Banking stupidity....

[Pillock]

Crossing this over slightly into 'real-world', I think the whole student loan 'can't be arsed to repay it' attitude is partially responsible for the credit situation we find ourselves in. Many folk I know from uni got the full loan and still haven't paid it back, ten years on. As such it sort of teaches you money is easy to get hold of, and doesn't cost you a great deal. Cue 30%APR at Yes Car Credit, doorstep loans, wandering into any old place to get a mortgage without any advise and oh! Bankruptcy!I suffered slightly from this, took out a great deal of loans and silly credit cards post-university. Ended up with my credit score being lower than a worm's gonads, at one point I couldn't even get a phone contract after I defaulted on everything. I still blame a poor choice in women. I'm paying it back - slowly, without the help of "Ocean Finance" - and although I want my credit to recover, I never want a loan again. I've proven I can save money pretty well instead so I'm going to do something almost unheard of with youngsters these days - saving up cash BEFORE you buy something.

[Guest]

This talk of Uni giving life skills is certainly true. Reminds me of a conversation I had with an 18yr old lad fresh outta A-levels under my instruction in my previous job:

As much as I think Uni would benefit a lot of people in terms of "growing up", it was unbelievable the amount of people at Uni with little common sense. Genuinely intelligent people, but I don't know how some of them could be trusted in the real world. Poor social skills too, but hey, that's computing for you. Absolutely no idea how most of them got a job at the end of it, qualification or not. All I can imagine is them going to a job interview and becoming so jittery they make themselves sick.

[Mr Lobster]

Crossing this over slightly into 'real-world', I think the whole student loan 'can't be arsed to repay it' attitude is partially responsible for the credit situation we find ourselves in. .

I'd agree with that. Too many people have taken the attitude that loads of debt is ok, not just with student loans but with everything and thats partly whats got us into this situation.I learnt myself that borrowing too much is not neccesarily a good thing, had a car on finance, money on cards in my early 20s but managed to pay everyoff and now have the attitude that the only thing I want to actually owe is my mortgage.Hopefully this 'Credit Crunch' might make people realise that owing loads and loads of money is not a good thing and that saving up for stuff before you buy a new million inch telly that you don't actually 'need' is more sensible.

[gtd2000]

I certainly can't complain about going to University - it certainly opened a lot of doors for me but in retrospect I could probably have done the same thing without a degree if I'd had more gumption at an earlier age.

 

I went through school in a bit of a daze really - was too busy shagging everything that moved and riding around on my bike for new conquests to pay any attention at college that followed.

 

Apart from all of the successful shagging, I knew I was going to flunk out at college (perhaps I should have been a Gigolo?) and decided to join the RAF as a pilot (I was in the air cadets previously) - a run in with the long arm of the law put an end to that when the fat lesbian recruitment sergeant explained that as I had a "criminal record" I could not join the RAF. I tried (unsuccessfully) to explain to the aforementioned fat lesbian recruitment sergeant that I only had traffic offences and not a criminal record but she was not interested in listening to educated heterosexual-wanna-be-fly-boy-studs like myself!

 

So I ended my potential RAF career by standing up and saying very loudly "well in that case - stick it up your fat fucking arse!" and stomped out of the careers office.

 

Now the chaps down at the Army recruitment office were a totally different kettle of fish and sucked me completely I must admit - it all seemed to be very pleasant indeed - oh how niiave I was!

 

Fast forward 6 years later after travelling all over the world to interesting places, meeting interesting people and killing them...

 

I go back to studying at Uni and have a great time and then leave (debt free) after graduation to work at my mates bike shop for the princely sum of 15 quid a day - why did I do this? Because I actually enjoyed working there - sounds like madness but I did this for a year and then took of to Hong Kong (with the big bucks!!!) and the rest as they say is history!

[mk2_craig]

As much as I think Uni would benefit a lot of people in terms of "growing up", it was unbelievable the amount of people at Uni with little common sense. Genuinely intelligent people, but I don't know how some of them could be trusted in the real world. Poor social skills too, but hey, that's computing for you. Absolutely no idea how most of them got a job at the end of it, qualification or not. All I can imagine is them going to a job interview and becoming so jittery they make themselves sick.

Agreed. Those people I knew at university answering to the above description are now pretty much in academia for life. I think I'd sooner hurl myself off a concrete 1960s polytechnic high-rise block than suffer the fate of working in an educational establishment.