I beg you please, never associate that catholic (having converted after leaving office because in the UK a Prime Minister cannot be catholic (I think they should ban anyone religious to be honest)) sociopath with the British nation. As someone who forgot to vote that time, I am sorry. Sorry for any incoherence, awake for the last 48 hours.

I played Quake

I played Goldeneye

Did you have any friends to play multiplayer with? Was kind of like a LAN party for people who didn't know what a LAN is. Alcohol was usually present. Win.

You should really look into reading Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - am sure you would love it.

I can generally function for very long periods of time AS LONG AS I get my hourly cigarette break (which involves walking ~150 metres out of the building and 100 metres down to the river and taking some "fresh air" then walking back again).

The cigarette itself "helps" but I suspect its more the fact that I am physically active for that time - for me that is very important.

Depends on the job really. Are you doing something positive? Devoting a portion of your life, say several years, to a cause you believe in and THAT happens to be your job...

Trying to think of some examples, but I have friends who are teachers who regularly clock up those hours during termtime.

I worked 16 hour days for 6 months when I was starting out, a lot of it was learning and becoming more efficient, I still occasionally work 13-14 hour days but those are few and far between thankfully.

I love my job but not as much as I used to. 6 years in a role can get a bit repetitive.

I'll have a change coming up soon to do something new and I am CERTAIN that I will go back to 16 hour days for at least the first several months while I get up to speed.

Will be redundant by the time you finish your degree, awesome!

Wasn't aware that this used to exist. Thanks for the info, something to push for again.

Problem is you'll have the extremely vocal "You're breaking up families!" crowd up in arms again.

A-Level is still a bit simplistic (even Further Maths) - you get some basic proofs of calculus, but thats about it (the course is actually quite varied so it depends on what Modules you take - you need to do a minimum amound of "Pure"/Core and then either Statistics or Mechanics).

Mechanics is more applied maths within Physics and Stats is, well, stats...

At my school there was a lot of focus on that well beyond the syllabus, the teachers were young and loved the subject, enthusiasm is contagious. Went off on tangents constantly about proofs they found interesting, etc...

The thresholds are actually being raised quite a bit, this is before

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/UniversityAndHigherEducation/StudentFinance/Gettingstarted/DG_199403

and this is after

http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93,6678784&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

But yes, very, very different to the US. Graduate tax is a good way of putting it.

Parents should also be guiding kids on this.

My parents were very supportive (thankfully) - offered me a variety of choices, and got me SERIOUSLY thinking about my future at a very early age.

It needs to go beyond "what do you want to be when you grow up?" when the kid's barely able to understand what that means. It means thinking about what the best risk/reward would be. Balancing the cost of a dergree against potential earnings. Things like quality of life also need to be factored in.

I was lucky with my parents, as was my brother. We are both in jobs (very different) where we work long hours and work hard. We earn good money and are investing in our futures.

The mentality of "gimme!" needs to go. Parents need to do a better job instead of just relying on the government, though Labour encouraged this dependece.

5th city of france as well. Yesterday was at a barbecue in Sevenoaks (small commuter town, traditionally very, very English) - the people present were...

Swedish
Polish
German
Japanese
Russian

London and the surrounding area has become a very international place (always was, but has become much more so in recent decades.

Jobseeker's allowance is meant to fund those things as well, but try taking a train from, say, Yorkshire to London for an interview at short notice - you wouldn't be able to afford the ticket.

Think free travel to interviews is something that should be looked into. Jobseekers allowance just about covers food. Though housing allowance, exemption from council tax, etc... are very generous.

I think you're right on the British being the least mobile, major limitation is that English is taught very widely abroad, but the British rarely learn any foreign languages beyond a basic level and the typical language learned is French, which isn't very useful. German, Spanish, Mandarin - those would be good.

You hoped that the UK would become lazy uneducated slobs?

Mobility is a HUGE advantage in a job hunt.

Be it for employment or progression (rate of promotion has dropped off substantially in recent years for obvious reasons).

My brother is moving to Singapore in a few weeks - internal promotion at his firm.

I am currently considering a few roles in Moscow, HK and Singapore which would be financially much, much better than my current position - sometimes you need to take a risk and leave the comfortable (and repetitive) behind.

Overqualification is a serious problem (I almost consider using the term a form of discrimination) and Jobcentres are (unfortunately) next to useless...

My best friend has a Biochem degree from Oxford - I would say Imperial is on par in terms of reputation.

He's currently teaching Biology at a private school in Kent and absolutely loving it.

Biochem, its more or less impossible to find anything related other than clerical work unless you go beyond a BSc. Most of the exciting stuff you need to be at Phd level.

It all comes down to balance, but with a good science/maths degree you should be able to get a job paying above national average salary from the word go if you're willing to consider something less related to your course, of course peoples expectations are way off from reality.

And CompSci - yes finance/startups seem to be a massive draw and idealists are not easy to find when the cost of a degree is climbing so fast. Good luck to your employer with the hunt and to your sister and her friends!

100% agreed. Regardless of actual role (outside EXTREMELY specialised fields and even then experience wins over degree), when hiring, a Maths/Science degree almost guarantees an interview (outside financial services where jobs are currently few and far between, though historically it was almost a pre-requesite).

The unemployment problem isn't to do with lack of jobs, there are plenty available, just not that many for "fluffy" degree grads.

Thank XXXX for that. So many A-Levels these days are in ridiculous subjects, thankfully the trend AWAY from Maths and Science is coming to an end.

In the UK the government went with a target (set on a EU level) of having 50% of the population in higher education (not realising the vocational side of things that is common in other European countries such as Germany that count towards this goal).

You end up with half the population with a degree is a useless subject and unemployable as you are "overqualified" for roles that do not require a degree.

You might not end up using Maths in your day to day job, but the logical mentality that it encourages is very useful in other aspects of life - even simple things like managing your budget.

We don't need thousands of Media Studies graduates with huge debt, we need Scientists, Entrepreneurs and many other roles that are currently being filled by imported labour. I can't remember the last time I saw an English plumber or electrician - those skills are needed here and the pay for those roles is ridiculously high in the UK compared to other countries (I know a plumber who makes the equivalent of USD 200k a year 5 years after getting his qualifications).

Anyway, rant over.