what career path should i choose?

I have moved the thread from the film forum to Other career sectors. Maybe you get the help and advice you need here.

okay so i’m only in year 11 but im really focused on what i want to do in the future. i have two options:
modern languages or film
im really good at languages and i love learning them but i really really want to work in the film industry. i’m not an especially creative person so i’d prefer more of a behind the scenes approach but i love the idea of being involved in creating something so beautiful as a film and the community can be quite cool. but what if im not cut out for it? should i do a modern languages degree and become a translator? what happens if film is just a phase?
please help

Hi hanalei24,
You have posed a very interesting question I suppose many people at crossroads in their life have, so hopefully this thread will help them too.
Although I'm not knowledgeable about Humanities courses, I definitely can try and help you begin with some ideas on how to proceed.
First of all from what you have written you still have got some time to decide on what next steps to take, and I would suggest you do spend time contemplating on it, taking some time for your ideas to solidify. I'm saying this because although it's always possible to change courses/career paths to varying degrees of ease/difficulty, depending on how far in you are, choosing what to study at a higher educational level I consider to be an important decision that needs a commendable amount of insight. On the other hand, it is indeed difficult to decide what one wants to do in the future and very well done for having had the initiative to come up with options for yourself so early on!
I'd suggest, if you haven't already, to do some research, even ask around if you know anyone working in the film vs languages area. See what the prospects are, what kind of jobs you could find that suits your individual needs and aspirations, as well as skills (to the skills add those you can develop/improve throughout a university course, as ideally you would come out of uni with a different skillset than what you entered with). It really is a fine line to balance the practicality and the emotional/personal fulfilment aspects of any potential choice, but as I said, doing research of any kind around it can help you to make more of an informed decision.
Also, try and think about which one would you be more willing to dedicate spending 3 or so years on studying about, because this dedication is in large part what gets you through when going gets tough throughout your studies.
Additionally - unless you're really sure about these two options and they have already crystallized, and it's just a matter of which of these two to choose-, don't be afraid to widen your scope and see what other, various paths pique your interest and/or align with your passions and skills, ambitions - as it could be the case you'd be surprised of different options you haven't thought about previously which you could feel are just the right fit for you, too!
Lastly, again I'm not too knowledgeable about the Humanities side of things, but in my case I have intentionally chose a combined course which, on top of educating me on a more dimensional level, opens up more career/further studies opportunities than just sticking to one course route - as I was not sure I wanted to dedicate myself to just one discipline, and how fortunate I did that! So it might be worth it looking around whether you can find courses that combine both/various of interests of yours, and it's important to also note that many master's courses don't require a specific undergraduate course as application criteria, meaning in a lot of cases not everything is lost if you decide to divert from what you've studied at the undergraduate level. Again, this is for you to check out whether this is the case/to what degree it is in your area of interest - the good news is you are in the right place here at The Student Room, where you can find information/ask questions about anything university/education/careers!
I hope I managed to provide some sort of help in getting you started in organizing your ideas, and let us know if/when you've made a decision or have any more questions if you like, I would be happy to hear about how you're getting on!
Best wishes,
Viki
Student Ambassador
3rd year BSc Psychology and Sociology Student
University of Suffolk

At Oxford they interview almost everyone for language degrees although there is a short admissions test to take too.
The easiest courses to get accepted into Oxbridge are languages. 🙂
So I would suggest A-Levels in French and Spanish or French and German along with something like Maths or Media Studies or even Film Studies? 😉

ooooh ok i didn’t know that. unfortunately im unable to take both languages at a level but i hope that wont stop my prospects?

You can get into Oxford. Cambridge, LSE, UCL, KCL, SOAS, QMUL, Durham, Warwick, Bristol, Nottingham, Manchester and Leeds with just 1 language A-Level. 🙂

okay so i’m only in year 11 but im really focused on what i want to do in the future. i have two options:
modern languages or film
im really good at languages and i love learning them but i really really want to work in the film industry. i’m not an especially creative person so i’d prefer more of a behind the scenes approach but i love the idea of being involved in creating something so beautiful as a film and the community can be quite cool. but what if im not cut out for it? should i do a modern languages degree and become a translator? what happens if film is just a phase?
please help

if you still can't decide there are uni courses that offer film + a language so you have the option to do both

manchester, leeds, exeter, st andrews, UCL, liverpool, bristol are some examples but lots more too. You can look on UCAS coursefinder/UCAS website to see all the places that would offer it (usually named something like film studies and modern languages or film studies and [insert language])