Jack Frater: Academic results don’t define you
© Jack Frater It’s not long to the dreaded A-Level results day.
I was told at school it was a day that would define my future, but I couldn’t tell you what my results were without looking them up, and since graduating from university, nobody has asked.
My initial plan was to farm, but a complex family dynamic meant that staying at home was not an option so the next logical step was to pursue a career in farm management and consultancy.
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See also: Jack Frater – how much has changed since 1957?
So I headed to the then-Royal Agricultural College and graduated with a degree in agricultural management.
I learned a lot in my three years there and had some great tutors, such as Chris Brough and Tom Overbury.
However, considering some of the grades I “achieved”, the academic side of university was only a small part of the overall experience.
The real value was in the friends and connections I made there by playing rugby (poorly), shooting at weekends, and travelling all over the country to attend 21st birthdays, which 10 years later have progressed to weddings and christenings.
University is not for everyone, however, and having a degree is not the be-all and end-all for certain careers within the industry.
What I am sure of, though, is that if you are planning to get involved with the family farm, the worst possible thing you can do is finish school and head straight home.
Go to New Zealand, Australia or North America, drive big kit, grow a mullet and live exclusively in Canterbury shorts for a year.
Learn from what others do around the world, otherwise you risk getting stuck doing the same old thing. I didn’t go on a gap year and I have regretted it ever since.
Over the past 10 years I have interviewed numerous people for a variety of roles such as lambing assistants, farm workers and graduate surveyors, and I have always been more interested in their experiences, interests or if they have been part of a Young Farmers’ Club than I have in the number of A-Levels or the class of their degree.