OK, ‘bite the bullet’ was a little harsh. My point remains that it is a choice.

It’s also rather telling that a junior doctor in the South is paid little more than a Bus driver up North.

Agree that junior NHS staff pay is appalling considering the hours however they could earn the same up here and enjoy a much lower cost of living 😉

As for Google putting me out of a job, it’s starting to happen with home shopping decimating the passengers on rural routes but that’s another topic entirely.

today’s front page poll

you’ve lost me there – front page of what?

Think I’ll adopt “Senior Software Plumber” as my new job title. [/quote]

I’m going for “Software Cleaner”, but I have a horrible feeling that might have been the one he was joking about. Though it would make me a non-parasite – hah!

oh and footflaps +1 – kind of reassuring to know I’m not the only one (but I haven’t found a single job application which mentions it, so maybe I’ll carry on not bothering).

LOL at the forum only user, but I’m surprised njee could get a £240k mortgage last year without being in the 2nd highest bracket.

There are always vacancies available, it’s the choice of the individual as to whether they are suitable. Hence doing ‘other work’ that may be far from your ideal work in other areas that is available rather than ‘similar work’ in the SE. I studied Engineering, I drive buses now.

There was absolutely no point you going to uni then, was there?

It’s not unreasonable that a graduate would wish to work in a field at least tangentially related to their studies – that is after all, kind of the point of it.

but I’m surprised njee could get a £240k mortgage last year without being in the 2nd highest bracket.

Principality would offer 2 people on my wage a £200k mortgage over 30 years so £240k is not unreasonable.

There was absolutely no point you going to uni then, was there?

Enjoying learning? Testing yourself? Opening up new possibilities, even if you choose not to embrace them?

There was absolutely no point you going to uni then, was there?

Quite the opposite in fact. I use the Engineering/Physics I learnt just in a more day to day manner. Uni teaches people how to think and learn for themselves. Your view of going to uni may have been to gain a career in a certain field, I went because I wanted to know how machines, structures and the world in general actually worked.

I do all my own mechanics and most building mainly from knowledge gained in higher education. I do my own financial management. I learnt my property is not a cash machine (great term binners) and largely as a result of this and living in a cheaper area I am going part time in the next couple of months at 40 which will give me 26 weeks off a year plus holidays. I’m not saying this is a better use of a University education, just a different one.

Enjoying learning? Testing yourself? Opening up new possibilities, even if you choose not to embrace them?

Much more to the point.

LOL at the forum only user

Just let me know if I can entertain you further with my ignorance and I’ll be right on it.

Seriously, how did you manage to earn as little as 17.5k dollars with an MSci. Even £17.5k is doing well, I’m on more than the latter figure (23k) with exactly 3 months of experience.

It’s all about how you apply yourself when you get out. On the one hand I know someone who studied Computer Science at Demonfort and earned a 2:2… who is now earning 45k a year. On the other hand I know someone who recieved a double first in Political Science from Oxford University and an MA, who has been unemployed for a year.

Bare in mind this was 2005 but even so. I used to work in Geotechnical Engineering – the contracting side which is notoriously poorly paid. The company I started out for is was notorious for paying graduates poorly and working them very hard for a year or so until they went elsewhere, unfortunately at the time there were not many options. The consulting side pays better but I’m very much a field / project geologist and not to blow my own trumpet after 2 years in the industry I was running £500k – £1.5mil projects.

On the flip side after 6 years of gaining experience I’m now a geo for a Gold exploration company on $120k

On the flip side after 6 years of gaining experience I’m now a geo for a Gold exploration company on $120k

And that’s why I have no problems with the current student loans system. Your gain from going to Uni far outweighs the cost to you.

I’d say it would still make sense even for me now. I did earn £13k before with poor a-levels and no great prospects. I worked hard at uni, got a first and now earn lots more and can afford to live comfortably. I also may be redundant in a couple of months, but to be honest I’m not all that fussed.

oh and footflaps +1 – kind of reassuring to know I’m not the only one (but I haven’t found a single job application which mentions it, so maybe I’ll carry on not bothering).

It seems perverse but when I meet an Engineer who actually is Chartered I always ask them why they bothered! Does seem a complete waste of money unless you’re working abroad where they seem to think it means something.

Footflaps – I agree. Why pay money to an old boys club to keep them propped up in their Central London property? Central London is hardly a hub for engineering.

Edit: I’m referring to imeche

Just let me know if I can entertain you further with my ignorance and I’ll be right on it.
[/quote]

Well I was also trying to be slightly helpful – you have found it now with that hint? I’ll even happily admit that part of the amusement is because I rarely venture away from the forums myself.

Tom_W1947 – It shouldn’t make much of a difference to ages 23+ though, should it.

Nope, but it gets 50% of the “workforce” between 18 & 23 off the books, that’s 50% of 10% of the working age population accounted for (assuming that we count working age as being 18-65) and they’ve paid for the pleasure of not being on the dole….

To be fair, I did recently wish I was chartered for totally non work related reasons as it might have added a bit of kudos to my evidence (though as it turned out the evidence appears to have been good enough to stand up by itself).

ransos – There was absolutely no point you going to uni then, was there?

It’s not unreasonable that a graduate would wish to work in a field at least tangentially related to their studies – that is after all, kind of the point of it.

Another flaw in our system, please decide what you would like to do for the rest of your life at 17/18 and the spend the rest of your life paying for it. Might as well re-open the pits and foundries and take ’em from the cradle to the grave rather than messing about filling their heads with ideas and charging ’em for the privilige.

I can hear the conversations in Surbiton now, “My father went to university and worked all his life as a management consultant and it paid for me to go to University,I’ve been a management consultant since graduation and it paid for your prep school and tutor, now you can do the same. I’ll hear no more of this airy fairy carpentry nonsense under my roof and that’s final!”

please decide what you would like to do for the rest of your life at 17/18

That’s pretty much what I did, picked my 6th form college as one of the only places in the UK (at the time) which did A level Electronics. Still in that industry 25+ years later, although more systems / SW now.

as an alternative to the debt you could save 40 quid a week from birth and invest in premium bonds never win and youd have enough to pay for uni.. win the average amount and you d be laughing roll in a couple of big wins and you dont need to bother with uni..

footflaps, for some people it works, but not that many, particularly with an evolving economy. One of the lads I went to school with was a pipe-fitter/welder at 16, did his apprenticeship, got into music, became a record producer with his own label and now makes the majority of his income day-trading on the markets, that process has taken 30 years.

Has anyone mentioned that the massive increase in fees has had almost no effect in reducing the gov debt?

But is that debt now off balance sheet as it’s sold off?

if it is, then it’s stopped the debt from growing….

but I’m surprised njee could get a £240k mortgage last year without being in the 2nd highest bracket.

And yet here I am sat in the house paid for just like that… They’d have leant us more too.

totalshell – Member

as an alternative to the debt you could save 40 quid a week from birth

Yeah, that’s a bit more than my pocket money was to be fair.