How useful is a sociology degree?

Today I was reminded that it's been five years since I moved to Liverpool to study for a Sociology degree at Liverpool John Moores University.

When I left university I had no real idea of what I wanted to get into and was very anxious about needing a job so I applied, very randomly, to work as a customer service representative for a waste company (which I managed to stick at for six months before realising I hated it and therefore quit).

I then took some time out of work to search for jobs that were perhaps degree related and more in line with what I wanted to do long term. I started to look for charity work as this is what I was most interested in at the time. While I was studying at LJMU I had chosen the World of Work module allowing me to gain experience volunteering at a food bank for nine months in Liverpool. I also did some casual volunteering at homeless shelters in London while at home during the holidays.

This experience was most valuable when applying for charity jobs, as every single job I wanted to apply for required some kind of voluntary or paid work in the field. I therefore detailed my voluntary experience in all of my applications. I was then lucky enough to land an interview with Victim Support to be a support worker for their national homicide service. I thought this job was way out of my reach but the interview went well and I got the job.

They were most impressed with my voluntary experience while at university and were also very interested in my degree in Sociology. In my interview I was able to explain how my degree provided me with many useful transferable skills and how Sociology teaches you to look at the world differently. Being able to understand equality and diversity was an essential requirement for my role and this was also something that I gained from studying Sociology at LJMU.

I very much enjoyed my job but unfortunately I had to search for new roles as charity work is extremely demanding and, sadly, also extremely underpaid if you're working at entry level like I was. So this led me to apply for my current job – I am a therapy coordinator for a leading adoption support agency. My new role requires me to liaise with parents, therapists and social workers all over the country, to schedule therapy programmes for children who have been adopted and are experiencing trauma as a result of this. My degree was also useful in applying for this role, firstly because they wanted a graduate but, again, also because of the transferable skills that it provided me with.

I am very grateful to have studied at such a great university as LJMU.

If you're interested in studying Sociology, take a look at the courses available at LJMU.