Failing your degree can feel like the end of the world, but the truth is that even though you might find it hard to believe, (in the immediate, post apocalyptic aftermath), failing your degree is just another easily surmountable life hurdle.

It is one of many life hurdles that you will need to overcome and this can be overcome with positivity and a refusal to give up, that is, if you want to get ahead and achieve your life goals. You will never get things served up to you on a plate, (unless you are in a restaurant), and there will be plenty of setbacks to be overcome and it is the people who can brush aside these setbacks quickly who will really get ahead in life.

1. Find a career that suits your personality

One of the main reasons that students fail their degrees is that they have chosen a subject that doesn’t really suit their personality or psychological preferences. Many students choose a degree subject without really knowing if they will be suited to that subject. If they find the degree is not a match for their personality, they can become severely demotivated and fail their degree. Don’t make the same mistake again when deciding what to do after a failed degree. This time why not do a professional personality assessment from Career Key to give you an idea of the kind of subjects and careers that you are psychologically suited to and will therefore enjoy and excel in. Click to View or Buy Career Key Career/Professional Personality Assessment

Click to View or Buy Career Key Career/Professional Personality Assessment 

 

2. Develop a marketable skill fast at GoSkills.com

Get on to a learning site like GoSkills that contains over a thousand courses where you can learn the most in-demand, marketable skills for your career. They have courses in  Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator which when provide you with monetizable design skills. They have courses in web development (HTML, CSS, Javascript etc..), Course start at around £30 and with just a small outlay in this personal development you could soon be offering your services as a web developer or designer to local businesses or online project marketplaces like Fiverr. Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint!, Adobe Photoshop and Project Management. are the most in-demand skills and courses. But, the most popular learning package is the Go-Skills Unlimited Package.

10% Off any Goskills course w/ code “GOSKILLS10”

3. Start a Business Now

Plenty of successful entrepreneurs, including Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg or Alan Sugar, do not possess a degree or A-Levels. So, if you feel you have an eye for a business idea and the drive and energy to make it happen, why not consider launching your own business.  There are several areas you can start a business and below I have recommended several specialist books to help you launch your business today.

1 Forex/Currency Trading.

1.Currency Trading for Dummies by Kathleen Brooks. Explains in simple terms how the foreign exchange works and how you can become part of it. Top-rated. Top-Seller. Recommended. Click to view or buy now.

2.FOREX TRADING: The Basics Explained in Simple Terms by Jim Brown. (Forex for Beginners, Make Money Online, Currency Trading, Foreign Exchange, Trading Strategies, Day Trading). Best-seller. Highly recommended. Click to view or buy now.

2.Day Trading. 

1. How to Day Trade for a Living: A Beginner’s Guide to Trading Tools and Tactics, Money Management, Discipline and Trading Psychology, by Dr Andrew Aziz. Author renowned expert. Comes highly recommended. Click to view or Buy Now.

 

2.Options Trading

1. Options Trading: QuickStart Guide – The Simplified Beginner’s Guide To Options Trading by Clydebank Finance. Top rated and highly recommended. Click to view or buy now.

2. Trading Options For Dummies, 3rd Edition by Joe Duarte, MD. Trusted trading resource helps you choose the right options based on your investing needs. Click to view or buy now.

3. Coffee Shop, Cafe or Pop-Up

1. Start and Run Your Own Coffee Shop and Lunch Bar: 2nd edition  4.5/5 star aggregated reviews score on Amazon. This is the book is written from the perspective of a first-time coffee shop owner’s perspective. (Click to View or Buy Now).

2. Start A Cake Business From Home: How To Make Money from your Handmade Celebration Cakes, Cupcakes, Cake Pops and more! 4.5 out of 5 star rated. Highly recommended. Click to view or buy now.

4.Photography Business

1. Start a Successful Photography Business in 34 Days: Actionable steps to plan a portrait or wedding photography business, develop a brand, launch a website, write a marketing plan & more, by Amanda Leigh Stock. Top-rated. Comes highly recommended! Click to view or buy now

5.Personal Trainer

1.Ignite the Fire: The Secrets to Building a Successful Personal Training Career, by Jonathan Goodman. Top-rated and highly recommended guide to becoming a personal trainer. Click to view or buy now.

6.Independent Fashion Designer – Fashion Businesss

1. The Fashion Designer Survival Guide: Start and Run Your Own Fashion Business by Mary Gehlhar. Mary Gehlhar, author, industry authority, and consultant to hundreds of designers, including Zac Posen, Twinkle by Wenlan advises on creating and sustaining a successful career as an independent designer. Top-rated, best-seller. Click to view or buy now.

Grants and support are available from the Princes Trust and the Young Enterprise organisation to help young entrepreneurs realize their ambitions.

 

3. Improve Your Study Technique – Get a Tutor

Most universities do not allow you to retake your final year as shown in this article in the Independent as it kind of invalidates the degree classification system, so it is probably not a realistic option. If you do decide to retake or look to do some alternative education like an apprenticeship, focus on enhanced study methods. Alternatively, search online and find an experienced UCAT tutor to help you master your subject or discipline.

So what next?

There are some home truths that you may need to accept and that is that graduate schemes will not be open to you and you may struggle to find a graduate level job for a few years as employers put a lot of stock in qualifications from school -leaving age until you are about 25. But, once workers hit around 25 years of age and have accumulated work experience, less emphasis is placed on the degree and more emphasis is placed on work experience. So, as long as you can get the work experience by around the time you are 25 you will then be able to compete with other graduates for plenty of positions. You will still see that plenty of positions ask for degrees, but you will find it is more flexible and they will also be accepting of work experience.

 

4. Get a Job

Sharpen your interview technique

Interviewing is an art and you’ll get better with training and practice. Try these books:

1. Cracking the Coding Interview, 6th Edition: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions. 

2. Elements of Programming Interviews in Python: The Insiders’ Guide

3. Medical Interviews (3rd Edition): A comprehensive guide to CT, ST & Registrar Interview Skills – Over 120 medical interview questions, techniques and NHS topics explained

Spruce up your CV

Research shows that recruiters spend just 60 seconds deciding if a CV is a ‘fit’ or ‘no fit’.  A  CV Evaluation Service can help you create a fast-acting, high-impact CV.

Spruce up your  wardrobe

You’re student clothes just won’t cut it in the interview room. When meeting agencies and employers you need to give the impression that you are serious. Invest in a new some new business attire so you are ready to make the right impression in the interview. Try out Amazon’s new business clothes section which is a great place to find a starter business outfit at a reasonable price.

Modern Apprenticeship

But, of course you’ll need to spend the next 3 or 4 years after university gaining work experience and there are plenty of ways to do this. For starters, you could try and get on a modern apprenticeship scheme. Now, this may not pay much more than minimum wage, (but you did fail your degree remember), but this can be a great stepping stone or backdoor into work, even with a big employer as companies as prestigious and Microsoft and PWC now offer apprenticeships.

 

5. Go Freelance

Another excellent option for you is to freelance. You can go onto freelance marketplaces like Fiverr and find and bid on projects in just about any professional area that can be done on a computer. This could be basic admin, research, graphic design, web design, programming, copywriting, etc… You could easily build up your skills and competency and a career as a freelancer. You could either continue with this and/or use it as a stepping stone to start your own business or to look for a permanent job.

Working from the ground up.

Another very viable route into a high paying career is to simply work your way up from the bottom. Ideally, try and join a large company with promotion opportunities either as a temp, receptionist, administrator etc… and then network and look out for and apply for jobs within that organisation. I know many people who have secured high paying jobs this way. Simon Cowell is perhaps one of the most well known, successful people to have worked his way up from the bottom.

J K Rowling is another example of someone who worked their way up from failure to become a global, best-selling author. Why not gain inspiration and insights by reading about her journey from failure to success in her book, Very Good Lives,: The Fringe Benefits of of Failure and the Importance of Imagination. Download this book for free with a 30 Day Audible Trial

So, as you can see, there are plenty of options available to you, should you fail your degree, should you choose to accept them.

 

 

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