For e.g
I have a degree in Buss/Commerce (Hospitality), I'm currently a retail salesperson. And before that, I worked in IT Helpdesk.
The closest thing to hospitality I have ever done was work in a cafe and that was BEFORE I started studying university. Haven't touched hospitality jobs since.
So per title: what did you study, and what related / unrelated field do you work in now? And have you given up trying to look for said related job?
Studied b civil engineering/b commerce.
Cant find a job.
I now drive taxis.
Really? How long since you graduated?
Masters in Information Systems.
Currently IT Sales.
Would you recommend IT Sales? Have you had a purely technical role before?
Im currently a systems engineer but i am considering IT Sales or Pre-sales Engineer in the future.
Thoughts?
Def go for it.
I am not technical at all.
IMO, someone with Technical knowledge has an upper hand if they can sell.
In my company, there is lots of demand for Solution Architect's or presales.
SA's get paid around $110k base and $50k comms and presales are around $90k plus super.
I am on $105k base and $50k comms.
I have done both at the most senior levels. Generally people are good at one or the other and sometimes you find people that can do both.
Have a go, I'm not really into presales/sales/management but it really depends on you. I've flip flopped for the past 7 years or so but would always choose a technical implementation role over presales.
You could probably make more in presales in the long run but for me there has been little to no difference. The top pay bracket will be roughly similar in any stream you pick give or take.
Degree in Law and Political Science, working in prison.
really? Does it pay well? Stressful? Dangerous?
what do u do in prison?
what is the actual position?
not working from* prison?
Because of degree I got paid more than rest of them, government job. Dangerous, not really, stressful, sometimes.
Did a Diploma at tafe followed by a vanilla IT degree at uni.
Worked in a few helpdesk-ish and support/project jobs and am currently in IT at local govt.
Besides the DIY research/time management skills, none of the uni stuff was useful - bits and pieces of tafe were, somewhat i suppose.
Recently realised I should have gotten into politics/property development (both seem deliciously synonymous) in some form and become a Councillor/property developer.
I too would like to have an extravagant wedding and to tell Mayweather 'this is how you do a wedding, you've got no chance vs me mofo'
sigh.
what was the IT degree called?
Don't you need to pick a major? What was the major?
How did u get your first IT job after finishing the degree?
Are u still doing helpdesk for the local government?
So many questions Tyler.
Studied computer science -> worked in the IT field for 5 years. Now working in railway maintenance for twice the money I was making in IT.
how do u get a job in railway maintenance?
Are u thoses guys in color vests you see on the railway, when we are travelling on the train..
How much u make as Railway vs IT?
Yes, IT is shit pay unless it is programming.
The companies don't seem to want to pay much for IT workers.
I seen some people with jobs without degrees getting paid better than IT workers.
I did a Degree in Archaeology - I do IT infrastructure (in fact I never did anything with my degree).
I guess you could say your degree is now archaic
What if he only looks after dial up networks?
Then he wouldn't have said that he never did anything with his degree
Industrial Maintenance two-years course and diploma in Industrial Engineering (3yrs) -> I've been working in the Maintenance/Industrial Engineering field for 3 years now. Happy with my job.
I got my uni' at 90 degrees. Often though, it falls to 180 degrees. In a completely unrelated story, I worked in a corn field. I now work in a field of dreams.
You should start playing baseball.
Bach of Eng (Civil & Infrastructure). Did it for two years, hated the hours, then moved into Property Management. Got bored of that, and moved into Commercial Estimating. So I don't use my degree, but my degree definitely helped shape the way I think about buildings which I now price!
Industrial Engineer working as admin/logistic staff
Bachelor of Eng (Aerospace). Working for automotive OEM as an electrical engineer.
Doctor of medicine… Now a full time ozbargainer!
lies
Working as officer, screw.
Bachelar of Engineering (Mech) —> Now I'm a Mechanical Engineer, O&G Industry…
Masters in Asian Studies, now working as a HSE auditor for mine sites
which company? any specific process in HSE auditing?
Did a degree in HRM, now working as an assistant accounts manager… mainly dealing with admin work and the occasional liaising with clients… don't think it is related to my degree at all…
Looking to maybe go into another commerce degree, possibly marketing?
Did Psychology, doing Economic/Data science related stuff.
Have a degree in Commerce (Finance & Statistics) - had a graduate job in finance (management accounting) but recently made the switch to selling finance for a prestige automotive company.
I approve of your screen name. And prestige automotives.
Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Japanese and Linguistics.
I am now half way through my apprenticeship to become a Heavy Vehicle Mechanic.
Loving this thread. It's so eye opening.
are you saying you're an ophthalmologist?
I see what you did there ;P
Haha. Boom boom.
PhD in genetics/DNA + Masters in Intellectual Property = Government general legal manager. I don't mind how it has turned out at all.
in other words your phd was a waste of time?
"…your PhD was a waste of time?"
You're totes wrong about that. Understanding the intricacies thrown up by 'post 1980s (post-PCR / large-scale-sequencing)' genetics (beyond Mendel and pea plants) requires a somewhat rare combination of dedication, smarts/analytical ability, and even a bit of creativity. That's why not many peeps 'stick out' the course to the 'honours' level, and way fewer are actually offered the opportunity to do a PhD in it.
Yo insular, here's a quiz question for you… what genetic phenomenon suggests that Mendel perhaps 'cooked/fudged' some of his results?
I'm happy for anyone to post an answer on this, provided they actually know it/can describe the answer in their own words…
what genetic phenomenon suggests that Mendel perhaps 'cooked/fudged' some of his results?
he spent way too much time on ozbargain
Bachelor of Business(Marketing and International Trade), now i'm working in Hospitality :D
Bachelor of Computer Science
First 5 years out of uni worked for a small software vendor which allowed me to try a few different hats: customer support, network admin, web designer, services consultant and presales - took a liking to presales and from there move to a new company where I did presales a couple more years before transitioning to software sales. Would never go back to a non-sales role.
Bachelor of Business (Marketing + Advertising)
I am a manager at a volunteering organisation
I have a Bachelor of Science (Computing Science). I did a Masters of Astronomy for myself, not because I wanted to change careers.
Law / Economics -> Legal
Commerce (Majoring in: Corporate and Investment Finance) worked for a relatively large finance company for 3 years as a brokers assistant. Started working as a loader operator doing FIFO after getting a bit stale in the finance role. I'm now the supervisor and love the 2/1 week roster.
Bachelor in Engineering (civil) now working in Casino as a dealer after being made redundant and being unable to find any job for a year.
Sad part is I see lot of people who are in need of money come there and lose more. I know how hard it can be when you are short of money but please don't think casino is the answer. House always wins. Find a job, any job if you like or not to keep you going.
Also get to see people loaded with money spraying it all away as well.
What's the pay like in a casino and are there any career development opportunities to move up?
You can make around 60-70k year easily doing full time hours and overtime here and there. To move up depends on how you take your job seriously or not. Customer service and buttering up people above you etc. You get cert3 cert4 in hospitality as well along the way.
Hey can I ask what sort of civil eng role were you in before?
Worked as Geotechnical Engineer and FIFO for 18 months before being shown the door.
whats your goal now that youre in this situation?
@Thenarrator: Well I love teaching. Going to start diploma in education next year which is a 1 year course and thinking going down that lane and switching casino casual depending how well teaching goes. Used to tutor back while in uni.
It was hard on me when I lost the job. Marriage was fixed a month after. Then wife was working for 8.5 months while pregnant. Had credit card bills etc etc.
In a much better place now. Paid off everything once I started to work as well.
This experience scares me to seek job in engineering. They can turn and tell you any time bye bye. Then what do you do???
Not going through the same drama again. I want options in jobs. Happy to do 2-3 jobs. I feel it's more secure.
Computer Engineering, work in IT Sales now.
I am a high school student and wanted to ask if anyone has experience in stock brokerage, law or IT (serious development for big companies) not building computers mainly developing software and apps.
I have an IT degree majority in software engineering. You can't really choose what you want to do when you start so you're being a bit unrealistic wrt "serious development for big companies".
At this stage of your life you really want to picking something you enjoy and are good at. I ended up doing networking despite my degree and me wanting to be a mechanic.
It worked out well for me but the point is you can't really steer the car as such, just point it in the right direction and hold on for the ride.
I did a law degree, am a lawyer. Happy to talk.
Science and Management now in management consulting try to industry specialise in Health.
Retail seems to be a popular career choice for graduates.
probably because they can't get anything else.
Electronics and Communications Engineering, now working as a Control Systems Engineer
Sounds pretty hardcore, which field if you don't mind me asking?
Haha, it's actually quite fun… mostly to do with mining
i did a BA arts, because thats all i can get with my UAI
since graduating, i ended up being in B2B sales for 10 years before starting my own business
dentistry now im the undertaker….oh wait that's what the patients see me as. otherwise still in dentistry.
We should all be PhDs after all of those Udemy courses we've done.
You mean all the courses we have 'purchased' free of charge but never started let alone completed.
Law, now working in retail while I do my second degree - video games.
Too many law graduates out there huh? I wish the GFC never came :(
A craptonne of law grads, and a good lot of them like the profession more that I do - hence the change of pace :)
When you complete law degree?
2012 :)
Was it straight law or combination with another?
Best of luck with your new one! Make sure to apply for relevant jobs to gain experience whilst studying, something I wish I did earlier.
My god, this is so depressing. I worked in retail out of high school when I was younger, I did a traineeship and got a cert 2 in retail (yay). Every single person in my company had the same attitude - 'you're so young, you need to get out of this industry while you can, skill up!!'. I hated the job and left after considering what I'd like to do with my life.
I hadn't finished high school so when I left retail after a few years I had to go back and do year 11 and 12, then I spent 5 years studying physics and computer engineering just hoping to get a job where I wasn't undervalued and considered easily replaceable. I spent a year unemployed after this, volunteering for a charity a few days a week and cold calling/writing cover letters/tailoring resumes to any company that looked like I could do something there without getting a single reply beyond 'thanks for your resume but we aren't hiring'. Someone I worked at uni with offered me 3 years of funding to do a PhD and I figured it was better then wasting away giving my time to charity for free.
Now my PhD funding has just run out (the government department that provided me with funding was gutted and they don't have money left for an extension), centrelink won't give me any assistance because they don't consider a phd to be an approved full time course and I can't seem to get any casual work to give me some income (I've applied for every coles and woolworths job that has appeared in the past few weeks). I'm so sick of being poor and I'm finding it hard to stay motivated for the year+ that it will take me to finish my PhD (I'm here for nearly 12 hours + a day, unpaid).
The thought that after all this I'll just end up crawling back to my old retail sales career that I tried to escape from, except now I'll have over 10 years of no earnings and work experience, over 50k in hecs debt and a worthless 'doctor' title that only serves to make me overqualified. I swear, not a word of dishonesty, if I end up back there after all I've been through I think I'll drive my car into a tree or drink some poison or something. I just don't think I could face it. Labouring or cleaning or anything other than retail please please please.
If worse comes to worse you could try working at a Distribution Warehouse (coles/woolies) and get paid $30+ an hour stacking boxes.. thats my back up plan in life anyway haha
Yeah I'm not too proud to work any job really, it's just the cruel irony of wasting all that time, money and energy to just end up in a worse position that I was when I started and then to go back, hat in hand and tail between legs, begging for the job I left to foolishly 'better myself'. I hate getting told that all it takes is some hard work to change your situation because it's not true at all. It seems that most good fortune in life is luck and circumstance.
Your Supervisor doesn't have any funding to help you out? Usually they can say your working as a "research asssitant". Also what about tutoring? Working at uni library can pay well to I have heard.
@28kb: Yeah I do tutoring when it's available. WA is experiencing the 'half cohort' right now and after applying for tutoring work this semester I was told that they were asked to cut down on tutors, so no work until next year or maybe marking exams at the end.
My supervisor doesn't have any extra funding I'm afraid. I'm employed as a research assistant but the work isn't regular. I did some work today but it was the first time in about a month :( my funding came originally from DSTO but they almost immediately had their funding cut back in 2013 and from then I was warned that there was no possibility of extension beyond 3 years (although every single person I met told me that I should expect 3.5 - 4 years to complete).
I've been applying for tutoring jobs outside of uni as well as any night/weekend job I can find (service station, nightfill, supermarket, liquor store). Mostly generic rejection letters I'm afraid :(
@Talonparty: I worked at a coles nightfill in Maddington WA. Its one of the bigger coles and we had new people come in all the time. Maybe try at one of the bigger coles in your area? and might Help speaking directly to a Grocery Manager at the store "walk in".
:( to bad not much work at uni they pay so well generally.
@28kb: Cheers, I really do appreciate the advice. I'm pretty confident that I'll get in somewhere eventually. I have experience in nightfill and at a liquor store in my undergrad and 11/12 years so I'd hoped it'd give me a foot in the door but I think the competition is stiff. I think I have to start listing my education as 'part-time' because all of the online applications I've made I've tried to explain that as a PhD I can pretty much set my own schedule outside of a few already reserved hours per week (meetings, seminars, etc.) but I keep getting rejected so maybe I'm being too honest.
@Talonparty: that might be it. Post finishing my degree, I had problems finding a job (didn't want to work in the related field) and as soon as I removed my education from the resume I got my job. Some places will view you as having a short life down with the company and thus look for somebody who is more likely to stay longer! Best of luck.
I understand your situation man..I understand.. equally depressed.
Hey mate, contact Centrelink re: Austudy and ask for a review by an Authorised Review Officer. If that fails link up with a free legal centre in your area or perhaps the univesity welfare officer where they can help you out with a merits review of your circumstances. I know it's hard work when you feel you've been stomped all over but there is a way. A free legal service can provide you an advocate and will get a favourable solution for you. Do not take the 'not entitled to austudy' as a definite decision because half of centrelink haven't got a clue what they are doing.
But if you aren't ready to navigate that bureaucracy, sometimes you need to work the system for an equitable outcome. I'd suggest apply for Newstart allowance and don't tell them you are a student and just do what you have to do to comply with the compulsory appointments.
I'd suggest apply for Newstart allowance and don't tell them you are a student and just do what you have to do to comply with the compulsory appointments.
if they find out (and they will when you have to work for the dole and can't because you're studying), you will have to pay back and possibly end up in court for fraud. a stupid suggestion.
Centrelink re: Austudy and ask for a review by an Authorised Review Officer
pointless, they're not going to change the rules just because he's having hardship in an unrecognised study program. this is why phd's are the worst kind of exploitation (speaking from experience). honestly, i think most phd students with expired scholarships and useless supervisors would rather be on christmas island. i'm sure they'd be treated better there.
pointless, they're not going to change the rules just because he's having hardship in an unrecognised study program. this is why phd's are the worst kind of exploitation (speaking from experience). honestly, i think most phd students with expired scholarships and useless supervisors would rather be on christmas island. i'm sure they'd be treated better there.
You need to go through an internal review process first before you can escalate and request an external review, and then a tribunal if need be. That's why he needs an advocate, they'd do it all for him. The review would look at the discretionary decision of not granting him austudy and look at the 'rules' in a different way, it's not changing anything, it would be imposed by someone not even from centrelink. This situation is a great example of where black letter law and equity do not align. But it takes a lot of work and people give up.
if they find out (and they will when you have to work for the dole and can't because you're studying), you will have to pay back and possibly end up in court for fraud. a stupid suggestion.
Maybe… if he went to court without legal aid or just made admissions of guilt to any allegations directed at him because he has no idea what's going on.
Sounds like a 'job-seeker' to me. If his situation seems dire enough to entertain necking himself and depending on how long he has for his pHd that's the risk he needs to assess. Not disclosing that he is a student would not necessarily equate to fraud.
Thanks for the advice. It was really frustrating because I knew my scholarship was ending and I made many enquiries. I went into the office, explained my sitation (every time telling them that I was studying for my doctorate) and they let me continue to apply like an idiot. I had big arguments with my wife over getting information for some pathetic amount of shares she owns on the HKSE. We had to chase up employers that she had only worked with for like a week so we could get separation certificates.
Finally I completed the application and it was rejected within the week citing the 'approved courses' list and showing that doctorate study was not eligible. I swear, I spoke with at least half a dozen centrelink people on the phone and in person and not one of them said 'don't bother applying because PhD is not covered'. Not only that, the phone line is so hard to get on that several times I used an auto-dialer on my phone which had over 100 busy calls to the 13 24 90 number before finally getting in. It's an absolute nightmare and for nothing in the end.
The advice I was given was to drop to part time study and go on newstart to get the allowance. My wife has been supporting me in the meantime but there's an entirely different story there because she had trouble finding work for over a year after graduating and now she works in an environment she loathes for less than the minimum wage because she is a recent immigrant still on a temporary visa and noone will give her a properly paid full time job + centrelink won't pay until she's been a permanent resident for a couple of years if I understand correctly.
Go to your uni, and go to a welfare officer in student services, they will be able to link you up with someone versed in admin law.
seems like good advice to do part time. Then get on one of the newstart pathway plans and get back to your pHd. Make the rules work for you. How do you think the politicians do it ;)
@docholliday: Cheers mate I'll check it out, you're right because you really don't know until you try.
Hi, I don't have any advice for you in regards to how to get a job, but please don't be dishearten about your situation. I am sure you have learned some invaluable skills during your studies! Stay positive and good luck!
Applied mathematics. Now in IT
Computer engineering and MBIT. Now working towards becoming a Project Manager in IT. To be honest, GOOGLE has thought me more than the seven year I spent at uni !! But lucky I am still doing something related to what I studied :-)
No degree —> Network Engineer @ 23yo
Not a real engineer accredited by Engineers Australia then are you? Network technician more like it.
@tyler.durden: You can go onto any university website and find what the fees are going to be. That's probably your best bet as the fees change each year.
I hold quite a few industry specific certificates like CCENT/CCNA, but I don't always keep them up to date. Cisco for example was worth updating when they made the transition from IPV4 to IPV6 in their training.
Systems Engineering is hard to describe, but one way of putting it is that I plan, design and manage systems over their lifetime. An example would be going into a business and planning out what infrastructure they need (e.g. PCs, network equipment, cabling, software etc), implementing the infrastructure and then managing it. SE can consist of desktop and help desk support as that's a part of the management. Systems Engineer can also be compared to a Project Manager in some cases and it even has it's own degree.
Looking after infrastructure is just managing all IT/Telecomms infrastructure within a business or organisation.