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No regrets: How to choose the right subject to study at university
Nine out of 10 graduates would choose to do an undergraduate degree again if they could, with just one in 10 saying they would choose not to go to university if they had their time again.
Around half of the graduates say they’d choose the same subject.
But… four in 10 say they’d prefer to study a different subject.
This is according to brand new research by the Policy Institute at King’s College London.
That’s 40% of graduates who wish they’d studied something else, and 10% of graduates who wish they hadn’t gone to university at all!
Is “Find your passion” really a good way to choose a course?
It’s advice that is as old as the sun: “Find your passion, and you’ll never do another day’s work in your life”.
Or when you are heading off to university “Choose a course that you are passionate about”.
But, most careers advisers nowadays would say that such advice is deeply unhelpful. It creates the expectation that every young person should have found their passion. And since most of you simply haven’t found your passion while still at school, it just creates unnecessary pressure on you. Which in turn just makes you freeze; unsure of how to progress and how to choose what to do next.
However, perhaps there is something to be said for working out ways to explore your potential passions; how to find challenges, industries, and roles that might feel more like you are making a difference, and less like you are doing a job.
So how can you go about exploring what yours might be?
Building your super-skills
We all know that university is about gaining knowledge, but it's also about building up skills.
I wrote some months ago about the changing world, and the skills that the World Economic Forum believes will be crucial in the near future (see here).
But are there such things as universal skills; transferable skills that will always be useful, regardless of the economy, AI and changes in the environment?
I think there are, and the closest thing I have found to it is a simple list of ten skills identified a couple of years ago in the careers section of indeed.com.
Parental pressure and career happiness!
Back in October, I wrote an article about How not to become a university ‘drop-out’, and within it, discussed pressure. In particular, how much pressure is too much pressure?
I see it in every school and every university; students who just feel overwhelmed by the pressure they feel to perform well, and to choose a career that will bring them success. And while some of that pressure will come from teachers, and some from within yourselves, there is no doubt that much of the pressure you think you are under, comes from parents.
And so I thought it might be worth having a quick think about what this pressure really is, where it comes from and whether it's real.
University and careers. Show me the data!
Last week we looked at the connection between going to university and getting a good job. We saw the hard reality that study alone will almost certainly not get you your dream job, but that university can be a great place to gain the knowledge, skills, experience and contacts to prepare you for your life and career ahead.
This week, we put that all to the test, by looking at some hard data on graduates, jobs and careers. In the real world of employment and salaries, is going to university worth it?
We’ll look at the UK government’s own graduate labour market statistics, and at the outcomes of a recent graduate and business leader survey by Universities UK.
“Go to university!” they said. “It’ll get you a good job!”
Perhaps university will get you a good job, and perhaps it won’t, but one thing is for sure: if you think that university study alone will land you your dream job, you are going to be very disappointed in a few years time.
I have appointed more than a hundred people in my career, and not one of them got their job on the basis of their university study alone. They got their role because of the knowledge and experience they had, the skills they could demonstrate, the motivation they showed, and their aptitude to learn.
The world is changing. What does that mean for jobs and the skills you need?
Every couple of years, the World Economic Forum publishes their Future of Jobs report, which looks at the impact of world-wide issues on jobs and the skills needed by employers. The latest version came out in May this year. It’s quite a piece of work, the fourth of its type in a decade, and based on a large-scale, world-wide survey of employers.
It is an absolute gold-mine of information, data and insight into the future of careers, and as you make important decisions about your future studies and career, you are going to want to know about it!
However, it’s 300 pages long, so you’ll be delighted to know that I’ve read it, so you don’t have to.
Warren Buffett’s advice on finding your perfect career
In a recent shareholder letter, Warren Buffett, one of the world’s most successful businessmen, wrote about regular talks he has with university students. "I have urged” he says, “that they seek employment in (1) the field and (2) with the kind of people they would select, if they had no need for money.”
“When they find that sort of job” he goes on to say “they will no longer be working”. He recognises that “economic realities may interfere with this quest”, but urges students “to never give up on the quest.”
Careers, courses and ikigai
I, along with many westerners, first came across ikigai as a career decision-making tool; a Venn diagram with four overlapping qualities in the ideal career: what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. I’ll come to the Venn diagram in a minute, as it’s brilliant, but I would like to start with an explanation of what ikigai really means to the Japanese.
Taking careers advice from Dave Grohl
Yep, I’m talking about Dave Grohl, him from Foo Fighters.
Undeniably successful, he is a talented musician who excelled at his chosen skill, worked very hard, got some lucky breaks and went on to be about as successful as a rock musician could possibly hope for.