Cross roads

chris - if you're not sure what you want to do, what makes you think that spending £K's and 3 years at uni will help you find out?

FWIW, you need to have a pretty good hard think about what you're good at, what you enjoy and go from there. Talk to everyone you know (not just here, but in person) about what they do, what it's like, and whether you'd be good at it / want to do it. Once you've decided, get some basic training under your own steam, so that potential employers know you're serious. Then you can add to your education as you go and whilst you're in work.

Qualifications, for white-collar / corporate jobs, are necessary to keep you employable.

.

Given the job market at the moment, there will be tons of qualified people out there willing to work for peanuts. It's a good time to get out of the rat race for a couple of years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCUc_B6rPMQ

Sorry.

is this music now? Depressing.

Given the job market at the moment, there will be tons of qualified people out there willing to work for peanuts. It's a good time to get out of the rat race for a couple of years.

generalisation / not particularly helpful!

On reflection, drug dealer or bank robber... I'm in for some heist action, with my sweet caps and you're knee-highs we'd be an unstoppable crime duo...

1. Bikes are awesome getaway vehicles...
   
2. We can get Scott to make the swag bags...
   
3. Smeear can make us some natty tweed masks...
   I'm just riffin', PM me... I'm for serious...
   

Think of this not as advice more an idea, I don't wanna come across as a know all (I know it's too late).

It's really quite hard to make decent money in any one field and still have a life. What seems to work is making a little bit of money in several fields and being able to pick and choose what you do.

Can you design? Learning about decent design is easy if you get passionate about it. Start looking for people that need things doing, i.e. business cards/logos for mates etc.

I know you have a nice camera. What do you do with the pictures you take? Where is your web presence proclaiming you to be the greatest photog ever? Can't afford someone to build your site? See the point above and use it to gain experience and something for your design portfolio. Get a copy of the book. It's got the contact details for all the magazines and what sort of photo submissions they are after.

For an American you seem to have a decent command of the English language. Get writing. Magazines need articles and they actually give you money. See above regarding the book.

There are so many other things that you can get into and if you make a little bit in each one you'll be loaded.

Forgot to ask... if you did decide to go to uni, what would you study, and where would you do it?

If you choose to study here, you'll have to pay overseas-student tuition, and it'll cost you an arm, both legs, and all your bikes as well.

Chris can get home fees by nature of his being married to a UK citizen (as long as she's been a resident for the last three years) and having not moved to the UK to study (therefore by-passing his three year waiting period). It's a pain in the ass at times, but it's certainly possible.

And for the record, university rocks and everyone who says otherwise is anti-intellectual scum.

Chris can get home fees by nature of his being married to a UK citizen (as long as she's been a resident for the last three years) and having not moved to the UK to study (therefore by-passing his three year waiting period). It's a pain in the ass at times, but it's certainly possible.

And for the record, university rocks and everyone who says otherwise is anti-intellectual scum.

University is good, if you want to have 3 tax/worry-free years, and can afford the £9,000 or so it costs. But it's a total waste of time if you want to earn decent money as soon as you leave. Unless you study economics, get a first, and get scouted by bank of america, of course. :)

There's a lot to be said about anti-intellectualism - there are far too many people who think that they know everything.

I've been at a cross roads since my late teens and I'm 30 now. I think I should probably offer to start cleaning windows or something in the meantime.

I spent 5 years at Uni and also consider it to be good fun but kinda useless.

And for the record, university rocks and everyone who says otherwise is anti-intellectual scum.

It's amazing the number of people who assume that academia is the only home of intellectuality.

The intellectual aspect was way down the list of things I enjoyed about university.

I'm a qualified Level II thermographer (only one qualification higher, there's about 15 people in Ireland with this qualification) going to do level III next year (there's only 7 people in the UK with a Level III) I'm also studying CAD drawing and I'll be getting a Dip in that in the next couple of months and I have a kick-ass job working for a renewable energy company here in Ireland (Geothermal-Solar) and working all over Europe for a company based in London (Dynamic Group)

I didn't go to college and I'm only 19 so there's really no point in going to college unless you intend to specifically use your degree, it's really a matter of finding something you're interested in/good at and pursuing it.....What are you into Chris?? A piece of paper saying you've passed 3 or 4 years in college isn't necessarily going to get you hired.... A lot of companies don't really care what's on the piece of paper as long as you work hard and perform so.....

No A-levels, no degree but managed to spend 5 years being paid in full by NHS whilst doing day release accountancy qualifications also funded by them.

University is definitely not the only way.

[quote=chris crash;290965]So I'm at a point where the only thing i know about my life is I don't want to go back to being a messenger

and why not exactly? Think you're too good for us now do you? Give it a year you'll be begging to come back, begging I tell you, begging!

+1 for vocational experience over degrees.

i have both now, but i know which one is more valuable.

i have a phd in molecular biology. i hate science now. it's badly paid. it could be seen as the biggest waste of my life ever. i was in school from 18-27. i'm broke. i've got some skillz in blasting dna at worm gonads. hardly transferable. i wish i'd stopped and started something else at 21.

get vocational qualifications, if you're good people that'll show. unless of course you want to be a brain surgeon. then you should go to school.
a phd in science, can open a lot of doors to awesome jobs ;) . people know you have the ability to learn new skills and you can be adaptable.

patent clerk
private industry ie glaxo-smith

GCSE's (2 years)
A-Levels (2 years)
art college (1 year)
uni (3 years)
worked for a global organisation dealing with professional education (18 months)
london job whilst also studying with a chartered institute (15 months and counting...)

Looking forward to what's around the corner...

this forum is full of art students (current + past)

this is not advice, rather a simple observation.

Has everyone on this site been to art college?

no

Has everyone on this site been to art college?

NO

denial. Did something bad happen to you at art school?

I joined the army as soon as I left shcool.

I joined the army as soon as I left shcool.

sucka!

i did school, 6th form college twice!, meant to do uni, got in some trouble.Went to work as a bike mechanic(did all my cytech qualifications), then moved to bartending, them bar managing.Now doing research work, just by meeting the right people as my customers in bars.
Missed the 3 year drinking fest that was uni, don't regret it,and for some reason i am not unintellectual scum.
But for me doing something vocational is always going to stand you in better sted in life than some peice of paper that says you have a degree......

I went to uni (studied Graphic design) and had a great time whilst racking up about £25k worth of debt.
I spent the first year 100% sure that I wanted to be (and was going to be) a really successful designer.
During the summer at the end of that year I had my first idea for a business. From that moment onwards I couldn't think about anything else.
I spent the next two years juggling full-time work with my degree, scraped a 2-1, left and immediately set about starting my business.
3 years on and business is booming (despite the "Credit-Crunch" and the fact that we provide a completely non-essential luxury service)
I've never woken up and thought "Man, I wish I didn't have to go to work today"
I work very hard and at times it gets stressful but I honestly couldn't think of anything I'd rather be doing (well maybe retiring on a yacht somewhere with bags of cash, but that can wait)
It's not for everybody but I thought I'd tell you my story because it's working well for me.