Masters in Unemployability.

Oh I wish...

I could be a dentist right now!

At my university, they even have a name: engineering students.

Lucy, did we by any chance go to the same university?

We are a shameful mess of a family and deserve all the derision we get.

NB In possibly the most horrible?

Lucy, did we by any chance go to the same university?

If you refer to the tertiary education system of the fair city which we both inhabit, then yes. I sit in one of its offices as we speak.

HIST 110 for me – dropped my science papers after the first HIST 110 lecture (also at the university featuring the engineering students, as it happens). Megan Wegan is right – surely there must be some legal comeback against our parents for permitting this?

my eldest daughter said the word "discourse" before she ever saw the Wiggles.

High five, sir.

a lifetime of unpaid thinking

Surely the opposite of politics.

HIST 110 for me – dropped my science papers after the first HIST 110 lecture (also at the university featuring the engineering students, as it happens).

For me it was HIST 133 (Medieval Europe) – although I still managed to complete my science degree, so my employability hasn't been totally?

NB In possibly the most horrible example of our sad domestic life, my eldest daughter said the word "discourse" before she ever saw the Wiggles. (Actually, I don't think she's ever seen the Wiggles).

Christ. Someone engineer a rescue of these poor tikes. Someone in red, yellow, purple, and blue?

Do you think renaming my son "Pension Plan" would imbue him with an appropriate sense of purpose whilst studying at University ?

Yours sincerely

Bay Brown

I?

Gotta admit tho' – Auckland Uni's ploy of whipping up middle class hysteria via the scarcity of educational resources is a coup of marketting.

The only student worse than an Engineering student is a Performance Voice student.

On behalf of my best friend, hey! And also, possibly, fair point.

For me it was HIST 133 (Medieval Europe)

I did that! Retained facts: Charlemagne was really, really tall.

The most seriously I nearly went astray?

The world needs more philosophical tech writers.

I know one who has a PhD in the Philosophy of Theology. So there are some around (well, at least two).

HIST 110 for me

They are totally the gateway drugs. I did Phil 102 and Hist 101, and now I'm just about to complete a Masters in Unemployability (History).

I remember reading an article a while ago about the so-called "helicopter Moms" at American universities – the mothers who are constantly hovering around their children, even while the kids are living on campus. While I never encountered their like while at uni myself, I'm sure they exist here.

They?

Then we'll see whose laughing.

As an Arts student, I must say that I'm laughing right now ! ;)

The world needs more philosophical tech writers.

I got my MA in Philosophy (thesis focussed on meta-ethics) a decade ago, and I've been a tech writer ever since. The clustering of philosophy-degreed TWs around here is interesting: I've never actually met another TW with a philosophy degree (we mainly seem?

I go out with a gaysian engineer, so I can't be prejudiced against any of those groups. That said, first year engineering students are the scariest group of 18 year olds I've ever come across. It terrifies me that they'll?

Without anyone looking over their shoulders, they spent at least a year falling down, throwing up, and smashing letterboxes.

Substitute "propositioning the hostess" for "throwing up" and this is uncannily like the night 25 years ago when I got your brother into a toney New Year's Eve party in Sumner.?

Substitute "propositioning the hostess" for "throwing up" and this is uncannily like the night 25 years ago when I got your brother into a toney New Year's Eve party in Sumner. Spooky, really ...

Yeah, see? I blame the parents.

Hi Mum!

And a philosophy degree doesn't make you unemployable. After about five years in the workforce, who cares what your degree was? And for those first five years, having an odd degree can help you get interviews. Or at least, that was my experience.

Mine too – in an interview for?

I blame the parents too, with my upbringing how was I to know the proportion of rum to coke was supposed to be 1:5 not 5:1?

In my defense, I did non?

Mine too – in an interview for my first job, the manager interviewing me basically said "an MA, eh? That means you can write and you can stick with something – just what we're looking for."

Indeed. Though I should say that I've also found out, retrospectively, that in two?

After about five years in the workforce, who cares what your degree was?

God, I wish that someone was giving this as career advice in high school. And university. I'm so very tired of the bizarre idea that the topic you study at university should somehow be related to an?

Auckland Uni's ploy of whipping up middle class hysteria via the scarcity of educational resources is a coup of marketting.

I think the "limit" I saw for one course was 150% the current enrolment! It's all about the marketing.

I remember my stupid plunket-sponsored coffee group where everyone was discussing how to get their (under one-year-old firstborn children) into "good schools" so they could get?

That said, first year engineering students are the scariest group of 18 year olds I've ever come across. It terrifies me that they'll be building bridges and running power plants some time :P.

Actually, many of them won't, because they are required to fail about half of them. Or they?

I'm just about to complete a Masters in Unemployability (History)

George, I'd like to be the first to welcome you to librarianship (me) or high school teaching (my husband). Still, in our household we know a shitload about contraceptives in New Zealand (me) and Joan of Arc imagery in Vichy?

And a philosophy degree doesn't make you unemployable.

The first job I got in London back when I did my OE was in the Auditing R&D department for KPMG. I'd studied auditing at varsity, so was quite surprised to find that nobody in the department had a commerce degree. Mostly it?

Also, under no circumstances do you want them having sex.

A very popular gender-specific New Zealand child-raising manual with a poorly-hidden social conservative agenda has a lot of advice on this subject. It includes the firm injunction, amongst a lot of other fluffy feel-good platitudes, not to enable teenage sex.?

Funnily enough, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

Heavily tattooed, for me.

What I am grateful to the olds for is the fact that even?

how to get their (under one-year-old firstborn children) into "good schools" so they could get "good degrees" and therefore well-paid jobs and being looked at like I was the prophet of Satan when I said I'd rather my kid just found the thing that made him happy

I've had some?

After about five years in the workforce, who cares what your degree was?

...and staying on the 'bagging the engineers' tip, a thought experiment:

You are flying over the pacific to attend a prestigious international conference on, oh, lets say 'Joan of Arc imagery in Vichy France'.

Who would you?

Ever since the Listener put up that pay-wall it's been a painful wait (since you can't simply pop down to New World and buy it in Canberra).

George, I'd like to be the first to welcome you to librarianship (me) or high school teaching (my husband).

Since it's the fairly recent history of our neighbour Indonesia, I'm posing for the employers as an expert in other fields which are marginally more employable.

"...I could no longer explain the difference between different kinds of infinity..."

Different kinds of infinity – blow my mind! When did that happen? I know I got my long service award in the Arts, but surely somebody could have?

Who would you have preferred to have designed the plane you are flying in?

Umm... someone who has worked in the field for several years and has built multiple planes all of which have consistently failed to fall out of the sky?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pChGZtAwY4

a prestigious international conference on, oh, lets say 'Joan of Arc imagery in Vichy France'

Touche, old chap. Touche. :)

Here's my answer to your question: the engineer can design the plane and go home, and I'll have an entertaining, conversational dinner with the arts graduate. Sorted!

Robots and planes, you say..

Yes, that's what I associate with Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Not 'Angelina Jolie with an eyepatch'. Another problem with my arts degree, I suppose.

I'm just about to complete a Masters in Unemployability (History)

Try English instead — if that doesn't make you wish your eyes would explode in your head, you can endure anything. Says the double major in Politics and Classics — which only leaves me qualified to be the Pope. Perhaps.

I'm just about to complete a Masters in Unemployability (History)

Danielle:

George, I'd like to be the first to welcome you to librarianship (me)

Quite. I once worked in a science library where three of the five permanent staff had this same degree (including me). At one point I?

... I'm unemployed, but at least I know why.

Different kinds of infinity:

From memory (I think of a PHIL paper, though?

I did actually do what my parents wanted at Uni, for a month. It ended spectacularly badly.

From memory (I think of a PHIL paper, though it could have been maths), it's things like:

{1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... } is smaller than
{2, 4, 6, 8, 10 ... }

You can add them together and stuff."

Thanks Lyndon. Still sounds a?

Admittedly that was before post-modernism, but it is still?

If, at year nine, your child has indicated a preference for a career like dentistry or architecture that would require them to go to a particular university, move.

If at year nine your child dreams of being a dentist, of course you need to move. As far away as possible?

Top educator

Director of agriculture.

Different kinds of infinity:

From memory (I think of a PHIL paper, though it could have been maths), it's things like:

{1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... } is smaller than
{2, 4, 6, 8, 10 ... }

You can add them together and stuff.

No. {1, 2, 3, ...}?

The only student worse than an Engineering student is a Performance Voice student.

On behalf of my best friend, hey! And also, possibly, fair point.

In my defence, when I finally became a Performance Voice Student I was a responsible, studious and dedicated student who averaged an A throughout my?

The rest of the infinities are less practical.

Bastard Gin, Actual Gin

Two varieties, eh? Almost mathematical..

Two varieties, eh? Almost mathematical..

Having had a very similar major I'd say it was the stupid relationships which required the actual maths.

Funnily enough, I turned out to be completely rubbish at stats. It was if?

I still question whether society's investment would benefit from making school leavers take a year or two off, but then again I would.

Having had a very similar major I'd say it was the stupid relationships which required the actual maths.

Aheheheh. We're already dealing with intersecting sets.

so I picked maths with statistics

I was told I needed Maths with Stats to do biology. When that turned out to not be true,?

Uni? Worst fifteen grand I ever spent. I was promised that high school was the boring bit you had to pass through to get to the interesting stuff at university. Turns?

Who would you have preferred to have designed the plane you are flying in?

Howard Hughes?

If I'd seemed a bit less flakey at course advising in first year, I would probably have been made to do statistics, but?

Hmmm.... I think i'll just take my 2 subjects in School Cert and head south till this whole thing blows over...

yrs unqualifiedly
Ian adequate
__no less dimmer?

BSc Hons in Biological Sciences to be exact, with a Post Graduate Certificate of Education to follow. Neither of which has any bearing whatsoever on what I do?

Uni? Worst fifteen grand I ever spent. I was promised that high school was the boring bit you had to pass through to get to the interesting stuff at university. Turns out that was a lie.

Wife says it serves you right for doing physiology ?

So am I the only person thus far who has owned up to having a science degree? Yes, I think I am.

Oh, I have one, several even. Somewhere. In the filing cabinet I think.

To answer someone's earlier question: I think we started calling it 'uni' when we started?

Within about a year of leaving varsity (and by the way, when the hell did we start calling it "uni"?)

In the UK it was 1923. I guess NZ had to follow suit at some stage. "Varsity" is one of those archaisms that make me giggle, I always feel it?

For all I know you could wind up being like Jake, globetrotting and publishing articles in the NZJH and whatnot!

*blush* but I ought to confess that

they spent at least a year falling down, throwing up, and smashing letterboxes. Any course-work handed in would be done in a blaze?

I was told I needed Maths with Stats to do biology. When that turned out to not be true, I dropped it.

They're still perpetrating that one on innocent uni students, in the form of Introduction to Biological Data Analysis and Experimental Design and Data Analysis For Biologists, now a?

]]> Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:05:05 +1200 http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-the-up-front-guide-to-parenting/?p=126889#post126889 http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-the-up-front-guide-to-parenting/?p=126889#post126889

"Mummy , when I grow up I want to be a musician."
"Don't be silly dear, you can't do both!"

When asked about career aspirations I used to reply,
"Professional small boy"
I found it didn't pay so great, so I'm just an amateur now

]]> Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:25:22 +1200 http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-the-up-front-guide-to-parenting/?p=126890#post126890 http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-the-up-front-guide-to-parenting/?p=126890#post126890

"Professional small boy"

Ohhhh....!

]]> Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:26:36 +1200 http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-the-up-front-guide-to-parenting/?p=126899#post126899 http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-the-up-front-guide-to-parenting/?p=126899#post126899 Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:59:44 +1200 http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-the-up-front-guide-to-parenting/?p=126901#post126901 http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-the-up-front-guide-to-parenting/?p=126901#post126901

I loved uni. The degree at the end of it did seem kind of irrelevant.

Same. Up to and including my Masters.

Which makes it doubly ironic that almost 10 years after completing it, the topic of my thesis has just become immensely relevant to my professional life. Not something?

The rest of the infinities are less practical."?

History is awesome, there's just so much of it,

And getting more all the time.

There are probably students that did the entire first year of University maths, and came out knowing less than what you've told me.

In fairness, I don't recall that being in the first year maths curriculum (second year, yes). Then again, since a) I took the Keller method versions of?

I've always enjoyed being able to look my thesis up in the university library though. Made me feel all brainy, like.

If you work in the same library in which your thesis is housed, you can also check and see how many times it's been interloaned to other universities (presumably?

Or searched Google Scholar for any citations

Excuse me, I just have to pop away and do something....

Or searched Google Scholar for any citations

Excuse me, I just have to pop away and do something....

"How I learned that my most significant contribution to science was being people's friend in grad school, with 'offering useful feedback' a close second", by Amy Gale aged thirty*mumble*

Also, that those using it wear a scarf and a sweatshirt with a crest to every lecture.

There's a note in the minutes of the executive of the Otago University Students Association from the 1940s "expressing concern" that not all students were wearing academic gowns when on campus.

It would?

"How I learned that my most significant contribution to science was being people's friend in grad school, with 'offering useful feedback' a close second", by Amy Gale aged thirty*mumble*

At least you made some impact. I appear to have made none at all.

Not that I did that very much or anything. Or searched Google Scholar for any citations.

Or you could start worrying about the size of your h-index...

and b) beer is yummy

And foamy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fiOyEw38do

Vic and its stupid repository

Tangentially, librarians have an uncanny knack for choosing names and acronyms which should make any normal person snort immaturely into their coffee. 'Digital repositories' – I mean honestly, does that not sound like something one would stick up one's jacksy? And then the public libraries?

I've always enjoyed being able to look my thesis up in the university library though. Made me feel all brainy, like.

Do you ever read your old work and have a strange feeling you are reading something written by another person?

Do you ever read your old work and have a strange feeling you are reading something written by another person?

Frequently. And that person can't write.

Do you ever read your old work and have a strange feeling you are reading something written by another person?

I get that about stuff I wrote six months ago.

The VAG

My wife used to sing with the Cambridge University Musical Society. Yes, they did use an acronym. Some?

Do you ever read your old work and have a strange feeling you are reading something written by another person?

I was recently revising a paper that I attempted to publish in perhaps 2002/3, and was pleasantly surprised by how much I didn't hate it...

'Digital repositories' – I mean honestly, does that not sound like something one would stick up one's jacksy?

You neglected to mention that one of the things that repositories do is "ingest" information. That comes right after "harvesting". And before "defecating", I suppose.

Do you ever read your old work and have a strange feeling you are reading something written by another person?

Frequently. And that person can't write.

Oh yes. But they seem nice.

Oh yes. But they seem nice.

I always think my 10 – 15 year old self seemed so innocent. But very passionate about it.

History is awesome, there's just so much of it,

And getting more all the time.

History ! still growing in the recession !

Do you ever read your old work and have a strange feeling you are reading something written by another person?

Frequently. And that person can't write.

Oh?

(I do actually know Caleb IRL, so this isn't as weird as it sounds. Or maybe it is. I don't care, because that was really hilarious reading.)

I don't care, because that was really hilarious reading.

Indeed. Although as a keen scholar of Middle Kingdom Egyptian mining techniques I did feel slighted somewhat.

Great surname, BTW :)

Um... topic. How about "varsity vs "uni". We always called it "Uni" back when I lived in Blighty, and I noticed that when I moved to EnZed that everyone seemed to call it "Varsity" – so that's what I call it too now.?

Varsity was Uni over in Australia.

I say varsity. And before that, I spent several years at ool.

I say varsity. And before that, I spent several years at ool.

Uni, which I think was pretty consistent through my social group. Maybe it makes a difference which uni you went to. And before that I went to high school (hi sch?) not college.

And before that I went to high school (hi sch?) not college.

Hmmm. I think you must mean "igh ool", Emma. Assuming you're following the giovanni tiso method of education establishment shortening.

Referencing, of course Harry Orsman.

Varsity, first used in Dunedin in 1890, at which time it was an English import, but it's not longer in use there.

Uni was first used, I think, in the phrase 'Sydney uni', and was?

So I just happened to be passing Google Scholar and somehow my name got typed into the search box...

This reminds me – about 5 years ago, a friend of mine told me that some of the writing on my website was in the course reading of a first-year English?

Here's my answer to your question: the engineer can design the plane and go home, and I'll have an entertaining, conversational dinner with the arts graduate. Sorted!

Right.

I'll just be down in the cellar, then. Designing, building and maintaining absolutely everything that enables your feckless, carefree modern lifestyle.

No,?

It turns out some lecturer had picked a couple of bits of my writing to use in a paper on "personal biography".

...and the lecturer didn't think to ask you first, Robyn? How rude!

Only directly marketable skill I can point to from all that was being able to touch type incredibly fast (due to having to finish papers half-an-hour before?

It was then that I decided to give up any idea of getting a proper degree.

Ah, but none of you has had the experience of sitting exams solely for the purpose of delaying a call up in the army, right? Right?

I could tell you stories... really, really boring?

Does that make polytechnics "P-techs"?

When my parents both worked at a Polytech it was "Polly-wolly" sometime with a "doodle" on the end. Work talk was "Polly-speak" and was banned from the dinner table.

Well I still call UniTech "Carrington". My parents met there, long before it was either a Uni or a Tech. Locals will know the significance of this.

Ah yes but there are more choices – Carrington was the replacement name post-1974 trying to get over the stigma of "Oakley Hospital",?

with a solid supply of misgivings and doubs

The doubts regarded mostly my ability to spell, and were well founded obviously.

Does that make polytechnics "P-techs"?

Well dig this, in Christchurch it is known as CPIT, and I guess probably specialises in Middle Kingdom Egyptian mining techniques...

yrs subterraneanly
Mole Manne
shafted again...

Someone upthread confessed to a BSc without any opprobrium being heaped on hir head, but I'm willing to bet that you will all start throwing things at me now: my first degree was a BCom (Hons) in Accounting and Finance. I don't usually talk?

Right.

I'll just be down in the cellar, then. Designing, building and maintaining absolutely everything that enables your feckless, carefree modern lifestyle.

No, really, it's no bother, even though it has been a bit damp down there lately and my chest is playing up something awful. You go out with?

I don't usually talk about it in polite company.

As well you shouldn't. Finance, indeed.

Though apparently a third of all degrees granted these days are in commerce. I comfort myself with the knowledge that the recession means they're all out of work now anyway. And the ones who share?

Does that make polytechnics "P-techs"?

Lots of lab equipment being nicked, apparently. You can guess what for.

out-Listenering the Listener!
or was that the hearald. or the press. nevermind.

but in all seriousness (well, a small amount of seriousness, if you want to get all pendantic), the phenomenon of which you write reflects two very bloody major changes in the way newzild society is conditioned?

Does that make polytechnics "P-techs"?

Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology will always be, to me, CPIT. Pronounced spit.

Uni was first used, I think, in the phrase 'Sydney uni', and was first spotted on these fair shores in 1984 in Auckland.

Back in 1969, when such things were all the go, someone appeared to have been sprung during the hight while painting the words __Students and Workers Unite__?

Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology will always be, to me, CPIT. Pronounced spit.

I was doing a bit of temp work desktop publishing at CPIT during the name change (mostly swapping new logos for old on business cards) and that is definitely the pronunciation I've always used.

Ponsonby Intermediate School suffered from acronymphobia when I was there.

Uh, the Tertiary Education Union has um, a Combined Unions Negotiating Team.

Uh, the Tertiary Education Union has um, a Combined Unions Negotiating Team.

I'm sure that's what the opposing negotiators called them..

I am twelve

Overcome momentarily by an inappropriate Five Go Mad flash.

Overcome momentarily by an inappropriate Five Go Mad flash.

Gosh. You're so mature, Sacha...

.... I love coups! and marketing coups are some of the best ......

Now I giggle all the damn time, because like Danielle I am twelve.

I see your acronyms and raise you having to have serious conversations about lamb and/or mutton flaps.