Hi

I was accepted to a Master’s course in Helsinki, Finland which was supposed to start in a few weeks but a last minute technicality about my graduation date led them to cancel my study place 2 weeks before semester time.
I have to re-apply for next year but now need something to do for a year. I am a finance and management graduate. Looking at many company websites it’s a bit late for some graduate programmes and others are for 3 years.
Any advice on where to look and other options would be appreciated. I am preferably looking in Manchester, England or Helsinki, Finland as I can arrange a place to stay easily. At the end of the day anywhere in Europe would be suitable as time isn’t on my hands at the moment due to the last minute cancellation.

Any advice on grad programs, jobs, companies or ideas is greatly appreciated.

Thank You

Anyone here had a gap year and managed to fill it with something productive?

It would be useful to know what your area of expertise is. There's no point telling a history student about engineering for instance.

I'm assuming finance and management still - is that right Revilo16?

I had a gap year between UG and MSc, but did not fill it with anything productive. I worked full time in a bar, got drunk a lot on had a month in China. I don't regret that year at all! It was nice to have a year not studying, whilst I was young and carefree! Personally if I had a year to kill before doing a masters, I'd live whereever I could live the cheapest, work full time for 6 months (saving as much money as I could) and then travel for 6 months before coming back and doing the masters. But that's me. Possibly there are more career minded answers!

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Out of interest, how long ago was that? Job market being what it is now, it might not be such a good idea at the moment. But then, you only live once etc...

If you want a bit of mental stimulation and to broaden your knowledge while doing something else, you could always sign up for some free online courses, such as those offered by Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/) and edX (https://www.edx.org/). I'm doing one at the moment and it seems very well put together.