Do you regret not working harder in school, going to university, doing a postgrad etc.

43 comments

  1. Met a crossroad in my life at 26 or 28 and decided to leave my job, go back to uni and train as a teacher. Now in my 30s and getting out of teaching. Looking back this is my biggest regret. I should have trained as a locksmith or something ad teaching sucks balls.

  3. I wish that when I finished my GCSEs I had chosen to do vocational courses in the performing arts (music and drama) rather than A levels in the sciences.

    In short I did the A levels I felt I had to do not the ones I wanted to do.

  4. The biggest regret I hear from people regarding education

    Is studying topics and fields for other people, or because they think they should, not because it actually helps them get what they want, or because it’s a topic they actually are interested in

    The number of sales people I know with law degrees because it’s what their parents wanted for example, is crazy, because 1 year into being a lawyer they hated it and quit, and now make more money than they would have as a lawyer anyway

  5. I regret going to uni, I thought I was doing the right thing and that I was mature enough to actually focus on what I needed to do to get it done. Turns out the uni was shit and fucked my modules up and there was little to no support when things fucked up. Student loans got wind that I wasn’t doing all the necessary modules and refused to pay my tuition loan, the uni then decided to hound me for it directly, because of their fuck up.

    All the right intentions, but so much stress, depression and exhaustion from having to work practically full time whilst trying to do something to scrape by. I binned uni and it has solidified my thought that structured education isn’t for me, I learn by doing, not being lectured.

  6. I definitely regret fucking about throughout sixth form I didn’t do any of the work until the last week and I spent most of the time talking to the lass sat next to me and my mate

  7. I wish I had just been myself at times and not been so self conscious about the nerdy things that I find interesting.

  8. The one size fits all approach to teaching doesn’t work. But at the same time, it’d be too expensive any other way.

    I just wasn’t interested. It bored me. I left at 16. I wish it had been interesting or a different approach was made for me and kids like me.

  9. Wish I’d not bothered with university. Decent life experience but I’ve never once needed my degree, isn’t even on my CV nowadays and I rarely even need a CV for my line of work.

    Pointless.

  10. I regret starting and not finishing an MBA. I did it because it was something to do and work sponsored most of the costs. But the added stress to study something I didn’t think was particularly interesting was not worth it.

  11. Not doing a degree in a subject I was passionate about,and being a lazy twat in sixth form

  12. I’ll preface this by saying that going to uni as an experience was the best thing that ever happened to me, and was a direct cause of so much of my growing up into a (generally) functional adult.

    Having said that, I would absolutely reconsider whether a languages degree was worth it though. Had vague aspirations of being a translator, but that turned out to be a dead end for many reasons.

    What I absolutely regret is going back for the translation MA a few years later when i realised my undergrad wouldn’t get me where I wanted to go.

    All the MA did was add to my debt, and now I’m in a completely different field.

    I suppose I have the consolations of it at least not being ‘real’ debt, and I’m not even 30 yet so there’s plenty of time to get my new-found career off the ground.

  13. I should have gone to the better 6th form, not the one my friends went to (since none of them were in my classes anyway). Then.. i should have studied stuff to direct me towards a computer science degree and stuff I’m good at, rather than stuff I was just interested in.

    It’s not a ‘hard regret’.. and I doubt these choices would have made me work harder.

  14. First year of college I should have done other things then the standard of IT and business studies for options per term.

    Had I known where we gone for trips I would have choose Travel and Tourism to visit Old Trafford

  16. Doing a PhD. I was lucky to get AHRC funding but I’ve hated the whole experience to the point where I’m struggling to find the motivation to finish. Lucky, I don’t want to stay in HE but, even if I did, there are no stable jobs in my field anyway. I seriously regret not leaving after the first year with an MPhil. There are a lot of things that have gone wrong during my doctorate that are fairly unique to me (supervisor changing uni being the main one) but, even so, I wouldn’t recommend the experience to anyone.

    I know how obnoxious I sound in this post and how lucky I am to have been able to take my studies this far, FWIW. For me, it’s been a case of ‘just because you *can* do something doesn’t mean that you should…’.

  17. I regret messing up in my final 2 years at school, I was meant to get good grades but messed it up.

  18. Degrees in science were marketed as a really good “proper” subject to do. But for biology there aren’t really that many jobs especially if you’re not into research. Most end up in teaching. Wish I’d done medicine but couldn’t afford 5year degree at the time as it wasn’t fully funded. Or something practical like electrician/plumbing.

    Did enjoy my degree though and got a first in my masters so I guess that is something

  19. Seen both sides. Did an apprenticeship then decided to go to university. Did a history degree and did not do any internships during university. Which was a waste and regret on both accounts.

    Went into retail management for a few years. Eventually did a science related postgrad which enabled me to change career into something more cushy and mentally stimulating. Should have done that to begin with.

  22. I regret not turning up to my drum lessons for 2 years, was too busy with my girlfriend.

    Don’t care about failing the GCSE aspect of it, but I’ve recently rediscovered a love of music, starting to learn the guitar etc, when if I’d bothered with my lessons I could be 19 years deep into it by now, instead of starting from scratch at 33 years old.

  23. I regret not doing maths/computer science at university, I did an undergrad in Mech Eng thinking it would make me really valuable and employable and I sort of enjoyed it. Turns out none of the companies near me have any fucking money to do anything interesting or to employ early career engineers.

    I now work for a bank and do data analysis and modeling risk.

  24. I wish I had sought proper careers advice when I was in college so I could’ve gone to a better uni. Loved the uni I went to but it was an ex-poly and I had three A* A Levels in academic subjects. I didn’t know the difference as I was the first to go to uni in my family, so I went for the campus I preferred. Going back, I would’ve applied exclusively to Russell Group unis. Who knows what I’d be doing now?

    I still have a fab career and life, but it’s always a ‘what if’!

  25. I had a lot going on in my late teens and was dealing with health issues which got in the way of studying… my A levels went badly.

    In hindsight, I think I chose almost all the wrong subjects (I’m dyslexic, likely more dyscalcic – and I *really* struggle with mental maths. My worst grades at GCSE were maths and drama… and what did I sign up to take at A level? Maths, further maths, physics, and computing! (as well as philosophy, I didn’t do too badly in that but wish I’d gone for the ethics module instead of New Testament, but that would’ve meant travelling to a different college for those lessons).

    It (somehow!?) seemed like a good idea at the time, as I was mainly focused on going into engineering or computer science, but now it seems like an obviously bad idea to take subjects I know I’m bad at and don’t enjoy.

    I often wonder whether I did the right thing by choosing not to go to uni (I got a place, but turned it down for an apprenticeship).

    I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a HND at a local college, or looking into open uni, but TBH I don’t really know what I want to do. I want to retrain somehow so there’ll be more doors open in the future, but am stuck as to which way to turn.

  26. I wish I’d studied computer science instead of economics & finance.

    I also wish I’d not met certain people at university. The damaged they caused is still not fully healed.

  27. Not taking school seriously and then not doing anything with my degree straight after Uni.

  28. Listening to my sexist teachers/advisors. I did my GCSEs in 2001/2002 just before the big push to get girls into STEM. My school had a mandatory careers advisor. I told him I wanted to be a programmer or engineer. He told me that ‘girls don’t do those subjects’ but that if I studied really hard I’d make a good legal secretary.

    I initially ignored him and did my A levels in maths, further maths, electronics, physics and computing. In computing I was the only girl and my teacher basically ignored me. I was one of two in electronics and to be fair that teacher was great. I also had my sperm donor telling me I would never succeed in those careers.

    When I went to university I initially applied to do maths as that was a subject I was ‘allowed’ to do without judgement. At my interview I mentioned I was also interested in being a pilot and the interviewer said ‘can girls be pilots in this country?’

    I lost all my confidence and switched to studying animal behaviour. I loved the subject but careers wise it sucks. I’ve run my own dog walking business for 11 years now and I have destroyed my body. I want to switch but have no clue what to do. I have some money put aside I could use to retrain but taking a huge careers shift terrifies me.

  29. Did uni then had a shot to do med school. Did really well and got my interview to turn them down politely, go off and pursue teaching.

    3 years later…a conversation with my spouse;

    “Aldi doesn’t seem that bad to work for”

  30. Wish I’d worked less hard. I remember all the stress from trying to get mountains of homework done on time. Now I look back and realise, punishment for missing homework would be a 1 hour detention, and I spent way more than an hour doing homework. Would’ve been a smarter move to sack it all off and just take the punishment

  31. Haven’t really got any, hated school but loved university. Pulled my child out of school to home educate when they told me how much they hated it, so they were spared the hell which is the state education system and got skipped to the good part – university.

  33. I wish I’d never gone to uni. My parents were insistent because I was utterly miserable for the whole 3 years I was there.

  34. I regret working so hard at university, both for money and for my degree. Looking back I could have spent a little less time trying to read every single book on the recommended secondary sources list and a little more time making friends and joining in with societies. I could also, in retrospect, have afforded to have done a little less paid work. I had a good time at university and I got a good degree, and I’m happy with where I am, but I missed some of the prime time for learning random stuff because I was so focused on getting my degree. My cousins and I were the first generation in our family to go to university and we had no idea what the expectations were or how you met them and where you could, justifiably, just slack off a bit.

  35. I wish I’d known ADHD was a thing and also I’d like to have known how to severely mitigate it.

  36. I regret going into higher education all together. Wish I learned a trade straight after school.

  38. I didn’t finish my degree due to ill health. I enrolled a couple of years ago on the OU and then got a new auto immune condition, swiftly followed by long covid so cancelled my enrollment. I love my job, and I know I help people doing it. But wish I could prove my worth on paper too. I mean, it’s not a massive thing is it? It’s better to stay alive. But, it is still a regret.

  40. I do feel I could have done better at school, but would have likely taken a different path and wouldn’t be the person I am today.

    I was more interested in playing Halo 3 at high school than studying. Failed my key exams and had to resit them at college. It did help me mature and realise that if I had tried the year before I would have avoided the faff of it all.

  41. I went to a good school and went on to do graphic design at a shit University from 2000-03, and missed the massive technology jump that occurred about 5 years later. A lot of what I learnt has been really low value in terms of a skillset. The market for a lot of (but not all) jobs is really poor and wages are pretty bad.

    Unfortunately covid showed a loot of poor employers they can get away with much less, or thanks to remote working outsource to cheap drone workforces like in India. A lot of these bosses also don’t value creativity in a business sense, and no matter how much you back up a decision with fact and data if they want the logo blue that’s what they want.

  42. At school I was very average with grades and performance but I don’t regret any of that based on where I am in life. What I do regret educationally is not taking the time to do specific learning courses as an adult before I had kids.

    People at my company now get qualifications and complete new courses on X, Y and Z that help them in their roles and they undoubtedly use to get pay rises and I just don’t have time with kids.

    So my educational regret was not using my free time as an adult to learn things I wanted to learn for my career or personal growth before I started a family and had less time for it.

  43. Yes. Could have taken many more O levels (yes, I am that old!). Left school as soon as was legally possible. Followed by two years further education in “useful subjects”. No A levels or Uni.
    Do wish I’d tried harder now….

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