Changing Perceptions (again)

A potentially-useful realisation occurred to me last night. I seem to have been operating on the basis that I could, ought or should be looking at those opportunities that require 'Top Graduates'. But now I come to think of it, I wouldn't class myself as one of those on the great majority of criteria by which they might be defined. My 'official' on-paper (except totally not on paper) Tripos success is, after all, just the result of a combination of memory, dumb luck, and being able to write coherently under pressure in a few exams. People a lot more competent than me can and did obtain lower Tripos marks, but that doesn't make me better than them by a long chalk. And this is just the matter of exam results, which when it comes down to it are probably of pretty minor relevance to post-graduation life.

So rather than trying to shoehorn myself into Top Graduate positions, perhaps I should be more realistic and look for Pretty Ordinary Graduate, Really or No Degree Required sorts of things. (Which isn't to say I haven't been looking at them, but I suppose I've had this feeling that I could do better). Though they're not all that common for a natsci - a mediocre English graduate could probably go and work in a bookshop or museum, but I'm not sure what a mediocre Science graduate would do.

That said, if you watch such TV programmes as the Deadly Knowledge Show (and I strongly advise you not to, but it's occasionally the result of continuing breakfast beyond Frasier), there are a bunch of twentysomethings, presumably students or graduates, revealing themselves to be just too stupid. Not Weakest Link stupid, but pretty bad. Not sure I'd really put myself in the category of people who require multiple-choice answers to the question "what is the sum of the interior angles of a triangle?", however unimpressed with myself I am...

One of my friends at college used my conspicuous lack of post-graduation ambition as a reason why I should stop worrying quite so much about the fact that I was Clearly Going To Fail My Exams (TM). All very well at the time but I rather wish now that I had some kind of horizon to pursue.