is international relations still worth doing a degree for?

I’m currently doing my alevels (law, philosophy, english lit) and was worried about what job opportunities there are after uni and if they’re hard to get into

Reply 1

McGinger

Yes, there are obvious careers like local and central government, civil service, GCHQ, NGOs etc but like many degrees it is not actually the subject matter that employers look for - its the 'higher thinking skills' that all graduates have. This is why you find social-science grads working in the widest range of careers you can imagine.

You will get masses of help in your final year at Uni about careers / grad opportunities so don't stress about what happens after your degree too much at this stage. If you can, go for degree choices that have any sort of placement, work-experience or study abroad within the degree - any of these add enormously to your graduate CV and immediate employability :
International Relations (Placement Year) BA Hons (6T91) - Lancaster University
Top jobs with one of our politics and international relations degrees | University of Surrey
etc etc

Reply 2

Lancaster Student Ambassador

Official Rep

Original post

by simmyran

I’m currently doing my alevels (law, philosophy, english lit) and was worried about what job opportunities there are after uni and if they’re hard to get into

Hi Simmyran :smile:

Its great that you're planning for future careers already at this stage! Something I would like to mention is that there are plenty of jobs which are open to applicants with any degree- they tend to value to transferrable skills you have gained as part of completing university. However, I do completely understand your concern about job prospects.

For example here is the link to our International Relations Course at Lancaster : International Relations BA Hons (6T99) - Lancaster University
From the link above- some of the transferrable skills and careers opportunities you can gain on the course includes (There's loads more explained in the actual link!):

•

Research and data analysis

•

Annual Internship offered by Lancaster’s Richardson Institute for Peace Studies.

•

Study abroad and Placement opportunities

•

Collaborations with NGOs, think tanks and Charities

Most importantly- if you are passionate about the subject I would definitely pursue it. In the future, you could even apply to a Master's or post grad training programme in a different sector. If your college/sixth form offers a careers service I would definitely recommend booking an appointment!

Hope this helps!
Jade
Year 3 Medicine and Surgery

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Articles for you

What is an LLM and how could it benefit your career?

How The Student Room is moderated

To keep The Student Room safe for everyone, we moderate posts that are added to the site.

Try out the app

Continue on web