Life Is Not Linear. It’s Ok to Change Your Mind
Your Degree Does Not Define Your Life
When we head off for university, we are encouraged to spend time really giving some thought to what we want to do post-graduation. This seems sensible. After all, what we do at university should help us get a job and start a career.
It needs to be relevant to where we want to go. Doing a psychology degree with the view to become an engineer is going to be pretty pointless. However, is it really essential that we know exactly what we want to do for the rest of our lives before we even reach the age of 18?
The Myth Of The Degree Subject
Yes, it makes valuable sense to do a degree that is related to the field you’re looking to enter, but, it isn’t as essential as we are led to believe. So often I’ve seen students and recent graduates feeling they have no choice but to start a career following a degree subject that they’re not as in love with as they thought they would be.
We head off to university so young, and yet we are expected to know exactly what we want to do at that stage. When we graduate, it can feel like our future is set in stone but actually, this isn’t the case.
Having a degree is a good grounding for any career. Obviously, if you want to do something vocational like becoming a doctor of medicine, you’re going to need some very specific qualifications. Otherwise, most degrees can lend themselves well to a whole host of roles.
For example, I worked for a long time in careers as a Placement Manager and then an Employability Consultant for a university. My degree was in psychology and education, which may seem pretty irrelevant, but studying education allowed me to do this type of role in a university and teach students as part of it.
Many science grads leave university realising that actually they don’t want to work as a researcher or an academic. Often these students are encouraged to pursue this type of role but actually, there are so many things you can do with a science degree. The transferable skills can be put to use in a number of areas.
Don’t be fooled into thinking there is only one path.
It’s Never Too Late To Change
When you’re young and you haven’t really got started in your career, it’s impossible to know what opportunities may present themselves. It’s impossible to know if you're going to like a job and even whether you’re going to be any good at it.
Life is long and we spend a very large chunk of it working. In my opinion, doing something you don’t enjoy, just because you studied it, is a huge waste of a life. Changing your mind is OK. People immediately panic that they will have to retrain and that may be the case, but equally, it may not.
Jobs and Degrees
I have a challenge for you.
Ask 10 people what they studied at university and see how many of them are actually working in the field they studied. My guess is 5 at best.
In fact, there have been lots of statistics collected around this subject. It’s reported that in 2020, only 44% of people with a degree ended up working in that field. That shows that it is perfectly possible to change your mind.
Attitude Vs Aptitude
Very often a degree is just the start. There is so much more that an employer will consider and a lot of it is based on attitude.
You can have a first class honours, but if you have no experience, no drive, no enthusiasm to back it up, it’s useless. A degree is just a small part of the puzzle.
The Death of Jobs For Life
There are very few jobs for life these days. To assume you will stay in the same career from university to retirement is naive. I’m not saying it doesn't happen but most people end up in something they may have never imagined, or at least diversify.
Don’t think you have no choices. There are always choices and a degree opens doors to more options, no matter what you study.
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Nikki Vivian is a writer and Careers Coach, specialising in working with women who are returning to a career after a break to raise a family. To find out more, you can visit NikkiVivian.co.uk, check out her writing portfolio, or find her on LinkedIn.
