College or Work

Slippin Jimmy

I am in a bit of dilema, I just need a bit of advice from people here. I want to go for a career in management, now I can apply for a course in Dundalk called management and administration which will last about four years or so. Or my other option is to apply for a trainee managers position in my current job. I work for a fairly big company which has a lot of shops, they are always looking for trainee managers.

I was thinking the best thing to suit me might be to do it through my current job, but say if I want to leave in a few years down the road, would I be able to apply for other management jobs in the retail area? Or would it be better to have a degree or more experience?

Afuera

Duffff-Man wrote: »

I was thinking the best thing to suit me might be to do it through my current job, but say if I want to leave in a few years down the road, would I be able to apply for other management jobs in the retail area? Or would it be better to have a degree or more experience?

It really depends on what kind of training your job would give you as a trainee manager. If they have an option that allows you to study a degree part time (possibly even funding it as well) it would probably be best to continue with them and try to gain experience as well as the degree. It will definately be a lot easier to move into other postions with experience AND a degree.

AARRRGH

If I were you, I'd take the trainee manager job and go to college part-time at night. Two birds with one stone, and all that.

Slippin Jimmy

dublindude wrote: »

If I were you, I'd take the trainee manager job and go to college part-time at night. Two birds with one stone, and all that.

Yeah I think that might be a good idea. Do many colleges offer part-time courses? I would like to stay in my job and progress through it, and if I wanted to change at least i'd have the degree to fall back on. Thanks for the advice, much appriciated.

Dudess

Duffff-Man wrote: »

I am in a bit of dilema, I just need a bit of advice from people here. I want to go for a career in management, now I can apply for a course in Dundalk called management and administration which will last about four years or so. Or my other option is to apply for a trainee managers position in my current job. I work for a fairly big company which has a lot of shops, they are always looking for trainee managers.

I was thinking the best thing to suit me might be to do it through my current job, but say if I want to leave in a few years down the road, would I be able to apply for other management jobs in the retail area? Or would it be better to have a degree or more experience?

Go to college. You'll have a bawl and you'll get a degree, which most people have nowadays - as in, it can in some cases be a bit of a drawback to not have one. Are you sure you want to be in retail management for the rest of your life? It's very demanding, can be unrewarding, the hours can be long and it's not well paid. (I'm not trying to put you off it, these are realities that you're no doubt more than aware of yourself). When you're young it's fine, but I'd bet, as middle age creeps in, you seriously could be doing without such stress. The degree will give you skills in other types of management - more options.
Career is important but you need to enjoy your youth too - you've long enough to be working. And employers will be more impressed by a degree (maybe even a postgrad too), work experience and a trainee management course rather than just the last two. You can work part-time while in college, you can work for the summer (three or four months - not bad), you can also work abroad for those summers, you'll get work placements.
I'm guessing you're not interested in the college lifestyle - plenty of people aren't, but by god do they become interested in it years later when it's no longer an option and they're stuck in an unfulfilling job. You'll envy your friends so much when you hear what a laugh they're having in college.

So definitely go to college...

nesf

It depends on your age really. If you're just out of school and have little work experience a four year college course isn't a bad idea, if you've been in the industry for a while and can be reasonably expected to get into a trainee management role (not just wishful thinking) then combining it with a part-time qualification at night wouldn't be a bad idea so long as a) the qualification at night is useful in your field (not all fields of work are qualification orientated enough to make it worth doing) and b) you're capable of independent learning and will pick up useful stuff on the job. If you're young and don't have experience in an area it's very hard to know the answers to a) and b) really.


Personally I'm sceptical about the idea of a "degree in management" for people coming straight out of school but if it helps you get a job it helps you get a job etc.


Why do you want to be a manger and why do you think you'd be good at it? If you don't mind me asking.

MIN2511

Agree with dublindude.....

It would be hard but it's a means to an end

Dudess

nesf wrote: »

It depends on your age really. If you're just out of school and have little work experience a four year college course isn't a bad idea

Yeah I'm just assuming the OP isn't long out of school, otherwise I'd have thought a four-year full-time degree would be more of a big deal to him/her.

Personally I'm sceptical about the idea of a "degree in management" for people coming straight out of school but if it helps you get a job it helps you get a job etc.

Yeah, a lot of degrees/masters are a load of arse, but yep, employers seem to want them. I used to work for a newspaper - basic work like formatting stuff on pages. Anyway, I became interested in, and reckoned I'd be good at, sub-editing so I kept annoying editors at that paper for work. They wouldn't hear of it and said anyone my age who was employed as a sub-editor had a qualification in journalism. I knew it was a load of bollocks but there was no avoiding this reality. So I got my qualification in journalism, got work as a sub-editor and realised I hated it - and wasn't as good as I thought I'd be. Meh, no harm in finding these things out.
Journalism is a good example of a profession where qualifications give you bugger all insight into the reality of working in the field, but another reality is, those with the journalism qualification will get the job before the person without it. My point is, OP, doing that degree will give you more of an "edge" on your CV, whether it's actually beneficial in terms of training or not.