dsmith

Last job was in one of the big 4 high street banks. I was working woth a guy who joined at 16 and had workied his way up. I'd joined after a degree and a few years experience. Doing the same job getting paid the same.

He however was worried that if he stayued in the bank the lack of degree would become a hindrance. He was very good at his job but relaised that sooner or later it *might* be the difference between getting the next promotion or not.

As I said before if you quit half-way, come any interview you'll start from behinfd both those who havent been and those who have been and finished unversity.

David_Wallis

si,

youve got your bird pregnant haven't you, you now have decided that you need to be responsible and get a job? Wait finish Uni then get a job.... fooking graduates allways get more money than some of us regardless of what they know.

Good luck!

David

super_si

Honesty now

average it still 65% passed

but i failed 30 of the 120 to contiune on the Hons degree ive the option now of re-taking or normal degree.

Also my dads losing £1500 a month due to his company changing to the European Directive.

If i move back up to Newcastle its too much pressure for my parents money etc, also the fact i live in my Over draft(hence upgrading pc all the time )

Ive just being to college they said theyd be delighted to take on onto the 2nd year. I have covered 3/4's of the HNDs material already.

My options are
1) Live at home do HND + AS maths and few IT course do degree top up
2) Wait year do exam progress to 2nd year
3) take normal degree.

options 2&3 reply hevily on money.
IF im at home i can work and also study learning from my mistakes.

i think im off option 1 taking the burden off my parents

Si

MartinM

Si,

If you (or was it Scoobynet?) got a first in your 1st year, then you're good enough to stick it out for two more, get a good degree, and then you *should* see some benefits. A graduate with a 1st class honours degree has got to be at the top of the pile.

All IMHO of course, and respect to those above who disagree

Sorry, don't understand???

[Edited by MartinM - 9/9/2002 11:23:02 AM]

camk

Finish your degree, Work can be every bit frustrating as studying. Just because your earning money doesn't mean its not as crap as being at Uni sometimes and that having 20K or whatever will be the end of all your problems. I've seen loads of young guys like you drift into IT from all walks of life thinking its the answer to everything, they sometimes get a start but are never satisfied and usually are followers of fashion when it comes to skills. I think that trend or line of opportunity will soon be ending given the glut of people out there looking for work.
What will happpen is that you'll want to jump from one hot subject to the next and be driven purely by the money side. If you think that will give you satisfaction your wrong, money is a short term motivator and long term demotivator. When your banging in 50 hours a week at work the money is not the best motivator. Finish your degree and get a job based on what you enjoy doing. If I was hiring a young guy with no qualifications I'd be looking for an indication of where his drive was coming from and proof that you can hack it long term. Based on your replies your looking for some quick fix to getting a career and money. I know some people have managed it but its a bit of a lottery(so you need to be lucky) and you need to be smart to take the chance when its presented. Right now IT is not the easiest field to get into without any experience.

Cheers
Cammy

MarkO

Ah, so what you're actually saying is what we all thought anyway - that you f*cked up and failed the course. Oh dear - although I can't say I'm surprised. But why lie in the first place?

super_si

They said 2weeks ago, wont be a problems you can pass straight on due to compensation of other modules.
Now they no you need the 120 credits.

Annoying thing is, i passed the exam but assembler coursework buggered the average

chiark

si, bit of unrelated advice: if you're borrowing money to upgrade your PC, that's quite daft. In fact, that's very daft.

Get jobs, stick it out at uni...

super_si

i was getting pissed off with the 1000mhz.

ive worked over summer paying it off as planned

worked it out over £1000 easy

CC

If you can only get an Ordinary degree at Uni then tbh I think you'd be wasting another two years . Go onto the HND course or browse your local college for some meaty courses...then get a decent CV knocked up and circulate it to all suitable companies i.e. with IT depts.

Don't expect more than 15k to start, learn the ropes, then after a few years specialise in something you enjoy, possibly doing a p/t degree while you earn.

My opinion only of course. Good Luck

chiark

Cool, that's not so daft then

super_si

Thats mate.

What i was thikng Ordinary isnt worth doing, if i was on a 2:2 next year i wouldnt pursue it either.

Ive completed 3/4's the HND already, Just doing Extras this year.

Also its 3days a week allowing me to start saving up to move out the following year.

I can also get back into Newcastle , which is also good because its a brillaint institution.

AS maths is a Night course. Thinking of C & G in Advanced Java or maybe Visual Basic since i like that.

Si

super_si

For once,


at the moment ive added alot of stuff, round cables PSU new hard drive. But the money ive made from selling old parts has cover the new ve sold £155 and bought £154 parts

Selling mobo and rd @ £220 and buying new board for £160-170, then PC3200 is out of my own pocket

Sell 1.8 buy 2.5

All sorted

ChrisB

Christ Si, get your *** through the course and you'll be able to afford what you want!

Put up 1Ghz or whatever. Go and do a straw poll of other people at Uni and you'll probably find people happy to have 500Mhz if it means they don't have to trudge onto campus late at night to finish an essay.

chiark

Sorry to be thick, but I see contradictions here. If you stick where you are, will you be on a BSc (hons) degree?

A 2:2 is an honours degree and is definitely a worthwhile result and will open the doors you want to open.

It's a difficult decision to make, but the most sensible route may well be the route that you actually least want to follow... If that turns out to be the case, you need to know what you'll do. If you have knackered part of the first year, treat it as learning as hopefully it won't count towards your final grade - my first year didn't.

Have you put your all into this and are stuggling, or are you doing other things when you could be studying? If it's option 1, then it sounds like you'd be killing yourself, but if it's the latter then you need to work out what you really want out of the course.

Not having a career plan isn't a problem. Planning too much may take you down blind alleys or end up doing short term things that don't match your overall aspirations of life.

super_si

i like my games though

If i got a 2:2 i wouldnt be satisfied.

I think the main problem is, that my diploam didnt prepare me for University.

i applied last year April by accident, only because they had lost my application for the HND.

Im thinking do some Win 2k and Linux night class, HND, Maths, then think about a year top up to a degree in leeds.

Si

carl

It's all I got
Mind you, more than 50% of the graduates had a 3rd or ordinary degree, so I suppose I was at the bottom of the top half

super_si

Im not 100% on the state of Ordinary degree.

I know its not classified such as 2:2, 2:1

is it just pass or fail

Si

dsmith

At Uni my best mate and I spent the entire 2nd year drinking. I scraped my exams by a per cent or so. he failed. did enough over the summer to do the 3rd year as Ordinary while I carried on the Hons.

6 Months after leaving Uni he was programming in the city. 18 months later was getting *huge* bonuses. I was still working at a small industrial company.

My last job they asked if I had a degre but have never asked what grade it was.

If at all possible stay and get "a degree". Dont worry too much what it is just finish snd get it.

Deano

MarkO

Bloody right - it's what I got.

super_si

Cheers deano,

cant get in contact with my tutor!

If i decided to do HND , what course would people reccomend.

Networking or 2k managment / server courses?

Si

suba

FFS! just do what you like or good at!

MarkO

It has to be said, Si, that if you need us lot to tell you what to do, you're hardly going to get anywhere in business....

Try making a few decisions on your own!

chockymonster

Si,

an honours degree means you finished and passed all of your modules. An ordinary degree means you reached the minimum number of modules to complete the degree.
There is nothing wrong with a 2:2, I worked my b*ll*cks of to get one (at least when I wasn't in the pub) Unfortunately my girlfriend decided to spank our joint c/card to the tunr of 6 grand. I had to leave uni to start paying the money back, but continued the degree part time.

I first started working for ICL on a helpdesk earning 11k, which grew to 15k in six months. I disappeared contracting for a year and worked for some big companies, 2 of the opportunities I would have missed if I didn't have a degree. I'm now 26, earning more than 3 times what I started on.
Stick at it, do it from home if you have to, but if you give up you will end up regretting it.

Paul

towzer

Si,

Look at it a slightly different way. Go back to uni and slog it out, by the time you finish the economy should have picked and people will be recruiting again. If you hit the job market now then you are competing against people who have loads more experience and there are a lot of very good people on the market right now. Look at all the redundancies from Oracle, HP, Worldcom, Nortel, KPMG , CGEY etc.

If it's any help, I nearly packed in Uni after the first year but decided to stay on and finish the course.

The best bit of advice I got was to take a job with a manufacturer' (software, hardware or integration) not an end user, reason being that you get so much more experience with a manufacturer and therefore become more valuable in the market place.

That's my two penneth for what it's worth.

Phil

super_si

cheers mate, Ive got a meeting in newcastle tomorrow and York friday.

By email my tutor said i cant get on the 2nd year because of maths i failed

So going to do HND for 6months and AS maths.

After that 1 year at leeds uni topping up to a degree.

Either route its still 2years.

I like coursework rather then exams.

Si