Vox Pops – Issue 21
Mele – Bachelors of Education, Majoring in Human Development
Nexus: Do you think it will be easy to get a job once you graduate?
Mele: Depends I guess, yes and no. If I wasn’t working at the moment, probably a no, but for me personally yes because the job that I’m doing right now is going towards my degree. They do have a spot for me if I graduate, hopefully.
Nexus: What is your dream job versus your nightmare job?
Mele: So my dream job is, currently, working with disabled children. I just love the joy that they give me and I just love watching them grow every day and helping them. My nightmare job would be washing the dishes cause I hate washing dishes with all my heart.
Nexus: Job satisfaction versus salary?
Mele: To me it’s more about enjoying my job rather than the money, cause you know money just comes and goes, but if you love your job that’s a memory you will hold forever.
Britney – Bachelor of Social Science, Majoring in Human Development
Nexus: Do you think having more than just education on your CV matters?
Britney: Ahh I think it does, I think it’s easy to get your degree but I think experience really matters, I think a lot of companies look for that as well.
Nexus: Do you have a side hustle?
Britney: No, I don’t. I just work full-time.
Nexus: What is one piece of advice you would give to first-year you?
Britney: I think not to worry so much, I think I was quite stressed out about the little things that happened in uni and I think it’s not worth it. Sometimes you just need to chill out you know? Just go with the flow.
Aylish –LLB & BA Majoring in Political Science
Emma –LLB & BA Majoring in English
Joel –BA, Majoring in Politics & Film
Nexus: Do you think it will fairly be easy to get a job once you graduate?
Aylish: Umm probably in Law rather than Political Science, cause it’s quite an obvious career path, like, be a lawyer.
Emma: Yeah the exact same thing, I think a Law degree is a lot more versatile and desirable to employers.
Joel: Yeah I’m very aware it’s going to be incredibly difficult for me to find employment next year when I finish so…Like I think it’s very niche, a very small percentage of students end up where they wanna go.
Nexus: Do you have a side hustle?
Aylish: Ahh yep, I do tutoring for mathematics, and I’m also on a casual contract at the library.
Emma: I feel like I’m just copying Ailish, but yeah I do high school tutoring for NCEA and I do occasional one of jobs like if there is an event.
Joel: Yeah I’m a supermarket supervisor at my local supermarket
Nexus: What is your dream job versus your nightmare job?
Aylish: Oh um I don’t really know what my dream job would be, I guess something where I’m able to make a comfortable living using my brain cause that’s what I enjoy doing. Um, nightmare job… something that’s boring and repetitive, I don’t have anything specific but if I had to just wake up and do the exact same thing every day I would just hate my life.
Emma: My dream job would be a film director, which has nothing to do with anything I’m studying, but my nightmare job would be like an accountant, probably.
Joel: I think everyone’s dream job is probably like an astronaut or something, something that is absolutely unattainable for the average person. For my nightmare job, any job that’s (no offence) like a lawyer or an accountant, like monotony, yeah that’s not my line of work.
Nexus: Job satisfaction versus salary?
Aylish: Ahh I think job satisfaction is really important, but it’s also something that comes from the privilege of being able to study and get into a job where you’re going to have a high salary. It’s all very well and good to say like “aw I want a job that’s rewarding not just high paying”, but at the end of the day you need money to survive under capitalism.
Emma: Yeah I think that no matter how rewarding a job might be, it makes it more rewarding knowing you have a good income. I think that a good income would help cushion the blow of any kind of negativities that come with not being satisfied with your job. So yeah, I would say salary over job satisfaction.
Joel: I feel like you probably need a healthy balance of both. But if someone made me choose I would say satisfaction, because I mean I’m gonna work for 65, 70 years so…
Kelly – Graduated with a Bachelor of Tourism
Nexus: What is one piece of advice you’d give to first-year you?
Kelly: To not take out all of the loan living costs available to me and cut back on partying three nights a week to get better grades, haha oops. Also to get involved with the WSU!
Nexus: Do you think extracurriculars matter on your CV?
Kelly: Yes, It always looks good to see that you’ve contributed to the community through volunteering and also to show that you have people skills through being part of a club/sports team.
Nexus: What is your dream job? Nightmare job?
Kelly: Dream job: Event planner for large scale festivals or international events. Nightmare job: Plumber.