JonWB

You say you did an internship. Did they offer you a place. If so, then I'd take that and work there for a couple of years and then apply as experienced hire elsewhere. If they didn't and are recruiting graduates, ask for feedback from them as to why you weren't offered a place. Failing that, I'd suggest doing a Masters degree and (re)sitting A-Levels at the same time. The A-Level grades will be more important, but do the masters in a practical application for your career.

The problem with an MBA is you don't have a decent work history which really matters when you look for work after the MBA. MBA's are only valuable if from a very good school.

Could probably offer more advice if you post your A-Level grades/subjects and university.

uk1

Your post made me chuckle.

For an extended period - I was fortunate enough to be able to be selective just like your post ... so we both know what's possible if there's an irrational demand for services ..... and on some retentions I refused to visit clients at their offices. Sometimes the issues were so dire that it was best not to become emotive about bigger picture issues if you get my drift but focus on the issues in an analystical way rather than an emotive way ...............

I also decided (with the benefit of hindsight one of my better decisions) never to say "no" but to simply price the projects that I didn't fancy at a level that made proceeding absolutely daft economically. It had two effects. The people (or their projects) that I didn't want to work with concluded I was better than I was (or at least irrationally expensive) or even more astonishingly - proceeded

Therein lies the clue for the OP. Often it makes sense to pursue that very narrow bit of the wider area that caught your imagination and interest. So conclude earlier to specialise in something very narrow that you really love and are intrigued by. Something that bugs you and possibly no one else much.

So I'd suggest.

1. (a) Gain as much expertise as possible as a biomedicalengineeringist. (b) Narrow your expertise as your career develops. The narrower the area of expertise the rarer the skills will eventually become.

2. Then, when (a) you become unempoyable or (b) if it makes sense or (c) even more likely if you are fired .... then start your own consultancy business. Keep the overheads low and employ your wife (or husband if appropriate).

3. Travel around the world looking for new business opportunities and put it against tax. Ensure you have a good and arguable paper trail so you can convince the revenue your travel was pucka if they mount an investigation. Your wife (or husband) who is a business partner obviously travels with you.

Working for other people is what you need to do early on. But your travel depends on other people's decisions. Your own business means you decide. One day when you have enough - you tell them all to b**ger off and leave you to your travel without the revenue complication.

Mission accomplished.

CT-UK

Was that a typo? Did you mean day? This is the BA board you know

Sixth Freedom

I echo the advice given by other posters that you should do something you enjoy and are good at.

And once the cash is rolling in you should be able to pack away plenty of F/CW long haul leisure travel.

Sixth Freedom

Please be careful with this! There are plenty of hours in the normal working day and if you do not waste them working long hours should be a very rare event.

In my experience the reason most junior staff work long hours is that they are dragged into unnecessary meetings to show force for their managers. Bankers and some consultancies are particularly guilty of this.

Dominic14

No graduate recruitment from my internship at F&C Investments. My manager liked me but they were only hiring experienced staff. I have a degree in Biomedical Engineering with 1st class honours from City University London

A-levels however are english geography and history at grades D,D,D.

I would have to take Accelerated a-levels for one year (probably maths, physics and accounting as i have studied these at university and got high grades so should be too hard. my masters offer is from Imperial College (but i doubt I could do that whilst redoing a-levels as the course and institute is very hard at Imperial.

Dominic14

Sounds like a great plan, although there are not many positions available seeing as the biggest employer (NHS) is cutting down drastically.

Dominic14

Point taken, although During my internship I worked from 7am to 8:30pm. This was so that I was able to get my projects and presentations spot on so I could impress and have as little negative comments as possible. As i wasnt being paid I still had to do my weekend job at Marks and Spencer. All in all i must have been doing over 80 hours a week in my summer holiday.

Dominic14

No, i promise it was a year. lol

origin

What I meant earlier was dont worry about your UCAS points. But then like a few on here, dont worry about the big companies. So you wont work for PWC or UBS. That is not a problem. Dont write a life off because you dont have the grades. You dont need them anyway.

Every town in the UK has small companies. They all use accountants to audit their books. So these guys are the flash types, but they do the same job. Do the research, find the smaller accountants and talk to them.

Okay then one qualified you can a job in a bigger firm and travel as internal audior or consultant. Then comes the however. At this stage you wont want to travel for work. You will find the hotels rooms get lonely. You miss family time. Stuck in a European airport, cold, because its snowing. With emails constantly entering your outlook is not much fun. The boring meetings and jet lag dont make up for it.

Sixth Freedom

Please don't take this the wrong way Dominic14 but I am sorry to say that I think that you have been had.

Don't worry though! I didn't do any work experience before I graduated and I was written off as being unemployable by most of the companies I interviewed at after getting a 1st in Economics from LSE (I am a bit eccentric ). However somehow I muddled through and am now doing work that I really enjoy in the middle east.

JonWB

You have been completely had as no graduate intake for 2010 at F&C, so why were they offering (unpaid) internships: https://www.fandc.com/new/careers/Default.aspx?id=78738

You did 3 arts A-Levels but an engineering degree. Did you end up on the course through clearing?

Forget business class travel for now. You need to understand where you stand in the pecking order for graduate recruitment. DDD at A-Level is very poor, to the extent that having the A-Levels (with those grades) is a big problem. Something like 75% of the candidates who sat those A-Levels did better than you did in each course. Whilst a 1st is the best you can do, your University is only ranked 51st in the Times University Guide.

Your problem is that 100,000+ people will be applying for graduate jobs with better A-Levels than you and 10,000+ people will be applying for jobs with better degree results than you. That is a lot of competition and in most cases you'll be rejected before interview.

You need better A-Level grades and a degree from a better university, so go for Imperial and do A-Levels in a year.

LTN Phobia

Since you mentioned you are not afraid of hard work, I suggest doing both at the same time, making sure you get top marks in everything you do, and preferably have a decent part-time job (with as much responsibilities as possible) in the meantime.

I'm not suggesting doing both to be silly. In the current employment market, you'll probably need to do something fairly exceptional to be selected, especially given your A-levels could be deemed to be a re-sit even though you haven't sat them before. (Potential employers will notice out-of-sequence educational history if they pay enough attention.) Doing well in the masters or getting AAA at A-level will not make you stand out, whereas doing both at the same time and doing well might well do. Choose your subjects carefully, as doing the subjects you have done at university might also not be viewed as favourably as doing something completely different (pick something academically rigorous if you can) and doing well.

Buckle down, forget the travelling and get on with your studies for now.

TuxTraveller

Very sound advice from the others particular the long post from IAMORGAN, but also the last post from JonWB.

Be realistic about where you stand in these very tough times for UK graduates.

I know both from the consultancy I work for, but also several other major companies recruiting at the moment, they filter very heavily simply due to the mass volume of applications. It would be great to have the luxury of time and resources to sort through like IAMORGAN suggested, but not only do the firm I work for filter on UCAS points and degree grade, but we also focus most of our efforts on a key select group of universities in the UK.

You really have to stand out if you're not from the "short listed" group of universities. Yes perhaps not "fair", or you could say it doesn't necessarily ensure we get all the best candidates, but one is limited by resources. We after all have to use most of our people on our core business!

I think I would suggest in your situation to go for a masters (and perhaps also retake your A-levels).

Also with regard to your statement quoted below, consulting may not be for you if this is the case :P

I joke. well maybe only a little, as I do find many in consulting only get through the week with too much drinking at the end of the week (or end of the day )

Aside from that I think consulting can be great, but I would echo what others have said to make sure you find a job you enjoy... nothing worse than doing something you don't enjoy and having to work long hours doing it (and business travel won't make that better in any way)!

Italy98

It may not even be in the job description at the time you are hired. One job I had started with "'0' travel required for this position" and within two months the job description started changing and I found myself traveling about six months out of the year. The job? Training Systems Administrator responsible for the online training for the US customer base. Once we started expanding outside of the US my responsibilities also expanded.