montoya 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 bobby12, another thing to consider is that if you want to someday be in management or at the project-leader level in interactive, then you're probably going to have to have strong marketing skills (which is where the Tourism and Leisure MA could be useful). Else you'd just remain another web-monkey. If I were you, would strongly consider the Tourism degree, and try to tie-in your interest in interactive. Can't really rely on monster.com to gauge your career prospects. With a background in T/L, you could explore positions in a huge variety of industries: ski-resort, airline, entertainment-resort (eg Disney), government tourism boards, real-estate, food, etc etc. Link to post Share on other sites
miteyak 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 Quote: Originally posted by montoya: bobby12, you're probably going to have to have strong marketing skills (which is where the Tourism and Leisure MA could be useful). Of which the course you're talking about has none. Have you discussed job prospects with the prof. at lancaster? I may be repeating myself, but the course appears rather 'ethereal' and would not be the best course for anything outside of the consultancy field. I would hazard to guess that on graduation from the T/L course, the employment you are looking for would be possible, but rely on you doing well on the course, along with selling yourself hard. The computer course, if you graduate, should be a guaranteed earner, unless you're completely incompetent. So, assuming you don't want to be a hotel manager... T/L - risky Web development - dead cert if you have the aptitude. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 As for the marketing aspect, I reckon you can pick that up by reading some good marketing textbooks, applying what you learn in all your approaches, and telling anybody who will listen that you have a strong interest in marketing and good skills. Research and finding out what people want and then offering to supply it is are key marketing skills, and you can demonstrate that you have them starting now. Also, having done a very academic course myself (Eng. Lit.) I wouldn't recommend anybody to do one unless they were independently wealthy and had nothing better to do with their time. Inasmuch as the tourism course has 'the gaze' as it's starting point, I'd recommend against it. A more practical tourism course would surely serve you better. Link to post Share on other sites
montoya 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Share Posted July 15, 2004 yeah, just to qualify my comments, I was assuming your T/L major would have MBA-level marketing course-work. If not (and I haven't checked out your university's website), then all bets are off. Why don't you just get an MBA instead?? Link to post Share on other sites
bobby12 0 Posted July 15, 2004 Author Share Posted July 15, 2004 I have had some replies from job agencies but they all just said 'i dunno'. I'll try some specific travel/web companies tommorow instead of agencies. Yes I have spoken to the course leader of Tourism and he said that grads seem to find it easy to get work. He said they go into the kind of work I am looking for ('working for local authorities, being a tourism development officer, doing development work abroad, working for NGOs, developing niche green tourism programmes etc'). But it just feels like I am going on his word because when I search monster etc there are no jobs like this at all. I take the point that I cant use monster to gauge though. This is partly why I put this message up, in case anyone was in the know, working in the industry even. montoya - i posted the tourism course content on page 1. Basically one of the 3 core modules is 'Tourism Planning and Policy', but I agree that it is quite theoretical (or ethereal even). miteyak - what you are saying seems right from what i can see. the only worry is if in future there are too many web monkeys, as someone else pointed out. for the short term the web course it seems like a great idea though. I wanna say cheers to everyone for you advice so far though - I've got loads on with going home soon etc, and I have a bit of time pressure on whether to accept the bursary or not, but this is helping me pinpoint how to make the decision a lot. Link to post Share on other sites
bobby12 0 Posted July 16, 2004 Author Share Posted July 16, 2004 I think I am going to accept the Tourism course. I have just emailed tons of tourist boards for their advice, so I am gonna wait and read all that first. But my reasoning is that my web skills and Japanese skills will make me stand out from the crowd in Tourism. Whereas if I do web-development, my japanese skills and travel experience is unlikely to be seen as beneficial. Also, I think I am basically a deep thinker and more suited to planning and organisation, rather than just programming and playing with images. I have a feeling that ultimately I would get sick of the web job, even though the money would probably be better. Hopefully I will be able to use my web skills early in my tourism career anyway. Another factor is that I LOVE travel and will always have the desire to travel a lot every year. If I work in Tourism, if I dont get a job that pays me to travel a lot, I at least have the chance of getting discounted travel. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted July 16, 2004 Share Posted July 16, 2004 Bobby, If ya cant decide between the two just, flip a 500 yen coin, and then buy yourself a beer for what ever you gonna be up to your head in for the rest of your life Link to post Share on other sites
bobby12 0 Posted July 16, 2004 Author Share Posted July 16, 2004 :-) Actually I am in Kyoto this weekend and I was thinking, if I hadnt decided by then, to flip a 500yen coin in front of the golden temple. I figured if you were gonna flip a coin somewhere to make such a big decision it might as well be there. I was gonna get pissed with everyone and make it into a big thing, but I've kinda blown it now by making a logical decision :-) Link to post Share on other sites
miteyak 0 Posted July 16, 2004 Share Posted July 16, 2004 Congratulations Bobby, I wish I could be as decisive about my life... Link to post Share on other sites
rach 1 Posted July 16, 2004 Share Posted July 16, 2004 Let us know how it goes! Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted July 16, 2004 Share Posted July 16, 2004 I'm tickled by the double meaning of 'career'. There's "a long and rewarding career in ###", then there's "the car careered into the barrier and caught fire, trapping its passengers inside". I sometimes feel my career, kicking off with an academic degree, has more akin with the latter meaning. Here's to Tourism! Good luck with it! And keep up the photography and the web stuff. Link to post Share on other sites
bobby12 0 Posted July 27, 2004 Author Share Posted July 27, 2004 Well despite what I said earlier, I have gone for the Internet Systems course! I just decided the job prospects of Tourism seemed a bit dodgy, especially if I want to return to Japan. Realistically, if I stay with my girlfriend then we will get married within a few years and have a baby. I think Japan would be a better place to have the baby for my girlfriend, and it would be good for her to have the support of her mother during the first months etc. Thus I need to find a way to get decent work in Japan, and I think the Web will have a lot more to offer than Tourism. Hopefully I can get into a big company and get a transfer or something. Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts