Student Hardship 2022 - How Was It For You?

[SpokeyDokey]

I went to work at 15, bought my first house at 18, paid off by 24, not a qualification to my name but done very well.

I always feel it is a shame there isn't a degree in Common Sense at University!

I think Tony Blair (not wishing to get political) screwed things up by devaluing degrees.

One of the consequences of which was that a degree pretty much becomes a prerequisite to be invited for interview for decent jobs.

I deliberately did not go to Uni, or University as it was then, despite having 3 x A grade (no stars then) A Levels. I really couldn't see the value.

Went straight into retail, sussed out how to move forward rapidly and got stuck in.

By the time I was 26 I was running a huge food store with 450 staff and earning around £65k in today's money. And it went on from there. Not bad for a boy from a violent broken home and the usual 60's poverty stricken Council estate.

Not sure if that opportunity would present itself these days; maybe, maybe not.

Other lads I new, similar age, no degree went on to become President HMV Canada, Senior VP American Express Black Card, Customer Service Director Whitbread, Customer Service Director (Inflight) BA, I finished my career as MD of a legal company.

Biggest success, two lads I was at school with, again no degree, joined a shopfitting manufacturing business. Ended up buying it out and then selling it for £12m at age 44 apiece - brilliant!

 

[vickster]

I think Tony Blair (not wishing to get political) screwed things up by devaluing degrees.

One of the consequences of which was that a degree pretty much becomes a prerequisite to be invited for interview for decent jobs.

I deliberately did not go to Uni, or University as it was then, despite having 3 x A grade (no stars then) A Levels. I really couldn't see the value.

Went straight into retail, sussed out how to move forward rapidly and got stuck in.

By the time I was 26 I was running a huge food store with 450 staff and earning around £65k in today's money. And it went on from there. Not bad for a boy from a violent broken home and the usual 60's poverty stricken Council estate.

Not sure if that opportunity would present itself these days; maybe, maybe not.

Other lads I new, similar age, no degree went on to become President HMV Canada, Senior VP American Express Black Card, Customer Service Director Whitbread, Customer Serivce Director (Inflight) BA, I finished my career as MD of a legal company.

Biggest success, two lads I was at school with, again no degree, joined a shopfitting manufacturing business. Ended up buying it out and then selling it for £12m at age 44 apiece - brilliant!

And the women?

 

[SpokeyDokey]

And the women?

The 'two lads' were from my 6th form cohort and tbh at around age 25 I lost track of them and only stumbled across their brilliant success when searching the Web on another matter. Neither went to University.

The point of those sections of my post was people who did not have degrees who did well.

There was a point in my career when I was part of a small group that were being fast-tracked - usual corporate stuff.

It was more or less split equally between guys and girls.

As I recollect every woman bar one had degrees including a couple of MA's which outweighed the guys academic achievements by some margin.

The 'bar one' lady I have lost track of - she disappeared 'off-grid' to Africa for a vocational career as a religious missionary.

The 'uneducated' including me that I mentioned, were guys that did not have degrees.

Of the others with degrees that I am still in touch with they also did extremely well for themselves including 3 women, all now retired, who had very senior roles at Topgolf, Innserve and ASDA.

 

[Grant Fondo]

I always found it odd that some Uni's were single sex? Assume that's not the case now? I had a friend at St Hildas in Oxford and they didn't let blokes in until 2009.

 

[Bollo]

I always found it odd that some Uni's were single sex? Assume that's not the case now? I had a friend at St Hildas in Oxford and they didn't let blokes in until 2009.

Although Imperial wasn’t technically single sex I think the male/female ratio was worse than 80/20 in the late ‘80s - a bit better in the pure sciences and a good deal worse in some of the engineering and mines subjects.

I can best describe the atmosphere as like a very large rugby club. Imperial students were periodically banned en masse from ULU events for various acts of wanton destruction. I lived an all-male hall in my first year - think High Rise meets American Pie.

I believe things have improved, especially with the addition of the medical school, but it wasn‘t a healthy environment.

 

[Reynard]

Although Imperial wasn’t technically single sex I think the male/female ratio was worse than 80/20 in the late ‘80s - a bit better in the pure sciences and a good deal worse in some of the engineering and mines subjects.

I can best describe the atmosphere as like a very large rugby club. Imperial students were periodically banned en masse from ULU events for various acts of wanton destruction. I lived an all-male hall in my first year - think High Rise meets American Pie.

I believe things have improved, especially with the addition of the medical school, but it wasn‘t a healthy environment.

My experience of Imperial was from 2000 - 2005, but as a postgrad. There weren't many other girls knocking around in among the postgrads, but then I had one of the small 7th floor offices shared with three other guys, while most of the other PhD folks were in the big open plan office on the 3rd floor, so I can't really say.

There was a good bunch of us girls (mostly chemistry and medical) in the fencing club though, but again, we were well outnumbered by the blokes. That was good fun though, we had a really good social side as well. I can't say we were terribly raucous.

 

[Bollo]

My experience of Imperial was from 2000 - 2005, but as a postgrad. There weren't many other girls knocking around in among the postgrads, but then I had one of the small 7th floor offices shared with three other guys, while most of the other PhD folks were in the big open plan office on the 3rd floor, so I can't really say.

There was a good bunch of us girls (mostly chemistry and medical) in the fencing club though, but again, we were well outnumbered by the blokes. That was good fun though, we had a really good social side as well. I can't say we were terribly raucous.

I think the PhD experience is very different, which surprises some people who embark on one thinking it’s a way to extend their undergrad lolz.

Because of the specialisation and location Imperial College is always going to be an outlier. Us physics lot occupied the same position in the pecking order as art students at most other universities.

 

[Reynard]

I think the PhD experience is very different, which surprises some people who embark on one thinking it’s a way to extend their undergrad lolz.

Because of the specialisation and location Imperial College is always going to be an outlier. Us physics lot occupied the same position in the pecking order as art students at most other universities.

Yep, it's a very different beast. Mine was largely practical, so not really that much time to fanny around, although things did start off slowly due to the F1 team that originally sponsored me (Arrows) folding, and then McLaren taking up the slack. I had to wait a fair time for materials to test, which is where I then hit upon getting actual pieces of broken racing car from various of my own contacts.

My undergrad was different to most, as I had a 3 hour-ish round trip across London every day. So didn't really get into the student life as much as others on my course. Also meant that weekends were largely tied up catching up with all my assignments. The one thing did used to do if I had a gap in between lectures was get on a bus and slope off to a motor racing bookshop in Isleworth. Spent many an hour and many a quid in Chaters. They operate out of a lock-up in Hook these days...

 

[Gwylan]

Late 60's I got my fees paid and a means tested grant.
Free and frank exchange with my parents who explained that they couldn't afford their contribution.
So I slept at home and was fed when it fitted their schedule.
It meant that there were times when I had 50p to get me through the week. I walked or biked everywhere. Didn't drink much either

Worked the vacations. Christmas at the post office. Other breaks were paid internships or cleaning jobs.
I've cleaned ballrooms, TV studios, working men's clubs, the coal exchange in Cardiff.
Chum and I had a regular round doing blitz cleaning offices. We'd go in a 1:00 and work to 8:00.
Other jobs were night window cleaning. Him on his vespa, with a bucket between his feet and me on the back with a pointy window cleaners ladder. Speeding through town from job to job.

Worked in food stuff warehouse, laboured on a motorway site.

Winter job was clearing house after burst water pipe events. That was dire.

Sometimes ran 2 jobs to make more money. Motorway in the day and night window cleaning was the worst, back to back.

Did it do me any harm? Don't think so, left with no real debt and a bit of understanding of the world and people around me.

 

[Grant Fondo]

Did it do me any harm? Don't think so, left with no real debt and a bit of understanding of the world and people around me

I agree, great experience doing a variety of jobs at that age. Mine ranged from a bronze age archaeological dig in Dorset to handing ice skates out at the weekend.
The former was not as well paid, but fascinating.

 

[FishFright]

It’s strange this latter-day Uni malarkey.

In days of yor it was possible to have a conversation with someone who had been to a university and graduated and they actually sounded bright.

Doesn't always seem the case these days.

Maybe I just struggle chatting to youngsters, or maybe they just don't want to open up to someone who is old and "knows nothing". Who knows?

Just over 2 decades back I was involved at a fairly senior level with the graduate recruitment program of a well known large-format food retailer.

It was, on occasion, mind-boggling how flat-footed some candidates were answering questions that tested their awareness of the world around them ie the one in which they were going to work.

For sure there were some stellar, and very switched-on, applicants with a very fast chip speed. But some of the others...

My friends twins are graduating next summer and by the sound of it uni now sounds just like school with the accent on providing good results and very little else.

 

[Fnaar]

I lived in various places while at uni (never in halls though ... long story, involving a broken heart) but in my final year (finished in 1984) I had a room in a house with 9 others, £68 a month for my room, bills included ... I think I turned my gas heater on in October, and turned it off again the following April