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March 29, 2024, 06:26:37 am

Author Topic: Transparency about job opportunities after finishing Uni degree?  (Read 1393 times)  Share 

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Snow Leopard

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Hey,

just wondering where you can find the actual statistics of how many eople get jobs after fnishing a degree?

rant: how are you supposed to even know what your career should be? atm, it seems naive to think that if you just choose the right course and get the right job your life will be absolutely perfect. And thats scary cos its what ive believed for way too long.

AngelWings

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Re: Transparency about job opportunities after finishing Uni degree?
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2021, 12:55:06 pm »
+10
just wondering where you can find the actual statistics of how many eople get jobs after fnishing a degree?
You can often find them in the course pages. The QILT survey is also another place where these stats lie; check the Graduate Outcomes section for that.

rant: how are you supposed to even know what your career should be? atm, it seems naive to think that if you just choose the right course and get the right job your life will be absolutely perfect. And thats scary cos its what ive believed for way too long.
It’s definitely a misconception a lot of students have, so you’re not alone in thinking that.

It depends on circumstance and course a little bit. For example, in a specialist/ placement course like a medicine degree, this course prepares you for a healthcare-type job, usually with a focus on becoming a GP or medical professional, so when you look for jobs afterwards, it’ll be most likely be within the limits of that course and you probably would’ve figured out you like ob-gyn more than geriatrics, for example, so you’d lean towards what you like/ need.

If you do a more generalist degree, say, science (just because this is the one I know best), your options are a lot more diverse, depending on your major(s)/ minor(s) and experience. For generalist degrees, it often takes a lot more trial and error along the way. You’re not expected to fall in love with your first job out of uni and it’s absolutely OK to switch career directions and go back to uni if you realise what you like later (this is where you often get mature aged students). Some courses now are getting better at career counselling, some you need to figure out what job during the course, others you need to seek it yourself and/ or experience it yourself to find where you should be. You’ll realise that you might need to kiss a few frogs (the odd jobs) before you find your prince (final  career), or that you’ll need another course to get where you really want (often a postgrad course or two).

Personally, the end of my degree was terrifying - I was coming out of Honours and knew I would be going into the big wide world. I felt like a newborn giraffe, legs stumbling all over the place, tripping over several times, barely an idea of what I wanted and very little experience. I basically applied into everything that I knew of and hoped something would stick.

As you start doing job interviews, you refine the job that you want to have; you realise what you want a little more and what’s important. (The first full-time job hunting journey was a humbling process. It definitely wasn’t filled with sunshine and rainbows, let me tell you.) Eventually things slowly start to align and you land a job (hopefully). When you realise that job doesn’t give you what you need any more, start to look for another. Each time you refine those parameters a bit more and before you know it, you’ve got a career direction and probably had part of a career portfolio.

I’ve only been out of uni for 3 years so I certainly haven’t had a “career” yet per se, but I’ve now experienced 4 different jobs since I started working. It’s normal to hear stats of someone having 5-15 jobs in a single lifetime these days.

The tl;dr of this is that you often don’t know what your career should be from the get go. It’s natural to change jobs and careers multiple times in life. You’re not expected to get it right away, but you can still try and refine that career goal along the way. It may surprise you where you end up. 

P.S. You also may not even end up with a job that you did your degree in and that's OK. I know plenty of my science grad classmates ended up in the most random areas that aren't even related to science at all, but they're satisfied with where they are.
P.P.S. Nothing is 'perfect', but you can be content with what you have and where you are. Everyone at some point or another in their life comes across adversity, negative mindsets and conflicts, however, those missteps often lead you to the 'right path'. It's all a part of the career journey.   
« Last Edit: April 18, 2021, 04:35:27 pm by AngelWings »
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