Career Help

[SmaSheD_CoW]

I'm in the middle of my uni degree, and I'm having difficulty deciding where to go in the next few years. Hopefully you guys can give me some advice on what to do from here:

I'm currently studying IT/Law degrees at uni. Combined, it's supposed to be a touch over 6 years. I've just started 5th year, and I'm currently doing my last IT subject (which is a year-long project). After this year, all my remaining subjects are law electives. Up to this point, my GPA is around 4.5 - it's above 5.0 for my IT subjects, but barely above 4.0 for my law subjects.

After a lot of thought, I've decided I'm not interested in working as a lawyer. I enjoy studying areas like e-commerce law, but there seems to be very few firms where I could go into that type of area, and with my GPA I doubt I could get graduate work at a respectable law firm anyway.

Given that I'm finishing the last of my IT subjects this year, what I really want to do is start working in IT full-time next year, and finish off the last of my law subjects part-time (the majority of my law subjects offer night lectures, so it should be possible to work 9-5 and still study 1-2 subjects per semester).

Unfortunately, because I'm doing a dual degree, I can't actually receive my IT degree until I've finished all the law subjects. Additionally, I don't really have much of a clue what sort of field in IT I want to work in. My degree has consisted almost entirely of coding java, with very little else. I've majored in Networking/Operating Systems, which I enjoyed. Beyond that, I don't have a clue what to do!

Help me! What are my chances of finding full-time work in IT without having that precious piece of paper with "Bachelor of IT" written on it? Where should I be looking? Should I be applying for graduate jobs, even though I haven't actually graduated? What sort of jobs should I be looking for given my qualifications (or lack thereof) and interests?

[Girl.]

I know nothing about IT, but if I were you I would definitely suck it up and finish my law degree. The last 2 years of law are horrible and I think that everyone goes through the 'what the hell, I don't even want to be a lawyer anyway' feeling, but you never know what you'll want to do in the future and if you've only got 4 semesters left, you may as well finish. Also, working as a lawyer is completely different to what you expect when you're a student, and either way, having a law degree can get you jobs in non-legal areas - like government, if you're interested in that.

I don't know about GPAs but I had a Distinction average in my law degree and had heard that if you didnt have a High Distinction average you wouldn't be able to get a job at a decent firm - which proved in time to be complete crap, as I'm now working for one of the biggest firms in the country. I actually just finished a stint in IT/IP law, and the IP/IT department is absolutely huge at my firm so I'd imagine that someone with your kind of qualifications and interests would be sought after.

Hope this helps and sorry if it's a bit disjointed - I'm at a noisy net cafe and in a hurry :) Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

[SmaSheD_CoW]

I definately intend to finish law - I've invested far too much time and money in it to drop out now. I would just prefer to finish it part-time while I work somewhere and (hopefully) start building a career in IT.

As for the GPA thing, a 4 is a pass, 5 is credit, 6 is distinction, 7 is high distinction. The people I've spoken to (including a good friend who works in HR at a prominent Brisbane law firm) have told me that you typically need around a 5.5 GPA before they'll even grant you an interview. I sincerely hope they're wrong, but given the number of law graduates the universities around here are churning out each year, I suspect they're probably right.

Working in a non-legal area (like Govt) isn't really something I'd thought about much. I'll definately investigate that a bit further.

[Nandragon]

as a 40 year old just returning to school....

don't drop out
you'll lose credits
time
and money
don't drop out

suck it up and finish!

[Holster]

I would apply for jobs as if you already have your degree, have a really good think about what aspects of IT you love and apply for jobs in that field.

And I would apply for the grad positions this year.
Most of the companies are not looking for someone with great marks in a Bachelor of IT. A guy I worked with a some kind of geology degree with a pass average and he score an excellent IT grad job.

[C0V3R]

Just finish. Having a law degree will set you apart when you go for your first job and when hit your late 20s. If you go into law at the outset... well then you'll be reaping the benefits from the start

[Cordis]

I agree with all the comments above if you don't finish your degree you run the risk of looking over qualified and under skilled for your age.

You have two options in my opinion:

One is to finish the law or law/it degree and start a career in the government (may require to relocate to Canberra) or law/accounting firm. There is a huge demand at the moment for IT law specialists especially in areas regarding intellectual property etc.

Your second option is to get into IT, which is still pretty tough. Unfortunately all the fun/soft IT careers like multimedia, web design and ecommerce are incredibly difficult to get into as you not only competing against uni graduates but also redundant workers, re-entrants and the self taught. Unless you’re talented, have good networks or extremely lucky you may find it tough to break into these areas.

My recommendation is to learn an IT skill that is in demand. For example I am a product development manager for a medium sized Software Company and we are struggling to find good J2EE developers or university graduates who have a aptitude to pick it up quickly.

Some of the areas that I always see job vacancies in are security, C++ and Java programmers, database administration and some forms of networking. Anyway hope this helps and try not to get discouraged.

[dwarfthrower]

I give stuff-all consideration to how well someone did in their IT degree, or even if they have one at all. Getting through one of my interviews unscathed is a helluva lot harder than passing an IT degree.