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University | The Christian Reeve Podcast | #39 | · The Christian Reeve Podcast

• 0:01
  Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Christian Reef
• 0:05
  podcast. I do hope that everyone is
• 0:08
  coping well with the lockdown, the second lock down here in the
• 0:12
  UK. I know it's difficult, it wasn't
• 0:16
  fun. The first time, I mean this
• 0:18
  whole year hasn't been fun really, but I feel like many of
• 0:23
  us are trying to make the best of it in the circumstances.
• 0:27
  But I just wanted to, you know, take a minute.
• 0:30
  To say like just hang in there, you know, things will get better
• 0:35
  and eventually we will get past this.
• 0:38
  I have a firm belief that we will get past this and things
• 0:43
  will return to some resemblance of normality.
• 0:46
  I don't know necessarily if things will change back to
• 0:50
  exactly the way they were before.
• 0:52
  I hope they do one day, but we can never really be too sure on
• 0:57
  that one. Can we?
• 1:00
  To give nothing else. You know, we got to be there for
• 1:02
  each other and we gotta look out for each other now more than
• 1:04
  ever. So yeah, I just wanted to say
• 1:07
  that but yeah, today's topic is University.
• 1:13
  And I've been meaning to do this topic for a while now, and a
• 1:18
  little bit of back story about this, I did actually record this
• 1:21
  episode already and I hated it. I thought it was trash and, you
• 1:28
  know, it's not the first time that I've ever ever done this
• 1:30
  with a project that I've done. I mean, I've recorded into
• 1:34
  entire let's play series before and then deleted them.
• 1:39
  I've recorded by several videos that, you know, ranged, anywhere
• 1:43
  from like, seven minutes up to 30 minutes or more and deleted
• 1:46
  them. As you guys know, I really value
• 1:50
  quality and putting the work in and making sure that things are
• 1:54
  the best that they can be. And I felt that the issue when I
• 1:58
  did this last time. Was that there was a lack of
• 2:01
  structure and I missed a couple of things that I felt were quite
• 2:06
  important. Now, I haven't got like, loads
• 2:09
  and loads and loads of points here.
• 2:12
  It will be a sort of a cliff notes version where I kind of
• 2:15
  get to the things that I feel are most important, at least in
• 2:20
  my experience anyway because I know everyone's University
• 2:22
  experience is different. And I don't, I'm not trying to
• 2:25
  kind of speak for everyone here. I'm just trying to give my like
• 2:29
  Or my perspective and you know, you can kind of make of it what
• 2:33
  you will. So if you're thinking about
• 2:36
  going to University when you see this, obviously I know the
• 2:40
  moment recording this. It's in the middle of a term or
• 2:43
  the end of a term or whatever. But you know whenever you watch
• 2:46
  this or listen to this maybe you're thinking of going
• 2:49
  University, maybe you're thinking of going in the future,
• 2:51
  I don't know. Maybe this podcast will be of
• 2:55
  some use to you in some way or if nothing else.
• 2:58
  Hopefully, it's What I will say as well before we get into
• 3:03
  things, is that if there is anything that I do miss that,
• 3:07
  you would like to know about, please let me know.
• 3:10
  I'm more than happy to do a follow-up.
• 3:12
  Based on those things, maybe it will be a full podcast, maybe
• 3:17
  it'll be a segment of a future podcast, whatever the case may
• 3:20
  be, but I'm always happy to do that.
• 3:24
  Your input is very important to me.
• 3:26
  So, you know, if you do have any questions, anything you want to
• 3:29
  know, No, let me know and it will be included.
• 3:33
  So yeah, let's let's get straight into things.
• 3:37
  I want to start or begin with my journey to University.
• 3:41
  Now all I finished school at 18, now for those who don't live in
• 3:48
  the UK, basically we have high school from the ages of 11 to 16
• 3:56
  and then between the ages of 16 to 18.
• 4:00
  We have a choice. So we can either go to what we
• 4:03
  call college for two years, which is not the same as
• 4:06
  University. It's basically just two years
• 4:09
  extra on top of high school, where you have a higher level of
• 4:15
  qualifications, it kind of sits somewhere in between a high
• 4:20
  school education and the university qualification.
• 4:23
  It's like, somewhere in the middle we call them a levels in
• 4:28
  the United Kingdom. But you don't have to do a
• 4:31
  levels. You can also choose to do
• 4:33
  vocational qualifications. So maybe you want to get into
• 4:36
  like the catering industry or you wanna do like hairdressing,
• 4:40
  or maybe you want to become an electrician or a plumber or
• 4:44
  whatever you want to do. You can also do those things.
• 4:49
  But in the last decade, I believe, it's now become the law
• 4:53
  that you have to do this extra qualification past 16 because it
• 4:59
  used Be that once you finished school at 16, you could do
• 5:02
  whatever you wanted. But now you have to do an
• 5:04
  additional qualification. I think that's important, I
• 5:09
  think it's necessary. I think that you know, at the
• 5:14
  end of the day you need something, you know, like
• 5:18
  everyone has different career paths, different things that
• 5:21
  they want to do. Obviously University is not for
• 5:24
  everyone and not everyone wants to go to university.
• 5:26
  I know that when I was considering my options Options
• 5:30
  at 18. I didn't want to go to
• 5:33
  university, I had various reasons for that, and I'll get
• 5:36
  into that, but I did kind of feel at the time, like there
• 5:40
  must be other options and I grew up in London and at the time it
• 5:46
  kind of seemed like there weren't, I was very naive and
• 5:50
  the job market back, then was pretty much like, you know, if
• 5:55
  you didn't have a degree, you were screwed.
• 5:57
  Like you all that was available to You was just thought, you
• 6:00
  know, Supermarket work and stuff.
• 6:02
  Which there's nothing wrong with that.
• 6:04
  There's nothing wrong with those jobs.
• 6:05
  I'm not shitting on them. I'm just saying that, you know,
• 6:08
  if you want to have like a range of different possibilities, then
• 6:13
  I certainly think that University can open that up, but
• 6:18
  back then, there was just less opportunity.
• 6:20
  Now you've got much much more opportunity.
• 6:24
  You've got internships, apprenticeships graduate
• 6:27
  schemes. I know of SLI, you need to, you
• 6:31
  know, do a degree to do that, but there are like equivalent
• 6:34
  schemes where you don't need a degree to do it.
• 6:36
  So there's a lot more options now and I sometimes wonder about
• 6:40
  this if if there were the level of opportunities that exist now
• 6:44
  back then maybe I never would have gone to University.
• 6:47
  So I will say before we get into my journey to University that if
• 6:53
  you are thinking of going to University or you're kind of at
• 6:57
  a Crossroads and you're not really sure what to do.
• 7:00
  Just just do your research, you know, look at look into what's
• 7:03
  out there, looking to what interests you and you know, look
• 7:07
  at the kind of the path to doing that because going to University
• 7:11
  might not necessarily be on that path, you know?
• 7:15
  I mean like I feel that University is a big commitment,
• 7:18
  is three years or sometimes more.
• 7:20
  So, you know, you've really got to take some time to think about
• 7:23
  if you want to commit your time to that and and obviously, in
• 7:26
  the money towards doing that as well.
• 7:30
  Because there are other options, there are other Alternatives and
• 7:34
  I sincerely, wish that I had access to those opportunities
• 7:38
  when I was 18 because I really didn't know what to do.
• 7:44
  There was no one around me kind of saying like hey have you
• 7:47
  considered this? Have you considered that?
• 7:50
  My mom was very sort of, she didn't push me at all, but she
• 7:54
  was konev of the mine that I should probably go to
• 7:56
  university. But when I said, I wasn't
• 7:58
  interested She was obviously fine with that but I kind of
• 8:04
  felt like I needed a kick up the ass, you know, from someone and
• 8:09
  no one around me was really doing that and it's not up to
• 8:12
  anyone to do, that's no one's responsibility.
• 8:14
  But back then if you can picture this kind of 18 year old that
• 8:18
  was just clueless and had no idea what you wanted to do.
• 8:21
  That was me these days, I'm much more driven.
• 8:25
  I know exactly what I want from life.
• 8:27
  I know what I'm doing. I know where I'm going.
• 8:30
  What when I say, I know what I'm doing, like, I don't fully know
• 8:33
  what I'm doing, but I have a much better idea of what should
• 8:36
  be doing, and I'm pursuing things that I love.
• 8:38
  Now, whereas back, then, I had no idea.
• 8:41
  I didn't know what I loved, I had a rough idea of things that
• 8:44
  I liked, but I didn't. For instance, I didn't really
• 8:47
  think about like, how you could make a career in music for
• 8:50
  instance, or how you could make money from that, you know what I
• 8:53
  mean? Like, I had no idea, I had no
• 8:55
  idea that jobs like, copywriting jobs existed, I had no idea.
• 8:59
  Any of these things and at school, I mean, my school there
• 9:03
  just wasn't really good enough resources.
• 9:06
  I mean, if you wanted to go to university, they, you know,
• 9:10
  would go the whole hog and give you they lay out a red carpet
• 9:13
  and be like we got this and that and that and that and that and
• 9:17
  you know, I kind of felt excluded.
• 9:18
  As soon as I said that I wasn't interested in going to
• 9:21
  University. It almost felt like they just
• 9:24
  dropped me like a LED way and they're like, oh, you're not
• 9:27
  interested in going. Okay.
• 9:28
  Well, then screw you then. I'll never forget this, the way
• 9:31
  my school treated me, because my sister, my school was always
• 9:33
  really good to me. But this was like, the one time
• 9:37
  that they were actually really shitty towards me where they
• 9:41
  basically said to me, okay? If you're not interested in
• 9:45
  going to University, then you should go to this Workshop group
• 9:49
  and basically the workshop group, it was called the world
• 9:54
  of work. And it's basically for anyone
• 9:56
  that was thinking of going straight into work.
• 9:58
  And, you know, it was supposed to be be a class where they
• 10:01
  would help you, you know, build a CV and all that stuff.
• 10:05
  And it wasn't even a fucking classroom is in our sixth form,
• 10:09
  common room, where there happened to be some computers in
• 10:12
  a sort of semi circle square and there was about eight or nine of
• 10:16
  us. And some of the people in there,
• 10:19
  you know, were like, wasters. I don't to be harsh.
• 10:22
  I'm not saying everyone there was but, you know, most people
• 10:24
  there like that. Forget about University.
• 10:27
  They just didn't want to do anything with their lives for
• 10:29
  stop. And I didn't want to be in crude
• 10:31
  included with that crowd, you know, I was always ambitious,
• 10:35
  especially at that age and I always have been.
• 10:37
  I've always wanted to achieve things with my life but back
• 10:40
  then. I just had a lack of
• 10:42
  self-esteem, a lack of belief in myself, there was this big
• 10:46
  belief in myself that I wasn't intelligent enough to go to
• 10:49
  university, which is absolutely ludicrous.
• 10:52
  Anyone can go to university like, it doesn't matter what
• 10:55
  background you're from, anyone can go if you really want to go.
• 10:59
  It's Able to go, there will be universities available to you.
• 11:03
  That will have the courses that are good for you, okay?
• 11:06
  So don't ever believe that. If anyone ever tells you, you're
• 11:10
  not good enough or you're not intelligent enough, or if you
• 11:12
  just believe that yourself, then that's nonsense.
• 11:15
  Stop believing that I wish I'd had someone tell me that.
• 11:19
  Because at that age, I just had no belief in myself whatsoever.
• 11:23
  I kind of thought, you know, I basically closed the road off to
• 11:27
  myself which sounds Really stupid.
• 11:31
  And I'm very surprised that I used to think that way because
• 11:34
  I'm a totally different person these days.
• 11:36
  Like when I look at opportunities that are presented
• 11:40
  to me, I kind of get excited about them and I'm like, oh,
• 11:44
  this could happen, this could happen, this could happen,
• 11:46
  whereas back then opportunities that were, you know, presented
• 11:50
  to me. I would immediately seek fault
• 11:53
  with them. I would say all, but you know
• 11:54
  what about this? What if this would happen or
• 11:57
  this barrier to entry blah blah blah blah.
• 11:59
  Like Like, even the universe he process of applying and stuff.
• 12:02
  I, I sort of started it back then but I didn't see it through
• 12:06
  because I could already see like problems with it and it's that
• 12:09
  age-old thing of, you know, you can be the type of person who
• 12:13
  finds problems in life or you can be the type of person who
• 12:17
  finds Solutions in life. You know, it's how you approach
• 12:20
  life and back then. I was just really -
• 12:24
  unfortunately, I was not the person I am today.
• 12:28
  I'm not saying I'm some sort of Fake person now because I'm not
• 12:31
  we were all we are all working progress has but back then yeah
• 12:36
  I just had a very poor attitude and I was just not in a good
• 12:40
  place and I really could have used some advice and it wasn't
• 12:44
  available to me. And I don't want this to sound
• 12:46
  like a sob story because it's not.
• 12:48
  But I just wanted to paint a picture of why I didn't go to
• 12:51
  university at 18. I don't see it as a big deal.
• 12:55
  I mean, when I did eventually go to university, I I heard that
• 13:00
  there were people of all different ages that go to
• 13:02
  university and start a different ages so it doesn't matter.
• 13:06
  Like what age you go. Yes.
• 13:07
  There will be a lot of 18 year olds going to University
• 13:10
  straight out of school but there's also a lot of people in
• 13:13
  their mid 20s. Early 30s that want to do a
• 13:15
  career change. You'll find all sorts of
• 13:17
  different people and no one cares about the age thing or at
• 13:21
  least at my University. They didn't care.
• 13:24
  So yeah. But before we get into like the
• 13:27
  process of what happened, Went on when I started my University
• 13:32
  journey, I want to say real quickly, I studied a management
• 13:36
  with marketing degree at Royal Holloway University.
• 13:39
  So that's where I went and that's the degree I got.
• 13:42
  So I just want to say that just throw that out there right now.
• 13:47
  Now yeah, bring it back to when I was 18.
• 13:50
  So obviously I started to get into work.
• 13:53
  I was working in a supermarket. It seemed like a okay job, you
• 13:58
  know, paid a wage it It's fine. I worked for a supermarket
• 14:01
  called waitrose which I'm sure you've heard me talk about many
• 14:04
  times, so I won't go into the detail on that hated the job.
• 14:10
  Didn't hate all of it, but hated most of it, you know, the hours
• 14:13
  sucked, the commute was awful back and forth.
• 14:19
  I was always tired. I was in a heavy metal band at
• 14:24
  the time. It was my first proper band,
• 14:26
  because I've been in many bands since then, and music has always
• 14:29
  been a big part of my Life. But back then it was like my
• 14:32
  first real proper serious project.
• 14:35
  And I really wanted it to work and I was really serious about
• 14:41
  it. And I think one of the probably
• 14:42
  the biggest reason that I was serious about it, other than one
• 14:45
  in it to just work, was the fact that, you know, my day job was
• 14:48
  working in the supermarket and it, I just felt depressed.
• 14:51
  I felt like I'd thrown my life away or like, I was a failure or
• 14:56
  something. And, you know, even in that That
• 14:59
  place like I worked my ass off, but I could never get to that
• 15:02
  the managerial level. There was all this bullshit
• 15:05
  politics that was stopping me from getting anywhere.
• 15:07
  So even there like you know, as ambitious as I was at that age,
• 15:11
  I couldn't even make grounds there.
• 15:15
  And, you know, I was in that band for three years.
• 15:20
  It started I think a year before I actually started that job, but
• 15:26
  about two years into the job, I It had many kind of not proper
• 15:31
  breakdowns, but I was constantly having like little depressive
• 15:35
  spouts where I just hated it and I was complaining it about it
• 15:38
  but I wasn't doing anything about it because I was scared.
• 15:41
  I was scared that I was trapped in this job and there was no way
• 15:44
  of me getting out of it. And in many ways University and
• 15:48
  the University career path was an Escape Route, but I just
• 15:54
  wasn't really sure if I could do it, and I was seeing someone at
• 15:58
  the time. Whoo.
• 15:59
  Who would had started her first year of University when I was
• 16:06
  sort of two years into this job. So I was seeing her start her
• 16:11
  University Journey, obviously a bit later, but she was still
• 16:15
  doing it. So, I had this kind of Envy of
• 16:17
  her and I have felt even more pressure and a sense of
• 16:22
  depression on myself, because even my ex-partner was was going
• 16:27
  to University. Seemingly everyone was going to
• 16:29
  City. I told a story actually, in My
• 16:33
  Story Time series of the worst thing that ever, someone ever
• 16:36
  said to me, which was one of my ex-girlfriends friends who'd
• 16:42
  turned around to me and basically laughed in my face at
• 16:45
  the prospect of me, you know, working in this supermarket and,
• 16:49
  you know, her friend, obviously going to University.
• 16:52
  So, there were little things like that, that were really
• 16:56
  reinforcing. This, this sense of Sort of pain
• 17:00
  in myself and disbelief and myself and depression in myself.
• 17:04
  I felt, you know, like I just couldn't do anything.
• 17:07
  I was never going to amount to anything and I was a laughing
• 17:10
  stock to everyone around me. I also understood that the
• 17:14
  managers of this place that I was working at were laughing
• 17:18
  behind my back and saying like, oh yeah, he's just a right off.
• 17:21
  He'll never achieve anything with his life so you can see
• 17:25
  like how everyone was kind of shooting at me and all cylinders
• 17:28
  and I don't want to make it sound like I was some really
• 17:30
  important person because I wasn't but sometimes people are
• 17:34
  like that. Sometimes, you know, people are
• 17:36
  out to get you or are laughing at you or are not acting in your
• 17:40
  best interests. And I had very few people around
• 17:44
  me that were actually speaking some truth.
• 17:46
  There were a few that I worked with and you know who you are.
• 17:50
  That said, some things that I needed to hear and did make me
• 17:53
  believe in myself, but I think that ultimately my decision to
• 17:58
  go back into education And go to university, kind of started
• 18:03
  around the time that my band broke up.
• 18:05
  So my band broke up around December 2012.
• 18:11
  Like I said, so I was two years into this job, so I was entering
• 18:14
  that third year. I was still doing music, I was
• 18:17
  in another metal band for two or three months after that and then
• 18:21
  I started doing some solo acoustic stuff as well.
• 18:26
  So I was always doing stuff. And I was always trying to kind
• 18:31
  of think about that. Like, as long as I keep busy, it
• 18:33
  doesn't matter what I do with my day job, you know, because
• 18:36
  everyone has a day job, everyone starts out with nothing and then
• 18:40
  eventually they quit their day job, you know, it's where the
• 18:42
  whole, you know saying comes from, don't quit your day job.
• 18:45
  Well some people do get to quit their day job and do what they
• 18:48
  love, you know, and they have to go through 10 tons of shit to
• 18:52
  get to where they want to get to, but ultimately they get to
• 18:55
  where they want to get to. But I think the issue for me was
• 19:00
  when that 2nd band ended and like I think because I was
• 19:04
  booted out of that band, for some reason, I can't remember
• 19:07
  what it was. And then my solo acoustic shows
• 19:13
  were just not resonating. I didn't feel very good about
• 19:16
  them and I was just another Crossroads.
• 19:19
  I was like, what am I doing? You know, like my music isn't
• 19:22
  working. You know, I'm stuck in this
• 19:26
  Supermarket that I hate. You know, what am I doing with
• 19:29
  my life? It was one of those moments and
• 19:33
  basically that's when I sort of started thinking about, you
• 19:38
  know, getting back into education but obviously I didn't
• 19:40
  know where to start and I remember speaking to one of my
• 19:43
  ex-girlfriends relatives who was a schoolteacher a bit, he was
• 19:47
  retired but he'd been a schoolteacher for most of his
• 19:50
  life and he kind of heard about my situation and he suggested
• 19:56
  going to University And obviously I had all the same
• 20:01
  doubts and concerns that I had but he really pushed this idea
• 20:04
  of like getting a special ISM. Like your you need a special
• 20:07
  ISM. You need something that you can
• 20:10
  kind of focus on something that you enjoy and it will open up
• 20:14
  opportunities for you. And so, I really thought about
• 20:17
  this. I looked into it and I
• 20:19
  discovered marketing and I wasn't really familiar.
• 20:21
  Like I obviously, I knew what marketing was because I studied
• 20:24
  business for many years, that college and high school.
• 20:28
  Level but I didn't really know, you know, the ins and outs
• 20:31
  about. I didn't know like the career
• 20:33
  opportunities. I didn't know that you could
• 20:34
  study a university. I didn't know any of this stuff.
• 20:37
  I found this out later. So I did my research and I
• 20:43
  looked up some courses and I looked up the local University
• 20:46
  near me And basically, I didn't have a proper plan.
• 20:51
  I just kind of cooled them up in that year during clearing.
• 20:55
  Now for those who don't know what clearing is clear.
• 20:58
  Earring is basically when you contact a university, once all
• 21:04
  of the places have been kind of given out to people and stuff.
• 21:08
  It's kind of like a last resort last-minute thing and it's
• 21:11
  mostly for people who didn't manage to get the grades that
• 21:15
  they wanted to get to get into a course.
• 21:17
  So they're made, they're sort of trying their luck with other
• 21:19
  universities or trying their luck with different courses.
• 21:23
  Sometimes they get in, sometimes they don't it's kind of a lot or
• 21:27
  anything because It works, is loads of people sign up for
• 21:31
  courses and stuff. But, you know, sometimes people
• 21:33
  drop out for various reasons and that means that other places
• 21:37
  become free on courses. So it's kind of like a last
• 21:41
  resort luck of the draw sort of thing and I contacted Brunel
• 21:48
  University. That was the closest University
• 21:50
  to me and I didn't. This is the thing and this is my
• 21:53
  first mistake. So don't make this mistake.
• 21:56
  I didn't give it any thought. I didn't plan a didn't think
• 21:59
  about where I was going to live, you know, I didn't even I kind
• 22:03
  of naively thought like are just live at home and go to the union
• 22:06
  that will be here. I didn't even think about like
• 22:07
  having a university life. You know what I mean?
• 22:10
  And being a young person, I was just so obsessed with just
• 22:13
  getting out of my Supermarket job.
• 22:16
  So my a bit of advice there would be do your research really
• 22:20
  think about where you want to go because you know, you've got
• 22:23
  many options, you can go abroad, you can you know, study in a
• 22:27
  completely different. City.
• 22:29
  You know, you don't have to stay in your hometown so that was the
• 22:33
  first mistake. But anyway, then I was kind of
• 22:37
  thinking okay maybe I'll get into this course through
• 22:40
  clearing so I cook I called them and they basically told me
• 22:44
  incorrectly as well. This is very important that the
• 22:47
  story. They told me that I needed to do
• 22:49
  this access to higher education course at my local College, in
• 22:54
  order to get into their course. Now at the time, Time.
• 22:59
  I took them for their word, they were a university, they were
• 23:02
  telling me that my grades weren't good enough.
• 23:03
  Now, my grades at a level were as follows a star, a star D.
• 23:09
  Okay. So that's two a stars in
• 23:13
  business and then because I did like a btech course by got like
• 23:17
  full distinctions for everything and then like a d and like
• 23:20
  psychology and I think they were saying like, well because you
• 23:23
  got the D in Psychology, we can't admit you, which is
• 23:26
  bullshit because when I did, Eventually applied to you Royal
• 23:30
  Holloway University, they admitted me based on my original
• 23:33
  results but we'll get to that, we'll get to that.
• 23:37
  So anyway, I'm trying to get into clearing and it's not
• 23:41
  happening and they're telling me.
• 23:43
  Yeah, you got to do this course. So I was like, okay I'll do this
• 23:47
  course and turns out that the course was a couple of thousand
• 23:51
  pounds. I can't remember the exact
• 23:53
  amount. But you know, it wasn't cheap
• 23:55
  and I'd never paid for a course before.
• 23:58
  For Education had always been free from from previously.
• 24:02
  Now I had to pee so I was like oh shit and I can't remember how
• 24:06
  I got the money. Exactly that b hazy.
• 24:10
  But I somehow got the money and I applied for this course I got
• 24:15
  in. It was a year-long course.
• 24:18
  I do highly recommend these actually, if you do have issues
• 24:22
  with grades or difficulties getting into a university then
• 24:26
  access to higher education, Horses can actually be very
• 24:29
  useful and you know, I enjoyed the course, even though I didn't
• 24:33
  need to do it, I really enjoyed the structure of it.
• 24:37
  It felt very similar to what I'd done at a level.
• 24:41
  It was fun. I met new people.
• 24:43
  You know, I most of it, I already knew but, you know,
• 24:46
  there was a bit of learning here and they're expanding on certain
• 24:49
  points and so on. But it was more of the same,
• 24:53
  really, but it was a good way to kind of bridge the gap I suppose
• 24:57
  and And like, you know, strengthen your University
• 25:01
  profile. Plus, they gave all of the help
• 25:05
  as far as, you know, applying for University.
• 25:08
  And, you know, all the UK s staff which obviously schools do
• 25:13
  as well, but not every school, you know, mine didn't do it very
• 25:16
  well but at least this college did.
• 25:19
  So shout out to Oxbridge College.
• 25:21
  Anyway, I get about halfway through this course and it comes
• 25:26
  to the time because you have to Applying really early.
• 25:29
  It's really weird. Like I think I was applying in
• 25:31
  like January, and obviously you wouldn't start the course until
• 25:36
  like September. So this was like, January of
• 25:38
  2014 and I was in a bad spot me and my ex girlfriend had just
• 25:43
  broken up. So I was depressed beyond
• 25:47
  belief, my head was all over the place on one.
• 25:53
  There was one bright side. One silver lining.
• 25:55
  I had gone part time at my job in order to Accommodate my
• 25:58
  part-time, my college course, basically, I had to be part time
• 26:05
  and that was fantastic. I was so happy about that
• 26:07
  because when I was full time, I felt like I had no freedom in my
• 26:12
  job and no rights and I was just stuck, but I swear to God when I
• 26:16
  went part-time I actually started enjoying my job.
• 26:21
  I got to choose my hours for the most part and you know, I got to
• 26:25
  work in other sections and work with different people.
• 26:28
  In staff and it was more flexibility.
• 26:30
  So I that actually it wasn't that bad.
• 26:33
  I mean, obviously in when I eventually got to quit, you know
• 26:36
  I was so ready to leave. I was just like almost cheering
• 26:43
  but yeah, you know, that that that last year wasn't wasn't as
• 26:46
  bad. But anyway, so I wasn't in the
• 26:49
  greatest place but you know things weren't all bad but you
• 26:52
  know how it is when you get your first breakup, like I was
• 26:56
  devastated. you know, I was, it was difficult, finding
• 27:01
  motivation, but somehow I was managing to, I think I was just
• 27:05
  trying to bury my head in my work and not really think about
• 27:09
  how the Pressed I was, which I'm not saying is the most sensible
• 27:13
  idea or even the most healthy option, but I don't know.
• 27:18
  That's how I deal with stuff when I'm really depressed.
• 27:21
  I focus on my work and I work harder and it helps occupy my
• 27:26
  mind. But anyway, I obviously was
• 27:30
  cooling universities and trying to get are not, I believe I
• 27:34
  applied to let me see University of Greenwich London,
• 27:39
  Metropolitan University, which is ranked as one of the worst
• 27:43
  universities in the UK, but my reasoning behind applying for
• 27:47
  them. That.
• 27:48
  Hey, if I apply to them, I'll get into a university.
• 27:53
  And, to be honest, I will say, just on a side note that like,
• 27:57
  even if a university has bad rankings, that doesn't
• 28:00
  necessarily mean it's about University.
• 28:01
  It really does depend. And we'll get into the reasons
• 28:04
  for why that is when we talk about rankings later.
• 28:07
  But at the time I didn't really know much about this.
• 28:11
  So I just saw it. I was like, oh yeah, I'll put a
• 28:14
  bad University here and then I stand a chance of light.
• 28:17
  Like definitely at least getting it but yeah Royal Holloway was
• 28:21
  one of the was I think my first choice.
• 28:23
  So my second choice, something like that.
• 28:25
  I really wanted to get in. I love the university.
• 28:28
  I went on an open day and I fell in love with it.
• 28:31
  You know, it was it was perfect and it did my course it was
• 28:34
  quite highly ranked for marketing but again, we'll get
• 28:38
  to the rankings thing. So anyway, I'm on the phone
• 28:43
  talking to this person and I'm discussing my options in terms.
• 28:47
  Of the grades that I need to get in and I tell her my predicted
• 28:53
  grades and then I tell her my grades that I got for my
• 28:56
  a-levels and she sort of pauses doesn't say much.
• 29:02
  And then says, well, based on these grades that you got a
• 29:04
  level, we're happy to accept you right now.
• 29:07
  And I'm like, what? Well, what do you mean right
• 29:11
  now? Are you telling me that I don't
• 29:14
  need to be doing the course that I'm doing?
• 29:16
  I don't have to finish it. And she started to backpedal a
• 29:19
  little bit and was like, well you know, I mean you probably
• 29:23
  should finish your course, you know, just because you know it's
• 29:26
  good for you and stuff and it's good for your education and but
• 29:29
  I think she was trying to say like you know you should you
• 29:31
  should stick with things especially if you're going to go
• 29:32
  to university and study for three years, you need to, you
• 29:35
  know, practice stick into things and seeing them through actually
• 29:39
  come out and say that. But I think that's what she
• 29:41
  meant. But I was, yeah, I was just
• 29:45
  dumbfounded by this and it. In a way, it was really good
• 29:49
  because, you know, obviously, I got accepted into the
• 29:51
  university. I wanted suddenly things were
• 29:54
  starting to feel much better, you know.
• 29:56
  I'm starting to feel like I had some hope in my life.
• 30:00
  Like, you know, maybe there was some kind of Silver Lining after
• 30:06
  all, when it wasn't all going to be Doom and Gloom.
• 30:09
  Now, when it came to kind of the end of the year, I entered
• 30:18
  again. This depression.
• 30:19
  It was weird. You know, I went to, I went on
• 30:22
  holiday. I use my final bonus from my
• 30:25
  job. I quit my job.
• 30:26
  I went to America for two weeks. It was incredible.
• 30:30
  I'd always wanted to go there and it was just an incredible
• 30:33
  experience. I'll never forget it.
• 30:36
  But when I came back, I entered that about a depression.
• 30:41
  Again you know I started thinking about my ex girlfriend
• 30:43
  and stuff. I got really lonely.
• 30:45
  I didn't have any friends at the I'm you know, it was a tough
• 30:48
  time mentally and it was weird because, you know, I was going
• 30:54
  to this new exciting place. You know, I've never been to
• 30:56
  University, I had no idea to what to expect but I heard all
• 30:59
  these great stories and exciting things about University.
• 31:03
  But I was just so depressed from my breakup.
• 31:07
  I was just in such a bad head space that I couldn't even think
• 31:11
  about that. Then fast forward to the day of
• 31:14
  actually moving out and wow. I mean obviously my mom was
• 31:21
  really, you know, sad about it and I think it was big now.
• 31:26
  I understand it was because like this was really me leaving like
• 31:30
  you know I didn't realize this at the time but this was like me
• 31:34
  leaving and never coming back because you know, I moved out of
• 31:38
  21 and I'm 27 now and you know, I've written And home like very
• 31:44
  briefly here and there for like a week or two, you know, just to
• 31:46
  stay. But I've never, like, stay
• 31:48
  there. Stay there because, you know,
• 31:52
  I've lived with with Partners, like, previous girlfriends.
• 31:57
  I've lived with I've I've lived abroad.
• 32:00
  I've basically been living by myself or, you know, living in
• 32:05
  shared places ever since. But, you know principally, I've
• 32:08
  been living for myself living on my own essentially or with a
• 32:13
  Turner but I've never really returned home.
• 32:16
  So this was like a you know, sayonara he's leaving the nest,
• 32:20
  kind of situation. So now I understand the weight
• 32:22
  of it but at the time I just thought she was being
• 32:24
  melodramatic. So sorry mum.
• 32:26
  I didn't realize the seriousness of it back then, but my stepdad
• 32:30
  was very like, he's a man now, like he should go and be a man,
• 32:34
  like, it's like he needs. He needs to leave but not in,
• 32:37
  not in a pushy way, but like he was like, no, let him leave.
• 32:40
  Like this is good for him and he was right.
• 32:42
  It was Have it with me, I should say.
• 32:47
  But you know what's really funny is in despite of being like
• 32:52
  feeling depressed, as soon as I arrived at that uni and I moved
• 32:55
  into those dormitory halls, and I met the people was going to be
• 32:59
  living with, and I just got all my stuff there, and I saw the
• 33:02
  place. I just suddenly got really
• 33:04
  excited and all my feelings of sadness, just disappeared.
• 33:09
  Just, I just got all got over it.
• 33:11
  Like, really, Well, and obviously like the next year,
• 33:14
  you know, I was still battling with it like a tiny bit, but it
• 33:18
  was right at the back of my mind because University had taken
• 33:20
  over my life. So I think if nothing else, a
• 33:23
  good lesson here is if you ever want to come over heartbreak or
• 33:27
  something depressive time in your life, then it's very good
• 33:31
  to consider, starting something new.
• 33:34
  Starting something like a big commitment that will take a lot
• 33:37
  of your time and effort and mind set, because it will keep you
• 33:41
  busy. And it will give you like a new
• 33:44
  lease of life. And I think that's what I needed
• 33:46
  in my life. Was a new lease of Life.
• 33:48
  New kind of opportunity, a chance to start something new
• 33:53
  and a chance to get confidence to gain confidence because it
• 33:56
  sucks. When, you know, you get broken
• 33:58
  up with. I mean, you lose a lot of
• 34:00
  confidence in yourself. You blame yourself.
• 34:03
  I know I did. And, you know, I felt like, I
• 34:09
  was failure, you know, I thought I had it wasn't just the
• 34:11
  relationship thing, you know, I felt I was a failure with that
• 34:14
  job that I was never able to become a manager or, you know,
• 34:17
  after being there for like three years.
• 34:19
  So they're all these like, failures in my life but getting
• 34:23
  into University was a success. I was like, okay this is the
• 34:26
  beginning of something new. I'm I'm building successes now.
• 34:30
  I'm building steps towards a different kind of life.
• 34:35
  So that was essentially my journey to University.
• 34:40
  I thought it would be longer than it was.
• 34:42
  But yeah, that, that was Pretty much it.
• 34:44
  And I mean, it was different routes that we can we can go
• 34:47
  with this. I'm going to talk about parties
• 34:51
  and first year, real quick about my first year because our, after
• 34:56
  reflection, I've kind of realized that, you know, first
• 34:58
  year of University as far as like, academically speaking.
• 35:03
  It is a waste of time. I mean, depends on the course
• 35:06
  you're doing. You know, I know, I know a lot
• 35:07
  of people say, oh, you know, it builds the foundation, it sets,
• 35:10
  the foundation, for you, blah blah blah.
• 35:12
  But for me I'm in management with marketing, it really felt
• 35:15
  like a foundation are ecourseware.
• 35:18
  You know, you're just getting a taste of everything.
• 35:20
  You know, I wasn't even studying marketing.
• 35:21
  I think there was like one module because basically at
• 35:26
  least for marketing courses they set up the first during a way
• 35:29
  that you can kind of do a little bit of everything.
• 35:32
  So you do stuff that you hate as well.
• 35:34
  So I ended up doing like statistics and stuff.
• 35:36
  Like I remember sitting in my first statistics lesson sitting
• 35:38
  down in the lecture hall. That was my first lesson and
• 35:42
  going on. Got off.
• 35:43
  Made a dramatic error, here, I'm doing statistics.
• 35:46
  I am terrible at maths. What am I doing here?
• 35:49
  Oh my God, I got to do this for three years.
• 35:51
  Ah, and obviously, it wasn't like that but, you know, it was
• 35:55
  a very hard course and I scraped a 22 for that course, like she
• 35:59
  just, it was really tough. But yeah, basically, that that
• 36:05
  year academically speaking. Yeah, I worked hard.
• 36:08
  You know, it was weird like I was partying all the time.
• 36:12
  Time I was going to every kind of society meeting that I could
• 36:18
  I was basically going out two or three times a week, plus having
• 36:22
  flat parties and stuff because you know, fuck it.
• 36:24
  Why not? You know, you only get to do
• 36:26
  University once you only get to be, you know what some people,
• 36:29
  go to university more than once but you know, you know, you know
• 36:31
  what I mean? And you only get to be young
• 36:33
  once so you might as well just go the whole kind of way and
• 36:37
  just basically make the most of it party hard because I'll tell
• 36:42
  you what. I think for the rest of your
• 36:43
  degree you're not going to have as much time and I certainly
• 36:49
  didn't that that first year was yeah, party party party party
• 36:54
  and it was a lot of fun and I met some some really cool
• 36:58
  people. I think the best times I had
• 37:00
  party-wise with those kind of dormitory parties that were just
• 37:04
  randomly happen and like every time we would go to like the Su
• 37:09
  we would start there and end up somewhere else.
• 37:13
  And the Su kind of got a bit more like formulaic.
• 37:15
  It was very just like you have to get really drunk, you get
• 37:19
  really drunk on pre-drinks, you go to the place you just about
• 37:23
  get in because obviously if you're to piss, they won't let
• 37:25
  you win. So you have to be really careful
• 37:26
  with that and but it makes sense to get drunk before you go
• 37:29
  because the drinks are way too expensive when you get there and
• 37:32
  you have to queue up for like half an hour or more just to get
• 37:35
  a drink. So bad types of dancing.
• 37:38
  It's fun. But I always felt like I had to
• 37:41
  be pissed to have a good time, which I feel It's just a bit of
• 37:43
  a anti-climactic situation. You shouldn't have to get drunk.
• 37:47
  Have a good time. My issue was that the music was
• 37:50
  just not as mixed as it could be.
• 37:54
  It always just felt like the same old remix pop, you know,
• 37:58
  contemporary music. I would have liked to have seen
• 38:01
  more kind of themed nights. There were themed noise at my
• 38:05
  uni but just there weren't enough.
• 38:07
  And they didn't really appeal to me, like, I would have liked to
• 38:10
  have seen like a rock and heavy metal night or You know, I don't
• 38:13
  know, seven, he's night 80s night, stuff like that.
• 38:16
  Like, I'd heard that they are these existed, but they won't as
• 38:20
  common as as I would have liked and no one ever seemed to go to
• 38:25
  them either. So I quickly got kind of bored
• 38:28
  with that, but I made the most of first year and partied,
• 38:30
  pretty crazy. And somehow was still able to go
• 38:34
  to all of the lectures and seminars and I don't know how I
• 38:37
  managed to do that. A lot of the time I was going to
• 38:40
  these lectures and seminars on like two or three hours.
• 38:43
  Deep, which is not good for you. I do not recommend that but I
• 38:48
  wanted to make the most of it, you know, I was paying for this,
• 38:50
  I should make the most of it, but going into the second and
• 38:55
  third year, I mean s you got harder and obviously now it
• 39:00
  counted the grades counted, I think it counted for a third of
• 39:04
  the degree and then third year would count for two-thirds of
• 39:08
  the degree from a correctly. But, you know, I took it very
• 39:11
  seriously because Obviously, every Mark counted now.
• 39:16
  So I really, really had to step up my game, and this kind of
• 39:20
  also marked the time that I started taking external jobs.
• 39:23
  So I'd already had like University jobs, which I
• 39:27
  recommend that you should go for when you're at University, you
• 39:31
  get unique opportunities to actually take on jobs at the
• 39:35
  University itself and they can range anything from just, you
• 39:38
  know, running the bar at the local issue or you know, Ba-bam
• 39:43
  a bouncer and Su or something, but they can also extend to
• 39:47
  other things like, you know, being like a treasurer for a
• 39:51
  society or the president of the society, or, you know, you can
• 39:55
  be an ambassador for a university, or I did that a lot.
• 39:58
  I was in a management student ambassador for my faculty
• 40:02
  faculty. So, whenever people would come
• 40:05
  into the university and prospective students, parents, I
• 40:09
  would talk to them about my experiences.
• 40:11
  Tell them about the courses. Show them around.
• 40:13
  Do tours all of that stuff and how to happy to say that some of
• 40:17
  the people that actually were on my tours ended up going to
• 40:20
  University to the same University like the year after.
• 40:23
  So I did kind of help in that process, which is kind of cool.
• 40:27
  But you did have to like, FIB a little bit.
• 40:30
  Sometimes not lie but you know they would ask me about like The
• 40:33
  Nightlife and I'd have to kind of say like there's a good
• 40:37
  campus nightlife but you know, maybe it's not party downtown.
• 40:43
  Central. Because I mean, we were in egham
• 40:45
  which is an area in sorry, so it's it's not a lot going on in
• 40:51
  egham the university is, what's going on, really?
• 40:54
  I mean, the closest place that has any kind of clubs is
• 40:57
  probably either stains or Windsor and we sometimes will go
• 41:02
  to Windsor But ultimately the most fun I've ever had.
• 41:05
  At Uni was probably those block parties, random parties and
• 41:10
  people's flats are I remember, I had a friend called Pascal.
• 41:14
  Shout the Pascal. And he would, he actually, he
• 41:17
  was just crazy polish guy, who bought like a smoke machine, and
• 41:21
  basically blue tons, and tons of smoke out of his dormitory
• 41:25
  kitchen because these will see through kitchen, so everyone
• 41:28
  could see what you were doing and we were on, like the top
• 41:30
  floor. And he blasts out music on a
• 41:34
  Friday night or whatever, or Saturday night, and we would
• 41:38
  often like have the party at his and then go to the S, you
• 41:41
  afterwards. Um, sometimes we would just His
• 41:43
  and just party there, but I remember like that.
• 41:46
  And obviously, you weren't allowed to have smoke machines,
• 41:49
  or whatever and Halls, you went hard time, really, really loud
• 41:51
  music, but we just broke the rules because fuck it, why not?
• 41:56
  But you just didn't have the time to do this stuff when you
• 42:00
  go into second and third year like it just changed
• 42:03
  dramatically and even the University jobs I was doing like
• 42:08
  I did them throughout the course of my degree up until the end of
• 42:12
  3rd year. Yeah, but I had to take on more
• 42:14
  jobs, you know, I did other stuff like I worked as what they
• 42:18
  call an alumni, fund caller, where I basically would call up
• 42:22
  people that used to go to the university and ask them for
• 42:25
  money. It was like previous students
• 42:27
  and it was a nice job. But I just at the time I didn't
• 42:31
  feel like I could commit to it, I did it for like a year and a
• 42:34
  half and it was, it was an enjoyable experience, but I just
• 42:37
  didn't have enough time to do it.
• 42:39
  But then there came a point where I needed to pay bills and
• 42:42
  You know, my student loan was not covering that.
• 42:45
  So I did have to take on external roles outside of the
• 42:49
  university and I was fine. You know, I'd always been
• 42:51
  working in customer service anyway so I worked in a range of
• 42:55
  different roles from washing dishes for a local pub, which
• 42:58
  got me free meals, a Happy Days shots and the monkeys forehead
• 43:02
  doesn't exist anymore, but it will always be in our hearts.
• 43:05
  I played a lot of open mic nights there, so I had some good
• 43:10
  memories there and we got drunk there, a bunch of times.
• 43:12
  It's so that was good. But my biggest memory will
• 43:15
  always be the breakfasts that you could get there and I got
• 43:19
  some free breakfasts. So that was awesome and free
• 43:22
  food. I'll have so good.
• 43:23
  It was so good, but anyway, yeah, I did that for like three
• 43:26
  or four months and then I think I worked for TK Maxx.
• 43:32
  It's the English version of TJ, metal tji Max, whatever is in
• 43:38
  America and I worked there for the run-up for Christmas but I
• 43:42
  It before Christmas. So, it was basically, I was a
• 43:46
  Christmas temp that didn't work Christmas how that works.
• 43:50
  I said, worked, October November and for our fuck this job, which
• 43:54
  was weird, because I needed money, but I somehow was okay
• 43:58
  enough to quit that job. I think I went for something
• 44:01
  else. I managed to find a role working
• 44:05
  at this hotel, the Runnymede hotel.
• 44:09
  And I think I was there for right up until the end of third
• 44:13
  year and past third year. So they really helped me out
• 44:16
  actually and I would actually say when you're at University
• 44:20
  working and hotel is actually a really good shot.
• 44:22
  No I forgot one place. I worked at the great Fosters
• 44:24
  hotel for a little bit but I had some shitty managers that I
• 44:28
  worked for that were actually really horrible.
• 44:32
  So it was like a toxic environment, it was a really
• 44:35
  nice place to work and there was really nice people there but the
• 44:37
  people that were directly above me who weren't even like,
• 44:41
  official manager They were like supervisors but they were just
• 44:43
  really horrible and toxic so I was just like yeah, okay, I'm
• 44:47
  not going to work here anymore. Then I found raw Runnymede Hotel
• 44:52
  so I worked there and that was a great place.
• 44:55
  I we did all sorts of stuff I got to work there as a bartender
• 44:59
  for a year that was awesome. I've got to do Alec are a buffet
• 45:05
  like conferences. Like the silver surface service
• 45:11
  Silver Surfer. - yeah, Silver Service banqueting and events.
• 45:16
  I did weddings wakes, we do wakes, we might then when he
• 45:21
  wakes baby showers, I worked Christmas one year.
• 45:24
  That was depressing and weird, but I've worked Christmas.
• 45:29
  That was the thing. I never did New Years though,
• 45:32
  and they told me that New Year's was kind of fun.
• 45:35
  But, you know, I think they probably said that to everyone.
• 45:37
  I think I would have been depressed working New Year's
• 45:40
  Christmas with depressing enough.
• 45:41
  Even imagine how depressing working New Year's would have
• 45:44
  been. But overall, the job was a lot
• 45:46
  of fun. It was hard work.
• 45:49
  I met a lot of cool people. It was constantly busy.
• 45:53
  I worked all throughout the year summer winter.
• 45:55
  You name it and they basically kept me going.
• 45:59
  They kept my rent paid and they kept me afloat.
• 46:02
  So thank you guys. I really appreciate it.
• 46:06
  Yeah, they gave me a lot of opportunities.
• 46:07
  And I just wanted to mention this because when it comes to
• 46:10
  University jobs, You need a lot of flexibility, you need a job.
• 46:14
  That's going to allow you to really do your degree really and
• 46:18
  be understanding as well, because not a lot of employers
• 46:21
  or understanding. Sometimes they'll give you
• 46:23
  ultimatums and say things like, oh well, you know, you should
• 46:26
  prioritize your job and it's like, you know, your main
• 46:29
  responsibility is your degree. The job is secondary, and they
• 46:32
  know that when they take you on and they have a high turnover
• 46:35
  rate anyway, you're easily replaceable sorry to say it but
• 46:38
  it's true and they know that. So, You should just make sure
• 46:43
  when you're taking on these jobs.
• 46:44
  Don't take it too much to heart. It's, you're just there to get
• 46:47
  paycheck. Work hard, you know, they're
• 46:49
  giving you an opportunity. So make sure you work hard for
• 46:52
  them but don't let them take advantage of make you feel bad,
• 46:55
  okay? Because that's nonsense, you
• 46:57
  know, your your first and foremost, doing a degree and
• 47:01
  you're working at that place secondary so you can pay rent
• 47:04
  okay, I understand right good but yeah, University jobs are
• 47:11
  Good. It's a good experience.
• 47:13
  Keeps keeps your head of flow and it's, you know, it's just
• 47:17
  part of the university life, I think.
• 47:19
  But moving on, I want to quickly talk about societies and sports.
• 47:23
  So I, this was one. I kind of think like a little
• 47:27
  bit of a regret. Like I was part of very briefly,
• 47:29
  the marketing society which didn't do anything.
• 47:32
  Unfortunately, I kind of wish I'd joined the management
• 47:36
  Society, but I never did because I think I was just Even not
• 47:41
  interested or I felt, I was too busy, but that's always a lie.
• 47:44
  You know, you can always make time for things.
• 47:48
  The only Society I was really actively part of was the ROC
• 47:51
  society, which was active in the first year.
• 47:54
  But then second and third year didn't work out.
• 47:56
  I'm looking at you Lewis. That was your responsibility and
• 47:59
  you blew it. I love you.
• 48:01
  But you blew it now but it was it was fun in first year.
• 48:06
  They did it a couple of events and I met some cool people for a
• 48:09
  but I really wished, I'd done more in the society stuff
• 48:14
  because it felt like a good way to meet people.
• 48:16
  It was extracurricular. So you would sometimes earns
• 48:20
  like points for it and stuff or just, you know, just general
• 48:25
  experience from it and the sports societies will run a
• 48:29
  little bit differently, but it was similar to clubs but they
• 48:31
  had these like crazy initiations and I remember there was this
• 48:35
  Pub that was open in the first part of our University on our
• 48:39
  University. A closed down later on because
• 48:42
  of Mike flood damage or something.
• 48:43
  But it was open originally and basically we would see people do
• 48:50
  their initiations there and I never forget, like the rugby
• 48:52
  initiations, we'll just brutal. What they would make each other
• 48:55
  do and how much alcohol they consumed.
• 49:00
  The sports guys, always just take it too far but it looks
• 49:03
  like a lot of fun. I will say that if you're
• 49:05
  interested in sports, then join in sports clubs at University as
• 49:10
  a Lot of fun and you'll meet a lot of cool people.
• 49:12
  That's I think if nothing else make the most of the societies
• 49:15
  and sports clubs, because that will be an opportunity for you
• 49:18
  to just meet people. Get yourself out there.
• 49:21
  Learn something new. Sometimes you can do like trips
• 49:24
  and stuff from it, you know, like skiing or something like
• 49:27
  that, I don't know. But you know there's
• 49:29
  opportunities that arise from it.
• 49:30
  So I think it's always worth doing and I kind of always
• 49:33
  wished that I'd maybe taking it on and consider that.
• 49:36
  But you know, I mean, I still think that I made the most of
• 49:40
  Diversity for the most part now. Moving it Forward.
• 49:45
  I think I will talk about yeah. Okay.
• 49:49
  University rankings. Yeah, so obviously what I
• 49:53
  mentioned before how it doesn't matter necessarily like the
• 49:58
  rankings and the reason I say this is because they change all
• 50:02
  the time. You know?
• 50:03
  Sometimes I look at my university rankings, like now
• 50:06
  just out of curiosity because I remember when I went to war
• 50:10
  Holloway we were like 30 year for 35th in the country, which
• 50:14
  was a massive achievement. But then, like I looked
• 50:18
  recently, and I think we were like 50 or something.
• 50:20
  So they change all the time and they change for different
• 50:23
  reasons as well. It's not necessarily because the
• 50:25
  university is good, sometimes you can go up in the rankings
• 50:28
  because you got like a new building.
• 50:30
  Like, I know my University they sort of shortly after I left,
• 50:34
  they built like a new library that was their new big project
• 50:38
  that they did. And Supposedly that pushed him
• 50:41
  up in the rankings. And I always thought that was
• 50:44
  silly. Like, how can access to a new
• 50:47
  building, improve your University's rankings, like,
• 50:50
  sure. It means, you have you no more
• 50:53
  facilities and more resources for students which is important.
• 50:57
  But ultimately, the main thing that should be important is that
• 51:01
  you know, the actual education being delivered.
• 51:04
  So like what are the types of things that the lecturers are
• 51:08
  teaching you that? What kind of stuff?
• 51:10
  What are they teaching you? What kind of lecturers are
• 51:12
  teaching you what are their backgrounds you know all sorts
• 51:17
  of things. I mean even just like the books
• 51:19
  and course materials that they give you you know, sometimes
• 51:22
  that stuff is really crucial because if it's not good stuff
• 51:26
  then you're just wasting your time for a semester.
• 51:29
  So I think it's more like the mix of all of those different
• 51:32
  things. I don't think anyone think and
• 51:35
  can like determine how well our University is doing in the
• 51:39
  rankings. I've always felt like the
• 51:42
  overall rankings were a bit of a farce.
• 51:44
  Like I feel like they only really apply to like the top 10,
• 51:48
  you know? So like in the UK that would be
• 51:49
  like Oxford and Cambridge and Durham and just a bunch of other
• 51:55
  places Bristol. I think.
• 51:59
  But if you're outside of the top 10, or top 15 or whatever, is it
• 52:02
  doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.
• 52:05
  But one thing I do think that matters in terms of the rankings
• 52:09
  system, Is the course rankings. So for instance, I knew that my
• 52:15
  marketing course was within the top 10 in the country at one
• 52:20
  point and it always changes but just like the main rankings, but
• 52:25
  that was something to look at. So here's a really good example.
• 52:28
  Roehampton University is has a bit of reputation of not being a
• 52:33
  good University, right? Supposedly, this is what I hear.
• 52:36
  I don't know this to be fact, it's just what I've heard.
• 52:38
  However, when it comes to Teaching, if you want to become
• 52:42
  a teacher in the UK and you want to study to do that, then
• 52:45
  Roehampton is actually one of the best universities to go to
• 52:48
  for that. So there you see how, you know,
• 52:50
  the main rankings tell a very different story from the actual
• 52:55
  course rankings. So I think that if you're
• 52:58
  thinking about going to University pay close attention
• 53:01
  to the course rankings because they're going to tell you, which
• 53:04
  universities are doing best for say, the last couple of years.
• 53:08
  And I think that's another thing as well.
• 53:09
  To look at As how did the University rank, let's say, over
• 53:13
  the last five years for your course.
• 53:15
  So don't just look at where they are now.
• 53:17
  But look at where they were two years from ago, three years ago,
• 53:21
  because if they remained consistent, over say a five year
• 53:25
  period, then they're probably a reliable option and one that you
• 53:29
  consider where, as if they were, like, I don't know, a hundred
• 53:32
  for their course and suddenly there now, like number 50.
• 53:36
  Then yeah. Okay.
• 53:38
  There's probably a massive reason why that's Changed.
• 53:40
  But it's not consistent and you want consistency in your degree.
• 53:44
  You want something that is reliable like that isn't just
• 53:47
  going to suddenly get shit like two years in or something.
• 53:50
  So pay a close attention to those course rankings.
• 53:53
  I think they're there the the real statistic that matters.
• 53:58
  So moving it forward. Tuition fees.
• 54:05
  Bane of my existence tuition fees.
• 54:08
  Yeah, so I mean this is partly my fault.
• 54:12
  I joined University later so I could have gone to University
• 54:16
  earlier and just paid the, you know, 3,000 a year tuition fees.
• 54:20
  But I decided to go later therefore I have to pay the nine
• 54:25
  thousand per year once and this happened in the UK in 2010.
• 54:31
  Wishing fees were raised we all protested about it because it
• 54:35
  was bullshit and they gave us some nonsensical reasonings for
• 54:40
  why they did it based on some report that they did and it was
• 54:44
  all bollocks. I mean, you know, it's one thing
• 54:46
  to charge people for an education but to charge that
• 54:50
  much amount of money is just ludicrous, and I later found out
• 54:54
  that, you know, universities don't actually have to charge
• 54:57
  that amount. They don't even have to charge
• 54:59
  the full extent of the Don't they just choose to but the
• 55:03
  universe. Basically, the government said,
• 55:05
  hey, you can charge up to this amount and they all basically
• 55:08
  said, yeah. Okay, let's charge the maximum
• 55:10
  amount. There are like a few notable
• 55:13
  exceptions around the UK, the charge less, but generally those
• 55:19
  ones that choose to you, no charge less are doing so for a
• 55:24
  reason they're not as good universities unfortunately.
• 55:27
  So while their intentions might be, you know, their heart, It'd
• 55:31
  be in the right place. They might be doing trying to be
• 55:33
  doing something good. Unfortunately, in the long run,
• 55:37
  they're not as valuable. They're not as good universities
• 55:39
  to go to which sucks. But hey, so yeah, we were really
• 55:44
  pissed about this when this happened, you know, it's one of
• 55:50
  the final Nails in the coffin. In terms of the the Our God,
• 55:55
  what they called the liberal Democrat Party, which is the
• 55:59
  third party in the UK, which Which at times, has had a bit of
• 56:03
  a buzz here and there but now is pretty much dead but in 2010 we
• 56:07
  enter the Coalition situation and our government.
• 56:11
  So it was a coalition between the conservative party and the
• 56:13
  liberal Democrat Party. Now, the liberal Democrats were
• 56:17
  becoming beloved, especially by young people in the UK because
• 56:22
  they were really speaking to what we believed in and they
• 56:26
  were offering a genuine alternative and we were like
• 56:28
  sick of Labor. We were sick of Tori.
• 56:31
  Not Speaking for everyone here, but people wanted a different
• 56:33
  option. People wanted something new, and
• 56:36
  this was something new, but they explicitly said in their
• 56:40
  campaign promises that they would not raise tuition fees.
• 56:44
  Now, every party has a campaign party Manifesto and typically
• 56:51
  they'll go through, like, they'll probably pass about 60%
• 56:54
  of it and the other 40%, they won't do.
• 56:56
  And then make up excuses. Why?
• 56:58
  But typically they deliver on a certain amount?
• 57:01
  They have to write. But the liberal Democrats,
• 57:04
  explicitly said they would not do this.
• 57:06
  We are not going to do this, we promise we will not do this, and
• 57:10
  as soon as they got into power in the Coalition with the
• 57:13
  conservatives, the very first thing that they did.
• 57:17
  I mean, I don't even have been very first thing, but it was one
• 57:19
  of the first things that they did was raise tuition fees.
• 57:23
  So they lied and they have forever been branded Liars, ever
• 57:27
  since then and, I mean, I don't know, I don't, they doing still
• 57:31
  exist, but But I don't think they had the following day or I
• 57:35
  don't think they have the following that they had back
• 57:38
  then now because it's always hurt them.
• 57:40
  You know, it was just a big lie that massively affected students
• 57:44
  moving forward and you know, loads of us protested.
• 57:47
  You know, I remember seeing the conservative Tory headquarters
• 57:52
  was just smashed up its pieces. It was really serious.
• 57:55
  People were really pissed off and I was pissed off.
• 57:58
  We were all pissed off and it's just never changed ever since
• 58:01
  then. And the conversations always in
• 58:04
  the government about tuition fees are actually to raise them
• 58:08
  every year. That's always what they're
• 58:10
  trying to say. And I think they've actually
• 58:12
  successfully done that a little bit from what I remember.
• 58:16
  Last time I think they managed to raise it by an extra 500 per
• 58:19
  term. So they are slowly trying to
• 58:21
  push it and charge as much as they do for international
• 58:24
  students because this is another thing.
• 58:27
  You think that UK students. Again, it hard International
• 58:30
  students are getting even worse. They have to pay.
• 58:33
  Let's say 10,000 11,000 per term or more.
• 58:38
  I mean, that's one thing. If you're doing a masters, but a
• 58:40
  degree, you know, is three years?
• 58:44
  Four years potentially. So, it's even more expensive.
• 58:49
  It just be just blows my mind. I mean, I remember one of my
• 58:51
  third year lecturers, I think we were doing module called
• 58:56
  consumer Behavior. And he made the point about how
• 58:59
  University is like a business now and there's no point trying
• 59:04
  to see it any other way. It's true.
• 59:05
  You know, the university is the service provider and you are the
• 59:09
  purchaser of the service. So I mean and what he was trying
• 59:15
  to say is that you have rights to basically complain and try
• 59:18
  and push for a better education because you're paying for it,
• 59:22
  you know what I mean? It's coming out your pocket.
• 59:24
  So what's delivered if you're not happy with it, you should
• 59:26
  rebel against it and Demand more, I mean it's no different
• 59:30
  to, you know, receiving, I don't know, poor phone service or
• 59:36
  something and bringing up the customer service department and
• 59:39
  complaining about it. It's no different.
• 59:41
  You know, there were many things about University that didn't
• 59:44
  like you know I for instance going to lectures and realizing
• 59:49
  that everything that the lecturer was talking about was
• 59:52
  featured in the course textbooks.
• 59:55
  So they were essentially just in some cases actually Just reading
• 59:59
  word for word verbatim from a book.
• 1:00:02
  So I was like, whoa. Do I even need to go to these
• 1:00:03
  lectures in the end? I stopped going to the lectures
• 1:00:06
  because I realized it was pretty much a waste of time and I was
• 1:00:09
  better off. Just going to the seminars and
• 1:00:10
  doing personal study, and this is another thing to go into
• 1:00:13
  University, is you have to kind of find a way of doing it.
• 1:00:19
  So that works for you. So you're kind of managing you
• 1:00:22
  have to manage your time effectively but you don't have
• 1:00:25
  to do it. Exactly the way they want you to
• 1:00:27
  you know, they say All you have to go to this.
• 1:00:29
  You have to go to that, and you do have to go to a certain
• 1:00:31
  amount of stuff just to, you know, keep up appearances and
• 1:00:34
  stuff. But ultimately, your self study
• 1:00:37
  is probably what's going to earn you that degree and everything
• 1:00:39
  else is just, I don't know from management, I found quite
• 1:00:43
  quickly that the books that we had to purchase were a farce.
• 1:00:47
  A lot of the time we wouldn't need them or we'd only need them
• 1:00:49
  for like, a tiny amount of stuff.
• 1:00:52
  And then everything else was just not necessary, but it
• 1:00:55
  really depended. Because some modules you had to
• 1:00:57
  have the A book. And it was very important
• 1:00:59
  special for the especially for your final year, exams.
• 1:01:04
  But in other courses you didn't need it at all.
• 1:01:06
  Sometimes they would never use the book.
• 1:01:08
  So you just bought these textbooks for no reason and the
• 1:01:12
  textbooks aren't cheap you know you'd think like are what they
• 1:01:15
  are a couple of pounds know they're like 20 30 50, some
• 1:01:19
  cases, 70 pounds a pop. I mean we're students, you know,
• 1:01:24
  not all of us are rich so it The law.
• 1:01:29
  And that was one thing that really bothered me and I felt
• 1:01:32
  like I haven't you got enough of my money already like surely,
• 1:01:35
  these textbooks should be free considering how much money I'm
• 1:01:40
  paying per term for, you know, education and you can get a
• 1:01:45
  certain amount of books from your local library but they do
• 1:01:49
  it on purpose that there's not enough.
• 1:01:51
  So you know if there's 300 people on my course, they'll
• 1:01:54
  make like 50 textbooks available.
• 1:01:57
  Forcing everyone else to basically pay for them and
• 1:02:00
  they'll do things like punish you, if you don't have the
• 1:02:02
  books, you know, give you suspensions or, you know, down
• 1:02:07
  Mark your whatever, you know, and it's like, please are we in
• 1:02:11
  school? You can't treat me like that.
• 1:02:13
  We're adults. This is ridiculous.
• 1:02:15
  I shouldn't have to purchase these things when you know we're
• 1:02:19
  not all in the same boat, we don't all have you know, endless
• 1:02:22
  funds and access to funds, you know?
• 1:02:25
  I mean some of us Of the reasons I had to take up a job was
• 1:02:28
  because I just didn't have the funds coming in.
• 1:02:30
  So yeah, that's something that kind of pissed me off about the
• 1:02:34
  university thing. Another thing I want to talk
• 1:02:36
  about as well, is the whole Gap year thing or year in business
• 1:02:41
  that they refer to. Now, one bit of advice, I want
• 1:02:44
  to give you guys is get experience.
• 1:02:48
  Get as moksh work experience as you can take advantage of those
• 1:02:53
  Summers and Easter breaks and stuff.
• 1:02:55
  You know, people say oh it's A time to, you know, do your work
• 1:02:58
  and take some time off and sure like, you know, do that.
• 1:03:02
  But get some experience as well because when you finish your
• 1:03:06
  degree, the first thing they're going to be saying to you.
• 1:03:08
  Employers is, do you have any experience, how much experience
• 1:03:12
  do you have? Also, you don't have enough
• 1:03:14
  experience unless you go into like graduate schemes or
• 1:03:16
  whatever if you're just going into pure jobs, start a jobs.
• 1:03:19
  A lot of the time they're asking for like two to three years
• 1:03:21
  experience. I mean, fuck right now.
• 1:03:24
  I have a degree and three years worth of Experience and
• 1:03:28
  Counting. And I can't find a job and I
• 1:03:30
  have been unemployed since February.
• 1:03:31
  You know, the most I've been able to get in some freelance
• 1:03:33
  work here and there. So that tells you a story of
• 1:03:36
  just how competitive it is and how ridiculous the job market
• 1:03:40
  can be, you know, a lot of time, I mean I think a lot of
• 1:03:42
  employers that I'm looking at right now are looking for three
• 1:03:46
  to five years experience, plus a wealth of experience and loads
• 1:03:49
  of different areas. They want that the perfect
• 1:03:51
  person. So basically point being, the
• 1:03:54
  more experience, the better. But in terms of these Gap years,
• 1:03:59
  I think Gabby is a great, but I don't think that you should do a
• 1:04:02
  gap year in the middle of a degree.
• 1:04:04
  I think if you're going to do a gap year, you should do it
• 1:04:07
  before University or in between. So like, if you plan on doing a
• 1:04:10
  masters, maybe finish your degree, do a gap here, doing my
• 1:04:13
  Master's, I just think it's good.
• 1:04:17
  Just just to have a break, it clears, your mind.
• 1:04:21
  It means that, you know, when you come back, you can come back
• 1:04:23
  with a kind of a fresh mind fresh perspective, you can go.
• 1:04:26
  Traveling, do whatever you want to do.
• 1:04:28
  It's just a good experience to have, I think, but in terms of
• 1:04:32
  the year in business, I originally signed up to do this
• 1:04:37
  and I'm so glad that I canceled it because you have this option
• 1:04:41
  to cancel it. Now, the reason that I was
• 1:04:44
  pissed off about this was I was sold on the idea.
• 1:04:47
  This is what they sold to me, that they will give you an
• 1:04:50
  opportunity to earn a placement with a major company, right?
• 1:04:55
  And they'll give you the resources, you need to do this
• 1:04:58
  and they'll help you to do it. That's how it was sold to me.
• 1:05:01
  And I was like awesome. I'll get to work for a company.
• 1:05:04
  Come back, finish the degree in the fourth year gray.
• 1:05:07
  Okay, sounds good to me. Maybe I'll get a job offer at
• 1:05:10
  the end of it and I'll return back to them after a year.
• 1:05:13
  You know what I mean? There's there's a lot of things
• 1:05:15
  going on my head about how this could be a good opportunity for
• 1:05:17
  me, but I remember going to the workshop for this particular
• 1:05:24
  thing. And basically, the idea was that
• 1:05:26
  you would Go their weekly and do the necessary steps to like,
• 1:05:31
  fill out application forms, contact, employers, blah, blah.
• 1:05:34
  And the university would seemingly help you through this
• 1:05:37
  process. But the very first thing that
• 1:05:39
  they said, in this little meeting was, yeah, you basically
• 1:05:44
  have to do pretty much 100% of the work.
• 1:05:46
  This is entirely your responsibility.
• 1:05:48
  If you fail to get the placement, then, you were back
• 1:05:51
  to a standard degree without the year in business.
• 1:05:54
  Basically, we act as Your sponsor and nothing more.
• 1:05:59
  So basically roughly translated as they're saying, you have to
• 1:06:01
  do all the work and the most that they'll give you is, you
• 1:06:05
  know, a list of various companies that, you know, they
• 1:06:09
  have some good relations with that you can apply for but
• 1:06:12
  you've got to do all of that stuff yourself and they don't
• 1:06:15
  do. Pardon my language jack shit to
• 1:06:18
  help you. Now I can't speak for all other
• 1:06:20
  universities, maybe they have better systems.
• 1:06:23
  I'm just talking about my experience, but at Royal
• 1:06:26
  Holloway That was not good enough to me, you know what I
• 1:06:30
  mean? Being presented with that.
• 1:06:32
  I was like, what is this dinner me?
• 1:06:34
  I came here. Hoping to get like an actual
• 1:06:37
  opportunity. And you know, you've essentially
• 1:06:40
  just said that you're not going to do anything, which is
• 1:06:43
  pointless. I'm paying all this money for
• 1:06:45
  nothing now. I want to get into this a bit
• 1:06:47
  further. Like if that wasn't bad enough,
• 1:06:49
  when they broke down, how the actual Yearwood would sort of
• 1:06:53
  progress, they said that you would get to charge tuition.
• 1:06:57
  Fees for that year. And I was like hanging about
• 1:07:01
  basically. They said it would be reduced so
• 1:07:04
  you wouldn't pay the full term but you would still pay
• 1:07:06
  additional tuition fees and I was like but you're not
• 1:07:08
  receiving any education, the only bit of education-related
• 1:07:14
  happenings that occur in that year was apparently released on
• 1:07:18
  the course that I did was that you would do a little essay on
• 1:07:22
  your time at the University, like a pet project was like
• 1:07:25
  doing work experience. When you're At school and you
• 1:07:27
  have to do a little you know like I don't know essay about
• 1:07:32
  your time at your work experience and what that was
• 1:07:35
  like but we're at University level.
• 1:07:36
  What the fuck what do you mean after do like a little essay
• 1:07:41
  about this time? Where and that's fine.
• 1:07:43
  Okay fine you're going to justify the work and you got
• 1:07:46
  there and they apparently there's a thing where you have
• 1:07:49
  to have your representative from your University basically,
• 1:07:53
  common, and inspect you like twice throughout the placement
• 1:07:57
  and size. How you doing says, he's pretty
• 1:07:58
  much exactly the same as work experience at school there.
• 1:08:02
  Anyway, and yeah, I learned that you had to pay tuition fees for
• 1:08:08
  this year and they were subsidized, but I think my
• 1:08:10
  University was saying that you had to pay like 5,000 as opposed
• 1:08:14
  to 9,000. I was like, hang on.
• 1:08:16
  I'm just giving you money for nothing.
• 1:08:18
  You're not doing anything. You're not giving me access to
• 1:08:20
  anything. Like you're not even you've told
• 1:08:22
  me that you're not going to help me get this course.
• 1:08:25
  Also not course this placement at all, you Tom, you're going to
• 1:08:27
  do nothing and you're going to take my money as well, on top of
• 1:08:29
  it to add insult to injury, screw that.
• 1:08:33
  I'd be a fool if I would take that on now, no offense to the
• 1:08:36
  people that took it on. I know some people that did very
• 1:08:38
  well with those placements, but I still feel like it's a con
• 1:08:43
  personally, I don't believe in that.
• 1:08:45
  I think that that's really shitty to do that but that's
• 1:08:50
  just my experience of that, I chose to back out of it and, you
• 1:08:55
  know, in the end I was able to get roles but look.
• 1:08:57
  And I had to move to another country in order to find work.
• 1:09:00
  What does that tell you? It tells you that there's an
• 1:09:03
  oversaturated job market in the UK.
• 1:09:06
  And, you know, even if you do get a degree and you do have a
• 1:09:09
  little bit of experience, ultimately, you know, it's not
• 1:09:13
  going to be good enough. You have to have, like, the best
• 1:09:15
  in everything, you know. Like for instance, I got 21.
• 1:09:17
  I should have got a first, you know what I mean?
• 1:09:19
  But I did. There's people.
• 1:09:20
  I know that have firsts that didn't even get can't even find
• 1:09:24
  degrees. Sorry can't find work.
• 1:09:27
  Work, right? And I mean, even after all this
• 1:09:29
  time, you know, having a degree, having three years worth of
• 1:09:32
  experience, working for companies from around the world,
• 1:09:36
  you know, working for clients from around the world with my
• 1:09:39
  freelance stuff, it still doesn't mean anything because I
• 1:09:41
  still can't find a job. So ultimately, we're going to
• 1:09:45
  University. It gives you like an opportunity
• 1:09:49
  but it doesn't guarantee you anything.
• 1:09:51
  And I think that for me, you know, with wanting to get out of
• 1:09:56
  working in You know, essentially customer service roles, I wanted
• 1:10:00
  to clean, completely, get away from that.
• 1:10:02
  And I have, but at the same time, it's like, I'm still stuck
• 1:10:07
  in the same place I was before, in a manner of speaking.
• 1:10:09
  I'm still looking for work, I'm still looking for opportunities.
• 1:10:13
  I feel that all the degree really has done.
• 1:10:16
  For me, is get me like a foot in the door, you know, an
• 1:10:20
  opportunity to have I guess like interviews really it's like an
• 1:10:27
  invitation to interviews but after that you've got a sell
• 1:10:30
  yourself 100% with, you know your experience and your
• 1:10:34
  knowledge and everything. And you know I went this is
• 1:10:37
  another thing as well. I went to an academic University
• 1:10:41
  so I'll research base University.
• 1:10:44
  So what that means is that they're not really focused on
• 1:10:47
  getting and finding you jobs or giving you knowledge.
• 1:10:50
  That's applicable to like real life scenarios they're more
• 1:10:53
  focused on pushing You down the academic route.
• 1:10:56
  So you know pushing you on to doing a masters and then a PhD
• 1:11:00
  and then going down that route which is a perfectly viable
• 1:11:03
  route to go down, but I was interested in just getting into
• 1:11:06
  marketing and working in marketing.
• 1:11:08
  I didn't sort of want to do a master's right now.
• 1:11:10
  I wouldn't rule it completely out for the future.
• 1:11:12
  But, you know, right now, I'm just not interested in it and I
• 1:11:15
  wasn't at the time, but it just felt like they were trying to
• 1:11:17
  Peddle another thing on to me because they started trying to
• 1:11:20
  sell it to you in like, second year of University.
• 1:11:22
  So, it became quite clear to me this This is a business, they
• 1:11:26
  are trying to sell you things. You don't have to have this.
• 1:11:30
  It's just an option. And I go back to my previous
• 1:11:34
  Point. Look at when you're looking at
• 1:11:37
  University and your options and what you want to do with your
• 1:11:40
  life, look at the steps that will get you to, you know, your
• 1:11:44
  end goal. If doing a degree is on that
• 1:11:48
  Journey, fine do the degree if doing a Masters or an MBA is on
• 1:11:52
  that Journey. Great do it.
• 1:11:54
  If doing PhD is on that Journey, great do it, but don't do it.
• 1:11:58
  Just because you feel pressure or because you feel like the job
• 1:12:01
  market is saying that you have to have this.
• 1:12:03
  You have to have that because I've since discovered, there's
• 1:12:06
  many people out there that have done their own things, set up
• 1:12:09
  their own businesses, you know, found companies that I worked
• 1:12:13
  for small start-up businesses, whatever the case may be, or
• 1:12:16
  even a just freelancing and have been, you know, immeasurable be
• 1:12:21
  successful and many of them don't even have degrees.
• 1:12:24
  So when it comes to my final point about, is it worth going
• 1:12:28
  to University? Well, I really feel that it
• 1:12:31
  depends on your career path, you know obviously if you're looking
• 1:12:34
  to become a lawyer or a circle you know Doctor Surgeon or you
• 1:12:38
  know specific career path like that.
• 1:12:40
  Then absolutely a degree is essential.
• 1:12:42
  If you're looking at careers like, you know, media the Arts
• 1:12:47
  business music, I mean, you get access to resources that you
• 1:12:54
  might not have otherwise gotten access has access to but don't
• 1:12:59
  forget the, you know, the internet has A wealth of
• 1:13:03
  information and knowledge and resources that you can get for
• 1:13:06
  free. If you really want to learn
• 1:13:08
  about stuff, you can teach stuff yourself.
• 1:13:10
  I mean, for example, I'm a self-taught musician.
• 1:13:14
  I never went to University to study music.
• 1:13:17
  I never, you know, did any courses, I'm not saying that,
• 1:13:21
  you know, courses aren't helpful because they are but I taught
• 1:13:25
  myself that just by looking at stuff on the internet using what
• 1:13:29
  they call tabs and chords from online.
• 1:13:32
  Can a chord books, you know, just listening to songs and
• 1:13:36
  learning chords that way. You know what I mean?
• 1:13:37
  It's like, you can teach things yourself, you can self learn.
• 1:13:42
  You don't have to go to university or do a core course
• 1:13:46
  in order to attain information and knowledge.
• 1:13:49
  Like, sometimes you can do stuff for yourself for free, so
• 1:13:54
  something to consider, but in terms of answering this question
• 1:13:57
  with a yes or no answer, I think yes it is worth going to
• 1:14:02
  University but you have other options.
• 1:14:05
  It's not the bill Wendell, it's not your only option.
• 1:14:08
  There are other options. So take time, really think about
• 1:14:13
  what you want to do. Do your research, you know, like
• 1:14:17
  don't feel pressure from people around you or your parents or
• 1:14:22
  your immediate Network to do University or even the job
• 1:14:26
  market, you know what I mean? Because the job market changes
• 1:14:28
  all the time just because it Sixth in the way that it does.
• 1:14:31
  Right now, it will be totally different when you finish your
• 1:14:34
  degree in three years. That's the thing.
• 1:14:37
  When I, you know, I was thinking about going to University the
• 1:14:40
  job market in London was like, you have to have a degree or
• 1:14:44
  nothing. Then fast forward, three years
• 1:14:47
  later and I start seeing all these apprenticeship schemes and
• 1:14:50
  internship schemes, and all sorts of just like entry level
• 1:14:54
  jobs, where you don't need any experience to, you know, start
• 1:14:58
  and that's another final Point as well.
• 1:15:00
  Everything that I learned about marketing, I've learned since
• 1:15:05
  leaving University, you know, the the stuff that I learnt at
• 1:15:09
  University and maybe this is because I went to a
• 1:15:11
  research-based university. I mean, maybe it would have been
• 1:15:13
  different if I'd gone to a more of a work focused one, but the
• 1:15:17
  one that I went to was more research-based.
• 1:15:19
  So, everything was theoretical and, you know, we're talking
• 1:15:22
  about, you know, human relations Theory versus scientific
• 1:15:26
  management and Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
• 1:15:29
  And, you know, all the Stuff and it's like, that's great.
• 1:15:32
  But what is this really do? In terms of helping me, get a
• 1:15:34
  job? How can I use this practically
• 1:15:37
  in every day work scenario? The answer is, I probably am
• 1:15:41
  never going to use this information.
• 1:15:43
  It's the same as all the business courses that I did at
• 1:15:46
  school. When a levels, they were fun.
• 1:15:49
  They were interesting. I learned the basic terms, the
• 1:15:51
  basics that I needed, but ultimately they didn't really
• 1:15:54
  help me. They just kind of intrigued me
• 1:15:57
  and made me want to pursue business. - but, you know,
• 1:16:02
  that's, that's just my experience.
• 1:16:03
  I've tried to make it as balanced as I can.
• 1:16:06
  You know, overall, I'm very happy with the experience of
• 1:16:09
  going to University. I think that it is an experience
• 1:16:12
  in of itself. There's many other things I
• 1:16:15
  didn't mention, you know, the fact that, you know, you meet
• 1:16:18
  people from all around the world, you know.
• 1:16:21
  Obviously, I met some amazing people that change my life going
• 1:16:23
  to University, so I wouldn't take it back at all.
• 1:16:26
  I would absolutely do it all over again, but I just Kind of
• 1:16:30
  stress to people that, you know, you can still live a fulfilling
• 1:16:34
  life and do all sorts of things and not go to university.
• 1:16:37
  Like it's not, you don't have to go, don't feel like you're
• 1:16:41
  missing out because you're not, it's just an option.
• 1:16:44
  It's just one of many, many, many options out there in life
• 1:16:49
  that you can take. And if it is right for you,
• 1:16:52
  absolutely go for it. But if it's not right for you,
• 1:16:55
  don't take it too hard. Don't worry about it.
• 1:16:57
  Okay, focus on you. And what?
• 1:17:00
  Is good for you and that ends me being all preachy and shit.
• 1:17:06
  So yeah, I hope that you enjoyed this, this podcast about
• 1:17:11
  University, I did I think I've done a much better job.
• 1:17:13
  Now I'm happy with this. Now I'm happy that this can go
• 1:17:16
  out into the world. This is much better than my
• 1:17:20
  first attempt, which I'm glad that you will never see.
• 1:17:23
  It should never hit the light of day, but on a separate note, I
• 1:17:28
  hope that you guys are enjoying these podcasts.
• 1:17:30
  If you have any suggestions for guests, that you'd like to see
• 1:17:34
  on the podcast, please let me know.
• 1:17:36
  I'd be more than happy to feature them on the podcast.
• 1:17:39
  And, you know, you don't have to be promoting something.
• 1:17:41
  If you just want to come on here and chat to me about a specific
• 1:17:44
  topic. Let's do it.
• 1:17:46
  You know, I'm, I'm open, you know, this, this podcast can go
• 1:17:49
  anywhere. I've said that in the beginning.
• 1:17:50
  It's just like my main channel. It's a variety deal.
• 1:17:55
  You know? That's my thing.
• 1:17:56
  It's always been my MO is to do a variety of different.
• 1:18:00
  Things. It's what I love to do and it's
• 1:18:01
  what I love to give to my audience.
• 1:18:03
  So feel free to suggest things to me, tell me what you liked
• 1:18:07
  and what you dislike. Tell me what topics you want to
• 1:18:09
  hear me talk about, tell me what guests, you want to see on this
• 1:18:14
  podcast or here on this podcast? And yeah, I just want to say a
• 1:18:19
  big thank you to everyone listening and, and supporting
• 1:18:23
  the show, you know, I really appreciate it.
• 1:18:25
  I didn't think that we would get this far.
• 1:18:26
  I mean, this is episode number 39, So, you know, I didn't think
• 1:18:31
  we would get past five episodes, so it's kind of amazing and I'm
• 1:18:35
  really excited for the future and where this might go.
• 1:18:38
  So, yeah, big thank you to everyone and all the best.
• 1:18:41
  I will see you in the next episode of the Christian Reef
• 1:18:44
  podcast. Until then peace out, will love,
• 1:18:47
  I'll see you soon. Ciao.