Best Jobs / Courses In Ireland?

Paddyg96 · 08-11-2013 12:39AM #1

Hi! I'm in 5th year and really can't decide on a career. I want a job with a good standard of living and a good salary.
I'm good with words and a course in arts would suit me but it's hard to get good paying jobs in the art field. I'm fairly business minded also.
Hoping to get 520+ points and with work will more than likely get it.
Psychology? Business? What do you guys recommend. By the way money is a big factor as I want to provide well for a family but I still want a job that suits me and isn't too stressful. Approaching 100k after 15 years would be great! Thanks in advance

sganyfx · 08-11-2013 12:51AM

Paddyg96 wrote: »

Hi! I'm in 5th year and really can't decide on a career. I want a job with a good standard of living and a good salary.
I'm good with words and a course in arts would suit me but it's hard to get good paying jobs in the art field. I'm fairly business minded also.
Hoping to get 520+ points and with work will more than likely get it.
Psychology? Business? What do you guys recommend. By the way money is a big factor as I want to provide well for a family but I still want a job that suits me and isn't too stressful. Approaching 100k after 15 years would be great! Thanks in advance

Going to probably get hate for saying this but, has to be said. Okay you want a safe job and good pay, you are going for either Mathematics, BESS, or Economics and Mathematics. Law is over saturated at the moment. From your description of yourself, BESS is probably the best bet. Following that up, going into an Investment Banking or another similar field would be your best bet for high pay.

ahmdoda · 08-11-2013 11:42AM

dentistry shouldn't be bad if your a fan of art anatomy should be a strong subject for you their starting salary is like 30k same as meds which is an other option then you have pharmacy which if your as you said interested in business have this bonus with it and can make well over 100k if you manage to open your own successful pharmacy

enda1 · 08-11-2013 12:24PM

Basically any course you do, if you are successful and determined you can be on that salary after 15 years. It's much more about you as a person than the career choice. 100k is not actually that much.

However if you are to aim at 500k to 1m, then career choice becomes more important. I'd echo above and say go towards BESS, commerce, finance etc. Aim at doing exceptionally well in 1st to 3rd year. Get a contract secured with JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley in banking or Accenture, McKinley etc. in consultancy. Aim to do an MBA after about 4 years work. Aim to do that in one of the top 10 business schools for example LBS, Harvard, INSEAD, Stanford, MIT etc. To enter these, you'll also need a GMAT generally above 700. So do the test shortly after your finals in 4th year/5th year whenever they are these days. It's valid for 5 years. If it's not good enough, then look at redoing it yearly until you get the required score.

Try to take on team leading roles as soon as you can. Managing projects is good. Proactiuvity is better. You'll need to work hard and have serious ambition. Confidence is key and becoming confident in you abilities based on success and knowledge will bring you far.

Be more than willing to live in many countries - don't trap yourself by stubbornly staying in Ireland.

bscm · 08-11-2013 01:27PM

Since Business has been mentioned here, get a MBA as soon as possible. You won't climb the rankings in the likes of Accenture or BOI/AIB without one if you enter with a Business-related Bachelor degree.

Mathematical degrees (Physics, Economics, Engineering etc) are actually sought after in most of the companies mentioned in the posts above, and you can start at higher salaries than some Business graduates since you won't be doing the same entry level job (managerial skills and business know-how are all well and good, but they won't trust you with a large, expensive project unless they know you can solve the problem). Having data modelling/handling/manipulation, analytics and problem solving skills, as well as coding, are brilliant attributes to have in companies like consultancy firms, banks, trading firms, or any company with an analytic department.

But also OP, we're only entering the last stages of the recession. Aiming to have a stable, well paying job is on everyone's mind but very few achieve it.

Sparticle · 08-11-2013 01:52PM

If only it was as easy as choosing a course.

saltyjack silverblade · 08-11-2013 05:24PM

sganyfx wrote: »

Going to probably get hate for saying this but, has to be said. Okay you want a safe job and good pay, you are going for either Mathematics, BESS, or Economics and Mathematics. Law is over saturated at the moment. From your description of yourself, BESS is probably the best bet. Following that up, going into an Investment Banking or another similar field would be your best bet for high pay.

I think law is over saturated at the moment with people getting their undergrads and thinking that is it. Unfortunately you need more to really go on. At least a masters. Saying that, no firm really wants you with anything over a masters. You are just seen as an academic at that point.
Law firms in the US pay particularly high starter salaries for law graduates but you would want to be in the top of your class. A top firm can pay up to $220k in Washington DC and $165k in New York. You should remember that these places will work you to the bone. As in few holidays and long hours. You normally have to achieve between 2000 and 2,500 billable hours per year to keep in the firm. More to progress. this is on top of your everyday meetings that are not client related. I know a few who have gone this route and the longest anyone of them has lasted was 5 years. It is exhausting.
Not sure you should do law for the money though.Plenty of happy barristers who are earning very little. There is a great social life to it even if the money is bad.

My advice for a job in the future is to forget the salary as that can be too enticing, think more along the lines of can I do this work for the next 40 years?

Best of luck.

Gryffindor · 08-11-2013 07:06PM

I'm in the exact same boat as Paddy. I'm also in 5th year and pretty much clueless as to what line I want to go down. Money is also a huge motivator for me.
Law is looking like my best option right now though. I genuinely find it very interesting have no ties to staying in Ireland.

My question is how hard exactly is it for a woman to get a placement in an american law firm? I am highly motivated and aiming for the 600.
Law and Business in Trinity is looking most enticing to me but I've heard the business aspect isn't worth the page it's written on though. On the other hand I would like to keep my business options open as its also something I could see myself in. I've a huge interest in stocks/shares already.
Opinions on the best Irish course for a career in law in the US?

saltyjack silverblade · 08-11-2013 09:45PM

Perhaps I was misleading on the jobs front. If you are seriously interested in one of those positions then i think you need to remember you are competing against the top universities in the world, Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, LSE, Columbia etc. You need something to help you stand out from them.
A little truth that is going to hurt to some extent, employers outside of the country won't really care what you got in the LC. What you did aged 18 means very little to them unless it was incredibly exceptional. It's your uni results that count more than anything. Also remember that Americans do law as a postgrad student, so they have the benefits of undergrad and a postgrad when they are finished. You will be several years younger than them.
If anything isn't clear feel free to PM me.

I would still say a job should not be appealing because of salary. It is a factor and being realistic you have to live but it should not be a determining factor.

sganyfx · 08-11-2013 10:11PM

Also, very important get involved in a society related to your choice of career. Lawsoc, and SMF (especially this) are invaluable for networking and developing experience for a job.

08-11-2013 11:47PM

Gryffindor wrote: »

I'm in the exact same boat as Paddy. I'm also in 5th year and pretty much clueless as to what line I want to go down. Money is also a huge motivator for me.
Law is looking like my best option right now though. I genuinely find it very interesting have no ties to staying in Ireland.

My question is how hard exactly is it for a woman to get a placement in an american law firm? I am highly motivated and aiming for the 600.
Law and Business in Trinity is looking most enticing to me but I've heard the business aspect isn't worth the page it's written on though. On the other hand I would like to keep my business options open as its also something I could see myself in. I've a huge interest in stocks/shares already.
Opinions on the best Irish course for a career in law in the US?

If you want to make money don't do law.

Irish graduates have next to no chance of being hired by a US firm, they have their pick of US graduates who do an entirely postgraduate law degree (JD) and will often have come top of the class during their undergraduate degree. I have friends who have done masters in Harvard and even then they would find it difficult to get a job with a US firm.

600 points may seem like a lot now, but once you get to college you will have an entirely new perspective the LC as any kind of achievement. Once you get into college you will suddenly find yourself with a group of people who are (for the most part) your intellectual equals.

For employers LC results don't even begin to approach college results in terms of importance.

If you want to make money finance is a better option. Once you get into college focus on getting the best results you can and doing anything else relevant to you career. It can be very tempting to see college as four years of fun in a brief but idyllic alternate world. Remember that if you want to achieve your ideal career you need to approach college seriously and focus throughout. There will still be plenty of opportunity for enjoyment, but in a very real sense the priorities you accord to your work and social life in college will have an impact on your ability to achieve your ideal career.

Best Jobs / Courses In Ireland?

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