So there you are, on the edge. You aren't quite sure what precedes you, only that it's something a long time coming. The path you've taken may have been well trodden, or maybe your map reading skills were a bit lacking and you took a shortcut that didn't pan out, either way, you've made it.

You're in the real world now.

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Your career awaits you.

We can cut the dramatics now.
I am here to discuss careers, or rather, starting one. I have no sage words on the subject, I am merely looking to put my thoughts out there and see what happens, maybe one of you has advice for me, I certainly would appreciate it.

So what is a career?
Well I think to most of us the idea of a career is following a certain type of job, generally professional in nature. Maybe you wear a suit, maybe jeans and a t-shirt, but you perform a task which requires skill, as you gather more experience your skill increase, maybe you become more specialized, there is usually a clear sense of progression.

What am I getting at exactly?
It may be somewhat early to tell, I have a second interview with a company, but I am told it is just me and one other candidate who, whilst very good, is more a backup choice, and the interview I have with them next week consists of shadowing a few people to see if I like the job. I already know I do, the job is fantastic.

It's possible I am about to start my career.

I am, hopefully understandably, nervous.

Too much build up...
The job is for a company which makes PC hardware. The role is as a Graduate Software Engineer, it's a relatively small but successful company near my home town in the UK where the average Software Engineer appears to have 7 monitors and they have a room with a PS3 hooked up to a system with 32 monitors. They played some of The Dark Knight to show me.

Background!

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Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward.

So who am I?
I think like most people my life has parts to envy and parts to pity, but a whole life story would be a bit tedious so a short summary shall suffice.

I am 25, from a kind, albeit slightly odd upper middle class family from a city called Nottingham. It's famous for the tale of a fox stealing from a lion who sucked his thumb. I went to a posh all boys school, very conservative. Not really my thing and half way through my A levels (16-18 for those non-UK) they asked me to change my behavior or leave. I left.

I worked for a few years before deciding education is probably worth it in the long run and went back to finish my A levels at a different sixth form, in maths physics and further maths.
Somehow I was accepted onto a course in Physics at a very nice university, I believe it managed to break top 10 in the world rankings during my time there, I don't believe I was a factor in that decision.

I didn't do much in university, I fell in with the wrong people, they did too many drugs, whilst I enjoyed them at the time, I was a few years older, been there done that and the novelty was no longer there. I failed my first year, smoked a lot of weed but somehow managed to leave with a 2.2 MSci Physics, narrowly missing a 2.1.

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For those not familiar with this classification system:

1.1 - 1st class with honors, 70% or more. Top students only, at least on any respectable course.
2.1 - 2nd class with honors, 60-70%. The standard grade, you did well.
2.2 - 2nd class, 50-60%. Depending on your course, you're either lazy or an idiot.
3 - 3rd class, 40-50%. Shouldn't have bothered.

The Result

You can get a job with that background?
The world at large seems forgiving, this is something I learnt a long time ago. If you're willing to put in the effort.

Since graduating I became somewhat panicked. Fearful of not being employable I began to work on my skills as a programmer, not really understanding what this meant. Since then I have done a fair bit of interesting stuff, taken a course in AI, made a small game even.

Also my MSci project received a first and contributed to work done at in particle physics, something called the Rivet framework for anyone curious. I think that helped, maybe I'm not such a loser after all.

Lucky man, that I am.
So here I now stand. After many failed interviews, going in circles and working hard, albeit later than I should have.

I am very close to beginning my career as a software engineer and its a daunting prospect. I am terrified I am not qualified for the job, however I passed the technical interview and had a great rapport with the people I met at the company and due to some work I've done in graphics in the past, as well as the work I've done since graduating they seem to feel I would be a good fit for the role.

So now my questions to the community, this community is after all full of all types.

Was your career difficult to get into? Were you worried about starting? How long did it take for you to get used to that life?

I will miss my care free life, but I am older than most in my position and I yearn for greater responsibility as well as a respectable career doing something I love.

I think I may have found it, but my brain won't let me believe it.

Advice would be appreciated.

adwodon

United Kingdom592 Posts

October 27 2012 11:10 GMT

Apologies for posting it too early, I feel the end was a bit rushed but it will do. Thanks for being patient.

All done now.

Alpino

Brazil4390 Posts

October 27 2012 11:41 GMT

Temerarious Trout

174 Posts

October 27 2012 11:54 GMT

Do you think you'll be happy with your job?

Recognizable

Netherlands1552 Posts

October 27 2012 11:58 GMT

On October 27 2012 20:54 Temerarious Trout wrote:
Do you think you'll be happy with your job?

Assuming he likes what he does

successful company near my home town in the UK where the average Software Engineer appears to have 7 monitors and they have a room with a PS3 hooked up to a system with 32 monitors. They played some of The Dark Knight to show me.

yes.

totalpigeon

United Kingdom162 Posts

October 27 2012 14:40 GMT

You'll be fine. To be honest, it really does sound similar to my experience. I failed my 2nd year at uni, graduated with 2.2 in mechanical engineering (for being considerably more lazy than the average student) and then bounced around my home town looking for jobs for a while. About 8 months later, I finally found something in process engineering with robots which was only vaguely relevant to my existing skills, but they hired me on the basis that the skills I would need to learn, were the kind I've already proved to be good at learning, and the fact that I managed to convey a lot of enthusiasm for working with robots.

I essentially started by shadowing someone for about 3 months, with absolutely no pressure until I got to grips with the basics. Obviously, I was a bit nervous to start (who isn't at a new role?) but it helped that the staff turned out to be pretty decent, and for the most part I got on well with them pretty quickly. There were a few who took a while to open up, but I think they just wanted to make sure I wasn't an idiot first (there are a few at my workplace). I was actually quite lucky in that I outperformed their expectations, as my 2:2 really isn't a good indication of my potential, and I found working for money a helluva lot more motivating than paying to learn. 6 months in at this point, and I've settled in really well, I've found some niches to fill in my department and while I'm still learning at my main role, I'm getting pretty good at a lot of it. I'm still not under a lot of serious pressure, because every project I'm involved in has me doing things which are really new to me, but I have noticed the deadlines starting to feel shorter as the complexity of the projects they have me on increases. But at this stage, working there feels pretty much like the norm.

Anyhow, I think I'm almost at the next big step for me - responsibility! I'll be getting the opportunity to (try to) more or less lead the work on the technical side of a fairly major process soon, rather than taking someone else's calculations and making them reality. If I don't completely screw it up, I can definitely ask for a raise.

RookUK

United Kingdom283 Posts

October 27 2012 22:10 GMT

As someone who finished a Masters degree not all that long ago and is now trying to carve out a career myself, I can see where you're coming from about the sense of panic and not feeling qualified to be on the path you're on. In lots of ways I've been really lucky in qualifications/career terms - I got the top classifications in my degrees, decided I wanted to work in the third sector and recently finished a seven-month unpaid internship with a project run by six humanitarian agencies. It was close to home which made it financially possible, and I've made a good number of new contacts.

That said, the humanitarian sector is a popular one for people like me (socially-conscious types with a good academic record in a subject that doesn't prepare to you to actually you know, do anything in particular). Most advertised roles are either unpaid internships or highly-paid managerial jobs I'm not qualified for. Now, I'm actually spending money to get more training which should help improve my CV.

What I'm thinking right now is that it's natural to feel trepidation when you start out. Also, I've found that a lot of people say that they got their big career break when someone took a chance on them and let them do something they maybe weren't quite qualified or experienced enough to do. I'm working as hard as I can towards that opportunity, but it sounds as though you may already have it - best of luck with it!

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