Hello Ozbargain Community, I've been a long term lurker of Ozbargain but rarely comment or vote but I would like to get some complete internet strangers advice on where I should take my life. I'm currently in Year 12 completing my VCE studies and am doing the following subjects, English, Further Mathematics, History (Revolutions), Legal Studies and Business Management. I eventually want to go to University however don't wanna do a degree which leads to no jobs or a degree I have no interest in. I plan on working next year at Woolies where I currently work and adding more money to my small savings. My main interests are around politics and law but I'm well aware I won't receive a score sufficient enough to study law and don't know if I could pursue a career in it. Should I look for a university course? Work hard and save up? Travel? What do you think and how did you know what career you wanted to pursue?
Year 12 Student with very little idea of what to do next year
Last edited 06/09/2017 - 22:41
Comments
I do agree somewhat but gathering advice and ideas won't do me any harm.
Do you really want lifestyle advice from people who spend all day on the internet? O_O
@Scrooge
You always have the best responses. My favourite poster.
Make a website called OzBargain V2.0
And put the user name JV on that profanity name list
Ooh. Heavy question.
Right now the OP has the full gamut of life's options at his feet, and a daunting decision to make.
The solution is to knock up some broad so you can reduce those down to one — work hard to provide for your family. That's why you are here in this mess after all. And the cycle continues…
Brilliant! The logic is flawless
Hey, it has worked for hundreds of millions of years. If it ain't broke…
@Scrooge McDuck: Pretty sure humans are estimated at around 200,000 Years old (homo sapiens anyway)…and This is OzBargain where every zero counts.
Pretty sure humans are estimated at around 200,000 Years old (homo sapiens anyway)…and This is OzBargain where every zero counts.
Pretty sure humans' non-human ancestors propagated via sexual reproduction too, brosef!
@Scrooge McDuck: Sexual reproduction is by no means an obligation to provide, class mammalia males don't provide actually, mainly because we don't produce milk.
I was referring to sexual reproduction, not providing for you family with my historical comment. Indeed many humans don't fulfil the later even now. But feel free to keep moving the goalposts if it makes you feel better about your faulty criticism.
@Scrooge McDuck: But weren't you referring to your original comment two lines up? "The solution is to knock up some broad so you can reduce those down to one — work hard to provide for your family" if not, I am confused by what it you are referring to in the latter comment?
I might add it never started as criticism, hence the jovial Ozbargain zero reference, but take it as you will.
The evolutionary advantage of the ability to gain a bargain would have been part of the reason
humans' non-human ancestors eventually evolved into the dominate species on planet earth at this
anthropocene moment.@Scrooge McDuck:
But without the providing for your family part, no decisions are removed, so the only benefit for our ancient ancestors was a few minutes of pleasure for at least one of the couple. Oh, and propagating their genes.
Open a pancake shop?
Certainly not a bad option!!
What are your interests, hobbies and passions?
I think he loves pancakes.
Mmm peking duck pancakes.
Or video shop.
Or typewriter repair shop.
Selling betamax tapes!
A crepe shop
If you are sure you want to do law but may not get the required ATAR, you can always look into doing a law pathway or transfer into law after your first year studying something else at uni. It's a lot easier to transfer between difference courses/universities after your first year studying at uni especially if your planned ahead and picked the right units.
…having said that, there's currently a huge oversupply of young lawyers at the moment due to some very stupid policy decisions. Plenty of law grads doing unpaid internships for years trying to get a foot in the door in their field, or giving up and doing something else.
This is a big surprise to most of them - getting into law used to guarantee a well-paid career, but it's just not true in Australia right now.
there's currently a huge oversupply of young lawyers at the moment due to some very stupid policy decisions.
And unimaginative school leavers?
You can't just choose to study law, you have to get a place at uni. Someone who has to make a sensible, ethical decision about how many uni places there are, didn't and or isn't.
Maybe you can blame the students who have no real way of knowing about this crazy situation instead of the people who created it (presumably greedy university administrators who want the fees?) but I don't think that adds up.
This is happening to medicine too.
Second and third tier universities (Curtin, Macquarie) are opening up new medical schools to boost their own prestige and profits without any consideration for how it will affect the workforce.
Yeah, but if the cost of seeing a specialist and the average wait time in emergency rooms is anything to go by, we desperately need more doctors.
The thing is, that's not what we should be going by. Australia has an oversupply of doctors but an undersupply of specialists. Making more doctors won't create more specialists.
The only way emergency department waiting times and specialist fees will decrease is if more funding is committed to training programs for junior doctors to become specialists.
or giving up and doing something else.
While this sucks if you were really passionate about law, I would point out that law students typically stand out when applying for corporate finance and consulting roles and become really successful there. So giving up and doing something else after a law degree is usually not a bad thing at all.
Another option is working in risk or legal at a large company and trying to move to law later.
This is true to a point, in that there are more law graduates than law positions available.
However, like most fields where there is a demand, those that get positions in law really want to do it. If you only half try, you'll likely not get a position.
Source: I'm a lawyer. I had horrible grades in uni, didn't get any graduate programs, didn't get offered a job. Ended up working for a lawyer acquaintance of my mum, potentially the roughest, most intense job of my life for 18 months. Came out the other side broke but with experience. Forward 4 years and I have a six figure salary.
By grad programs, do you mean employers' grad recruitment programs? For the first instance, I just thought you didn't make it to any graduate programs in uni and was wondering how you became a lawyer then. :)
Haha - yeah, graduate recruitment programs. If you score one, you're pretty good.
Really the key to getting big positions (bigger than mine) was to gain legal experience while still studying. Those who worked as paralegals/judges assistants etc during uni were generally shifted into a higher role in their organisation upon graduating - no need to compete.
I'm not so sure about working at Woolies. Probably look into some other customer facing job where you engage with customers and do sales.
Sales experience adds up… you may not enjoy sales though but it definitely is more exciting than counting stock, doing the price ticketing, manning the cash register and stacking shelves.
Also if you want Christmas casual jobs you need to start applying before the end of October. If you wait too long the vacancies will be filled up.
I'm pretty interested in technology/gaming and my work experience isn't bad for an 18 year old, do you think Jb-Hifi would be good place to apply?
it would.
Please. An employer isn't going to care whether you worked at Woolworths or JB. Retail is retail. Work experience counts when you do it somewhere in the field you're looking to apply for. If you're comfortable at Woolworths then stay there until you decide what you want to do with yourself. Then you can worry about getting some work experience that'll really help you get a job.
@devize: I would tend to disagree. While it is all just retail, sales experience can go a long way and help land some fairly lucrative positions later on.
@devize: I disagree, pursuing your passion, albeit a small one, is incredibly important for one’s character. It can also give you energy to do the things you don’t want to do.
@devize: I agree, but what doing a retail job WILL do is give you experience in handling difficult people and situations and improve your interpersonal skills while also improving your confidence in talking to strangers. I used to struggle with that a lot and working at Coles when I was younger really helped me.
Also you become a better member of society. You know those really demanding and angry customers who just abuse retail workers? I can guarantee you they never ever worked a retail job in their life, because otherwise they would know that working retail every day is actually really hard. I'm so glad I have a job where I don't have to interact with everyday consumers.
Whoever told you that was wrong.
If anyone can do the job, then all types of people can do the job, competent or not.
So it means nothing.
I 100% agree. I should have worded things better. I was more saying that working at Woolworths or JB isn't going to make a difference to an employer. They're both retail jobs but that isn't to say that they're not valuable at all. The customer service and communication skills gained through retail are very useful to have when looking for a job. I worked at Coles as well and that definitely helped me in many regards. Saying that working at JB over Woolworths will make you more employable is what I was disagreeing with.
If you're interested in technology why not look at an IT degree?
If you don't like programming then look into other areas of IT like requirements writing (BA), maybe testing (although it helps to know some programming for automation). They can be pretty good jobs and well paid also.
+1 for working for a year and travelling.
I was pushed into going straight to uni (business degree) and I ended up wasting my first 6 months. Very common story.
My advice is to keep working and travelling until you're ready to study hard. Straight outta high school uni student is a different beast to someone who knows what they want and puts in the hard work.
I ended up going back to uni at 28 for a second time to do teaching. It's a rough career at times but it's clear to me and others that this is where I'm 'supposed' to be.
my mate with no prior job experience but plenty of voluntary roles and amazing leadership skills, got into JB Hi-fi after handing in his resume and talking with the manager physically. He's doing IT in Uni, so that's an extra I guess.
Study finance and go into investment banking. Everyone i know that did that is rolling in money.
Everyone i know that did that is rolling in money.
How uncouth! Anyone with an iota of class bathes in money.
Those gold coins are wonderful for the skin and feathers I've been told
Money isn't everything. What good is rolling in money if you still have to spend 40 hours a week at a job that's stressful, ethically questionable, and painfully boring?
You'd still have 128 hours per week for hookers and blow.
I would trade 5 years off my life to make it big in investment banking. Alas, I enrolled in the wrong degree…
a new degree would take you 3 years ?
Exactly. It's not because he'did the wrong degree', it's because he doesn't have the drive (or what it takes).
The majority of people that study Finance aiming for IB can't even get into IB - let alone people that don't really "want" it.
Money isn't everything, it's the only thing!
I'm sure the average hours spent working by an IB is much closer to 80 hours, than 40.
It is not easy to become IB. It is not as if someone has a wish and will come true with a finance degree.
It is extremely competitive as such positions are very less.
Invest in an 80k car as soon as possible!
Yeah and get a high paying job, save up $400k then start a thread on here asking what to do with all your money.
don't waste your time parking at a McDonald's waiting bay either - you've got a future to build!
if you don't know what to do and your happy at Woolies just chillax for a year. If you wanna do law but won't meet the requirements, study something else for a semester (maybe two?) preferably at the same uni you wanna do law at, after you pass, they'll let you do pretty much what ever you want.
If your hearts not in it, you'll flunk out. Seen it happen so many times and I did it myself first time round.
Very good points. I think law is more a vague interest then a serious career option I'm not so sure.
You can do an undergrad in something that interests you and consider law down the track as a postgrad option. Several universities offer the Juris Doctor (JD - postrgraduate law program) that is just three (or four years if you take it a bit more chill) of study.
But I'm doing the JD rn, in first year, and I'm not enjoying it too much. The content isn't dissinteresting, but I don't really see myself working in a career as a lawyer. Which leads to a lack of motivation to do a lot of reading, and will probably cost me a lot of marks by the time I finish. It can be quite tough socially as well - if everyone is quite competitive amongst each other, and my lack of interest in law means I lack a lot in common with other students, esp coming from a science and commerce background. PM me if you want to know more.
take a gap year- work hard and travel. then go to Uni. unless some opportunity opens up for you.
I only realised what I wanted to do when I was 32.
that's my plan currently.
While I didn't do exactly this I did defer uni for a year and then lost the passion to complete the course I spent high school working towards. Retrospectively 20 years later I think taking a year out and not rolling straight on to uni was a bad idea.
I am so glad I went straight into Uni from school, it keeps you in the same mindset. Work and school have different tempos. I think I would have struggled to go back if I had spent a year working, especially as I would have had to quit work to go to Uni due to time, travel distance etc (I did not do my undergrad at a local uni).
@elgrande: Now I've been working in the real world, I actually feel less motivated to do my best at Uni because it seems less important by comparison. I still do well in my postgrad classes, but I was topping most of my undergrad classes so was definitely more motivated then.
Perhaps other people have different experiences though.
I only realised what I wanted to do when I was 32.
And what is that?
Psychologist. But then its 7:15 in Beijing and I'm walking the streets randomly., maybe I'm not the guy to listen to…
Can I ask, did you end up pursuing that career? and did you only start at age 32? i'm 27 and still have no idea wtf I want to do. I have options I guess to continue up the ladder in the large retail company I work for but I don't think it's what I want to do.. feeling like i'm too old to start something new though :(
@Lunawinter: Yes, I'm half way there. I went back to uni and did a grad dip and then 4 th year (finished my thesis last November). Now I just have to get an psych job and complete supervision. I started back at uni part time whilst work full time and having a young family as well.
.
I should clarify, at 32 I thought being a psychologist would be a good move and something I felt I would enjoy doing (I have been working in jobs that require those skills). So therefore I felt like I had found the right path. And that gave me contentment and relief from "worrying about not knowing what I want to do with my life".Maybe some people who found their "path" at 17 have never had the chance to think about and they are closed minded enough not to worry about it.
Maybe studying psych just gave me the mind tools to believe I had found the "path".
Studying physics enlightened me to the fact that there is no "path".
Thank you for your response! i'm happy you managed to find what you wish to do :) good luck with it all!
….or am I?
Depends, am I paying for this consultation?
Short version, all 'so to speak' ok:
I was killing it by 21. Had everything in excess. Loved by all, 'owned the town'. "Best years of my life". But zero direction/purpose.
I travelled to USA, UK. Got extremely broke, fat, depressed….. and humble. Earnt every little win myself, started from scratch twice. I made amazing true friends, and my entire life & personality changed forever. Failed many career attempts, in different fields. Only at 38 did i finally catch my break & feel my work had pupose. But all my previous years got me there. Then my investment started all over again. 60hrs/wk of heavy stress & responsibility. The future, who knows.Quick advice to my kids: Open your mind. Travel. Experience 'life'. Embrace discomfort, weird, strange. Give your best, but realise you will fail many many times. And they could be your best lessons. Be kind. Don't expect yourself or others to know your future. So don't stress yourself trying.
Too much. Too heavy.
go europe,
smash the ladies,
come back with mystery sickness,
claim disability pension from centrelink,
winningEasier to get sick from smashing in Brazil.
…Thailand.
Or so they tell me :OYou might be the one getting smashed in Thailand if you play your cards wrong
It's really hard to qualify for a disability pension now apparently, compared to how it was 10+ years ago. Even a schizophrenia diagnosis won't automatically get you through the door. I mention schizophrenia because that a lot of malingeres would claim to be hearing voices in order to qualify. A disability pension is a big upgrade from the Dole: higher payment rates, on a par with retirement pensions, plus you aren't constantly harassed by bureaucrats and politicians wishes to score points.
You'll never be able to afford a house on a pension, but it is a comfortable type of poverty.
Ever thought of starting your own business?
It can mean a lot of hard work but it also can be very rewarding if done right.Tech or niche entreprenaurs often do well, but usually only after 2 or 3 failed startups.
Works best if you have experience in the industry you want to start a business in. Data shows the Median age for successful entrepreneurs is around 40 (http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29660624).
Opening a fish and chip shop or something is a ticket to long hours of hard work for significant risk and often unimpressive profits. MLM is the same, but usually, without the profits.
What to study for this?
Study at the school of hard knocks lol.
Me personally I took a year off, then went to uni and couldn't focus coz I'd gotten used to the freedom and money lol
But everyone is different
What do you do now if I may ask? i'm pretty much in the same boat.
Car sales, wouldn't recommend it 😂
Setting up a Bikie group and advertising your services here?
Best option, quite rewarding with $400k plus salary.
But to make it you need to disrupt the industry, and needs the Gap year to obtain a great international track record, also
a 80k investment car, and help landing a non-executive board position.
People will chip in with their own 2 cents but ultimately it's your life, nobody KNOWS what your path to happiness will be and YOU are the only one who has some vague idea deep down of what that path could look like.