My mistake: my BA (Hons) in Geography

Hi guys. I've been blogging since 2011 and sometimes, I am surprised at how an article that I have written years ago is still getting so many hits today - that's when I realize it is a topic that matters a lot to some people and that there are some people out there desperately looking for answers. So back in 2017, I wrote a post entitled, "Q&A: Is geography a totally useless degree?" And the short answer is yes, it is not just a useless degree - it must be one of the most fucking useless degrees out there and disclaimer, yes I have a degree in geography from UCL. But relax, I'm working in banking today, doing something totally unrelated to my degree so I'm doing fine in spite of my degree, rather than because of my degree. My current boss doesn't even know or care if I went to university, he doesn't know what I studied or which university I went to - he certainly never asked to see my CV or has even seen a copy of my degree. But I have managed to prove myself in my previous job before I caught his attention and he offered me a job - such is the real world out there. But since I'm writing this post to dissuade young people from doing a degree in geography for all the wrong reasons, please allow me to share with you my story as to how on earth I ended up doing a degree in geography at UCL and what happened next. This is a long post so here's the summary in one line: yes I fucked up, I was a fucking idiot - doing a degree in geography was a big fucking mistake but it didn't matter, making one big mistake doesn't ruin your life. In fact you can probably fuck up many times in life and still get away with it - as long as you learn your lesson each time. 

Let's start at the very beginning.

I came from a poor, working class family in Singapore - my parents were both severely autistic and hated the idea of traveling, for it took them out of their comfort zone. I too was autistic and when I was miserable, I would seek solace in books. I would go to the library and read all kinds of books - because English was my first language, I would mostly read books from America and Britain and so from a young age, it opened my mind up to a completely different world, many time zones away from the neighbourhood in Singapore where I grew up. There were hardly any Singaporean writers back then and heck, even if there were, I wouldn't touch books from Singaporean writers as reading was my form of escapism, to use my imagination to transport myself to the world in the books. I would also read loads of encyclopedias and atlases, I loved reading about all these exotic countries far away - in Africa, in South America, it became a fascination for me as a young child. I guess I was a weird, lonely, autistic kid - whilst all the other kids were out playing basketball, I was in the library reading the encyclopedia until it was closing time and the librarian had to kick me out - I remember that look on her face, she knew I would be back the next day to read the encyclopedia again. In Singapore, geography was a subject that was only available in secondary school - having done so much reading prior to that, when I showed up to my first geography lesson, I knew all the answers, I was totally brilliant at the subject as I already spent years reading up on the subject even before that first lesson. This led to me scoring nothing but straight As in geography as a student - my parents gave no support or guidance, they weren't educated so they were in no position to tell me which subjects to choose at school so I was free to pursue geography for no other reason than because I was good at it. 

One thing just led to another. 

When I was 17, I had a geography teacher who saw how brilliant I was - his name was Mr Truman and he told me that not only should I do a degree in geography, that I should apply to Oxford. He believed in me so I gladly did as I was told. I yearned for his approval because he was a caring and brilliant teacher - my parents weren't graduates, heck my father doesn't even speak English. We were a working class family and my parents didn't have a clue about universities or degrees. So under those circumstances, when Mr Truman told me I should do a degree in geography, it just felt like the most natural thing to do at that point - it was my best and favourite subject in school. I thought it would be fun, especially if I could make it to Oxford. Well things didn't go to plan - Oxford said no, but I got into my second choice UCL and they offered me a scholarship. Again, that was thanks entirely to Mr Truman who knew that Singapore was on the list of countries that made me eligible to apply for this scholarship - it was an outdated list created back in the day when UCL had a genuine desire to welcome poor black and Asian students from former colonies. When I got that scholarship, the GDP per capita of Singapore was already much higher than the UK but heck, my family was still very poor even if I was indeed from a rich country so I don't feel bad about taking the money. So in 1997, off I went to London, as a scholar to study geography at one of the best universities in the world - in one of the most fascinating cities in the world. This all came after I had just completed 2 years 4 months of national service in Singapore as well, it was a dream come true and I remember just how excited I was upon landing at Heathrow airport then. This was everything I had hoped for as a child. 

I did not plan for a career. I wasn't prepared for the working world. 

The three years at university flew by, I had plenty of fun and then I graduated and that's when the nightmare started: it dawned on me that I simply could not get a job with a degree in geography. Holy shit. I was totally unprepared for what happened next - believe me, I tried so hard and I applied for everything - the only job that was willing to give me a chance was a company that sold ads on the internet. I spent hours everyday in an office cold calling all these companies, telling them to buy an ad on our website - I still remember having called this woman called Mary Short, ooh boy, I still remember her name because she got so angry and abusive with me. She must have been having a really bad day - she screamed like a banshee, telling me that people like me are the scum of the earth, that I should feel deep shame in having failed my parents because I needed to get a real job to contribute to society, instead of annoying her by calling her up to sell her shit that she didn't need. I didn't even hang up the phone because there was something about her tone - she sounded like an angry mother who was disappointed that her son ended up getting such a lousy job and she genuinely wanted me to do better. I remember saying to her, "thank you for your time today, have a nice day." I was on autopilot, I knew she was right and I felt that I deserved that scolding. Boy was I depressed. I left that company after three months - that was as long as I could take, but that led me to another sales job. I've been in the working world for 20 years now and whilst I've been earning good money in banking for the last ten years, the first three years were absolute hell and that was mostly my fault - I had left university thinking that degree in geography would get me a job: I couldn't have been more wrong. I had to prove myself as a worthy salesman to carve an entirely new career which has absolutely nothing to do with geography. Hence that degree in geography was totally useless in this context, totally fucking useless. 

My stupid mistake: all I wanted to do was travel. What the fuck has that got to do with geography?

So allow me to tell you where I had gone terribly wrong in the first place: I knew what I wanted as a child. I read about all these fascinating places in the encyclopedia and I wanted to visit all of these places: to ride a gondola in Venice, visit the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, gaze into the endless horizon of the Sahara desert, stand in the middle of Time Square in New York, visit Eva Peron's grave in Buenos Aires, climb to the top of Sigiriya temple in Sri Lanka, ski down the Matterhorn in Switzerland, sail through the Fjords in South Island New Zealand, marvel at the pyramids in Egypt, see the northern lights in Scandinavia - yeah I had a very long list of lovely places I wanted to visit but what the hell has that got to do with studying geography? Doing a degree in geography meant that you had to write essays and do research on these places, but most of the time it meant going to the library and doing a lot of reading or looking up information in the internet. It wasn't like I could simply hop of a plane to go visit Santiago in Chile just because it was mentioned in a lecture at university - hell no. If my intention was to travel rather than simply read about these places, then doing a degree in geography was a massive mistake - if I just wanted to learn about these places, I could spend ages watching videos on Youtube in the age of the internet or reading so many articles on Wikipedia. I realize my fucking stupid mistake now and have managed to put things right in getting a job in banking: I now earn a truckload of money in banking which enables me to pay for these epic holidays that most people can't afford and the fact that I am self-employed meant that for the last ten years (oh life was sweet before Covid-19), I have spent about 25-30% of my time on holiday, traveling to some of the most amazing places on my bucket list. So let's get real here: most people who have a degree in geography don't become as rich as I do because they didn't go to banking and so ironically, they rarely end up traveling as much as I do. 

Reality check: you need money to travel - a lot of it. 

Let me be the first to criticize myself and point out my stupid mistake: I was a stupid idiot who made a dumb mistake - I was really stupid in assuming that studying geography would somehow lead to a job that could allow me to travel a lot . Here's a reality check: if you wanted to travel a lot and see the world, then you really have two options. Firstly, you can do what I did: become extremely rich and thus have a sizable budget to spend on really epic holidays in some of the most exotic places in the world. Secondly, find a job that will include some international travel and this may have absolutely nothing to do with geography. I have a friend who works for Warner Music and her job is to manage some of theor new talent. So she could jump on a plane just to go to Toronto for a concert, then get on another plane for a press conference in Hong Kong, before stopping by in Dubai on her way back to London because another one of her singers is performing at an event there. Amongst all my friends, she probably has the most exciting job and her the most air miles - does her job have anything to do with geography? Absolutely nothing. Once she asked me, "have you ever been to Beirut? They're sending me there next week for an event and I don't know anything about Beirut, but I'm only going to be there for like 48 hours." (Imagine how jealous I was when she asked me that question.) She took that job because she was passionate about music - the travel simply was a feature of the job, she didn't pursue this career path because she wanted to see the world but it has become a feature of her job. Otherwise there are people in the travel industry like pilots and cabin crew get to travel a lot as well - I am struggling to think of other jobs where people travel a lot regularly. 

Too many geography graduates, too few jobs in geography.

So, allow me to deal with a question that I did receive through my previous blog post on the subject. I have a reader Becca who told me that she is extremely interested in seismology - that's the study of earthquakes and her dream job would be to become a seismologist. Basically, she wants to spend her professional career to be all about earthquakes. But the difficult question I have to ask Becca is this: do you believe that there is an employer out there willing to give you a well paid job (or an even not-so-well paid job) just because you do a geography and then perhaps even go on to postgraduate studies on seismology? If you want a job that is 100% to do with earthquakes, if you want to work as a seismologist - then the number of employers who can give you such a job is tiny. Take a country like Canada for example which does experience earthquakes: there are at best "a few dozen" full time seismologists employed even in a rich, big country like Canada which experiences earthquakes regularly. Here's a reality check people: the population of Canada is 37.7 million in 2020 and interpret "a few dozen" to be 50 (since 4 dozens = 48) then the chances of you being employed as a full time seismologist in Canada is 1 in 740,000 - which is ridiculously small. There are more ballerinas, supermodels and zookeepers in Canada than seismologists. Thus Becca is making a rookie mistake in looking at the issue from the wrong angle - she is considering "what do I want to do with my career" rather than "what jobs are available out there for someone like me." Thus these specialist jobs in geography are so niche that you literally have zero chance of getting your hands on one of those quite niche and specialist jobs - no matter how enthusiastic or highly qualified you might be.

Beware of becoming an overqualified niche specialist.

In 2004 I met a guy whom we shall refer to as Lionel (not his real name) with a PhD in post-colonial English literature from the Caribbean and his dream job was to teach post-colonial English literature at a university. However, the number of universities in the world offering something that niche was extremely low and he literally had to wait for someone to die or retire before an opening came up; well Lionel waited for many years and was working in sales whilst still convincing himself that any day now, the phone would ring and he would be able to return to academia. But of course, it never happened - his area of expertise was so niche he had painted himself into a corner. Lionel was stubborn - he refused to budge from his original ambitions and compromise. So for someone in Lionel's position, that would meant teaching A level English literature - perhaps a Caribbean writer like Earl Lovelace, Una Marson or Velma Pollard might feature as one of the books the students had to cover for the exam, but he would be expected to teach whatever appeared on the syllabus from Shakespeare to Chaucer to Dickens to Austen. It wouldn't be a bad living for Lionel as a teacher but he scoffed at the idea of teaching A level literature because he was so much more highly educated than your average A level teacher - it wasn't his dream job, he really wanted to work in a university. Since Lionel wasn't willing to compromise, he ended up doing a job that had absolutely nothing to do with English literature at all by working in sales and that's how our paths crossed many years ago. He wasn't happy doing sales (nor was he good at it, he left after a few months when Lionel simply couldn't meet his sales targets) but that's an example of how following your passion can lead to a lifetime of disappointment when you are very focused on what you like and want instead of what is available now in the job market. 

What about other jobs for geographers?

Thus an example of other jobs for a geographer with a keen interest in seismology would be in the oil industry; there are jobs available in the exploration for petroleum but I have to put a disclaimer here in bold letters, there are A TINY NUMBER of jobs available in the exploration process because of the seismic waves generated from controlled explosions or during fracking. But allow me to share a sentence that I have found on the Earthquakes Canada - which is a Canadian government website. So here is a bit of career advice from them for those students interested in seismology. 

"The vast majority of seismologists work in petroleum exploration, where the seismic waves come from controlled sources explosions, vibrations caused by trucks)."

So what information did you get from this quote? Someone like Becca who is wildly optimistic about pursuing a career is seismology may think that this means she could get a job with an oil company if she studies seismology. However, the key piece of information missing is how many jobs there are in oil exploration in a country like Canada and just how many seismologists they actually employ there? Because this is such a niche area of expertise, this could be absolutely tiny and once we see how tiny that number is, the harsh reality is that someone like Becca would probably end up doing something else altogether. To put things in perspective, I have written a blog post noting that the vast majority of people who work in banking in the UK are white men (and there are very few women and people of ethnic minority in the industry) - so by that token, does that mean that any white British man who wants a job in banking can actually get a well paid job in banking easily? No, of course not, it is still a very hard industry to break into even for white men in the UK - you still need to be absolutely brilliant. So even if Becca does then decide to want a career in oil exploration - how many jobs are there available and how tough is the competition to get one of these jobs? The danger is to look at words like "vast majority" and imagine that this implies that there are plenty of jobs for anyone with a degree in geography in the industry - no where in the statement does it suggests that Becca would have an easy time trying to find job related to seismology in the oil industry. Becca still needs the right connections to be able to get the right work experience and internships before she stands a chance of scoring a job in the oil industry even if she becomes an expert in seismology. 

Okay what kind of jobs could a geography graduate do then?

These are jobs where you would use less than 0.1% of your actual degree content but you probably needed to be a graduate to apply for the job in the first place - that's pretty much my situation right now. I am a geography graduate working as a fixed income specialist within corporate finance - the amount of overlap between the information I need for my job and my geography degree is probably about 0.01%, next to nothing. In fact on most days, that figure is a big fat zero but has my degree been a complete waste of time then? I think that's debatable (and I have met many successful people who don't have a degree) but I'm facing the same question at the moment trying to help my nephew get through A level economics - despite working in banking, I have forgotten virtually all of my A level economics syllabus and I have to do a lot of reading prior to each lesson I do with him. The challenge I have with my nephew is this: he is very much a product of the Singaporean education system. Sure he will memorize the textbook and thus he will know all the definitions of the complex terms as well as draw any graph associated with them but can he apply this knowledge and analyze a case study that he has never seen before? He is struggling at best to make the connection and in order to score well for his A level exams, he needs to be able to do a lot more than simply memorize his textbook. That may have gotten through his primary and secondary education but at this stage, he needs to demonstrate a lot more critical thinking and problem solving skills. I may not remember the content my A level geography or economics syllabus, but I am still using all these vital skills in critical thinking, analyzing, reasoning and problem solving in my job in banking today. 

A case study: Pret A Manger 

What will happen to people who simply don't have these critical thinking skills then? There is a sandwich chain called Pret A Manger (that's French for 'ready to eat') that started in the UK but now has 450 shops in nine countries. The staff in their kitchens have to follow recipes to create their sandwiches and thus all you have to do is follow the instructions, there is absolutely no thinking involved - all you have to do is adhere to the recipes to create those sandwiches. You don't need much training to do a job like that - the recipe is right in front of you, you just have to follow it step by step and you don't even need to memorize it. Needless to say, people who do such jobs whereby they simply turn off their brains and follow instructions are paid very little. The staff who are much higher up in the company are faced with far more difficult problems such as how to keep their business afloat and minimize losses during the Covid-19 pandemic; to solve these much more complex problems, there are no formulas or recipes to follow, you have to use your power of critical thinking to come up with the best solution. That is why the people who make the sandwiches in Pret A Manger are barely paid the minimum wage whilst those in management are paid millions for their vision, foresight and critical thinking skills. This is why I would very much my nephew to be able to do a well-paid job that involves critical thinking in the future, rather than a very low-paid job where all he has to do is follow instructions. Getting through a degree in geography at a respectable would prove to any employer that you have mastered the art of critical thinking - the employers really don't give a shit what you have studied at university, they're far more interested in the fact that you're an intelligent individual capable of critical thinking and problem solving when presented with quite a messy situation in real life like the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Avoiding the fallacy of "but I'm so good at geography". 

Given the number of geography graduates there are and there number of "highly relevant" jobs out there, most geography graduates end up in my position, doing a job which has absolutely nothing to do with the geography we studied at university. I wish to dispel an idea I had when I was at university - I remember thinking, I am good at geography, I would thrive at a job where I can simply stick to what I am best at. Allow me to point out the limitation with that kind of mindset: just because I was good at geography didn't mean that I wouldn't be good at other things. I have to constantly make sure I don't fall into the trap of sticking to what I know. When I was a student at university doing a degree in geography, it was true that I knew a lot about geography but that didn't mean that I couldn't learn about other new topics that had nothing to do with geography and develop skills that would enable me to work in a different industry such as banking. We could be good at several things, we can have many different kinds of talents but we need not necessarily need to use all of those talents to make a living. I am a former national champion gymnast and a qualified gymnastics coach - yet I choose not to make a living from gymnastics because gymnastics coaches don't get paid much. But that's fine by me as I am now enjoying the sport on a recreational basis - it doesn't have to be the focus of me career just because I am good at it. I still love geography and am passionate about it of course but just like gymnastics, I have chosen not to make it the focal point of my career and that's fine. As long as I have the money to travel and take amazing holidays, that is enough to make me happy - I don't have to use my geography degree or knowledge everyday. 

Be prepared to step out of your comfort zone. 

Sometimes I do catch myself not practicing what I preach because it is so tempting not to venture out of your comfort zone: allow me to give you an example from my work. I had become a specialist with medium term fixed income products (3 to 7 years); I have made quite a lot of money simply from dealing and distributing such products then my company announces that they were going to move into short term fixed income products (1 to 18 months) which is quite different from the medium term products. My first reaction was a knee-jerk "no no no, I know nothing about short term products, they are so different, it's for a different kind of investor, I have never dealt with it before, please don't make me do this, I know nothing about it." Then when it became clear that I had no choice but to stop complaining and start climbing that steep learning curve, I realized, okay I can do this - there's a lot of learning but with time, I can become confident with short term fixed income products as well. Well, it was not like my boss gave me a choice in the matter, I had to either learn quickly or risk losing my job: I chose the former over the latter by stepping out of my comfort zone. Sure I did that reluctantly at first, but eventually I did what I had to do and learnt enough to do my job properly. This process reminded me of getting an injection - the worst part of it is when you're just waiting for the needle to go in, you know it is going to hurt and you're just dreading it. But when the actual injection happens, it usually hurts less than you thought it was going to and at that point, you're just so glad it is over even if it was quite painful. We go through that same process each time we get up to step out of our comfort zone; it is never an easy process but we need to just do it, get it over and done with. 

My geography degree didn't hurt my prospects, it didn't help me either. 

Here's a vital a reality check: if you think that you're going to have people lining up to offer you a job just because you have a degree from a good university, then you're completely wrong. Few people have that luxury - perhaps if you went to Oxford or Cambridge, then yes that may happen but for the rest of us, having a degree (in any subject) purely proves that we're capable of critical thinking. There are so many factors that a gatekeeper would consider when deciding if you are a worthy candidate when you apply for a job, so let's not overestimate the importance of the degree. It's not like my career was ruined just because I did a degree in geography - no, it would ruin your future but it wouldn't guarantee any kind of future success either. Allow me to do a comparison to make my point - I volunteered with a few charities in London to gain some work experience when I was a university student. Did I learn a lot? Not really. Did it help me find my future job? No. Did I have fun volunteering? Yes, I did have fun sometimes and enjoyed the social interaction with the other volunteers, other times I was bored by the mundane work they assigned to the volunteers. Did the experience ruin my future just because it wasn't particularly useful? Of course it didn't. Once I reconciled myself to the fact that my degree wasn't going to help me get a job, I got over my disappointment and got on with my life - I could have wasted a lot of time feeling sorry for myself or feeling cheated (like that angry woman who felt she was misled did successfully sue her university) but what would be the point of that? So I'd rather just get on with my career and focus on being pragmatic.

Would I have done a geography degree in hindsight? 

Good question, I would have still done it given that I needed the scholarship money. The only thing I'd change would be my expectations that somehow employers were going to give me a well paid job just because I went to a top university on scholarship to do a degree in geography. Hell no, I was so wrong, I hold up my hands and say my bad, I was naive, stupid and foolish and now I know a lot better but hindsight is 2020 of course. Fundamentally of course, I would have asked myself the question, "what do I really want?" The answer is simple, I want to be in a position where I have loads of money and loads of time to go traveling around the world, to have all of these amazing holidays in exotic places. I look at someone like my sister for example - she holds a very senior position in her organization in Singapore and earns more than me, but she has no time whatsoever given that she typically works 80 to 90 hours a week. What good is that money to her if she has no time for herself, if she is dedicating practically all her time to her employer? She is constantly sleep deprived and has no time for her hobbies or leisure activities. Don't get me wrong, with all due respect, she has achieved a lot in her career and sacrificing her leisure time is a price she is willing to pay for that. That's her personal choice but it is definitely not a route I want to take. I needed to find a job which would allow me to make a lot of money whilst working very few hours a week, with a lot of flexibility around working hours that would allow me to go on my epic holidays. I have managed to find my niche in corporate finance and that has given me the lifestyle I wanted. If I had pursued my original dreams of getting a job within the realms geography, I would be working long hours, getting paid much less and most certainly not having the kind of money I am earning now, that is allowing me to have my dream holidays in exotic places.

Beware of the taking advice from geography teachers. 

I have a love-hate relationship with teachers: my parents are retired primary school teachers who knew nothing about the big bad world beyond the school gates. I was a very troubled teenager and it was a few teachers I had the fortune of encountering who showed me exceptional kindness and stepped in where my own parents had failed me - they went out of their way to make sure I didn't go off the rails and helped me focus on my studies because they saw the potential in me. If my own parents weren't teachers, I might have had a much higher opinion of teachers but this is when I have to be careful not to fall into the trap of anecdotal evidence. The average geography teacher you have encountered has chosen teaching as a career path - that's really the only career path that they can tell you about and anything beyond that, they're not qualified to give you much advice about it. They can probably make general statements about finding work within oil exploration but they have no clue about how many jobs are available in that industry or how hard it is to secure a job in that industry - instead, you really need to do your own research. Be realistic: just because you like to do something doesn't mean someone is willing to pay you good money to do it. You need to go back to the basic principles of supply and demand - so in the case of Becca who wants to be a seismologist: how many people are there currently employed as seismologists? Very, very few. It doesn't mean that Becca can't study seismology and try to get a job in the industry, but she needs to be very realistic about her chances and be prepared to have a plan B if it simply doesn't work out. Do not focus on what you want to do but be practical and realistic about what is actually available in the job market. 

Supply and demand vs good intentions. 

There is a very simple, basic economic principle that I base my reality check on: can you make a decent living following your choice of career path? Are there people who are willing to pay you good money to do what you want to do? If the answer is yes, then great - but all too often, people don't even ask that question. Now I often hear this argument used when it comes to young people wishing to become actors, models and singers - they're often accused of being vain and unrealistic when they dream about becoming celebrities. This criticism is based on the fact that there is an impossibly large number of young people dreaming about becoming the next Taylor Swift, Cardi B, Selena Gomez or Ariana Grande but so few actually achieve that level of success - heck, never mind being successful, so few manage to actually make a living in the industry. But by the same token, a geeky geography graduate who dreams of becoming a seismologist is just as unrealistic when it comes to their odds of success - if we were to base our judgment purely based on their odds of getting paid employment in their chosen career path, then both career paths are equally unrealistic and difficult. However, society tends to be a lot harsher on the young person dreaming of becoming a singer than the one dreaming of being a seismologist - that's just based on the assumption that the geography graduate who wants to become a seismologist is doing it for the 'right reasons' (a genuine desire to save humankind from earthquakes) whilst the singer dreaming of stardom is just doing it out of vanity and greed. Even if that was true, it still doesn't improve the odds of our geeky geography graduate finding work as a seismologist if there simply aren't enough jobs out there for seismologists - hence we need to put aside the concept of intention and focus on the simple principles of supply and demand in the job market. 

A sensible compromise

Hey don't get me wrong, I am the guy who left a stable paid job to pursue a career in acting at the age of 28. I then returned to banking after having achieved only mediocre, limited success as an actor - so it's not as if I am one of those guys who have never tried to pursue a career paths with very low odds of success. I'm crazy enough to have followed my passion but I have always been able to support myself financially - I came from a poor family, so it is not as if I could have expected my parents to support me whilst I went through long periods with little or no income as an actor. In fact most actors will have some kind of part time job to sustain themselves financially because of the fickle nature of showbiz. So if you really want to be a seismologist, if that's your dream, then go for it but at least have a plan B - make sure you are entirely realistic about your odds of success. Be prepared to explore alternative career options whilst pursuing your dreams to become a seismologist. It doesn't depend on how knowledgeable or smart you are when it comes to geography but a lot of it will depend on being in the right place at the right time. Gosh, the number of times I have been in a position whereby a potential employer told me, "Alex we really like you, we think you're great - unfortunately, we're just not hiring right now and not in a position to give you a job." If you are determined to become a seismologist, then I certainly hope you succeed and get what you want; but at least make sure you're going to be alright in the long run by having a plan B just in case it doesn't work out - after all, you're going to have some transferable skills that will enable you have another career in a different industry where hopefully, you're going to find something rewarding, interesting and reasonably well paid. No I never got my job to do with geography, I never became a famous actor but still, the money I am now earning in banking is allowing me to enjoy so many incredible things I could only dream about when I was a kid.

Would I have been happier if I did get a job in geography, like being a meteorologist?

Oh it's a hypothetical question that's impossible to answer. There is one person I do admire and I wish I had his job: Simon Reeve. He has done a series of documentaries on the BBC where he visits many of the world's most exotic countries and that's a job I want to have because ever since I was a kid, I wanted to travel, see the world and visit these countries. I speak all these languages and wouldn't even need a translator - ironically, Reeve didn't study geography, he didn't even go to university. He left school at 16 and did a range of odd jobs before becoming a successful author and television presenter. Most people who end up doing presenting on TV like Reeve would go through a totally different career path to establish themselves in broadcast journalism rather than geography per se. Reeve does come across as knowledgeable and he wouldn't have the credibility as a presenter if he had the demeanour of an ignorant tourist. Of course, there are Youtubers like Drew Binsky (who is equally irritating and condescending) and Nas Daily (who is just as irritating and has the charm of a soiled diaper) but hats off to them, they have managed to make a living traveling the world and making Youtube videos about their adventures. Now that's a far cry from a job in geography - I came across this job ad for a meteorologist for the Royal Navy which pays £27,000 a year. Ouch, that's a tiny fraction of what I am currently earning and the hours are freaking long: would the geography geek in me somehow be satisfied in that role? Hell no. Let's be practical: I came from a poor family, I crave nice things in life and they don't come cheap. Most of all, that role doesn't involve the one thing that I want the most: international travel. So the answer is simple: I would be fucking miserable and poor in a job like that, even if I am qualified to do it well. I really want to be in a position to travel - that's the one thing that can make me happy, so either I do a Drew Binsky and find a way to finance all my travels through social media or I simply do what I do: get a well paid job so I have plenty of money to spend on my epic holidays.

So there you go, if you've made it this far - thank you for your patience. I know this topic is very close to my heart and that's why I had so much to say. But my point at the end of the day is simple: if you're passionate about geography then by all means do a degree in it but be very realistic about your employment prospects. Be adaptable, be flexible and be prepared to have a plan B but most of all, please ask yourself this: do you know what will make you happy? What is it you really want to do in your adult life? Are you going to be satisfied becoming a geography teacher or do you really want something else altogether, such as in my case: all I wanted to do was to travel to see the world. There's so much for you to think about so please - I am here if you have any questions. Do leave a comment below and many thanks for reading.