Im at a cross roads. Any ideas?

[Guest nedge2k]

For the last three years i've been studying Motorsport Engineering at Swansea Uni in a vain attempt to find a back door into rallying. All it's taught me so far is how to be a glorified mechanic which isnt really something i want to spend the rest of my life doing. My girlfriend starts med school in September in Leicester and im seriously considering packing in my course and going with her to start a fresh. I only want to be a rally driver so im trying to think outside the box and pick a career which will earn me enough cash to get me started. The only things im good with are cars, women, music and computers. I've done the car thing, i've been a DJ, i doubt i could have a career as an international lover so im looking at sitting behind a desk staring at a computer monitor while blasting round the mountains in a rally car at weekends.

So, my question is....which field do i go into?

I can turn my hand to pretty much anything computery but i'll need to earn a shed load to get me in a rally car. Computer science has been suggested, as has network/db admin. I quite like the idea of computer security (might come in handy ;)) but i've no idea what would be best. I know there's some of you out there that earn stupid ammounts of money so what do you do? How did you get into it? Do you enjoy it?

Any and all advice is welcome, cheers :D

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

Computer security is a good thing to get into, but I suppose the golden rule if you want to make lots of £££ is don't get sucked into a permanent job, work as a consultant and sell you services to companies for loads more than you'd get as a permie.

You could go down the route of becoming a low-life-blood-sucking-project-manager (;)), they get paid lots of cash for doing not a lot :D

P

[Guest chucky.egg]

I'd suggest contract VB development, always a market and good rates of pay

[Guest nedge2k]

Cheers so far guys :D

Maybe i should put this on ebay, "buy the right to decide my future" ;)

[Guest Samsonite]

Nedge

I used to be involved in bike racing a few years ago. My mate used to race at 500cc GP in the eighties and in his twilight years did a British Championship. I was his lap scorer and general pit beeyatch!!

My brother-in-law used to do clubbie racing and luvved it – even tho he knew he would never be the next Valentino Rossi.

I looked at all sorts of racing paths myself and realised that unless you are prepared to commit every single penny you earn and then some, you are unlikely to satisfy your self with your racing….

All of the part time racers I have known across the years (cars, bikes, sidecars – no rally unfortunately) have come from almost every walk of life during the week and become the racer at the weekend. Only a couple of them have been able to swap their lives around and become full-time professional racers..

I s’pose what I am trying to say is that you gotta race your own race. Find a rally club that lets you race properly for a budget you reckon you can afford (you wont) and see how that goes!! If you really are the next Richard Burns or secretly a McRae brother, you will win… and then get spotted!! It might take a few years but that’s the price of desire…

To answer your question of what field should you work in – it doesn’t matter!! It is a means to an end!! If you are always in pursuit of the high earning jobs, its likely your racing will become second best and that aint the point!!

Wish ya all the best tho… for what its worth…go racing, get in debt and have loads of great stories for your kids/grandkids – plus racer chix are some of the best I’ve seen!!

[Guest MECX]

If your going for a degree id try an electroic or computer Engineering degree rather than computer science, will be more difficult but you will be more employable at the end of it, id go with paul and try to contract if your able to move around, loads of cash that way.

[Guest beersoft]

nedge

go with something contracty and computery (and in leicester would be good)

tech supports always fun and easy to get into, and it has the added bonus of being able to hurt stupid people and get paid for it ;), but dont get drawn to the darkside and become a systems administrator or you will become a bitter, twisted and cynical alcoholic (like me)

if your still going to do the uni thing i recomend contour fashion at demontfort, because nothing says pervert more than a degree in bra studies :D

later

Owen

[Guest nedge2k]

Trust you beer ;)

@Samsonite, thanks mate. That is basically the plan...weekend racer and then see what happens but i want to earn as much as possible to give me the best chance. Im too old to get into WRC (im only 21!) so chances of being spotted slim once i finish uni. I just basically want a good career to fall back on should either be crap at rallying (which i wont be :D ) or get horibbly mamed shooting off a cliff in Corsica at 130mph :D

@MECX, yeh Paul's idea does seem them best. My girlfriend's ex boyfirend's father (thats a mouthfull) was an IT consultant and apparently they weren't short of a bob or two ;)

From the sounds of it i should go into project managing/consultancy. Do f' all, get paid loads and spend the rest of the time ragging an Evo round the mountains :(

Out of intrest Paul, what did you do at uni and how did u come to do what you do?

Thanks again guys, this has been driving me a bit mad. You look back on three years and realise you wasted it on something that'll never be a use to you and that you're gonna have a hard job getting a second chance at things.

One day when im rich i'll buy you all the latest Smartphone (sim free of course) :D

Edited June 10, 2005 by nedge2k

[Guest Chaser81]

Thanks again guys, this has been driving me a bit mad. You look back on three years and realise you wasted it on something that'll never be a use to you and that you're gonna have a hard job getting a second chance at things.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Know that feeling! I came out of a three year degree in Journalism the best part of £20,000 in debt and decided to become a copper, something that you need no formal qualifications for anyway! Wish I had saved that £20,000 now!

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

I started a degree in Computing and Information Systems, did the first two years, did my sandwich year, got an offer from the company I was with for tons of cash to stay with them, did so, (no regrets for not finishing a degree that was crappy and irrelevant).

I've never stayed at a company more than 1.5 years (switching and inflating my salary every time), and about 4 years ago relocated with my wife to Norfolk, got my current job where I am doing loads of different and cool stuff (currently mainly Telematics).

My next chapter is about to begin tho..., and it's got 'MoDaCo' written all over it ;)

P

[Guest mcwarre]

,Jun 11 2005, 07:33]no regrets for not finishing a degree that was crappy and irrelevant

Thats the problem with degrees; many of them are totally irrelevant and people think that just by having one they will get a high paid job....WRONG! Better use the £20K of debt to fund a house (or a nice Audi, eh P? ;) )

,Jun 11 2005, 07:33]

My next chapter is about to begin tho..., and it's got 'MoDaCo' written all over it :D

Hope you can make a go of it mate, really do.

Back on Topic:

The IT is a good route but be careful which particular part. The Computer Security is a field which is ever expanding. I used to work in this field with my job. As soon as the guys were trained and had a bit of experience they were off. One guy went for an interview for a lowly security post at a certain credit card firm in chester area (no names, no packdrill) and was told afterwards that he didn't get the job he applied for. They did offer him Head of IT Security instead..........................

Edited June 11, 2005 by mcwarre

[Guest dodding nonkey]

I think samsonite has said it all. You have to work yer butt off to be able to do the things you want to do.

"After all when I were a lad, the only people who could afford to go to uni were the ones with fathas wot owned alf of yorkshire, and they only went to uni so they could get bummed by a lot of pinko commie spies" ;)

Good luck with whatever you decide m8, and good luck with the rally stuff, too many wheels for my likeing, but I suppose you need 4 on mud!

[Guest nedge2k]

;)

Cheers :D

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

Umm i'd say categorically NOT to go into another run of the mill Computing/IT degree. The market is waaay oversaturated with "IT Consultants". Do something fun but techie, see what interesting degrees Lecister offer. I wanted to do Electronics Engineering so i chose that degree, but i also chose to do it with Satellite engineering, which sounds cool at the very least...(/me == teh rocket scientist ;p).

Theres computing in all techie degrees nowadays and regardless of what you actually do you'll probably end up doing some form of computing in your job (like i am now on placement, 3 attempts and still no electronics work experience...)

[Guest LaFours]

This might be just as hard to break into as racing, but if you're into techie stuff, good with computers, and know cars, why not think about something to do with car design?

If you can get into graphic design and learn the ropes, I'm sure there are companies out there looking for designers to help them put together ideas for concept cars, or even racing teams looking for people to help them flesh out ideas. I don't know much about the industry, really, so I have no idea if this is even a viable idea, but it seems like it could be something you'd be into.

[Guest Brody]

Nedge, i know you know this but incase anyone else is in the same situation and reading this i'll tell you again...

I did a BSc (Hons) Automotive Technology with Management with the aim of working with cars and ending up possibly in car design having previously done Graphical Communication at A-Level, unfortunately my degree was not the right path to follow for such a job and besides, half way through it I realised that I should have followed the path of one of my other A-Levels and gone the Computer Science route. I didn't like the thought of dropping out and starting a fresh as I saw it as a waste of the money that i'd put into the current degree so I completed it (2:1) and then used it as a springboard for getting on an MSc Computer Science masters, having passed that I did a few months contracting as a web developer which paid stupidly well for a first job and it has since turned into a permanent position which is cool!

So i guess I did 4 years at uni, got a degree and a masters which definately helped me to find a job, having the masters helped me that bit more as more and more people are doing degrees nowadays.

I guess the best advice I could give would be similar to what others have said, if you want quick cash do some contracting and try and set yourself apart from the average Computer Science graduate...

Edited June 29, 2005 by Brody