Security vs. Enjoyment?

A few of you on here may have read my thread of celebration a couple of weeks ago at getting a nursing interview for Cardiff uni, as far as I'm aware it went well, still waiting to hear.

Thing is, this winter when I decided to apply I was on a real downer, feeling very very negative about everything, feeling incapable of success and thinking there was no way I could possibly compete against all those other people wanting a career in psychology.

However, blame it on the spring, blame it on me finally getting back into Jitsu and being a bit more active, but I'm feeling much more positive now about everything and suddenly the thought of changing courses feels a bit to me like jumping ship before there's even a hole in the boat.

Nothing is set in stone at the moment, so provided that Cardiff offers me a place I am just as capable of training as a nurse or completing my Psychology degree. The issue now is do I stick with a degree that I really enjoy in a place where I am happy (and Ian, my partner has got himself established in a job and is working up the ladder, just starting team leader training), or do I change to go for a degree that has better chance of landing me in a job (but less opportunity for earning the 'big money') but where I'm going to have to make a fresh start, probably won't enjoy the course as much but won't suffer as much student debt either.

I'm so confused, I live too much in my head So I turn to you, the masses of TRC, with more experience than I, which do you place more value in? Enjoyment or security?

Secure some enjoyment then enjoy the security.

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A fool may ask questions a wise man cannot answer.

If you enjoy the psychology, I'd stick with it.

I don't think it's a prohibitively competitive field although obviously there are many different areas.

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Lying outrageously on the internet since 2002.

how far through your degree are you? If just 1 year, IMHO it's fine to change. If 2 years, it's silly to waste that much effort and, for many, bailing-out will look bad on a CV for years to come.
Further, having a psychology degree and then doing Nursy training might put you on some kind of fast track specialisation.
Most places will, once you're accepted, let you postpone starting for a year...

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ZEN#234, TWO#

Any chance you could finish your Psychology degree and then do nursing training near to where you are now?

What do you see yourself doing with your Psychology degree? Do you have access to careers guidance at Uni, to open up ideas that you may not have thought of?

I went for security over enjoyment 22 years ago. It can be a grind at times but I know that when I retire I'll be comfortable and my wages in the meantime will have been good and helped to provide my family a standard of living beyond which I had as a child.

Good luck, it's great to have choice, but it's often hard to make the choice.
xx

I'm only in my first year of psychology, but the subject genuinely fascinates me, I often find myself explaining theories to friends or coming up with studies I'd like to run. But I'd like to go into clinical psychology, which is highly competitive.

The interviewer at Cardiff did suggest completing the psych degree then doing nursing as I'd expressed an interest in sexual health and she said the psych degree could make me useful as a sexual health nurse and counsellor. But I think doing a psych degree with the pure aim of then being a nurse is daft, why get myself so far in debt for the sake of an extra string to my bow that won't really add much to my eaning potential. Though there's nothing that says I HAVE to choose nursing now, I mean there's no reason why I can't complete my psychology degree, try for a few years to break into a career in psychology, and then fall back on nursing if I need to.

I think it's the timescale that worries me, I'm so eager to get on with life and it seems like a long time to be messing around. But then I look at all the other people starting nursing courses at 35, and everyone else who's so unconcerned about student debt and wonder why I'm getting myself so wound up.

Could you go into clincal psychology with a BSc?
I'd imagine you'd need some sort of post grad qualification too.

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Lying outrageously on the internet since 2002.

Technically you just need a BSc and a few years "appropriate experience" to apply for the 3yr doctorate in clinical psychology that you need to be able to practice as a clinical psychologist. It's getting on to the doctorate that seems to be the hardest step and now days most applicants have an MSc too and sometimes even a PhD
Luckily from what I've read, if you can get on to the doctorate then it's NHS funded.

Is a doctorate not the same thing as a PhD?

I think if you choose the right modules and get a good mark in your BSc (ideally a first) you should be able to do a PhD without an MSc.

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Lying outrageously on the internet since 2002.

Not quite, a PhD is a research, rather than vocational, based doctorate. So PhD's are doctorates, but not all doctorates are PhD's.

At the moment I'm on a very clear run for a 2:1, and that's with the distraction of applying for nursing, I can definitely pick up the pace a bit. For one of our exams I actually acheived the 2nd highest score for our entire year group. So I am doing well. Plus I'm at a university which has a good reputation for Psychology so that should help with the application for a doctorate.

It's just balancing all of this with my desire to settle down and have a family. That side of things would be easier with nursing, but then you take into account that Ian is doing well in his job right now and has a manager who is willing to put him through the training he needs to make his was up the ladder, so whilst I might do better in Cardiff, he might not. ARGH!!!!

Ask them to defer the nursing place if you're offeref it, for 12 to 24 months, and crack on with the psych degree. You can then decide after another year if you're definitely prepared to see it out, or even complete, and graduate, and walk straight in to the nursing - or continue as a post-grad or enter the workplace.

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im in ur monitrz, lickin ur screenz.

No deferrals with nursing, they were very clear about it in the prospectus

But if I can get a place once I can get it again later, especially as I can quote what the interviewer suggested to me as a reason for declining the offer.

I think you know what you want to do too, deep down. If you don't complete, AND while you're still happy doing it, you'll have the what-ifs long term. If you decline an offer for nursing then at least you know you can probably re-open that door more easily.

I think changing now would be a mistake, for sure.

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im in ur monitrz, lickin ur screenz.

I know what you mean. I wory too much about the future, and it stops me persuing the things I really want. I dropped out of a performing arts course at college because I couldn't deal with the uncertainty of acting (that and I hated the people on the course) I didn't apply for the degree in traditional music that I wanted to do because of the same uncertainty. There's a voice in my head saying "well if all you're worried about is having a job then just go down Tescos or the local old people's home now".
I've given up on so many things, probably rightly, but there's no reason why I shouldn't be successful at Psychology. It's just those times when I'm feeling low I freak out and get genuinely scared that I'm just never going to succeed.

well, that's what happens when you let women out of the kitchen

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ZEN#234, TWO#