Ray_li

Iv been studying all my life now and iv graduated as a Industrial Product Designer but iv been looking for some design work for 5 months now. all i have had is one interview and loads of rejections and the problem seems to be that there are no jobs going for someone with no experiance.
im slowly coming to the idea that product Design is a NO No, the only problem is that i love the work and its the only thing i can do. so i need a new line of work but i dont know what i can do.
Someone on scoobynet must have been through all this in the past so any advice would be nice? What line of work can i move in to? where to get ther training? and does it pay well?

I'll love to be an airline pilot but i know thats dreaming or a rally driver

Ray

imlach

I sympathise.

I work for a large American electronics company, and in our dept we have 6 product designers. We will be left with just one after this latest round of redundancies.

I just don't know what jobs those graduating in engineering are getting at the moment?????????

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

I'd never advise getting a degree anymore. When I left school "a few" years ago to go to sixth form, my mate went to be an apprentice auto-electrician. He started earning at 16, not much, but it was a wage. In the mean time, I went through 2 years in the sixth form, and 4 years at uni, and came out to find that , not only did the guy still out-earn me, but I would never ever catch up with the money he'd earned in those 6 years.
To add insult to injury, my job NEVER had any overtime, so when I needed a new car etc, it was tighten the belt, or economise somewhere else. He just put in for o/t until he'd got what he needed.
And b4 anyone says that I was in the wrong job, I know that NOW, don't I???
Alcazar:

imlach

Yep - my plumber MUST earn more than me, and I'm earning much more than the average wage.

Plus he gets cash in hand, etc etc.

They reckon plumbers in Edinburgh are now earning £50k+ easily....

Steve vRS

Just to add a different point of view...

I graduated from Leeds Uni in 1994 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I am now a fairly senior engineer in a chemical company on a decent whack for a 29 year old. I could not have the job I have if I did not have a degree and short of working in London or as a Contractor, I would be hard pressed to earn a similar amount as a non-graduate engineer.

The downside is of course, had I studied accountancy or IT my salary would be double what it is.

Still, as long as you've got your elf

Steve

PS 3 years at University was priceless

Si James

Depends which University IMHO.
A degree in Media Studies from Mablethorpe University aint worth ****, however a Masters in Business Admin from Harvard is worth $$$$$$$.

Too many ****e Universities these days and too many graduates, its a supply and demand problem I suppose.........

Si

Si James

sorry thats 5hite! 5hite!

Luke

Tell your kids to be...

1. Locksmith
2. Plumber
3. Electician


Then they can look after you when your not working!!

Ray_li

I tell people the same thing now "a uni degree mean **** these days."
a friend of mine didnt do that well in his education and his younger than me. he's taking home over £600 a week. just for being a DJ at spearmint Rhino (Strip club)

Ray_li

I cant even get a temping job in a office as an office monkey bcuz i have no experiance. How hard it is to do a little bit of filing and photocopying?
been offered a short training course to learn to drive a fork lift truck. Does anyone now if that pays well?

Ray

fast bloke

Except for when you get paid off from the IT job.

Me - IT degree - crap job (<15k) for 2 years, moving up to 40 within 5 years - moving to nothing 6 months ago.

Now - financial advisor - should make more than 60k in year 1. (only been at it 3 months but so far I'm averaging 12-1500 a week and I am not qualified to give investment advice yet )

What did I get from Uni? Sore liver. Should've become a financial advisor at 16. I could have retired when I was about 22

Ray_li

So how do i become a financial advisor?

EVOLUTION

.

[Edited by EVOLUTION - 11/13/2002 1:07:21 AM]

Mufasa

No he doesn't!

click

AlterBoy

Get a job as a plumber's apprentice. I don't know about the rest of the country, but in SE England they're crying out for them.
In five years time you'll be buying a house next door to a stockbroker!

AnDy_PaNdY

If I had my time again I'd go down the plumbing route, looks like an interesting job too.
I had a technician apprenticeship, 4 years at college, day release and holding down a full time job. Hard work at the time but my experience means I am very attractive in the marketplace.

rik1471

It's true, degrees aren't as valuable as they used to be. Experience seems to count for more. My girlfriend has just found out 'the hard way'

Dream Weaver

Nobody really goes to uni though to get a degree, you go for the crack

I had the best 4 years of my life at uni and wouldn't swap it for the world, but you are right in that it puts you well behind. It also doesn't really prepare you for the real world. I finished uni thinking OK, marketing job here I come, £20k a year (back in 1996).

Ended up on a telephone help line on £3.60 an hour for 2 years.

What it does prepare you for is living on your own, fending for yourself, cooking, meeting deadlines and writing reports.

The thing about degrees is, you have to know what you want to do early on (you have to be lucky though). I did marketing, then Business Communication. I have a 2:1 but it is in a rather generic field.

If you did product design can you not lend this to another form of design? Grpahic, Electrical, Computer Games design.

If I was young again, after uni I would have gotten a job as a Games Tester for a computer game company. Crap money, but it takes you through to development, games art etc.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

I've just revisited this thread, and remembered that when I went to uni, it was virtually all paid for. Nowadays the poorer students come out with a degree and a £15000 overdraft. The DfE would like you to believe that this is because, if you get a degree, you'll earn over £400,000 MORE during your lifetime, than someone who hasn't got one.
Don't know where my £400,000 extra was supposed to be coming from, I had no chance of getting anywhere near that![img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]
Alcazar

Ray_li

iv finished uni and i now have a 7k over draft.
Well the pay a plumber gets sounds good but iv tried to do some work at home put i'll never finished the job with out leeks . so it looks like thats out of the question.
What other aeras can i move in to?

Mice_Elf

IMHO, I reckon Uni should be free to everyone. Then, if you fail, you pay say £250 towards the cost of the exams IF you take them a second time. If you don't or if you fail again, you re-pay the course fees.

Not workable, but that's what I think should happen....

Ray_li

Thats a better idea than paying £1050 a year just to self learn

RB5320

as an employer, I would say it depends on the degree. I am a sales director and when looking for candidates with language skills I do prefer people with language degrees. But, otherwise I tend to find the best candidates are those who have the experience, which nearly always means the people who did not go to university. In the sales office where I work there are only 2 people who have been to uni, one of them being me. My sales manager who did not go to uni earns considerably more than the other person who did go to uni.

However, specific degrees are still obviously very worthwhile - ie sciences, medical, etc. In my opinion, the problem came about 10 years ago or so (when I was applying to unis) when it became the norm for a lot of people to go to uni because they did not know what they wanted to do, choosing subjects like social studies etc. No offence to anyone who has done this, and who has no doubt worked very hard to get their qualification. All I am saying is that to an employer, these qualifications are not terribly relevant.

Waffle over. As the vast majority of people on here are in IT the above is totally irrelevant anyway!

Steve

brickboy

>>>thread hijack alert<<<<

What's the crappest uni course you've ever heard of?

Here's two from Bradford (sorry, Bratfud ) Uni when I was there:

- Interdisciplinary Human Studies -- a mix of politics, sociology and psychology

- Peace Studies

As Paul Calf would say: "that's handy"

Jer

Hi Ray_li

Don't give up, after I did my degree it took me a year and a half to get a job in IT. I did my degree in Multimedia technology and graduated just after the industry started going **** up.

JDMCTR

Hmmm....things don't look so good for me then

Ray_li

i think iv lots all hope of finding a design job. iv just signed up for a data inputting job
Well thats my 3 years at uni gone down the pan.

Ray

Cheeky Jim

Up here in Yorkshire it's a similar story, people are crying out for Builders, Plumbers and Electricians. It is very good money as well... The builder I use drives a MY02 Boxster, he had an Audi TT but he didn't like it very much so sold it and got the porker.

A good plumber working 5/6 days a week will do £70k quite easily. We had some work to reroute a gas pipe for the Cooker - all of 40 mins work - couple of bits of pipe and a connector (£20) and £50 for the time....I wish I was on £50 an hour!

I might go and be a plumber - better than selling Software for a living....

Jim

dhorwich

I am in a similar position, i graduated in 2001 with an applied biological sciences degree and work at a hospital as a scientist, the money is totally crap for the responsibility and i still have to be a trainee for a year..!!!

So it usually takes 4 years to get my degree, then 1 year training only to get £15,600 + on call a year, my girlfriend has just qualified as a nurse with only GCSE's to get onto her course and she starts on £16,000 with no training...!!!!

My mates all have trades, my best mate is a ally welder and takes home £25,000+ a year..!

Dan

zoog

Society has done an about-turn in the last 20 years as to whom it values and rewards the most. Educated professionals and scientists with degrees are being shafted while skilled manual workers are doing very nicely thank you. Partly it is market forces.

Anyway, who'd really want to be a plumber? It's all cramped, dark, damp, smelly places day in and day out.I Suppose if you owned a firm and sent out employees toi do the job it would be OK.