Once i graduate at the end of this year, i intend to ride my bike a shit tonne, build an XC bike, race tour of Timor and Mongolia, and finally, FINALLY finish War and Peace, Infinite Jest and all those crappy wanky books i feel i need to read in order to be a legitimate smart person.
one of the best things about finally being free of uni is the time and headspace to enjoy the pleasure of reading anything other than prescribed texts
… that said though, I still read legal journals almost everyday, finished Bentham’s Panopticon Writings the other night and I’ve been working through a fantastic collection of essays by Raymond Williams. Difference lies in the fact that I actually want to - rather than need to - read them and taking the time to get right into them rather than simply smashing through at break-neck pace merely trying to pick up the major points provides a far more pleasing and satisfying experience.
So when is the FOA careers expo?
Those Ice Cube albums are something I aim to listen to one day also!!! 
Next Wednesday night ride I come on?
I expect a booth from HMC and Chaz at least.
Speaking from second hand experience, if you do finish your undergraduate degree and it’s in science, stop there, don’t continue with further degrees unless absolutely necessary. Too many of my friends in my partner’s circle are beautifully qualifed post docs without jobs due to lack of funding for science. Quite a few of my colleagues in IT have PhDs in reasonably obscure, completely unrelated disciplines.
The upside is that she’s looking the world over for work. I get to dream the “what if we were living in $foo” question all the time.
My sister was courted by universities all over Australia for her undergrad degree, she ended up studying photovoltaics. due to good grades and an interesting field in engineering, she was able to do internships and study in various other countries. halfway through she decided economics was more appealing and did a degree in that. having graduated with a double degree, she’s about to go over to england to do a third undergrad degree with an economics bent and then she’ll come back to work for a big consulting firm. I don’t expect she’ll bother with a Masters or a PhD for a very long time.
She is a much better student than me and her passport shows it – I went overseas for the first time this year at age 28. I’ve lost count of the number of countries she’s visited… her spending six months in France with ready access to cheap flights / train tickets didn’t help my cause.
I’m still jaded about my time at uni but I’m glad I’m where I am now – experience in working for huge companies, dealing with private and government people, extremely portable skills. study does ultimately pay dividends.
the best advice i could give would be try to do well at whatever you’re doing.
if you don’t have the drive to try, then don’t do it.
I’ll throw in one more thing:
The majority of stuff you do at uni sucks, there is a lot of pointless time wasting, content that has no relation to anything out in the real world and probably a whole bunch of weird people who you would not want to spend time with under any circumstance.
I take things pretty easy, if something interests or excites me I put in a solid effort, if I know it is a waste of time I treat it as such and do enough to get a credit then forget about it.
A lot of people who burn out try to do too much of everything I reckon, my first year I certainly did this, trying to understand ridiculous accounting practices, reading chapters of economic textbooks even though I knew it would not really help me out in what I wanted to do. I ended up with quite poor marks anyway, I put the effort into ‘learning economics’ as opposed to doing what I needed to for good grades in economics.
Its important not to take it too easy and skip classes and just bludge the whole time, but finding a balance in uni/work/lifestyle/skidding your fixie bike is crucial to getting through the whole process whilst learning a bit of stuff and getting decent marks.
I’ll dig out my copy of Ulysses for you and you can tell me how it ends.
you started badly but finished well.
i like to tell people its not what you study, its how you study. i’ve helped recruit in a number of places i work and learning stuff by rote doesnt get you a job, but applying what you know (or being able to prove you can pick up something related quickly) makes for a good employee. (not farting at interviews helps too as a side note).
as for the ‘same career for life’… thats long since been old news. stuff i read in the early 2000s said a person nowadays will have (on average) 3 different careers/jobs over their working life., and id suggest that number is going up as job movement increases (job for life is a dead concept).
you started badly but finished well.
i like to tell people its not what you study, its how you study. i’ve helped recruit in a number of places i work and learning stuff by rote doesnt get you a job, but applying what you know (or being able to prove you can pick up something related quickly) makes for a good employee. (not farting at interviews helps too as a side note).
as for the ‘same career for life’… thats long since been old news. stuff i read in the early 2000s said a person nowadays will have (on average) 3 different careers/jobs over their working life., and id suggest that number is going up as job movement increases (job for life is a dead concept).
+1000 to this. I’m one of those post-docs struggling to find the next meal ticket. My competition are a bunch of freak shows that work 100 hours a week, with zero social life and no family. It’s a great gig if you can carve out a niche where you can shine without having to give up your life, but it is pretty stressful not knowing where you will be in 3 years time. I wouldn’t have it any other way though, I love my job.
Needed to put some drama into it…but the sensible translation is that even though you might be in the right course with a lot of stuff that captures your interest, there will be a lot of not so interesting stuff thrown into it as well…some people let that stuff get to them and it clouds the whole experience. You will no doubt have stressful subjects and frustrating experiences, those ones you just have to grit your teeth and get through them so you can focus on the things you do enjoy or find worthwhile.
this
I can’t be bothered reading this whole thread although I probably should. I’m in my fifth year of a BA and about half way through. I’ve wasted a lot of money and time but I’ve also had the time to go on a lot of holidays and make a lot money and do a lot of nothing. The whole unstructured self-directed essay approach of most arts courses doesn’t work for me. I need to know if an answer is right or wrong. I think I might do something health science related one day. Why am I still doing arts then? Stupid reasons that basically come down to family expectation.
Sean, do vet science and go into practice in a leafy suburb.
Mrs Commuter just came back from the local vet with a (tiny) $31 tube of cat laxative.
Can you imagine the results of an overdose of cat laxative?
It works well for us because IT, for all its soullessness, pays well. I respect the aim of science and scientists – I feel privileged to support it in the manner I do… better science output ultimately leads to better industry, which in turn ultimately leads to a better society. However, I don’t like how many scientists effectively work for free between contracts so they can keep churning out papers. By hiding the true cost of science they’re depriving themselves and others the ability to truly measure the funding necessary to keep the system going.
I think a family where both people were in science would struggle in both the short and long term. :-/
So I found out I DID pass units 1&2 methods which means I can study environmental science and bridge units 3&4 over a summer course (much more preferable to now). Does any one have any experience in Enviro science? I figure there should be a fair few jobs kicking around. I love biology and all that enviro shit thanks to spending too much time in a commune during my childhood, figured it might be nice to study.
Don’t fancy mucking around with animals private parts and neutering. As nasty as a career in labioplasty.
EDIT: BTW I’m reading every post here and finding it all pretty helpful, cheers once again.