The choices we make

While I have been flitting between placements and Pizza Express, my vain attempt at getting a job with my 'mickey-mouse' degree, my boyfriend's sister was clinching the step on the ladder to her own career. With exams due to be sat in June, and Graduation still looming, she has somehow managed to be one of the few graduates who can walk straight into a career upon leaving University.

Of course I was over the moon, and later on in the day when I was speaking to a friend,a fellow graduate, I told her.

'Lucky cow,' my friend said, genuinely annoyed at one person's success, due to the fact that she herself was still struggling to find a job.

I pondered this later; was my friend really justified to be this agitated or was it simply a case of 'better degree, better chance'?

Arti, Jaimin's sister, has dedicated three years of University to Optometry, a specific Medicine course specialising in eye-care. She teamed this with a Management course, with the ambition to one day own and run her own business. Clever girl.

This brings me back to my musings in an earlier Blog.

I wouldn't dream of slandering courses that the media term as 'mickey-mouse' or 'irrelevant', such as Media Studies or Fashion. What I will say, however, is that out of the hundreds of graduates unable to find a job, only a small percentage of these have a degree in Medicine.

I graduated almost a year ago in a course that I chose and that I loved. In High School I loved English and Science, both of which I excelled in, but my true calling was writing. I dreamt of being an Author. Later on I would decide that I wanted to be a Magazine Editor, with no idea of the cut-throat industry that Magazine Journalism is.

My parents have always supported everything I have ever wanted to do. When I told them I would be studying English instead of Science, they encouraged me. They saw a talent in me and they urged me to pursue my dream.

But is this support right? Or is it naive? I don't wish to judge or criticize my parents' decision or attitude towards my education, but as a woman with experience on her side, I can't help but feel I should have been pushed into studying a more 'specified' course, with a higher employment rate.

I won't blame anybody but myself for the choices I have made, and I don't regret the degree I chose to do, but I can't help but wish I opted for the easier choice.

Whenever I feel this way, however, I am confronted with somebody with a similar degree to my own who seems to be getting closer to their goal. This urges me to be positive.

My boyfriend's housemate, Charlotte, has a boyfriend who studied Journalism. After a long, agonizing wait, he is now set to do placements both in The Independent and in The Guardian. Just in case you hadn't cottoned on, this is a big deal and will more than likely help him get a job immediately afterwards.

So all is not lost for those of us who have chosen a less prestigious degree than Law or Medicine, I guess.

Then there is the case of my boyfriend who, infuriatingly, dropped out of University and gained no qualifications. He was able to display solid work experience on his CV and managed to get a good job as an Account Manager for an IT distribution firm in London; it raises the very good point that Education is not for everybody and that some people have the ability to work their way up rather than study. I chose to study and I am now having to work for free for a number of months before I can get a whiff of a good job.

Go figure.

But to end on a high note, I am still, regardless of my own situation, thrilled to pieces for Arti who has, through her own choices and actions, managed to grab her career by the reins before graduating from University. Hers should be something others aspire to and I hope my children, when the time comes, are able to look up to her and do the same thing.




For more about this topic find my earlier Blog, 'The Forgotten Generation'.