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 Post subject: For what other industries could gemology give a head-start?
PostPosted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 12:43 pm 
I have been wondering a lot recently, as I will be 29 this Summer. Other than temping jobs, short-term unskilled jobs and teaching abroad, I have absolutely no 'legitimate' career history since graduating from university. It's become something of a concern.

After finally taking the final exam in the Summer, and getting that extra 2% in it I need to become an "FGA", I will be able to call myself a 'qualified gemologist'.

I might luck-out and find a gem-related job in the UK, but a few year's worth of demoralising feedback have suggested that the completed FGA will likely not make much difference. It's still a 'catch-22' of "no experience = no job = no experience", while also not being a resident of Thailand, the USA, HK, or any countries where the occasional gemology jobs seem to pop up (companies seem to seldom hire expats).

However, this has been covered at great length in other threads, so let's move on to a new topic.

If there are more grads being produced than there are positions, what else can a gemology graduate do that would make use of this knowledge/skill outside the sphere of gemology?

I have been racking my brain to think of options I can take to turn things around, without throwing all this time and effort in the proverbial dustbin. I would love to be able to partially-convert this gemmology education towards an industry with more employability.

For instance, would these qualifications give me extra 'brownie points' to get a shot at entering a M(Sci) in:

Geology
Optical Engineering
Mineralogy etc.

.. depite my poor B(Sc) Physics grade?

If I did stay somewhat within the jewellery industry, what else could I combine this with to give my CV extra "oomph"? I was thinking metallurgy, or something of that nature. Would gemmology and something like this give me a better shot? It seems that adding more qualifications is "making the same mistake again", but at some point surely you have enough paper to tip the balance (and compensate for the ability to find experience; age-permitting)?

The final option is, of course, languages. The topic of the guy learning Chinese to be a gemologist in China was already covered in another thread, with a somewhat gloomy prognosis. I am guessing a country with an almost unlimited (and not neccessarily unqualified in many cases) workforce pool has little need for green expats - language or no language. If I did try and bolster my chances by TEFL-ing in a country to learn a language, which would suppliment gemology best? Thai? Burmese? Cantonese?

I hate being a non-international school teacher abroad, with no PGCE. We're regarded as nomadic burger-flippers, and rightly so. I have thrown two years into Bangkok, desperately trying to find contacts/networks, and need to try somewhere else. Myanmar seems to be calling quite loudly, but is a very 'specific' destination towards gemology (rather than, e.g. China, where the language would be useful in every industry).


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