Picking A Masters (History/International Relations/Law)

Talpa

Im sorry if this in the wrong place. Please direct me to the right forum if it is.

Hi, I am currently in my second year of an Arts course in NUIG, doing History and Sociology/Politics in which I am on track to recieve a 1.1, if I keep up the good work. I am trying to be proactive and prepare for the eventual decision of picking a masters. I have three separate options in mind, firstly is Early Modern History in Trinity, second is International Relations or a politics masters like it, in UCD and finally, a masters in Common Law in UCD.
While I love history and that is where my passion is, I do not see myself as a lecturer or a teacher and doubt that a well paid job would be forthcoming from that option.
I have a great interest in politics and international relations or european politics, and I would love to work in a foreign country in Europe or further a field for a few years, exercising the knowledge I would have earned from this course. And so this is a serious contender.
Finally, Common Law. I have no experience in any legal course or subject but I have a serious interest in law, and even considered doing it as a course until I was dissuaded from it by my career guidance teacher, because she didnt think I had the charisma for being a solicitor. But this course allows for a student to have nk background in the area and teaches it like a normal law course in two years instead of three or four.

The only thing is I keep changing back and forth between each of these options, thinking one is better than the other or that I would be happier with a life with another. Most recently it has been centred upon the Common Law masters, w
Recently I have been considering life as a beaurecrat, particularly civil servant perhaps in the Department of Foreign Affairs or any other Department in the Irish or European institutions, but Im unsure if I would be well-equipped enough for this with a Common Law masters. I keep jumping back and forth on whether I would do Kings Inn afterwards and proceed from there to be a solicitor.

To be completely honest I am kind of confused and weary of thinking about it all. I would to thank anyone who has read to this point in the post and would also like to ask for any advice that anyone could give me in this. I know it is probably all very muddled, but I would really appreciate any responses.

Yoop

Have you tried talking to someone in your faculty, a tutor maybe? Or you could go to the careers service; I would imagine they would be able to give you better advice than anyone on here. I would advise you not to stress out too much; I graduated last year and right up to the middle of my last semester I had no idea which Masters I was going to pick (it was actually a module I took in that final semester which made me realise what career path I wanted to take). You still have a full year to go and there's no problem taking a year after to figure it out if you still don't know then.

Regarding the law stuff; the King's Inns is for barristers and they've got specific module requirements that you have to have done before you can apply - check out the website for all the specifics. (Trainee) solicitors go to Blackhall - and you don't need to have studied law, either undergrad or postgrad, to apply for the FE1s. Obviously, studying law would be a help but there's prep courses you can do instead so it doesn't really matter.

Also, no disrespect to your guidance counsellor but that's a pretty terrible piece of advice; if you really want to be a solicitor then go for it. I'm pretty sure I haven't got one ounce of charisma and I am, at some stage in the hopefully near future, going to be a solicitor. Don't let some silly idea like that hold you back. (I'm also doing a Masters in an area not completely related to the area I will be working in so if you think you would enjoy the International Relations more then there's nothing wrong with doing that and still doing to the law stuff later; plenty of people go into law from non-law backgrounds, plus it leaves room for you to change your mind later).



Best of luck with the decision!

If your gut feeling is to do a particular masters I would do it. Failing that, maybe look up jobs you'd be interested in on LinkedIn and see what masters people did to get them. Or type in the name of the masters and university to see where past graduates are now.

My background is finance but I've realised I love geopolitics and international relations and my dream job would be to work with the DFAT or with the EEAS. So I am researching relevant masters to do now. I'm told Law degrees are highly regarded in the diplomacy community (I wouldn't be interested in a pure Law degree myself). A university lecturer advised me that if I want a job in diplomacy look out for masters that have modules covering law, management, methods, etc, and to avoid history heavy masters which would be more suited to research jobs.