Well you'd make a crappy clown, that's for sure. I'm coming to the realisation that the UK has far too much of an emphasis on telling people that every degree is equally valid and equally valuable. They're not. All this "Well my degree in marketing with audio-film-history is as good for any purpose as an engineering degree" is just kind of, nonsense. I think it's a shame that this lie is perpetrated, because the difference in how hard degrees are varies hugely.
Finishing high school right now and going on to a bachelor in Production and Construction and Production and Leadership for my candidate. Well, that's the plan anyway.
At the risk of quoting your sig, you're right. I got my 2:1 in philosophy hip nine years ago, and it's done very little for me. Realistically I should have gone down a more scientific road, but I squandered that opportunity by coasting my way through school and selecting only arts subjects. After all, they were easier to muck around in and wing my way through the exams. What does my philosophy degree tell an employer? That I can argue, am a free thinker and am capable of questioning the very existence of time, space and matter? Not much use in most office environments most of the time. Of course all degrees are valid in their own rights, and no degree guarantees employment. But degrees that sound better often are.
Philosophy (Theology,) Creative Writing and Linguistics. I was in IT for many years, now disabled and writing semi-full time. Behold, it was worth something to my employer-me.
I got my first degree in Computer Network Engineering, however the plan was never to go into IT. I was given a bursary by the RAF and completed elementary flying training with the University Air Squadron while completing my degree. The end goal was going multi-engined (flying Hercules). Alas I became pretty ill and was diagnosed with Crohns disease, and subsequently medically discharged. No more flying. I went back to uni and got a masters degree in Network Systems. Fast forward a few years as I needed some hardware mods [surgery to normal people] and I now work as a network infrastructure consultant. I can't say it's where I thought I'd be if you asked me ten years ago, but I love what I do and IT has the benefit of not taking you to a war zone (usually).
Hardness of a degree is relative however. I know i would struggle with a degree such as english, creative writing, art or languages yet they are considered an easier option than the molecular biology degree I'm currently doing which i find easy. I think part of the problem can be traced back to when there was the huge push to get 50% of young people through uni as a government target iirc which has massively devalued the worth of an average degree.
Degree in physics with planetary and space physics. PGCE in science (physics speciality) with a side order of IT for the banter. Been teaching for 11 years, largely general science/physics in secondary school (11-16 years old) but a brief period where I was maths/science/IT all at once. Used my degree the whole of my career,as has my lady - Law with French (year out to France for grokking French law in French), Legal Practise Course, training contract - she's now a family solicitor (Divorce lawyer basically) and has been for 8 years at a small/medium firm in west of England. When you invest so much time specialising to that degree it's mostly sense to work in the field in which you trained - although some people go with what's fashionable and realise too late that they have a worthless piece of paper that makes them overqualified to flip burgers but not attractive to high paying/skilled salaried jobs so are stuck in limbo and either re-train or take a dull 9-5 they hate in a dull office/retail environment.
Sure, no doubt. But the bottom line is, a degree where you're in uni 30 hours a week and studying another 20-30 hours a week prepares you much better for life than a degree which requires you to attend uni for 4 hours a week and read a book every once in a while.
Funnily enough, I'm now employed, and have another job offer lined up for the future. IT and administration respectively. None of it pertains to, or required, the skills I picked up in my degree, of course. That really was just a waste of three years and £18k. C'est la vie.
Like the OP my degree is in architecture (MArch) I've used it a little - two small projects, and one slightly larger on the horizon. However, I'm basically a jeweller / gemmologist these days although I plan on picking up the architecture a little down the line. How useful was my degree? It could have been more so,for example; we only had a couple of modules on law and procurement (what, 32 hours each? So call it 100 hours spent in total) which can form a major part of an architects day to day activities. From a five year (teaching, plus two practical) course, where we put in a minimum of 50 hours a week and double that or more in the month before our honours and masters projects, it wouldn't have been asking so much for a little extra in this fairly crucial area. Transferable skills? For me there are quite a few, leaning in the technical, artistic, or more practical of directions. I could get a job as a model maker - yes it's out there - a bit of brushing up, some evening classes and a small outlay in equipment - photographer, CAD monkey for any discipline, the possibilities are endless.
I got a BSc in Music Technology a few years back with a view to working/owning a small recording studio. Once I actually hit reality I learned that a) the degree was useless in the field and b) that everything I had been taught was completely wrong when applied in the real world. So I started from the bottom up again. I got a gig mixing bands in a small club, moved from that to a slightly larger theatre with much bigger acts and finally, I'm now working for a corporate P.A company in the middle east, working with some of the nicest toys in the industry. I took my degree and used some of the skills and the passion I gained doing it to translate into an actual profitable career. Moving from recorded to live sound was probably the smartest thing I could have done. However I only got here because I was stubborn as hell and refused to give up and take any other job.... well aside from 3 days as an estate agent which really taught me a lot about myself, but thats another story for another time. Now not to get into a rant but if I were to go to uni now I would be very careful. With the price of fee's massively increased in the last few years, you really have to do something thats employable instead of just enjoyable. Hell, I was on the last years of the old system and I'm still in debt for a useless degree. I would hate to be lumbered with the debt students get into now for it!
I think there's some misunderstanding about the current student debt. You only have to repay once your earning more than £21,000 and its 9% pre tax of whatever your earning more than that and the interest is very low. After 30 years any remaining debt is wiped. Even if your lucky and come out of Uni and go straight into a £25,000 job with a pay rise 2% over inflation throughout that 30 years you'll never actually pay the whole lot off and it gets wiped.
Indeed, as mucgoo points out, it's basically a graduate tax but not called a graduate tax. It doesn't affect your credit rating, you have no control over if you pay it or not, and debt collectors won't come knocking on your door for it.
What did I do with my degree? Big'd it up a lot on my CV and exaggerated the truth in regard to placements i had as result of it on my CV.... to ultimately end up FINALLY getting onto a management training scheme with a big national company that didn't even require me to have a degree. And it specified that i shouldn't submit a CV with my application. BAH. ....I made a lot of mates and drank a lot of alcohol whilst getting it tho...
I got a degree in Sports Science and became a plumber. I then got a degree in Physics with Planetary and Space Physics and finished off with a PGCE so am now teaching. The debt left from that is quite large but without it I wouldn't have the job I do now so it was worth it.
I'm in the process of working on my BSc Comp Sci, working at CERN on my placement, with the aim of going on to do a Masters(MSc or MEng) probably specialising in Embedded Systems with AI secondary. I also worked at a Software House before Uni so as you can imagine my CVs work history looks a lot more important than my degree at the mo.
