The good-time generation

It's the one thing most young Londoners crave in their lives: combining a successful career with the kind of hedonistic lifestyle they enjoyed as teenagers. According to the somewhat predictable Having a Great Time poll, the new young generation just wants to have a good time - whether that's playing computer games or clubbing the night away.

As most twentysomethings know, a new-found sense of responsibility can swiftly put paid to romantic notions of a carefree working life, but for graduates from one of London's top schools, "having it all" is seen as a right, not a luxury.

St Paul's Girls School in Hammersmith has no uniform, favours small classes and holds weekly lectures by Oxbridge professors and alumni including Nicola Horlick. This year, for the seventh time in a row, the school came top of the GCSE results table, adding to its formidable reputation.

Paulinas, as they are known, tend to be self-confident, ambitious and successful. But as well as holding down impressive, "having it all" careers, they also know how to have fun. Here we speak to six from the class of 1997 about how they combine a stressful working reality with their party lifestyles ...

Alexandra Tillett Age 23
Lives: Shares a flat in Elephant and Castle.

Childhood: I grew up in Chelsea. My mother was a newspaper fashion editor, father is a QC.

Ambition at school: I've wanted to be a doctor from the age of 14. People told me not to do science A-levels, but I fixed them with a beady eye and got an A and two Bs.

Job description: Medical student. I will graduate as a doctor in 2004. Once I'm qualified I would most like to work in obstetrics and gynaecology.

Salary: £200 a week from waitressing.

Views on school: I've always been very positive about St Paul's. Five years down the line, I'm starting to realise some negatives. The attitude that their girls are superhuman means that all of us have probably suffered the first time we've failed at something. I've failed one thing in my life - my driving test - and I was a wreck. Now I know life's not all about exams and job titles and status. It's got a lot to do with whether you are enjoying yourself.

Boyfriend: I've been with Alex, a newly qualified doctor, for a year and a half.

Life beyond work: My passion is travel, which I fund by waitressing. In my year off I travelled round the world for a year on my own. It was the best thing I've ever done. I'm just about to go to Australia for a placement and I'm also learning Spanish .

Emily Sayce Age 23 Lives: In Richmond, with my parents.

Childhood: Grew up in Richmond. Father is a solicitor. Mother runs a bed and breakfast.

Ambition at school: To save the world.

Job description: I'm doing an internship at a think-tank at present, and I start a management consultancy job in January. I know I'm going to like it because my degree was all about team work and problem solving, which is what I'll be doing at work.

Salary: Currently unpaid. Will be about £28,000

Views on School: St Paul's girls are all quite determined. The school encourages you to recognise possible opportunities and make what you want of them. The idea that girls should be secondary to boys was simply never an issue.

I got two As and a B for my A-levels and went to Durham to study geography. I played lacrosse and netball for the university and I graduated with a 2:1.

Boyfriend: I was introduced to Tom two months ago by my parents - but that is so embarrassing that I usually lie and say we met through mutual friends.

Life beyond work: I still love sport and recently did the Great North Run. Currently I'm enjoying having a good time before work really kicks in.

Emily Moore. Age 23

Lives: Parson's Green with her boyfriend of a year and a half.

Childhood: Mother from the Bronx, father an investment banker from West Sussex, but both now live in the US. Grew up in Tokyo, Hong Kong, then London from age 10.

Ambition at school: To get married - I've been planning my wedding since I was about two.

Job description: Account executive at an advertising company. I love advertising. It's very creative and I work with a close team. Since I've been promoting nappies, however, I have no desire to get married any more. I'll have a career instead, thanks.

Views on school: The recipe for success at St Paul's is to be independent and grab opportunities. At lunchtimes there was always a queue of about 50 girls outside the staff room waiting to speak to teachers. There was a lot of pressure to do well. If you came out with a C, people would look at you and say, "Oh my God! What are you going to do with the rest of your life?" I graduated from Cambridge last June with a 2:1 in social and political sciences.

Boyfriend: Met Christian, a cox for the British rowing team, at Cambridge.

Life beyond work: Mainly, I hang out with all my girlies. We do a lot of shopping, have dinner and at Cafè Med or Ffionas in Notting Hill.

Cerian Jeffreys
Age: 23
Lives: With parents in South Kensington.
Childhood: Grew up in Fulham, Father is a QC, mother was a TV production consultant.
Ambition: To be a barrister.

Job description: Financial analyst for leading investment bank. I wanted a dynamic job that was challenging, and I don't mind the long hours because the work is so stimulating.

Salary: Not enough to buy my own pad.

Views on school: St Paul's instilled me with the belief that I can tackle anything. I got three As at A-level and graduated from Cambridge last summer with a 2:1.

Boyfriend: Bit too early to say.

Life beyond work: My favourite place for dinner is Racine in Knightsbridge. I love to go clubbing, anywhere and everywhere: Attica, Woody's, Fabric.

Claire Lickley Age 23
Lives: In Barnes, with my parents.

Ambition at school: To live abroad - which is still my ambition.

Childhood: I grew up in Barnes. My father is a retired investment banker, my mother is a school secretary.
Job description: Law student, with job lined up at a solicitors firm for 2004.

Salary: None.

Views on school: People don't generally apply to St Paul's unless they are quite ambitious, because it's got a reputation as being high achieving. I'm lucky because I thrived in that environment, but it is sink or swim - the kind of place you either love or hate. I got three As for A-levels then worked in a bank in Paris and travelled round the world during my gap year. I studied law and French at Bristol and got a 2:1.

Boyfriend: Single - I'm too picky.

Life beyond work: I'm very athletic - I'm running the marathon in April. I love tennis and go skiing every year. I love socialising and am taking advantage of my student status while I've got the chance.

Louise Nathan Age 23

Lives: I live in Barnes with my parents.

Childhood: Father is a careers counsellor, mother is a conference planner.

Ambition at school: To open a bar on a desert-island beach.

Job description: Chef in a delicatessen. I've always loved cooking, which is ironic because my parents chose St Paul's precisely because it was the only school that didn't offer home economics. I don't have the average career of a Paulina, and never wanted to.

Salary: £15,000.

Views on school: I always found St Paul's quite hard academically. I was academic enough to be there, but other things appealed to me more, like working with people, travelling and not being in an office. I got two Bs and an E in Geography, Biology and History of Art A-levels, which is not good by St Paul's standards. I graduated last summer from Oxford Brookes where I studied psychology and hospitality management.

Boyfriend: Kevin, whom I met in Oxford and who still lives there.

Life beyond work: In my gap year I went to East Africa and fell in love with it. I've been back twice and I'm leaving in November to travel round the world for a year and a half.