At uni, different people settle into their courses at different rates and sometimes students might find that their course just is not for them.
Check out Victoria Murray’s story:
I spent 7 years at university but don’t let that scare you. I started my uni studies with a Bachelor in Communications (Public Relations) back in 2012. I adored this degree and knew working with people, communicating and building relationships was the job for me.
Come to the end of the three years study I decided to start my Communications (Honours) degree part-time as something to do while I tried (and at the time failed) to secure my first full-time job in the Public Relations industry- a notoriously challenging prospect.
At the same time, I also undertook an internship program for three months in Beijing, China to improve my experience in the PR industry and travel at the same time.
Coming back to Australia – three months in to my honours degree, I soon realised working full time and doing a 20 000 word research thesis was going to be a huge challenge.
So, I decided to continue working casually at the Charles Sturt Bathurst Library where I had been for four years already, as well as casually at the local public library in Bathurst.
I love libraries; the books, the activities, the full-on customer service aspect and the smile on someone’s face after you helped them get the information they needed or the book they were dying to read.
As my honours degree came to an end in 2016, I started to think about pursuing a career in the GLAM sector (galleries, libraries, museums and archives). I wanted to combine my love for PR with my love for libraries.
I started speaking to my library colleagues at both libraries to see if they thought the combination of degrees would be beneficial and all the feedback I received pretty much confirmed it – libraries needed people like me!
And so, jumping straight from the end of my honours degree into my Masters of Information Studies at the end of 2016, I started studying part-time. At the same time, I had been successful in applying for a full-time job as an Outreach Assistant at Bathurst Library.
The overall process of switching from PR to Information Studies was very smooth, I received eight points of credit for a research subject due to my honours degree and having worked with CSU library for so long, I was able to do my three-weeks library internship with them as well.
Since the start of my Masters and the completion of it in Feb 2019, I have worked in a few different roles within the library world, gaining practical experience while learning the theory at the same time.
Changing my career focus and deciding to combine the knowledge of two seemingly unrelated degrees has set me up to work in a particular area in a way that is constantly evolving and changing to meet new expectations.
Even my decision to undertake an honours Degree with a research project unwittingly set me up for where I am today. No knowledge is useless and no time spent in education is wasted, it’s what you make of it that counts.
If you considering a course or career change why not book an appointment with a Careers Adviser to chat about Career Planning?
