Life After Graduation - Why it's ok if you don't want to work in your degree field

So if you're coming to the end of five years of training to be a doctor because it has been your single dream and ambition since you were eight years old this might not be the post for you. But for those of us who either don't want to work in our degree field (whether you enjoyed your degree or not)  or those who can't find work in our degree field then read on. Not only are you far from alone but it's ok to make your peace with it. 

18 is so young to decide what you want to do with your life and what direction you want to take. 18 year old me didn't have a clue about anything and least of all about myself. If I had known about the hidden skills I have now I would have possibly chosen a different path. However there is no point focusing on this, you can't change the past. I do suspect though, that those skills that have come to the fore since I've been working have in fact been developed through my degree without me even knowing about it. So it doesn't mean your degree was pointless.

On that note learning is never a waste of time and I try to be grateful for all the opportunities my degree has given me. It has shaped me and challenged me in ways I never knew it would and has forged me into a person I would never have believed I was capable of becoming. The skills you have gained may not be immediately obvious such as the ability to cope under pressure (remember that dissertation deadline) or to handle difficult questions from superiors (such your viva). You also never know when the knowledge you've gained might come in useful in the future. 

Learning how to learn is a skill in itself and if there is only one skill you gain from uni its this. Uni is sink or swim and if you can't keep up you get left behind. You pick up new skills quickly once you get to grips with that. One of my modules at uni during my masters year had us learning new, industry standard software each week with an assessment the following week on how well we had used it to present our data and analysis. Each piece of software was complex, with each being less intuitive and user friendly than the last. We would have a short session with PhD students demonstrating how to use the software, then we either collected the data (depending on the task) or were given the data to clean, plot and analyze. If you didn't pick up how to use it during that session you were screwed. When I started my first job I picked up their computer systems really easily. During my training I repeatedly asked my boss to let me learn quicker and to move on to new stuff. I was confident on what I had already learnt and I was consistently getting it right without help. She repeatedly told me no, that learning new software would confuse me. When I finally did come to learn it I found I was right, I could have learnt it months previously and my boss was projecting her own struggles to learn new things onto me. It was one of the reasons why I ultimately looked for another job. The lesson was valuable though, I knew I wasn't being pushed hard enough and the skills I had gained at uni made me confident enough to say so.  

Uni teaches you that learning new things and being challenged is part of life. It teaches us the value of hard work and that if you aren't brave enough to admit you don't understand something then people will assume you do. Doing that will always come back to bite you. The nature of researching subjects in depth teaches you to not accept something as true just because things rarely have a straightforward answer. You learn to weigh up the pros and cons of peoples arguments and to analyze which one you think has the more convincing evidence. You learn that group work is a nightmare of clashing egos and personalities. You realise that field work and being away from home for long periods of time is not all the fun and games its cracked up to be. You learn things about yourself but you also slowly figure out how to work with other people. All skills that are essential to hold down any job. 

On top of all of this, knowledge is power. You never know when the stuff you actually learnt about during your degree is going to come in useful. You might end up working in the industry in a way you hadn't previously considered, but your base knowledge underpins all of the stuff you learn in your role. You might win your team a crucial round at a pub quiz. You might correct someone who is talking about something they don't really understand and help them to understand it better. Knowing about things will always help you in some way, even if it isn't right now.

As you graduate and start to gain real work experience each role you have will help shape you in its own way. You will gain more experience and more knowledge with time. You may sit some industry qualifications or you might prove yourself to be a good leader. I bet you developed the skills that helped you pass those exams or to manage projects at uni. Each role will help you move forwards as you look to build upon what you already have. If you're trying to find a role within the industry you studied at uni, then each position you have will give you more experience that should make you a stronger candidate, over graduates with no experience. Everyone needs basic skills such as customer service, answering the phone, responding to emails etc. The more you develop the basic stuff, the better chance you have of breaking into the industry you want to work in.

It's also ok to change your mind. We live in a culture where we are all supposed to just magically figure out our calling and know what we want to do forever and ever. In reality as we grow up we change and so do our passions. A career is meant to be a journey, not a fixed path that you are set upon. It's normal to dart in a direction for a while and then either continue if you're enjoying it or find a different opportunity if you're not. 

I struggled throughout uni with peoples expectations of the field of work I would go into when I was finished and I still get comments about it now. I sometimes feel like people might think I'm a failure and sometimes they make those feelings known. People are often incredulous that someone with a masters degree in something doesn't want to work in it. Well four years is a long time to study something and by the end of it I had made my peace with the fact although I loved the subject and found it hugely interesting it wasn't where I wanted to work. Realising that I have the power to take my life in the direction I chose is empowering. I don't have to obey these people, they're only voicing their opinion, it doesn't mean I have to listen to it. 

Overall I chose to work in something that I find interesting and not because I think it will impress someone else or have made my degree 'worthwhile'. I  think you should do the same and make what you want out of your degree, whatever subject it was in.