BA degree any use ?

danish pasterys

Is a BA ordinary degree any use at all ? business and IT orintated that is. or maybe in 3 years time ? I know an hons degree would be better but I'm 24 now an would like to try get a job after 3 years of college

Any advice appreciated

The Backwards Man

I have a BA and it hasn't done me any harm.:)

Jester252

Why not aim for an honors?

danish pasterys

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I have a BA and it hasn't done me any harm.:)

Has it got you recent full time employment in the current economy ?

danish pasterys

Jester252 wrote: »

Why not aim for an honors?

Im 24 the taught of 3 more unemployed years is hard enough

The Backwards Man

danish pasterys wrote: »

Has it got you recent full time employment in the current economy ?

No. But it didn't stop me finding employment in the current economy either.

Dr Turk Turkelton

Op you do realise you asked this in after hours?
It won't be long before lack of toilet paper is mentioned.

danish pasterys

Cuchulainn1. wrote: »

Op you do realise you asked this in after hours?
It won't be long before lack of toilet paper is mentioned.

I find it gets the quickest replys

bnt

With just a BA you'd be entering a pretty crowded job market. Still, you could add in a few Business or Maths-related subjects to try and differentiate yourself from all the others doing only "soft" subjects. There aren't many jobs out there suitable for graduates who have absolutely no Maths and IT skills (in my view of the market).

pauliebdub

I'd strongly advise you to stick it out for an extra year and do the Hons degree, right now you will be competing for jobs with Hons graduates and likely to lose out unless you have additional useful skills or experience.

Artful_Badger

danish pasterys wrote: »

Im 24 the taught of 3 more unemployed years is hard enough

Its just one more year though. You're gonna be working for the rest of your miserable life so might as well do all you cant to put yourself in a good position to start.

Jester252

danish pasterys wrote: »

Im 24 the taught of 3 more unemployed years is hard enough

Its one extra year and an honers looks much better on the CV.

StupidLikeAFox

If you have a good result in your final degree and a little bit of extra-curricular stuff a lot of the big companies won't mind what your main subjects are in the degree. They will see that you are disciplined and hardworking and they will find some role for you.

Nemeses

I don't have either.. I'm doing well

chrissb8

danish pasterys wrote: »

Im 24 the taught of 3 more unemployed years is hard enough

Ya know.....24 years old is young and 27 is still young. I'm 23 and have 3 years more of college. Really don't think age is a problem considering you're still good and young. I would consider doing the honours and getting it done and dusted. Give yourself every chance. Plus in most cases, yes it is a requirement in a lot of places to have that sort of degree.

Amerika

In the US a BA degree adds about an extra $1US million in salary over someone with just a High School degree on average, over the course of your working years.

Pherekydes

What about a kindergarten degree? :pac:

You can get a BA Hons in most good universities these days.

Merrion

IT is close to full employment at the moment but none the less employers are taking a big risk taking a graduate on - you should get some experience in order to reduce their risk perception. My advice would be to join a couple of open source projects and get some real-world experience.

Grayson

It depends on the subjects. I have a friend who did philosophy and english. 5 years later he's waiting tables. I was talking to a guy working in a coffee shop last week. He's got a degree in journalism.

I did philosophy and maths. i know people in my company who are earning quite a bit (€40k+) in starter positions with just a degree in maths.

I'm starting a masters in the next month. It's a 1 year mastrs in management. Added to the experience i already have and the maths i should be able to get a better job then the one I'm in now.

What your BA was in is only part of it. What you do with it is what matters. A regular BA is not always enough because they subjects might not be applicable to real life. there are however any number of postgraduate courses that will definitely get you a job. And you can do a lot of them whilst working part time or even full time. My advice though is to look at all the options and pick something you'd enjoy. You'll be more likely to get and job and progress if you can demonstrate a good aptitude and genuine enthusiasm.

Banjo String

BA degrees are ok I suppose.


Mr T degrees are where is at these days though.

theGEM

Don't they have a 3 year honours BA in DCU.

You could always work and do a Open University course or other evening course.

If you already have a degree think about doing the one year conversion courses in DIT.

_Kaiser_

Like Nemeses above, I don't have either and it hasn't stopped me doing ok for myself.

I'm in IT though and have worked up from answering the phones in a callcentre, to managing the IT needs for another large multinational (via 5 years managing the IT for a public sector organisation)

I'm a crap academic though and have found over the years that I learn best by doing or researching (ok.. Googling) when needed. With the way tech changes you'd never keep up with it all.

Plus I think with IT you hit a wall after a certain point where you need to specialise and keep investing thousands per year into qualifications so you can keep current with the latest fresh crop of graduates who have them already.. and who can do the job for a lot less (no mortgage, kids or cars to worry about.. unlike you!), or you can move into management (which is what I did)

So now I manage a team of techs globally and deal with vendors, purchasing contracts, clients etc which presents its own challenges but it's also given me the chance to go back and get some of those qualifications to back up the experience I have (as in the past I was just too busy working to study as well - most nights I'd get home around 7 and have to do another few hours work too). It's slow going as this job is busy enough too but I've already gotten the first one this year so I'm kinda proud of myself for that

sunflower27

I did a BA in Media and communications. Worked for the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper in Australia and the FT when I lived in London. Did me no harm at all.

It all comes down to securing that interview and then selling yourself. Once you have mastered the knack of being likeable to all types of people, the world is your oyster.

CruelCoin

danish pasterys wrote: »

Is a BA ordinary degree any use at all ? business and IT orintated that is. or maybe in 3 years time ? I know an hons degree would be better but I'm 24 now an would like to try get a job after 3 years of college

Any advice appreciated

If you go somewhere private like DBS/Griffith/Portobello/etc then you get an honours after 3 years.

Win/Win.

Cravez

CruelCoin wrote: »

If you go somewhere private like DBS/Griffith/Portobello/etc then you get an honours after 3 years.

Win/Win.

The larger universities (DCU, UCD etc) have honours degrees in 3 years as well. What seperates Ordinary from Honours is the amount of credits you do per year. If you do an honours degree in 3 years the workload is higher than doing an ordinary degree in 3 years (e.g more modules per semester - more credits - more workload)

humanji

23 helpful replies. Only one A-Team reference. AH really has changed.

harney

danish pasterys wrote: »

Im 24 the taught of 3 more unemployed years is hard enough

Is that a pun?

CruelCoin

humanji wrote: »

23 helpful replies. Only one A-Team reference. AH really has changed.

DA-DA-DA-DAAAAAH
DA-DA-DAAAAH

Hande hoche!

humanji wrote: »

23 helpful replies. Only one A-Team reference. AH really has changed.

I love it when a plan comes together

bodice ripper

I have a BA Hons in Fine Art and I have not been unemployed since I left college seven years ago. What you do with the degree is equally as important as the degree itself.

Ray Palmer

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Plus I think with IT you hit a wall after a certain point where you need to specialise and keep investing thousands per year into qualifications so you can keep current with the latest fresh crop of graduates who have them already.. and who can do the job for a lot less (no mortgage, kids or cars to worry about.. unlike you!), or you can move into management (which is what I did)

That is a really strange comment to me. I have yet to meet a graduate who actually had some specialist knowledge due to their recent education. Graduates tend to be completely clueless and arrogant. I have never seen a recent graduate put in charge of anything.

CruelCoin

Ray Palmer wrote: »

That is a really strange comment to me. I have yet to meet a graduate who actually had some specialist knowledge due to their recent education. Graduates tend to be completely clueless and arrogant. I have never seen a recent graduate put in charge of anything.

He was talking specifically about IT.

Very true in that industry that constant upskilling is now considered par for the course in just keeping your job, let alone advancing it.

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

OP, you mentioned that you do Business and IT. Have they taught you Ruby on Rails? Seriously, pick this up if you haven't! Workplaces are seemingly going bananas for people that can do it.

jimgoose

Without BA degrees, fools would go unpitied and jibba-jabba unchallenged. Nightmare. And by the way, I ain't goin' on no plane, Hannibal! :mad:

jimgoose

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

...I think with IT you hit a wall after a certain point where you need to specialise and keep investing thousands per year into qualifications so you can keep current with the latest fresh crop of graduates who have them already.. and who can do the job for a lot less (no mortgage, kids or cars to worry about.. unlike you!), or you can move into management (which is what I did)...

It seems to be the fashion nowadays to go running back to school as soon as some ape mentions "Social Meeja" or "Cloud Computing", or somesuch. The classically-trained computer scientist can adapt to any and all trends and technological developments via experience and good old-fashioned savvy. And remember, the determined programmer can write assembler code in any language.

Lenin Skynard

I have a BA but I work in an unrelated field. Everyday I benefit from the things I learned on that degree in every part of life, not just work.

Capt'n Midnight

danish pasterys wrote: »

Im 24 the taught of 3 more unemployed years is hard enough

Were you taught of the thought of a taut belt ?

Ray Palmer

CruelCoin wrote: »

He was talking specifically about IT.

Very true in that industry that constant upskilling is now considered par for the course in just keeping your job, let alone advancing it.

So was I and I don't believe it and I have been working in IT for 18 years in a technical field as a contractor for that last 8 years.

Colleges are always behind in technology

jimgoose

Ray Palmer wrote: »

So was I and I don't believe it and I have been working in IT for 18 years in a technical field as a contractor for that last 8 years.

Colleges are always behind in technology

Aye. Lot of quiche-eaters about these days as well.

Ray Palmer

jimgoose wrote: »

Aye. Lot of quiche-eaters about these days as well.

I have no idea what that mean

jimgoose

Ray Palmer wrote: »

I have no idea what that mean

Here, upskill:

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/real.programmers.html

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/mel.html

py2006

danish pasterys wrote: »

Is a BA ordinary degree any use at all ?

What would Dr Sheldon Cooper say?

Ray Palmer

jimgoose wrote: »

Here, upskill:

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/real.programmers.html

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/mel.html

Still doesn't seem relevant

Iwasfrozen

Is a BA degree useful? Yes because it gets you access to post-graduate degrees.

jimgoose

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Still doesn't seem relevant

Don't panic Ray, it's all just ones and zeroes!

harney

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

Is a BA degree useful? Yes because it gets you access to post-graduate degrees.

You don't need a BA or a BSc to take an MSc.

Iwasfrozen

harney wrote: »

You don't need a BA or a BSc to take and MSc.

But it helps.

Ray Palmer

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

But it helps.

Why and how?

GTE

I would advise the honours route.

As mentioned, the job market "in general" is very crowded and if anything, a masters will be something that an employer would like to see over a degree now. That and experience which you could build up on the side.

If you think of it this way, hardly any people relatively speaking used to do the Leaving Cert. Then the Leaving Cert was required by many employers and now a degree is. With so many degree graduates around, a masters of some sort may become the new requirement that an honours degree used to be when compared to an ordinary one.

Check out your area of interest and see if you can get into a 1 year masters after an ordinary degree. Each University will be different so maybe you don't need the degree to begin with. A mature student status could allow you to skip a degree, though they will probably want good examples of experience in the relevant fields.

GTE

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Why and how?

I can speak for master of science courses here.

A research based MSc will not prepare you for the quality and methodology of research required. For the benefit of students, a taught masters may include a research module (especially for mature students) but that is still just 12 odd weeks with one or two research based projects to your name. Soon after, you will be required to undertake semi-novel and independent research in to an area of your choosing.

Your willingness to learn how to research properly is down to the individual, but as someone who enjoyed doing it I only got the real hang of it when I got into my MSC and realised just how intense it was going to be.