My feeling is that graduate degrees are undervalued by employers. There are so many twits getting degrees in kinda irrelevant subjects competing for the same piece of (recruitment) managerial headspace.

Even a short (non specialised) masters just looks beter I reckon. In reality, it's never difficult to stay 5 seconds ahead from the person asking questions (which appears to be the latter day definition of an expert or clairvoyant).

I'm rambling now.

Bert

Good thing that you decided against going for a Meng!

It sounds too much like "minge" and we know what that is slang for.

Sometimes we feel a bit of one but hate someone else calling us that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still reckon it's well done though. All I'm qualified to do is drive trucks and eat lard sandwiches

well, since we're declaring our professions, i'm qualified to ramble and drink coffee...

I am qualifiy to be a scanner( to scan for babes) , a smoker and a drinker(beer is good, can't hold hard liquor well)

Well, just thought I'd let you all know... my University has given out the results early. I got a 2:2 after all. Still haven't heard back from Exeter yet, but at least I now know that I'm not out of the running for Teachership purely on the degree status front.

Good luck on the job hunting status... I'm gonna be a wuss and do another year on a cushy course and go into a much-in-demand job.

Cheers all,

Grant Sewell BSc (Hons)

Yo thymox Bsc (Hon's),

well done as well, but don't be fool enough to believe that another years course in the shortage job guarantees you a good job - or even a job.

The woman that I love has had what is known in her trade as a
B.Ed (Hon's) for about 5 years, and we still haven't managed to get her into state school work. She is working in a private establishment but has too put up with all that crap of market forces, public spending, etc etc etc.

Do what you wanna do, but plan a little strategy, if it means doing the course for a job in a shortage area of work, re-locate into an area that reciprocates the shortage.

It gets your foot in the door, worry about getting to the location of your preference later.

i am a truck driver, and "apparently" there is a shortage of about 50000 drivers throughout the industry (yes 50000, i can even type that correctly when under the affluence of incohol - jacobs creek vineyards yum yum)but in the south east of england, its cheaper for companies to train up amateurs (van drivers) to the professional standard and pay the excess insurance premiums after the inexperienced kill someone or right off a few motors than pay us experienced professionals a "living wage".

Hence, come the revolution I will volunteer to be behind the machine gun when the time comes to get rid of HR/personnel bod's and bean counters. Cos at the moment they are the ones who don't give a flying fsck, as long as your face fits and you are cheaper!!

Still congrats! to you and the A_K.

Up the revolution (fat chance)

Salaams

John (aged 37 and 1 day)(synic extrordinaire and class 1 heavy goods driver - on hols)

well done grant, was that what you were after?

I'm really up ni the air about jobs at the moment. I think that i've basically screwed up as far as this year goes. I never applied for graduate positions as i didn't want to be yet another java programmer day in day out, and i didn't think that a graduate recruitment program would provide anythign i wanted, but it seems that somehow it would have been a good idea. Particuarly as IBM, just 15 miles away, DO have a network administration graduate program. I still really can't see the exact benefit to them from having 2400 sysadmins in one building... !

so it looks like unless i get in somewhere on a help desk or something i'll have to wait until next year to properly get started... ahh well

The whole 2400 bunch of admins might be managing customers' systems offsite from remote. They need to get down to the clients' site when necessary or 'priority 0-2' cases being logged if there is any. As you can see how big IBM is, offering the IT or e-commerce solution just at your area. Is midland a large city or metropolis in UK?

HAHAHAHA i think i'll frame that and put it on my wall. The midlands in pretty much the wastelands of england, hovering around in the middle, picking up bits of the north, bits of the south, taking the worst of each (esp the accents) and creating .... BRUMMIES!!!! (people from birmingham, UK - not Alabama) ewwwwwwwww.

But actually i didn't really see it that way, i suppose that actaully that makes a huge amount of sense...

Hey, hey, hey... come on now... You have to have lived there to make that sort of statement.

Of course, you're kinda right...

Actually, really right.

Cheers,

Finegan

hey, grammar boy... the ewwwwwwwwwwwww is OUTSIDE of the brackets, and as such can not be pertaining to anything found inside. If one were to pay attention like one preaches one would relaise that the ewwwwwwww was aimed at brummies. who i DO live with.

EAT MY BRICK

Amateur

I asked because I never been to midland. I have been to London and the furtherst I travelled North from London was Bath or Salisbury where I visited the stone-henge(Harry Potter stays there? ) Which is it, Barth or Salisbury(Is this place near you)?
I visited one of the older/taller church near that area too.
Mussels from porthsmouth taste fresh. I dun have the pics with me now, they are at my hometown. I am looking forward to travel again.

And good luck to be part of the 2400 bunch of engineers, heh! Wonder which customer(s) would IBM assign to you?

it's BARF...

Erm, Stone Henge is on the Salisbury Plain, which I'm positive is west of London... the reason being that I live very far west of London (Cornwall) and if I travel to London on the A303 (really nice straight bit of road that almost completely avoids the motorways... shame it's so bloody noisy!) I go right past it. Bath is also west of London. Oh, and isn't Hogwarts supposed to be really far north?

Oh, and Chris, I was hoping for a 2:2. After the performance I had in my 2nd years (both of them), I really wasn't going to be able to achieve any higher, so I'm just glad I hadn't slipped to a 3rd. Today, 15th July, I had my first piece of post from Exter... they haven't said that they've excepted me yet, but I doubt very much whether the info they sent me would have been sent had I been completely rejected.

And, BigJohn... "Don't be fool enough to believe that another years course in the shortage job guarantees you a good job - or even a job... plan a little strategy, if it means doing the course for a job in a shortage area of work, re-locate into an area that reciprocates the shortage." I was under the impression the the UK as a whole was running fairly short of Biology/Chemistry/General Science Teachers (especially those that can use a computer well) for the 11-18 age range. I completely understand that if I am capable of doing a shortage job, that I should migrate to an area that needs me (for want of a better way of putting it), but I'm fervorently hoping that I shall be employable in the S/SW.

Good luck with the job hunting all.

you guys are lucky you have the option to relocate...