1st class degree or C.V?
Before I get to the nitty gritty of this argument I’ll admit I’m one of THOSE people. One of those bitter people who does feel hard done by when it comes to degree results. Yes, I think it’s a disgrace that I have the same classification as someone with an average of 60% when mine was over 68%. But I can’t argue that I didn’t quite perform well enough to get that elusive first I so desperately wanted.
A first was what I’d worked for during my three years here, but without sounding too clichéd that wasn’t the be all and end for all me. If all I was bothered about when I came to uni was the number on a piece of a paper I would have stayed at home and got on the train to Liverpool or Manchester (both half and hour away from my home) every day and spent my hours in the library.
But that’s not what uni is about. Why would I move three hours drive away from my family and friends for a qualification I can get virtually anywhere in the country? NCL+ tells you uni is so much more than a degree – how corny? Yes. How true? Definitely.
I’m the ultimate daddy’s girl and when it came to telling Mum and Dad my results I knew my Dad would think of some comforting line for me, regardless of how disappointed he no doubt was for me. He didn’t say I missed out because I went out too much or spent too much time with my boyfriend or having a part-time job; the only thing that could have impacted my results was the time I spent volunteering for The Courier and as far as we were both concerned that had more than benefitted my CV.
And that’s what coming to uni is really about. You develop as a person not just in terms of academia, but the skills you gain from everything else, even the confidence to move away from home, make you someone employers want to have working for them.
I think there’s nothing worse than seeing someone who has done nothing but study for their degree whilst at uni. I wouldn’t want someone working for me who didn’t make the most of opportunities that are on offer to them.
You find me one student at this university who wouldn’t enjoy any of the societies that are on offer, that can’t play for any of the sports clubs or that can’t write for The Courier. I feel so much more of a developed character knowing that I can tell employers that during my second and third years at university I spent 20 hours a week as Sports Editor for one of the biggest student newspapers in the country (no bias, here!).
I can also say that I got my just rewards if you like, when my first full-time job became editing the paper I’d spent so much time volunteering for. I can whole-heartedly say that I feel that I am more employable and will be a better journalist in the long term with this year on my CV instead of a first class degree – a choice I ultimately I had to make.
I would certainly fancy my chances for a job with my 2:1 and experience against a student with a first who lacks extra curricular activity. This may be a sweeping statement, but students with a bit of life experience seem to be better placed for the real world. After all, you’re not always going to be able to solve problems in a post-graduation job with your academic knowledge. Sometimes a bit of personality goes a long way.
This may be a little too late for the graduates of 2008 but for those of you with time to rectify this, make sure you enjoy your time here and don’t just spend hours sat with your head in a book. There’s far more to life here than the piece of paper you’ll leave with. Just make sure you don’t spend too much volunteering that you forget your degree altogether!
Gemma Davies
Degrees of success...
Volunteering for The Courier has been a valuable experience and one that has added a lot to my C.V and I do believe that holding a pro-bono position that takes up so much time, as well as my other extra-curricular involvement enhances my prospects above many of my peers who will end up with the same—or better—degree classification. However, no matter what you get involved with at University, getting your academic qualification should really be your primary concern. You are studying for a degree in a particular subject and in the real world, a certain qualification, the minimum of which for any half-decent job is an Upper-Second class honours degree, is a box you simply have to tick or you won’t even get through the application form stage of recruitment processes, regardless of what societies you got involved in or what sports team you played for as an undergraduate.
I do think that far too often, too much emphasis is placed on a few little letters and a few little numbers on a piece of paper but the world of work is what it is and you won’t even get through a first stage application form sift without certain pre-requisites and some firms won’t even read your other information if your academic credentials aren’t good enough.
With applications for graduate jobs on the rise and the pandemic of, lets face it, ridiculous degrees from equally ridiculous “universities” those of us who have achieved well since A-Level, and continue to do so at university deserve to stand out based on our academic merit first, and our extra-curricular activities second. If we don’t then what’s the point trying to get into a decent university and a competitive undergraduate course? If that was the case, we would have been better off dossing about or getting jobs than racking up five-figure debts by the time we’re 21. Unlike some people I have spoken to, I am not remotely resentful of those who are intelligent enough to be educated at Oxbridge. Gaining a degree from Oxford or Cambridge is an internationally recognised stamp of absolute academic excellence and frankly, if you’re bright enough to get into Oxford (on your own merit, not Daddy’s) then fair play to you; if you’re considered the cream of the crop and you get a top graduate job- you probably deserve it.
Because of my time at The Courier, something I would absolutely do again if I had my time over, I have sacrificed my degree to some extents but have always put my studies first when it came to crunch time. Getting involved in university life outside of your course is a great thing for your C.V and for your experiences.
Taking nothing out of university except a degree would leave you in a very sad state of affairs and regretting all of those long hours in the library and not the pub, or the student newspaper office. However, when it comes down to it, and you graduate and finally strap on a pair and apply for a job, you’re going to need that 2:1 degree classification, no matter how many times you stayed up until 2 AM laying up a student newspaper or how many goals you scored for the university hockey team. You just do.
Paul Brannon
