In a recession, if you could go back to college, what would you study?

dashboard_hula

I was made redundant on Friday evening. (feck)

I have been discussing the issue with my family, friends, partner etc. The general consensus is that I should consider returning to college, as I went straight into employment and stayed there when I left school, apart from a number of specific qualifications I earned during the past 10 years.

My question to you is - I didn't go to college the first time because I genuinely didn't know what I wanted to do, and I didn't feel like wasting anyones time and money finding out when I could be working. Over the past 10 years I have worked in the hospitality sector, overseas, technical helpdesks and more recently as a middle manager. If I go back, it'll be to study a subject which comes under one of the below:

1. A subject I genuinely want to study.
2. A subject which will be useful.

I've heard various opinions on what it will take to dig Ireland out of the recession, and what sectors will consistently be hiring over the next few years. I've heard about cloud computing, about digital services, about tourism, but I'd like your opinion as well.
What would you study if you could go back to college in the morning?

Irish_polizei

Something along the lines of computing, that's were all the new jobs are mostly i believe...

ei.sdraob

Banking :P

amacca

I know it sounds cheesy and it looks as if you have financial commitments etc to consider but I have become a firm believer that you should study what you have a passion for--something you genuinely love and are interested in.

what floats your boat?

is there anything you have become madly interested in during those ten years you mentioned?


Im not saying this as an airy fairy follow your dreams type statement but I believe if you have any intentions of making real money out of your qualifications they will have to be in an area you love to give you the stamina to persevere and excel

figure out what you love not just what you are interested........what doesnt make you dread the thought of going back to work at and aim for it.

personally I would steer clear of anything IT related as I found it a god awful boring area to work in (this despite having postgraduate qualifications in it)

RichardAnd

Irish_polizei wrote: »

Something along the lines of computing, that's were all the new jobs are mostly i believe...

Whilst this is true, it isn't a case that going to study IT will automatically lead to a job. Good IT courses have huge drop out rates as they are generally hard and not everyone has the mind for computers. Personally, I did do IT and I did get a job but I'm not happy in it. My real interests are in history and literature and I'm looking at doing a post grad by night in these areas at the moment.

Generally, one should be wary of choosing a course simply because it had a job market at the end of it. Whilst this should be a factor, there is no point in studying IT if you have little interest in computers to begin with. The best advice, when choosing a course, is to know what you are very good at and to stick with that.

Something that's often over looked in the nonsense of the CAO and leaving cert is that one can only ever excel at something if they love it. A great musician doesn't get to where he/she is by forcing himself to sit at a piano day after day.

darragh o meara

Engineering is my own choice and I'm almost a year into it. Renewable energy is going to be big business in the coming years and is worth serious consideration. Other areas of engineering are also open, manufacturing engineering,design etc are all good prospects. I do agree that you should pick a subject you enjoy and have an interest in. Research the course well, my class this year started at 62 and is now below 30, the dropouts were due mostly to people not researching the course fully.

It's also worth noting that the cao deadline is looming so I'd get thinking quickly.

Irish_polizei

RichardAnd wrote: »

Whilst this is true, it isn't a case that going to study IT will automatically lead to a job. Good IT courses have huge drop out rates as they are generally hard and not everyone has the mind for computers. ......

Yes you are one hundred percent correct and I agree with you fully, OP it would be best to do what you would have an interest in, I did a computer forensics degree a few moons ago and i absolutely despised programming with a passion as I had no interest in it whatsoever.


So basically take his RichardAnd's advice!

dashboard_hula

Regarding the CAO deadline - its actually better that I have to make up my mind fairly quickly - I tend to hum and haw if left to my own devices.
I truly want to study a language, I've been eyeing up Spanish and Arabic courses for the last year or so. The concept of studying addiction counselling has followed me for the last couple of years. And yet, the last 5 years have been in a high energy telecoms environment, where I've learned to love a lot around business management, reporting, change management and mediation, but I'd imagine that half the country is looking at their business degrees and wishing they'd studied nursing instead (for example).

Poor Craythur

Thinking about doing a Masters. I would like to do something creative, but my science degree doesn't really qualify me. You need either a suitable undergrad degree or professional experience and I have neither.

Mr. Loverman

Don't study IT/Computer Science unless you like it.

Most people hate it and are terrible at it.

Scofflaw

Mr. Loverman wrote:

Don't study IT/Computer Science unless you like it.

Most people hate it and are terrible at it.

I'd add to that that you may like programming, and still hate an IT/CompSci course. I program for a living (and for fun), but would have detested CompSci by everything I've seen - luckily I studied Geology and then Environmental Science, because they're what interested me.

Do something you enjoy - you've got some experience, so a degree taken now, nearly no matter what you do, will be a positive on your CV. If you do something simply because you think it will work out well employment-wise, and don't enjoy it, then you'll at the very best wind up doing something for a living you don't like, and at worst drop out before completing the degree.

cordially,
Scofflaw

maninasia

Try to aim for the happy medium, especially as you have family and probably kids.

You want to study something interesting AND has job prospects. For instance don't study archaeology or architecture would be my advice. In my oCourses with good prospects are medical related.

Learning languages is useful but more as an add on than the main component. To really learn a language you will need to immerse yourself in a host culture and it takes time.

As for IT, you could work in management of IT projects, but you might not like taking a few years to study basic IT related courses that are not interesting to you. Still it's a huge area so hard to know.

Nolanger

Geography - it's pi** easy.

noxqs

Nobody is interested in IT "Managers" who don't actually know what they're talking about. I don't know where this idea came from, that if you're not really good at something.. Well then you can always "manage".

I work in software engineering and our managers used to do our job and they do a really good job

Reasons: They know the real complexity of development and they're our buffer for higher ups who got unrealistic ideas of what it takes to engineer quality software and solutions.

My previous "managers" who had some sort of mix between management/"IT" sucked. And the higher ups copped on to it, and they got the boot.

But go ahead, try your luck. No engineer will ever respect a halfwit for a manager.

Just had to say that before more people suggest to go into something halfassed to "manage". Find a profession you like and go for it. Life is short but you can always change careers - part time study thru Open University might be wortwhile?

maninasia

I'm not sure who your post is aimed at, if you read mine you will see I mentioned that you should put in a few years of basic IT work/education first even if you have management experience.
To be honest some people are capable of managing better than others as project management is a skill and takes a certain type of personality in itself, but it is always better if you understand the ins and outs of the whole process.
As for 'respect', while it's definitely nice to have that's not the point, the point is to get the job done.

dan_d

Sorry to hear about your unemployment OP.

I'm in a vaguely similar position, however I did civil engineering in college - which was always what I wanted to do. Now though, I'm trying to figure out what on earth to do next. Like you, I want to find something I'm interested in but will get a job in. I'm afraid I'm drawing a bit of blank. I have experience, in areas that I really enjoy, but I'm not sure there's any future career in them. I keep getting told "write down what you'd like to with your life, and what else you might be interested in"...which is all very well, but not when you haven't an answer for either of those questions.

As far as I can see, there are plenty of jobs in IT right now, also business analytics and finance (the problem with these 2 is that they seem to be looking for people with a lot of experience). There are jobs in retail management, there will (eventually) be some jobs in teaching, as we had a baby boom in 08 I believe, and those kids will all be entering the school system in the next couple of years.

Having said all that, whose to say those jobs will be there in a few years time? The trick seems to be finding something you get some sort of enjoyment from, and that has some form of employment prospect at the end. It's all very well to talk about musicians not forcing themselves to sit at an instrument all day, but as a pianist myself...there can, some evenings be an element of forcing yourself!!!And I don't do it professionally. Like any job, you're not going to love every minute of it.

I suppose another big part of the decision is balancing the leap into the unknown, compared to staying with an area that you're relatively familiar with.

Best of luck anyway OP.

(Note - on rereading that post, I wasn't particularly helpful! Sorry!)

Blowfish

The 2nd half of Ronan Lyons article here gives an overview of the basics of what areas of study would be useful.

Manach

As an alternative to full-time college there is the Open University.
Their IT courses are good and relevant to the modern IT workspace.

Another possiblity - Law? There are some colleges like UCC that offer night degrees.

dashboard_hula

I appreciate the advice - the consensus about IT related courses is something being echoed to me IRL. CAO applications reopen on the 8th of March so I think I've a bit of thinking to do!
Thanks again

graduate

The interesting thing now is IT + something else. Under the bonnet IT can be outsourced to Bangalore, and sometimes has to be because of a lack of skills in Ireland. But there is any amount of application of IT that has to take place closer to the customer and this type of work, from Geographic Information Systems to Business Analytics is growing enormously. You only have to look at First Derivatives expansion of 350 jobs announced today.

The 2nd half of Ronan Lyons article here gives an overview of the basics of what areas of study would be useful.

Lyons makes a good point, and it is a good antidote to the gloom and doom.

sollar

I would do civil engineering. Plenty of interesting careers with that qualification.

Laminations

Steer clear of IT, according to some IT depts are on their way out

Follow the most common advice and do something you like, people forget that a good university education should provide you with a range of skills regardless of what the particular subject is, critical thinking and problem solving being some of the more valuable ones

ardmacha

Steer clear of IT, according to some IT depts are on their way out

Rather simplistic, if you outsource the IT people still work in the place it is outsourced to. That said IT work can become a commodity, hence the need for IT + something as graduate said.

Follow the most common advice and do something you like, people forget that a good university education should provide you with a range of skills regardless of what the particular subject is, critical thinking and problem solving being some of the more valuable ones

Always good advice.

nightowl

Laminations wrote: »

Steer clear of IT, according to some IT depts are on their way out

Steer clear of IT! I have to say I disagree with that. Yes due to Cloud Computing, IT is changing. It'll mean different type of IT jobs. Check out the list of current IT job roles and the new Cloud job roles http://goo.gl/rvjcy

I currently work in and IT Operations department for a Bank and trust me they are not going to hand over their data to some vendor that quickly. There will be a mix of Private, Hybrid and Public Cloud Computing.

I read that steer clear of IT article and I find it a little biased. There are alot of people who don't know anything about IT and there is a reason why their IT department locks down stuff.

maninasia

sollar wrote: »

I would do civil engineering. Plenty of interesting careers with that qualification.

But not to work in civil engineering in Ireland unfortunately...