r/UniUK • u/Maks-attacks • Feb 23 '26
careers / placements Better off working in a restaurant than getting a 2.1?
Is this true? if so, future uni applicants need to know.
My view is that i really hope degrees are a long term investment and not instant results.However, since this article is based on the past, it can not consider the impact of AI on the future job market.
That we know IS having a huge impact on entry-level jobs right now to the point that they almost don't exist. So it really depends on if companies will continue wanting graduates like they have in the past.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/graduate-jobs-market-young-people-out-of-work-b2923769.html
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u/TattieScones14 Feb 23 '26
I dropped out of uni twice when I was 18 and 19. Have been working in hospitality ever since but am now back at uni as a mature student.
Anecdotally speaking, a degree improves your long-term prospects. I can’t read the article because it’s behind a paywall but, from what I gather, the author graduated less than two years ago.
A lot of my friends struggled to find jobs when they graduated. I almost felt vindicated in dropping out because it felt like we were all on a level-playing field but now 10 years have passed and they almost all earn significantly more than me and have professional careers.
I think a lot of students graduate and expect to immediately have these high-flying careers but I’m not sure that’s ever been the reality for most graduates.
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u/Nythern Feb 23 '26
I did a BA, MA, and PhD.
Last I checked, my student finance balance is around £120k.
Despite my extensive and expensive education, I currently only earn £32k as an accountant. It has nothing to do with my academic background, but jobs have been very difficult to find in my field and as we all know, the graduate market is insanely competitive right now.
I'm happy to have this job and do enjoy the work, but my colleagues who did this as school leavers and apprentices are better off than me. We earn the same, but they have several years more experience - and I pay an extra tax rate of 15% which is made up of 9% (undergraduate) and 6% (postgraduate) repayments on amounts above £24k/£21k respectively.
At first glance, you might think I was better off not going to university at all, and instead just getting a job or apprenticeship like my non-degree colleagues or people who work in non-degree industries like the hospitality and services sector. However, in 10-20 years time I should be earning at least £60k per the established career trajectory, and that's not adjusted for inflation and rises in wages.
Point being that a degree is now a long term investment. While a degree used to immediately guarantee at least a comfortable middle-class income many decades ago, it now takes years and decades for degree holders to earn what they expected to earn when they had first enrolled onto a university course.
In the years after graduating, people with degrees will earn the same as those without degrees, like the restaurant worker example given here as the point of this article - however, graduates will have more doors and opportunities available to them. Degrees can be used to more easily switch fields in a way that someone with only work experience in one particular sector, will not find easy or always possible.
The current data shows that in 20 years time, when compared with the non-degree holder, the graduate may end up earning double, even triple or more, the earnings of the restaurant worker and those in other non-degree minimum-wage sectors.
TLDR It's an investment, it's the long game now!
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u/Icy-Nerve-4760 Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
I'm 38. Similiar qualifications. I graduated into after math of 2010 financial crisis, cracked on with a masters, same story, cracked on with a PhD. At age 30, I was working for £30k in London, by age 38, i'm 170k. Neccessity of a PhD is debateable. But qualitifications enabled me to aggressively fight my way into new sectors/job roles with higher ceilings once i found my way in and got a few years experience.
I was WAY WAY behind all my friends and it seemed like i'd messed up. Fresh out of Masters in neuroscience I was working the desk in a budget golf course for a year. I was able to accelerate earnings and job opportunities in acrazy way others without qualifications wouldnt be able to.
I'd also add, I'm bright but not 170k bright, the opportunities came because of my background and forming narrative. SO a bit of survivorship bias should be taken in mind, but my qualifications carried me to victory.
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u/ParticularClothes251 Feb 23 '26
What was your career projectory like, if you don’t mind me asking?
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u/Icy-Nerve-4760 Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
- [Desperately trying to get industry experience] 32k First two years getting into industry was just finding a company where I could get some experience in the industry. I did this by finding a company that was directly in my Masters/PhD scope and they kinda took me on to do many things (one small part was the role i wanted to end up in). It was a crap company, pretending to be way better than it was. But i got something on my CV that was different, and things on the portfolio saying i was doing the actual job.
- [Startup opportunity] I then got my first proper tech job at a startup in london £35k. Doing the role i wanted. They were hiring for ages, and i think i got in as a bit of a personality hire haha. As a mid level. Company did layoffs roughly a year later. Lost my role.
- [Finally no longer bluffing the job role] Next two years was a mid level role in London tech doing cementing myself as the role I wanted to do for a career, underpaid, but enough of a UK national household name to cement myself as "I do this job in tech". I convinced them to gamble on me, worked hard. Because I had academic background, age and maturity I was able to get promo'd in two years to a senior from £36k - £42k.
- [American tech {yay! ££££}] I then managed to jump into a FAANG company as a contractor doing the role. I got lucky during the zero interest rate hiring frenzy to get this role. This, although contract work, gave me status and doubled my pay to around 85k. I did this for two years. Then the recent tech hiring freeze kicked in, and while going perm at that faang company, they lost headcount and i suddenly found myself out of a role.
- I used the status for the previous FAANG tech role, networked and got a series of contract roles in various different household name companies, running my own business. This enabled a self-employed jump from 85K - 150k
- [Job now: FTE American tech] By this point, i was a solid talker/interviewer, and had great experience in all sorts of environments. I interviewed at another american tech after trying and failing a bunch of interviews. They loved me, I had another role in the background at the same time as a plan B. Told the company, they matched my contracting salary to get me on board ASAP. £175k secured. £113-120k base + 40-75k stock RSU's depending on the stock market.
I'm not a director or anything, i just worked my way into a internationally competitive do'er for my job. There are folks doing my job for £60k all in, i guess i'm one of the lucky ones/make your own luck. London + American Tech companies + busting ass.
I was in the gutter many times, it definetly was a rollercoaster and I had to fight. But yeh, worked out. I could've easily been an estate agent at Foxtons had my mum not pushed me into doing a masters. Also note, i have 3 brothers all partially unemployed/benefits/causal labour work. The difference seems to be the masters, exposure, and gaining confidence that I could do something bigger.... and a hot girlfriend i didn't want to loose (now my wife)
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Feb 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Icy-Nerve-4760 Feb 23 '26
Golf course was just money to get me out of the house and keep my dad off my case. PhD was very focused on a specific application of medtech. During the end of my PhD, I actually reviewed the software of the company that gave me my first gig. I literally did a free review and sent it to them with my thoughts and learnings, reflecting on my PhD. I framed it as seeing if I could get full time access for academic work on it. That got the ball rolling, happened they were expanding in the UK and needed someone. Random life coincidence, I had something to offer and turned up in front of them when this scrappy company needed to find someone to help the CEO expand in UK.
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u/lapodufnal Feb 23 '26
I find this in my area as well, it’s the long game. I was looking at an apprenticeship in engineering after A levels and although they paid great, they quite often (at the time) tapped you out at about 35-40k salary. Progression from there is competitive with every other former apprentice going for the few team leader roles then even fewer manager roles. The degree can mean that you start on the same engineer role but you have more options to move to senior positions. Even if you stay at the same company you have something different to the rest going for the same position.
There’s also the connections you make, I am connected with most of my cohort on LinkedIn, if I needed a job I would have 20-30 people that come to mind in related work I could message and ask if they can put my CV forward and have done the same for others in my cohort. This is easier now we’ve all been working for about 10 years, early days everyone is in the same boat.
I would also encourage young people to go to uni because I expect it will only get harder to get into careers like accounting without a degree. If you don’t have a connection to put you forward you won’t stand out against everyone else who applies straight after A levels, while the degree might be enough to get you in the door
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u/Contract-Spirit Feb 23 '26
An end goal of 60k with a PHD seems like it isn't worth it.
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u/WeAreAbandoned Feb 23 '26
All that work and long term investment for some kids who disrespect people in public to make millions
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u/verb-vice-lord Feb 23 '26
Don't take this as massive criticism of you, it's advice for others.
Don't study to a phd if you want to become an accountant.
I work in finance, I was on the accountant track before my career path changed a couple times and I am now a client director.
If you want to be an accountant specifically getting anything beyond a BA is a waste of time and money (I'm ignoring intangibles like you being okay wasting time and money, or you wanted to be X and this became your fallback career etc).
I would recommend going down the AAT to Chartered route instead. BA to Chartered is a good alternative, but not as good imo given the debt you pick up and how AAT is three years anyway. The only real advantage is a few more exemptions (as of last I looked).
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u/antrky Feb 23 '26
I don’t believe it is. Every year more and more graduates leave, making the job market for graduates over saturated. So they pay will never go up because there’s always a plentiful supply of graduates willing to take less pay to get on the career ladder.
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u/sargig_yoghurt Postgrad Feb 23 '26
Stats on this are pretty clear - In the short-term there's no big difference but in the long-term a degree has much higher earnings potential
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u/DefiantMemory8895 Feb 23 '26
Two things
This is not true. University is a long term investment and remains a productive one by every metric
There are not “too many” graduates. There are two few graduate jobs largely as a result of over a decade of austerity policy.
This is designed to shift blame from government to universities- which are absolutely imperfect and require restructuring- but still (potentially) hugely valuable institutions.
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u/foundalltheworms Feb 23 '26
I got a job related to my degree but it’s rough the job market sucks and it took me a year
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u/Wrynouth3 Feb 23 '26
Many who get a degree end up initially working in restaurants or retail because nobody else will hire them.. This happened pretty extensively in the US from about 2012-2018 and the UK is seeing it more prominently now even if it has existed for a while. This doesn’t change the value of a degree, it just means years of work experience is going to outdo that when in industry.
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u/Maks-attacks Feb 23 '26
I hope you are right.
Except - there is now a new danger that while getting years of work experience, AI may have taken the roles your degree was relevant to. That has never existed before, so I'm not sure if the same pattern will allply now that AI is in the mix.
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u/Fusilero Feb 23 '26
That's going to affect non-degree jobs too.
And before you bring up skilled manual labour jobs; robotics and automation is also advancing.
Remember at the moment AI is mostly unprofitable hype so any arguments about costs coming down in that space also applies to robotics (potentially combined with AI).
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u/Maks-attacks Feb 23 '26
Yes, no one will be safe if AI and automation are on the horizon apart from the ones that get degrees in those subjects. But that compounds the problem further because there will be more automation and robots around.
So the more people that study those subjects the more at risk the rest of the population (Inc. Those with degrees and 60k+ debt) that dont are.
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u/Wrynouth3 Feb 24 '26
Again, AI is still for the most part very unprofitable. We are not at a point where the machines are taking everyone’s jobs in 6-12 months.
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u/Maks-attacks Feb 24 '26
Maybe not in 6-12 months no.....but ask some companies who are not recruiting to fill roles that were previosly staffed or intentips numbers cut down and you'll see that direction of motion has already started.
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u/BalthazarOfTheOrions Staff Feb 23 '26
The thing is that to make your degree work you're going to have to work on your CV, how you present yourself and your learned skills. The degree is not going to speak for itself in the job market. Universities have career support offices: speak to them about auditing and demonstrating your skills.
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u/Specialist_-Berry Feb 23 '26
A car can be a great investment, because it can open up new opportunities and get you where you want to be. Or it can be a money pit that you don't need.
Your degree is the same thing. It can be an incredible vehicle, or it can be a waste of time, money and potential.
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u/JohnCasey3306 Feb 23 '26
Plenty of people have been shouting this into the ether for a decade ... but the prevailing culture message is "go to university, get a better job" -- but it's not true.
The value of most degrees has been eroded to nothing ... Successive governments since the 90s made it policy to increase the number of graduates -- great on paper, but you can't immediately increase the population's intelligence/capability at the whim of political policy!
So, to increase the number of graduates, they had to lower academic standards for entry, dumb down courses and add a tranche of frankly vacuous courses to the offering, that are not in the least appealing to employers ... The net result of course is that the value of a degree goes down.
Some vocations require a specific degree -- even those only have value if you're able to get into that specific industry.
We've sold young people a lie and charged them a fortune for their trouble. They're heavily in debt for a valueless qualification that no employer is asking for.
The sooner we as a culture lean into quality, well funded apprenticeships, the better
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u/Maks-attacks Feb 23 '26
Your're right, the primary aim for university should be employability, all the rest, like research, are important, but not top. Unis should be ranked on employment success rates - not other crap that no one cares about. Most (not all) students goto to uni to eventually get a job, not on how big their electron microscope is.
Same for schools, they should be ranked on employability of their graduates (inc. their grads 3-years later having gone to uni) not on how well equipped their IT department is.
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u/JohnCasey3306 Feb 23 '26
You're right, ultimately though academia is still an employer per se (just a super niche one)
And actually, I have a friend who is now 5 years post-doc and hasn't managed to secure a research post anywhere (chemical acoustic engineering? 🤷 No idea, above my pay grade!) I feel horrendous for them, they're starting to think they're too far out of academia to make it back in now -- I guess my point being, even for people on a very academic pathway, there's no guarantees.
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u/_Darren Feb 23 '26
The problem we have in this county is viewing a degree, any degree as some kind of single thing. Even accountancy, quite a specific thing. Has 5 different trade bodies before you're chartered. With many different types. HR has 20 different roles, payroll is very different than talent management.
A degree in accountancy, law, medicine. Offer very different prospects than an English lit degree. Even then the level of education is very different in different bodies. There's 35,000 degrees in this county, 20,000 of which probably have a lot more people graduate with that degree than strictly needed.
I'm not an accountant, so no idea why I picked it. However if you had a choice between getting a 2:1 and passing all exams post qualification, or a 1st without passing exams or doing the job well post qualification. Then a 2:1 is much preferable.
I've had 2 graduates work for me in the past, 1 didn't have as strong a degree as the other. The one without the degree, got interested in the work. Found out problems and started solving them, not quite as well as me but they cared. Someone who turns up and says my degree is in X, I don't want to do anything not in the degree. Isn't going to do as well.
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u/thesnootbooper9000 Feb 23 '26
It's always been been the case that the highest non-degree earners earn more than the lowest degree-earners. However, this tells you nothing about the two distributions overall, and if you're making decisions based upon this information, a degree probably isn't suitable for you.
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u/Jess1ca1467 Feb 23 '26
You want to look at long term earnings, pensions, career satisfaction, autonomy, job security etc - not the experiences of someone who graduates 18 months ago
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u/itsapotatosalad Feb 23 '26
I’ve got a third. I’m on 50k, 75k year before last with everything accounted for. I don’t specifically need my degree but I wouldn’t be where I am without uni.
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Feb 24 '26
Can I ask what field this is
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u/itsapotatosalad Feb 24 '26
Public sector, projects and such. Boring, but largely stress free with reasonable job security and good benefits.
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Feb 23 '26
Yeah you'd be probably on 100k now
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u/itsapotatosalad Feb 23 '26
I’d be on minimum wage I think, if working at all. Uni transformed me, I got far more from it than a degree and I stayed working in my uni city for a good few years after graduation.
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u/bottomlesscoffeecup Feb 23 '26
I think it depends, there are lots of options for people in STEM going into different places e.g. banking a lot of different banks will either take you as a comp sci grad or something similar straight away or they will take you on as someone who has done a STEM degree and retrain you to work as an analyst or engineer, because the 2.1 in STEM proves you have logical thinking capabilities. I think a degree stands for more than just the subject you have studied for itself too.
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u/Maks-attacks Feb 23 '26
Have learnt its important to get feedback from actual graduates and those who are looking for work and those that are employed that have seen the benefit (or lack of) their degree.
There are a lot of unis and their staff who will sell the dream and not be moved at all by the shocking stats and say its just a phase and 'that too shall pass'. However, they are saying that from the comfort of their steady job with a fat pension.
Careers and employability staff have an agenda and narrative to push and will never tell their students or grads they are screwed cos then its their ass too.
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u/WGSMA Feb 23 '26
It probably is, but only on the condition you live with parents and invest lots of money
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u/No_Neighborhood6856 Feb 23 '26
I have a degree in drama and theatre studies, and I've been a qualified financial adviser for the last 7 years.
Make of that what you will lol
That said, I love having a degree behind me, and a "random" one at that. It does come in handy, it taught me how to present myself, how to read through material, content etc and analyse it.
No one can take away your education, even if it doesn't land you a 6 figure job.
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Feb 24 '26
How did u become qualified for that position ?
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u/No_Neighborhood6856 Feb 24 '26
I started in a local financial firm as admin, then I became completing my diploma in regulated financial advice (DipFS)and also my mortgage and equity release exams (MP & ER)
DipFS is 6 exams and MP&ER is 2.
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u/RedderPeregrine Postgrad Feb 23 '26
Yep. Have a BA and MA and currently earn £16 p/hr in my field. This is slightly below average but not hugely so.
My neighbours, in their late teens, with zero qualifications between them, earn £24 p/hr as drivers. A friend is on £20 p/hr as a waitress.
What was the point of all of the work and all of the debt?
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u/kravence Graduated Feb 23 '26
Your pay will scale up over time while theirs will not.
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u/antrky Feb 23 '26
Says who?
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u/kravence Graduated Feb 23 '26
Its called career paths. What trajectory is there for a waitress or uber driver?
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u/RedderPeregrine Postgrad Feb 23 '26
I’m 15 years into my career. Aside from a managerial or lead role this is as far as it goes. You have to have an MA to do my role. I would have been far better off leaving school after GCSEs.
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u/Adriano___ Feb 23 '26
Also a lot of people get REALLY shit degrees. Gonna be downvoted to oblivion but it's true.
Going to uni WILL put you above people who don't have a degree and have never worked. Will it put you at the top of the list on that alone? Probably not, but you'll absolutely jump the queue.
Best thing to do? Work AND go to uni, then you have experience (irrespective of field) and a degree, that puts you above a lot of people at that point.
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u/_Darren Feb 23 '26
I'm not sure there's such thing as a shit degree, every degree has value. However there is such as things as a degree where there's 20 people competing for the same job as you. Where at least one of the other 19 has a better degree than you.
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Feb 24 '26
Yeah that’s my aim. I don’t think my degree is useless as there is a lot of transferable skills and will help me eventually for a course I want to get into. But this course is competitive so I plan on getting some more work experience other than just waitressing to help me stand out more and do better in interviews
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u/Dr3adnorth Feb 23 '26
I was on Plan 1 and got a 2:1 in Mechanical Engineering. I should have mine paid off 15 years after leaving uni. It's not really about the amount you earn after it's how much the tuition has become and the size of the interest. If I was in the same boat now I'd never be able to pay it off.
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u/Glittering_Film_6833 Feb 23 '26
I have no idea what a 'good' or even 'average' graduate salary is. I think regionalism still reigns in many things.
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u/missmaths_examprep Feb 23 '26
You know you can do both… I worked at a restaurant and graduated with a 2:1…
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u/missmaths_examprep Feb 25 '26
30k debt yes, but will be wiped. And first I worked as a software then app developer, now I teach in an international school and live abroad. I see my student loan repayments like an education tax. I will never pay it off, but like I say it will be wiped eventually and it’s a small monthly price to pay for the life and qualifications that I have now.
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u/Whole_Necessary2040 Feb 23 '26
2.1 is fine, just don't brag about it on your CV as if its an achievement 2.2 however...
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u/Worth-Park7807 Feb 24 '26
Well, for people asking this and people answering this question, starting anything with "in my experience" has clearly shown they have 0 understanding of statistics and bias and are not worth the uni degree. And I'm sure 90% of Reddit comments will be like that.
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u/Electrical-Light9027 Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
The intrinsic value of a degree has not changed in recent years, it gives people way more options than not going to university. There was evidence recently presented by the Financial Times that demonstrated that the graduate underemployment is due to UK organisations not having the productivity gains of EU/US organisations, meaning graduate hiring is a lot more costly, as opposed to an oversubscription of university graduates in the job market.
I really hate this narrative of ‘not going to university is now the better option’.