Entertainment For Lively Minds
Unusual career paths
I'm hoping that the culturally aware Massive can help me with this one.
I'm a university careers adviser and I'm looking for a few examples of people in the public eye who are doing jobs that are completely unrelated to their degrees. The aim is to reinforce the point that the career path you follow doesn't necessarily have to relate to what you study at university. We already have a few examples but I'm not convinced they're appealing to the 18-21 age group (Brian May, Harry Enfield, Natalie Portman) but I'm finding it hard to identify people who might be. For example, I can think of people like Jo Brand (mental health nurse), Harry Hill (medicine) and Roger McGough (French) but I don't really think they suit the target audience either.
Can anyone suggest any examples that might fit the bill ? Much apprecieated !
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Pretty much any BBC broadcaster..
They all did English at Oxbridge.
None of them did media studies.
Hmmmm
I had thought about that, but so many of our English students consider the journalism/broadcastiong to be a natural follow-on from their degree.
Thanks anyway !
George Osborne's got a degree in Modern History
which he doesn't seem to use.
Yes he bloody did
He's doing the ultimate historical reconstruction:
of the 1930s depression.
Ben Miller
Did something like astronomy or appiied physics.
Iain Dowie
has an engineering degree and previously worked for British Aerospace.
In the same vein, Shaka Hislop did Mechanical Engineering and was an intern at NASA.
Simon Armitage, (poet)
Studied Geography to degree level, switched to the Probation Service, then became poet, broadcaster, novelist and Professor of Poetry at the University of Sheffield. A lot of your students will have studied him at O level, and he also crops up on the Radcliffe & Maconie show fairly regularly.
Wayne Barnes
International referee was a Lawyer.
I studied History and Politics and am now a (relatively, anyway) senior person in Human Resources.
I'm not sure celebrity is the way to go. Wouldn't your idea have more legs with lots of real life people as opposed to 'celebs' - who, almost by nature of what they're doing now, are abnormal?
Dara Ó Briain
has a degree in mathematics and physics.
But in the non-celebrity area of people I know, it almost seems that the unusual ones are those who do use their degrees in their jobs. I went to University with an English graduate who became a nurse; an economist who became a social worker; and a mathematician who is a journalist. In my last job, the Head of HR had a degree in biology, and the two most senior people in IT were a PHd in veterinary science and a fully qualified architect.
That doesn't mean that their educations were wasted, because it can be about more than getting a job. But it would be interesting to know, if figures exist, which subjects are most likely to be used in a career.
The Horrors' Joshua Hayward
Has a Physics degree from UCL. Although he is said to use this for creating new sounds for the band...
Sacha Baron Cohen
has a history degree
Well, sort of
Jonny Greenwood, from Radiohead, who was composer in residence at the BBC, has scored for four films, and has been instrumental of the progression of Radiohead as a creative force, doesn't have a degree at all.
And Chris Martin from Coldplay did a degree in Ancient World Studies, including Greek and Latin. Which doesn't seem to have worked in to their work just yet...
Leaving celebrities aside...
...I think an unusual career path is actually HAVING a career these days! I'm 43, with degree, postgrad, an NVQ and 2/3 of a HNC, and I still haven't found one. I know others in similar positions - grinding along on low-paid admin jobs with significant/multiple university qualifications.
Good luck with giving the advice, Janice, but sometimes I think a lot of the way one's life pans out is just down to luck.
Didn't Prince William
get a degree in Geography?
Suppose it helps him get around his various homes.