Oh no, I've done a useless degree.

I've been thinking about this and I think you should apply the null hypothesis. If you hadn't done this degree what degree could you have done to better achieve your goals? Would not doing a degree at all have improved your chances of achieving your goals. Rationalising by saying you went for best fit. Or start planning for your second coming as an accountant.

When you started this degree, what were you expecting as an outcome. How did you plan to use it?

How do you get a degree in only two years? In Scotland, it's three or four.

Work as a volunteer for the National Trust, rebuilding dry-stone walls or something. Meet the horny-handed sons of honest toil. You can get training in buiding walls, or thatching roofs. I'd like to be a thatcher.

Well I haven't finished it yet, I still have one year to go.

No. I think I've just had the realisation that academia is what I love and I can never be happy in a full time job that just 'pays the way' with no sense of progress or personal achievement.
I'm going to do a masters and phd and try and become a lecturer. It's all I want to do.
In this sense, my degree isn't useless.

I hadn't really thought about what I was going to do with my degree. I just thought 'I want to study music.' I've wanted to go to university really badly as long as I can remember.

But as shapeless said, I'm going to have to have a few 'shit' jobs for a while in order to help me pay for further studying.

don't you have any interests outside academia?

i understand that perspective however, the idea of finishing your education and then being thrust into the big wide world, as if all you've done is just train for that moment when you must go and find an occupation and "settle". its a horrifying thought, and its entirely understandable to want your degree to count for something.

Not really, because academia is an attitude/perspective 'mode of being' more than anything I suppose.
I like exploring London. I want to travel. I like to see concerts/galleries. I like to get hammered and dance and cavort around. I like the countryside. I think that's about it.

how do you know that the only jobs/careers that offer progress/personal achievement are in academia?

Well i don't exactly, but if I want a job in classical music, and don't want to perform or compose, then there isn't much else really, I suppose.
As Shapeless said.

do you have people that come in to speak to you about their careers after their degrees? the different ways they've used particular courses/programs?

it's fairly standard practice here. It is hard as a student, who's a bit dug into academics to be able to visualize all of the different options available without some help from the university's careers department.

does your program have any co-op options?

No and no...

I should ask my tutor what other options there are for me.

Perhaps start by asking your tutor what their work experience has been, outside of academia. If they haven't been "outside" find someone else to speak to.

Would you enjoy teaching lessons in whatever instrument you're playing?

Good luck then!!! I hope you enjoy the journey.

You know I never listened to opera until this crazy Paul Potts performance. I really liked that aria even without understanding it. After much research I have the translation and it seems to be rooted in Arabic fables like the 'Arabian Nights' all about reading minds and intents. I bought Paul's CD 'Passion'. I guess you like to delve in to the theory of music. Is it the rhythms, sustained notes, the gradual ascending or descending of the notes or random like yet gradual rising notes that provides the uplifting of our spirits? Is there a general pattern to music? What is music to one can be noise to another e.g. an incomprehensible ethnic song could be noise to another ethnic who doesn't understand the language. So is music an acquired taste or cultural?

P.S. You realize that you do need a thesis for both a Master's degree and a Ph.D. For thesis material you could show how how Indian music influenced Spanish music as Gypsies are descendants of Indian travelling musicians from Rajestan in Northwestern India who during the Ottoman Empire ventured into Europe or to Spain during the Arab rule. You could trace the instruments and songs. The stomping of the feet seems very Indian. Or even how Italian opera came into being or German music. Good luck.

PQ, you are up on my people of interest, and so what..


Really, I wish you'd compose yourself and then start looking at others, from a wider view. I hate to say, get over yourself, but, really, that could be a good step.