"I don't know what to do with the rest of my life! HELP!!" - My Story

In May I finished up my undergraduate degree in Zoology in UCD. After four years it was time to get out into the big bad world and start carving out a career for myself. However there was one problem - I didn’t want a career in the zoological field. Don’t misunderstand me – I loved my degree;  the lecturers were fantastic and I found the content really interesting but, unfortunately for me, the job prospects were not that enticing.

I would have loved (and still would love) a job working on conservation projects for a zoo or a wildlife park, but these types of jobs are difficult to come by – especially on a small island like Ireland. A career in academia wasn’t for me either. I love to learn but I like to learn new information and then apply it in a real life setting and make use of the content that I have spent my time digesting. I think people who devote their lives to research and academia are fantastic, there would be little progress without them, but it just wasn’t for me.

And so, it came to the point where I had to try and decide what to do with myself once college finished.  I have always loved numbers and math; I love when things are logical and make sense and ‘work-out’ so I found myself leaning towards a career in, of all things, accountancy. I had actually been considering this change for about a year and a half at this point! I’ve kind of always been known as the 'girl who loves numbers'! And so, early this year I began to apply for banking positions with the aim of working full-time and putting myself through some sort of postgraduate accounting course to get myself up to speed.

When I tell people about this change they tend to ask: “Well why in God’s name did you choose Zoology in the first place?” The answer to this is really simple. In school I was a self-confessed nerd. I loved every subject (apart from Irish – what even is that!?!) and so when it came to choosing the courses that I wanted to study I could have chosen anything. My first choice was Vet Med in UCD as I love animals, but, alas, it wasn’t meant to be.  I missed out on the course by about 40 points in my leaving cert and although I could have repeated, I didn’t have it in me. I had just worked my ass off in school for six years and I couldn’t bring myself to do one more! I’m not that type of person – I didn’t want to remain static when everyone else was moving on. I needed to get out there and experience something new. 

As a result, I accepted my place on the general science course in UCD with the intention of majoring in Zoology and studying postgraduate Vet Med once I had finished. However, I changed my mind about doing a postgrad in veterinary medicine sometime in my second year. Not only were the postgraduate fees EXTORTIONATE (I’m looking at you UCD!), but I realised that I wouldn’t have the heart to put animals to sleep. We had to put our family pet, Miller, to sleep three years ago and I’m still, and probably always will be, upset about it! (I know it was the right thing to do of course, but I miss him like crazy!!) And so, before my career in zoology had even begun, I was already setting myself along a new path.

As I said, early this year I began applying for banking positions, and also any kind of numerate positions that were available to me. Then, in February I got to the final stages of the selection process for one of the larger Irish banks (which I won’t name here) and at the beginning of March I received a phone to say I had been successful! I was absolutely over the moon to say the least. I was delighted at the fact that I would have a steady job to walk into once I finished my finals in May and not only that but I’d have weekends off too!

However, life has a way of changing things up and literally pointing you in a direction that you might not have thought possible!

Around the time I was waiting to hear from the bank about the outcome of my interview (before the phone call in March) I was in college working like a bat out of hell on my final year thesis. My thesis didn’t involve lab work, it was a data analysis project and it involved me spending hours every day alone at a computer - sometimes in the dark if I got into a groove and forgot to turn the light on! On one of these days I decided I’d chance my arm and apply for a specific graduate programme that I had been hmmmming and haaahing about for a number of weeks. It was a programme to become a trainee accountant with one of the ‘Big Four’ financial services companies. I thought that I didn’t have too great of a chance of even being acknowledged as I wasn’t from a business degree and, on top of that, I didn’t even do accounting for my leaving cert! But, that particular day I decided to bite the bullet and just apply as I really didn’t have anything to lose.

A number of months passed and I was busy, busy, busy! Busy writing my thesis and adding the final finishing touches, busy working, and busy studying for my finals.Life was so hectic that I had completely forgotten about the application that I had made to the graduate programme. However, one Thursday night near the end of May I received an email from the company inviting me for interview. I literally nearly fell off my chair! I couldn’t believe it!

And it was alllllllll go from that point. I went for the interview and the assessment and to my absolute disbelief I was offered a position – starting in September! I was due to start my job in the Bank the following weekend, which , in the end I had to turn down as this was an ENORMOUS opportunity that I just couldn’t refuse!

This post has a point I swear! Everybody in college feels like they need to know exactly what they’re going to do when graduation comes along. But you really don’t. We’ve been wrapped up in this education bubble for so long that we haven’t actually gotten to experience any of the real world. There’s a huge pressure on final year students to have everything figured out. I experienced it myself. So many times during my degree I doubted myself and my choice of course, but it got me to where I wanted in the end – even if I didn’t know this was where I wanted to be when I started out! Things will work out, and you’ll find yourself having many jobs, I’m sure, over the course of your life. And don’t fret – if you feel like you’re not really in the right course for you there’s ALWAYS ways to get to where you want to go. I don’t for one second regret studying zoology. It has given me so many skills and attributes that are highly sought after in the working world, skills that I will always have because they were instilled in us from day one.

So my message here? Don’t give up; just keep swimming and Que sera sera!

Peace,

Clare

XO 

*Image above from careersportal.ie