Everyone wishes they’d done some other degree

No matter what subject you studied at university, I think you will always regret it, wishing you had gone a different route. A lot of this feeling is about the grass being greener on the other side and a lot to do with reality hitting when you graduate.

Did you know that the former late Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, was a qualified lawyer? But did you also know that before she went to law school she graduated with a degree in Chemistry?

Did you know that many of the US senators are lawyers, obviously, but a good many are also physicians and doctors? Did you also know that many actors and actresses have university degrees but not always related to drama and acting? Many have degrees in law or are scientists. It seems that no matter what subject you study at university, you wish you hadn’t. Those actors who eventually ended up on the stage probably thought, hey academic degrees are not for me. Or someone spotted them in a school play and thought they’d be ideal for a role for which they were casting.

Many politicians often have political science degrees but it’s not always the case that those who study political science at university will end up going into politics, even if they try.

But that’s not the case with many ordinary folk like you and me. Not all of us go and work in the field in which we got our degrees. I, for example, have a degree in Chemistry but shortly after graduating I realised that it was not a field in which I wanted to work. That realisation came after undertaking my final project during which time I spent many hours in the lab surrounded by some chemicals that were ‘harmful to the respiratory system”. I did everything I could to try and deviate from that chemistry label and ended up in Intellectual Property law, a field in which I worked and enjoyed for nearly 5 years. Then I did everything to shake off that label when I moved to the United Arab Emirates and learned that the field did not exist here. So I did an MBA, an ISO Lead Auditor and a NEBOSH IGC. Thankfully I ended up writing, and in Quality Management, Health and Safety and training in the latter. That was a good decision and I don’t regret it at all. As enjoyable as my time in University was, I do wish that I had not done Chemistry.

There are many ordinary folk like me, including many of my classmates who never worked in the field of their study area. Many went into law, business and IT. I know that with a chemistry degree, I had two options. I either worked in a lab or I taught. In fact, in retrospect, perhaps I should have taught chemistry at school level?

But it appears that some degrees are more regrettable than others, mainly because, with those degrees, the only job you can do is teach the subject.

The regrettable subjects are Journalism, Sociology, Liberal Arts/General Studies, Communication and Education. Many also regret doing Biology, English Language/English Literature and Market Research, but to a lesser extent. Again, there has to be a realisation that, in the real world, these degrees are not marketable commodities and, thus, the only course of action is teaching the subject to others who might also regret it later in life.

I am surprised, however, that those who studied IT and computer science also have regrets but to a far, far lesser extent than those I mentioned above. It is surprising, especially since our lives are now wholly and solely dependent on technology when we want to do anything. In fact, they should be relishing the fact that they chose a futuristic degree and everyone now relies on them for help. I am astonished that MBAs also regret their degree. HR professionals are also unhappy as are people in Finance and Engineering. The latter again is in so much demand in many countries that it is surprising that there is any regret around it. But come to think of it, the field of Civil Engineering can be exhausting. The hours are long, sometimes working 6 or 7 days a week. Often even their weekends are not their own when a contractor might call them to tell them that the concrete pour is happening on site but it’s not going according to plan? So the frustration there is totally understandable.

But looking at the list of regrettable subjects, it seems that most people who studied any subject regret their degrees and wish they’d done something else. But the grass isn’t always greener in other fields even though sometimes, just sometimes, it can be.