Ooo we have loads of clever people here (not that i ever thought any different of course )
Alicia D'amore wrote:
Physiology here - a real degree External Media (and I'm allowed to make that joke because I genuinely don't believe it - being with WandA I realise that degrees in the "arts" can be just as hard)
Adx
You can't make that joke!
It's a well known fact only us arty types have a sense of humour, pffttt, those scientists are devoid of funny.External Media
Yes - of course. We arty types have a brilliant sense of humour. For example:
Question: What do you get when you cross a postmodernist with a mafia boss? --- Answer: An offer you can't understand.
:p
WandA wrote:
MissFortune wrote:
muchkin wrote:
I meant to add in the original post that if at university, what degree are you studying for?
Classical Civilisation.
(Yep, one of the many degrees the government have now decided are absolutely worthless.)
xx
I may be the only person in this thread to say this but it sounds fun! If you pay more attention to the 'civil' bit of civilisation, your degree holds a great romance to it.
I enjoy it most of the time. Some of the stuff you learn is pretty wacky, and it's broad-ranging enough to keep someone with so short an attention span as myself entertained.
I'll have to rely more on the name of the university than the course to cope in the real world, though. Oh well.
xx
I'm a Learning and Development Practitioner who went to the University of Life. A' Level subjects were Maths, Physics and Chemistry so should I apologise for being more engineering than art?
SHB
Inara14 wrote:
Yes - of course. We arty types have a brilliant sense of humour. For example:
Question: What do you get when you cross a postmodernist with a mafia boss? --- Answer: An offer you can't understand.
:p
*Snigger (because even if it's rubbish I'm in the crowdExternal Media)*
hHear about the man who went to the solipsist convention?
Nobody showed up.
SweetHoneyBee wrote:
I'm a Learning and Development Practitioner who went to the University of Life. A' Level subjects were Maths, Physics and Chemistry so should I apologise for being more engineering than art?
SHB
Hehe - engineering is classed as "sciences" so you can be on my *team* External Media
A level Physics? Wow! I've never known anyone do that successfully - hard, hard subject at A level!
Adxx
SweetHoneyBee wrote:
I'm a Learning and Development Practitioner who went to the University of Life. A' Level subjects were Maths, Physics and Chemistry so should I apologise for being more engineering than art?
SHB
No! Certainly not.
We're just bitter no one wants to pay us to think lots.External Media
SweetHoneyBee wrote:
I'm a Learning and Development Practitioner who went to the University of Life. A' Level subjects were Maths, Physics and Chemistry so should I apologise for being more engineering than art?
SHB
i did physics a level, oh my god it nearly killed me, did biology and sports sience as well, so i would say i am definatly one the sciance side External Media
Alicia D'amore wrote:
A level Physics? Wow! I've never known anyone do that successfully - hard, hard subject at A level!
Adxx
No sweat. (Literally, didn't try, didn't revise. Piece of cake) Try getting into a Uni Physics course with a Physics A-level though! They don't want to know. "But did you do maths?" No, I did Physics! "Well, we don't care about that, since the course is mainly maths-based at Degree level"
That should have been the warning sign right there, but I pressed on - three bloody years of partial differential equations and not a concrete concept in sight! I don't know why I bothered . . oh, yeah: I didn't.
And now I work in a glorious, wonderful factory! External Media With real production lines and union reps and an un-staffed canteen and everything! External MediaExternal Media It's just like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but with low pay, caustic materials, hot glue, and migrant workers instead of Oompa-Loompas!!! External MediaExternal MediaExternal MediaExternal MediaExternal MediaExternal Media
And the moral of the story is: Kiddies, work hard in school and maybe one day you won't grow up to wish you were dead. Thank you.
university student. Law, third year, got 2:1 in second and predicted same this year.
Mr Monster wrote:
Alicia D'amore wrote:
A level Physics? Wow! I've never known anyone do that successfully - hard, hard subject at A level!
Adxx
No sweat. (Literally, didn't try, didn't revise. Piece of cake) Try getting into a Uni Physics course with a Physics A-level though! They don't want to know. "But did you do maths?" No, I did Physics! "Well, we don't care about that, since the course is mainly maths-based at Degree level"
Annoying isn't it! WandA did engineering A level but you need physics or maths for it to be any use for uni applications - and I should have done chemistry to go with my biology (snuck on the course with geography as my second science but now they've changed it so you can only apply with bio *and* chem).
Silly.
And they're now taking away Aim Higher so you're given even less info and help on applying to uni.
MrMo, tell me to mind my own, and I know you have a young kid which makes things more difficult, but are you really not in a position for a change in direction?
Adxx
Alicia D'amore wrote:
MrMo, tell me to mind my own, and I know you have a young kid which makes things more difficult, but are you really not in a position for a change in direction?
Adxx
I'd never dream of telling you to butt out - you're always so considerate and helpful despite having heaps to do.
My problems are many and varied. Chief among them is that I never really had a direction, or a goal. So I've drifted, and ended up somewhere that, frankly, would have made me work hard at school if only someone had explained why it makes a difference (for me, for years, there was no need to work at anything academic. Arrogant, but true.)
And lately I feel that I've had my chance at education and life, blew it, and now I just have to live with the consequences. I'm stuck with a family and a house, which are responsiilities I am not prepared to shirk, but the price of shouldering those responsibilities is going to the only shitty job I could get and bringing home what society and the labour market deems I'm worth. Which is, frankly, an insult I'm getting used to.
I'd love to do so many things, but knowing myself as I do, I would fail at them. I seem to be stuck in a cycle of overlapping obstacles, and to get over one needs me to have already cleared the previous one. But to get over that, I first have to fix the other thing. And so it goes on. I have low self-esteem for a reason, you know. It's because I'm no bloody good at anything.
And I do know that most of the things in my life are ones I should be (and am) grateful for, but I can't enjoy their good points so much when I'm wishing they'd go away and take the bad points with them.
I was having a good day, as well, but once I start thinking like this it's hard to find a way out.
On a positive note (Yay!) I'm looking into counselling for the emotional issues, and toying with a career idea. You will hear more shortly!
MrMo you are where I could have (and still fear I could) gone (go).
I'm also naturally able and good at academics but had no real drive. I drifted through GCSEs and A levels but had to work hard when it came to uni. Luckily, I fell into something I absolutely love by pure chance, which makes it worth the effort but I worry that if I don't get into a PhD - there is no back up. There's nothing else I enjoy/want to be doing with the rest of my life and I fear I could end up drifting into a job I don't enjoy just to pay bills. If I'm as successful as I hope to be - I'll either be the higher earner in our relationship or on an equal wage but with high job satisfaction.
But I worry I could end up stuck on equal pay with low job satisfaction or worse - lower earner out of us too with low job satisfaction - not that the money really matters but WandA wants to go into a (reasonably) low paid job because of the satisfaction he'll gain and money is always useful these days.
I think, as I'd probably advise myself, it's worth sitting down and thinking about what you enjoy/are good at! There are many things that people are good at but they don't see them as something they could do as a career. But once you have them all listed you can either look at finding how they fit together.
If there isn't a job you could do now you could at least then take those things you enjoy and find do some further education in them - I don't think OU degrees are that expensive, you can do it in your own time and you seem the type of person (intelligent, inquisitive) that'd enjoy it - so if you get a sense of achievment and enjoyment from gaining qualifications that may or may not be useful in the future then it's worth the extra cost.
Maybe it's not something for 2011 but if you get an idea of something you might enjoy then you can work towards doing it and look forward to it by saving up and getting yourself in a position where you feel you can/want to.
The only reason I feel compelled to offer (potentially useless) advice is because you seem an incredibly intelligent person yet suprisingly insecure for the confidence you seem to display - it seems such a waste of such talent that you feel trapped in a job that doesn't challenge and excite you! I really do hope you push yourself further. You're never to old or too trapped by other committments if you've got determination and motivation (and the motivation comes from doing something you love).
Your happiness and satisfaction is as important to your own well being as it is to your partner and son's so it's worth working on and I'm really happy to read that you're going for counselling and have some prospects on the way .
You know how to find me if ever you need a chat - I know you won't take me up on that offer, but it's there still
Adxxx
Alicia D'amore wrote:
You know how to find me if ever you need a chat - I know you won't take me up on that offer, but it's there still External Media
Adxxx
Wanna bet?
Alicia D'amore wrote:
I worry that if I don't get into a PhD - there is no back up. There's nothing else I enjoy/want to be doing with the rest of my life and I fear I could end up drifting into a job I don't enjoy just to pay bills.
i worry about this too. i want to do the bar professional trainging course, which means that i have to find upwards of 25K for next academic year, if i get a placement. theres precious few scolarships and no government funding, and i have nothing to secure a bank loan on :(
R+D chemist for a now yank owned (once British) fire fighting chemicals company. I love my job. It's basically making stuff in the lab that puts fires out (most of the time), manufacturing trial batches in the plant and then doing some full scale tests on a fire test ground if it's a big one or using indoor facilities if it's smaller. I ultimately get to put mahoosive fires out
Cracking in winter but hell on earth during the summer, hot hot hot! Been there 20 years this year.
I worked as a chemist/assayer for a mining company before that analysing ore samples for precious metals and commodities. The money was shite but I was young and inexperienced, gained tons of experience and travelled quite a bit from there, most memorable was landing in a field in Peru in a light aircraft and we very nearly crashed, fucking terrifying . Worked part time whilst there to make my money up. Testing rally car tyres at weekends I used to get paid for 8 hours sat/sun what I got for the week at the Assayers! That's how shit my wage was (I actually nearly trippled my wage when I moved to where I am now! I thought I'd won the pools!) Used to work for my Dad too aged 12 to15. He had his own business making wrought iron fences and gates and I used to paint them all with Red Oxide, £25 per day. Modern day slavery it was!
My kids have my work ethic thankfully.
Life story over. I'm getting bloody old.
SG
At the moment I'm just 'mum', lost almost all of my identity in the last 4-5 years due to not being able to earn enough to cover child care for twins so whats the point of working for nothing??? I am pretty lonley a lot of the time at home and conversations are centered around kids most of the time. I am not one to push my way into conversations and can normally be found on the outskirts of groups rather than in the middle, I also dont like to bother people so rather than push to help at the nursery I wait until they ask me but as I'm not part of the 'in group' it rarley happens.
I went through school not knowing what I wanted to do and sort of floated into shop work when I left 6th year, got used to the money then couldnt really turn back. My mums favourite introduction is ' this is Susan, she's got 3 highers' which leads to 'what do yo do?' questions and its kind of embarrasing to say 'not much just being a mum'. I have learned from it and will encourage my kids to be sure they know what goal they are working towards, like my youngest who says he will be a skydiver when he is older, its a bit out there but if thats what he wants to do then so be it.
I have another 1 1/2 years before twins go to school now and have got to know someone who deals with community learning and development and she is putting a lot of free courses my may which should help me when I go to re train in something child based to fit in with my family but I cant give anything my all until they are in full time education as it means asking my dad to do a hell of a lot for me.
Sorry for my rant but other than my kids I have wasted the last 14 years of my life due to not being encouraged to apply for further education at school and not pushing for help. xxx
i teach primary, the OH teaches secondary.
hence "naughty school girl" costumes are a tooootal no-no. lol. O_o