sure if the figures still apply to current job markets, let alone the UK), the information provides a proxy for the sort of payoffs you're likely to encounter.

As with any grad job, they can be competitive and comes with their ups as well as downs. You need to bear this in mind when choosing your profession. You would also have to understand and pick what you are willing and be able to tolerate when picking your profession. If the profession conflicts with your personal values and fundamental needs (as well as skills and personality to an extent), then I suppose you would need to reconsider your choice. With all of the above, there is often a range (at least 10) of specialisms to go into.
A degree in any of the above should also be credible should you wish to work in a country outside of the UK, but you might need to do extra tests or qualifications to meet local requirements e.g. to work as a doctor in a country outside of the UK, you would at least need to do their 7+ years of training post degree (even if you completely qualify as a doctor and done all of your training in the UK); if you want to become a solicitor or lawyer outside of the UK, you would likely need to do the practical training or secure a training contract with the local firm before you can qualify (even if you are qualified solicitor in the UK) due to differences in laws. Roles in CompSci, Economics, and Physics should not require you extensive retraining in foreign countries, but it is said that you would need to get experience in the local country in order for any of your experience to count in tech (i.e. your experience from the UK can mean nothing to the locals, even if you have all the necessary skills).

A thing to bear in mind is that a degree you choose does not limit you to only the profession it's designed for. Should you wish, you can often move into 600+ different careers (at least in the UK) with a degree in any subject, primarily because having a degree is irrelevant (e.g. experience and skills are more valuable), or they don't require you to have a degree in the first place. Much like what I have mentioned about the physics degree, you can often go into very different sectors and roles because of the skills you have picked up in the degree. This can be said the same for compsci, economics, law, and medicine.

I personally think it's more important to pick the subject that you "resonate" the best with in terms of content, whether the content suits your personality, and what you feel about the content (are you passionate about the subject?), irrespective of what the job market or career prospects are like. If you can't finish the degree on a high note, you won't be able to last long in the profession anyway.

If you're specifically looking for a career that directly helps people, you're likely be looking into the healthcare sector. If you want something that could possibly provide indirect help en masse, then you're looking at research related roles. Whilst there are roles where you can help people in various ways, I don't think they make as much impact as those mentioned above in my opinion. Law can do this, but you're often looking at more charitable causes, as opposed for clients generally (it's otherwise usually those who can afford your fees that you're helping).
In terms of impact of the work, you can argue that economics would provide the most impact with helping people, but it's often unnoticed in my opinion. CompSci also has a lot of scope, since innovation can be widespread and the leverage/productivity you can get from tech. If you're looking for something with more direct impact, then you're looking at law or medicine. Physics can have widespread impact, but it's a hit and miss.

Note: it's extremely premature and very superficial of us to make recommendations on so little information. You would need to probe into this a lot more before you can make any firm decisions.