It is quite true that if your degree is unrelated to your career aspirations, your main advantage will be your skills. Think about what your strengths are. What are you really good at? And what do you know well? These will stem from your degree and your experience so far, such as the abilities and experience you have developed, and bring with you to any new position you undertake. 

 

They mean skills such as communication, problem analysis, influencing (if part of your course involves group discussion or presentation), teamwork (any external activities where you have been a team member), leadership, too, if you have led a team. Very often person specifications will outline the skills and competencies required for a position, so ask for this from the organisation. 

 

 

Ultimately your degree is evidence that you are capable of degree-level learning, therefore opens up doors rather than closes them. Regardless of the subject you have studied, it is essential you choose a career that you’re interested in. So if that’s journalism and you have a science degree, organise some work experience. The industry can be tough to break into so you need to show you have done something relevant. You could also complete a post-grad journalism course. You may find that some scientific publications specifically ask for a science background! Good spelling and grammar, and a nice style of writing go without saying!