4'th year, subject and career choice help

romakarol

So im in 4'th year in Castleknock college, subject choices are in a month.
Subject choices leads to course choices leads to jobs so I would like to ask a lot of general questions on careers and so on.

Apprenticeships: My TY coordinator says it is very hard to get an apprenticeship, and job in those professions (plumber, electrician, etc).

True? Also regarding demand/availability is there anywhere i can look that ives accurate up to date information regarding what jobs are in demand and which are in surplus?

Everyone is pent on university, getting a job without a decree is hard, non-degree jobs are terrible and low paid. True?

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Lets just start with this I need to dig out my DAT test results. Ill post any following questions here.

P.s my Transition Year co-ordinator suggest the followin sire for research: qualifax.ie It seems good but just in case its actually a terrible site with bad information let me know if you think so.

Oh and thanks!

romakarol

P.s the only career I have any leaning towards at the moment is web design. I would enjoy working from home, we are currently doing a course on this (codeaveners.ie silly but good), and we were told that there is currently demand for the proffesion. Thoughts?

tony81

For self-employed people, web design can be very low-paid... might be good as a side-line business.

A friend of mine tried his hand at web development (including SEO and campaigns to grow people's business, rather than just throw a site together).. generally clients had very high expectations despite budgets of only a few hundred. In some cases he didn't get paid at all. Eventually it lead to a position as an employee in a company and he's happy enough.

In my experience, transition year aptitude tests and "what career are you best suited to" questionnaires are just a way for guidance counsellors to pass the time. (I don't mean any offence).

Pick something you like that you think you might be good at. No point in finding a course with excellent prospects if you're not going to like it enough to apply yourself fully. If it was just about hard work and making money we'd all be doctors, lawyers and bank robbers. It's only sensible to consider job prospects but you're in 4th year, all you need now is a direction, not an end goal. Choose subjects you like, and give yourself time to figure out where you're going to go from there.

romakarol

true-or-false wrote: »

In my experience, transition year aptitude tests and "what career are you best suited to" questionnaires are just a way for guidance counsellors to pass the time. (I don't mean any offence).

Pick something you like that you think you might be good at. No point in finding a course with excellent prospects if you're not going to like it enough to apply yourself fully. If it was just about hard work and making money we'd all be doctors, lawyers and bank robbers. It's only sensible to consider job prospects but you're in 4th year, all you need now is a direction, not an end goal. Choose subjects you like, and give yourself time to figure out where you're going to go from there.

Haha thanks that gave me a laugh.
For subject choice, should i just choose my highest grade point subjects (english, geography, biology, spanish, history, maths) without much regard for "compulsory subjects" for certain university courses?

Is it a long/expensive process to learn whatever extra subjects you ened for the course?

tony81

History and geography are a waste of time. So are English and Irish. Science subjects can be poorly taught at second level (as are most subjects) but may be compulsory for some third level courses. Higher maths is worth more marks. Spanish is good to have.

granturismo

true-or-false wrote: »

In my experience, transition year aptitude tests and "what career are you best suited to" questionnaires are just a way for guidance counsellors to pass the time. (I don't mean any offence).
.... Choose subjects you like, and give yourself time to figure out where you're going to go from there.

OP, this is the main advice you need to consider when choosing subjects for leaving cert.

OMM 0000

I know a number of web design agencies here in Japan.

They all struggle. Even the ones with large-ish teams (30+) and big contracts (McDonalds, etc.) are barely surviving.

By all means become a full stack developer with design skills - you'll always have a job and you can do projects on the side.

On a general note, study what you are interested in. Don't pick something you find boring or dislike just because "the money is good". That's a recipe for a miserable life.