Experience VS The Degree

It’s that time when everyone is going crazy with revision and exams, spending days in the library trying to relearn everything you’ve forgotten over the course of the academic year - definitely a stressful time for most students. So what happens when work experience, volunteering, a summer job and an internship are added to the mix? It’s almost inevitable to make life seem a little out of control. Piling employment pressures on top of academic stress becomes almost unmanageable. So what should we actually prioritise –our degree, which let’s face it, we pay a lot for, or trying to better ourselves through gaining as much employment experience as we can? OR trying to get the ‘right’ balance between the two?

Many people say that in grand scheme of things, degrees are not the be all and end all, and although they are still credible, this alone in the employment world isn't always enough. But surely this doesn’t mean trying to wing three years of study, whilst focusing more heavily on things beyond our degree? Degrees show dedication to a subject with evidence of this when you graduate. So although it’s definitely important to get experience of the world beyond a degree, it’s never too late to do so. There is time after study or perhaps during the summer of your degree if you manage to secure something, but I suppose there is never time to go back and change your exam marks. So should degrees take precedence?

This debate has been going on for a while, with newspapers like The Guardian and a recent article from The Independent discussing the battle between experience and academic study. It appears that nowadays, because larger quantities of people attend university, setting yourself aside from the majority is a necessity. Work experience/volunteering/jobs alongside study are becoming equally, if not MORE important than the degree itself.

www.taskfirm.com

The Guardian article mentioned that only 1 in 4 employers were actually interested in the class of the degree and even fewer were bothered about the reputation of the university attended. Perhaps this does have something to do with the fact that far more people go to university today than say 10 years ago. This suggests that the gaining of real-life work experience as part of your degree course is crucial to getting anywhere after graduating or can certainly give you the upper-hand when coming up against someone else in a job interview that perhaps hasn’t had any relevant work experience.

This is what The Guardian suggested employers rated most highly (in decreasing order).

“Relevant work experience

Good work ethic/attitude 

Degree subject studied 

Ability to be a team player 

Mature attitude 

Class of degree

Easy-going, cheerful attitude

Reputation of university attended 

Ambitious and career-minded

Natural leadership”

BUT I still think that the class of degree you get is important, and putting a stronger focus on your studies is definitely a must. So I’m on the side of trying to get a good balance between the two. Summer seems a brilliant opportunity for students to try and get experience – although this is often easier said than done. Turning to your university for possible internship opportunities, handing out CV’s or contacting relevant companies that you are interested in with an email to ask if there is any chance of having a chat with them about what they do, can sometimes open up chances that you are not aware of. Or if you feel like you’re not ready to step out into the world of work beyond university quite yet, campuses are full of opportunities over the course of the academic year and the summer, from internships to contributing to your university’s newspaper or joining societies – they all show a willingness to improve personal skills, because at the end of the day, university is a time to increase personal attributes as well as get the best degree possible.

www.studentlifeonline.com

It’s important to make sure that you take time out for yourself too, because trying to balance experience and study can be tricky especially during exam season. It’s about being realistic with your own time and knowing what your limits are. Neglecting your degree to gain all the experience you can is not a good idea because of the time, money and personal effort you should be investing into your degree in order to having a successful and rewarding career. It’s important to find university activities that fit around the peaks and troughs of the academic lifestyle so that you will not up jeopardising your work by handing it in late. It’s about striking the right balance between good grades and activities beyond a degree that will likely set you up to approach your chosen career in the future.

    OPTIMISE TIME

    ORGANISE

    PRIORITISE

 MINIMISE STRESS


Becca :)

Classical Music is your FRIEND

matthewstarner.com

We have all pretty much immersed ourselves in the art of Twerking, Dougie-ing and Cutting the occasional shape. With the recent rise and experimentation of Hip Hop and Pop, we have really lost our remembrance for the classics. Remember when you were young and you may have listened to some old skool tunes like Janet Jackson and Whitney in their hay day or even the infamous Spice Girls and Madonna’s Like a Virgin. For me, I’m speaking from a 90’s baby perspective, so there is only so much a can talk about when it comes to music that I’ve experienced. However, recently I came across something very interesting.

Classical music; the music of Intelligence, of Wealth and high status. For so long now we have associated these connotations with such a musically enriched genre, and we hardly even bat an eye at it let alone allow our ears to really absorb it. However, is this wise? From March onwards, we can all expect as university students to be under immense pressure from the looming 80% examination which starts to count towards your degree after second year. As well as this, some of us have to also lend our concentration to coursework due in less than a week and it may be all getting to us…just a smidge. So, what am I exactly trying to get at?

It has been scientifically proven that the genre of classical music can actually help with working at such a stressful time; the organic instrumental sounds of the piano, harp and violin lend itself to your benefit. Looking back at my previous post about Language and Music, the fact that music can activate most parts of your brain allows you to remember things that you wouldn’t usually remember. So why not put this to work?

Radio stations like Classical FM or others that play classical music can easily be put on in the background whilst you knock out that next essay or revision session. The soothing tones can relax you and allow you to absorb more of the information. 

An article in The Metro looks at the findings of clinical psychologist Dr. Emma Grey who suggested that maths “students who listened to classical music (with 60-70 beats per minute) while studying scored on average 12 per cent more in their Maths exams”. This is due to the fact that “the melody and tone range in classical music” allows students to maintain a longer studying/revision session and allows them to retain more information. It’s pretty evident that classical music is helpful when it comes to this period, however students of the 90’s who love their Hip Hop, Rock or Pop won’t find themselves prowling the YouTube’s search bar for Beethoven’s Fur Elise now, will they?

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This is where the fun part comes in. A friend of mine showed me a video that was hilarious, but quite interesting at the end. South Korean dance group ‘Waveya’ teamed up with the Belgium B-Classic Music Festival to create a project to promote classical music. What they created was not just a music video, but a statement. The video shows the all-female dance group dancing in cheerleader outfits and short shorts in a style that could be seen as commercial/jazz. The interesting beats that they hit to Antonín Leopold Dvorák’s ‘Symphony No. 9’ are clean, and they really do experiment with bringing the 1893 song to a 21^st century. The dynamic and cinematic locations they use keep you interested in the video, as well as the women dancing to it. As we work our way to the end of the video, a line appears stating that “You have just listened to 3 minutes of classical music” – pretty powerful if you ask me.

The video is definitely worth 3 minutes of your time, click here to watch it.

I want to leave this blog post on a note/question: why is it that when we watch a video like this, we can sit through minutes of listening to classical music, yet we won’t use it to benefit us when studying? Food for thought mis amigos.

From your classical music-loving friend,

Myles