charnwooduk wrote: ↑12 Apr 2016, 17:46
Your degree will not get you the job.
For sure it will give you one of the requirements to be considered for one of the graduate programs, but there are literally hundreds if not thousands of students each year who will have the same qualifications.
Actually chemistry, materials science or computer studies can potentially get you further towards an F1 career than mechanical/motorsports focused degrees would, simply because there is less competition in those fields. (Understanding composites/polymers or IT/Technology/communications being just as important as the more traditional engineering roles now-days)
What you need to work out is what makes you stand out from the crowd. That does not necessarily have to be academic.
As an example, there has been more than one occasion where I could have taken a job in the motorsports industry. I don't have a degree , A_Levels or any motor sports experience. But my hobby is flying model aircraft. I designed and manufactured in my garage fully composite 100% carbon fibre / polymer models. It took me about 6 years of my spare time, teaching myself all the theory, learning how to use "freeware" tools such as x-foil all the CAD work, build my own CNC mill, constructed all the molds myself, and took a couple of years to perfect the manufacturing process and ended up with a product that I sold all over the world and flown by the top pilots in World Championships. I did a few presentations to modeling clubs, and by chance had some employees of F1 teams in the audience that got me noticed.. I did not take the interest any further as family commitments mean I prefer to see more of my family and I can earn more in my regular day job (I'm am a business intelligence consultant - a fancy title for a database guru, self taught again)
I will take another example. My next door neighbours kid is 17 . He had locked himself in his bedroom for most of his childhood playing world-of-warcraft (or similar). He entered a coding competition run by an F1 team and got offered an apprenticeship there a year ago. He will never need to go to University now as this apprenticeship is worth a hell of a lot more than a degree.
What I am trying to say is yes, do your degree... but make damn sure that in that time you do the something else that will make you stand out.
And also remember that just about everyone who has taught you at School, College and Uni will have very little experience of real world employment. They will have never experienced any "regular" job where academic achievement is not the be-all and end-all. I've worked for 20 years in technology related industries and I would be surprised if any more than half of my colleagues have had degrees. When I look at a CV, I rarely even bother with the academic achievements... I look at their experience, and try to get a grip of how inquisitive minded they are and how they have managed to apply that to further their careers. If I look at a graduate CV, I look primarily at what they have accomplished outside their curriculum, to get a gauge as to if they would be suitable.
