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How long did it take you to focus on a given career?
Hotlead Junkie
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Right, so far I'v done 2 years of Mechanical engineering at college after getting my highest marks in resistant materials/shop in high school so it seemed like the logical choice to take a similar course in college. I hated the course, but stuck with it for the 2 years and passed, but had no desire to follow up in a career of operating machinery and grinding metal down for the rest of my working life. Before the start of the next school year/september, I decided to take a graphics course as I had dabbled in digital artwork as a hobby during my mechanical engineering course and had been drawing (not too well really) for years prior. The course was informative and I learnt quite a lot about art history, the buisness of secruring and working for a client, how to use various illustration programs, etc but I really wasn't too passionate about working for a graphics design company quite just yet. I decided to join some freinds on a games design course at my local university (yes, the main reason I chose to do this course is that a few of my freinds from graphic deisgn were doing it, I enjoy videogames and had nothing better to do). 2 years on and I still have a year to go in this games deisgn course, but I still don't know what I want to focus on as a real career.
After nearly 7 years of higher education I still havn't a solid idea of what career path I want to aim for. I could do loads of things, I know how to use lots of digital art programs, 3d modeling programs, I have a good knowledge of graphics, how to work with a client who is asking for something specific (poster design, buisness cards, what have you, 'graphics' related stuff), I can even work various forms of heavy machinery and work with metal and wood to some degree and can work with electronics in a basic manner (soldering, wiring, etc). I have learnt quite a lot from these courses but still don't really have much of an idea of what sort of (realistic) dream job I would like. I am actually starting to get a good idea of what I want to do for a dream job, I'm very passionate about drawing/artwork in general and have been for a while, I'd love to get paid to draw all day and show off my crazy ideas so I'm thinking of putting some serious time and effort into getting my drawing skills up to scratch and seeing where that takes me. On the plus side, even if I just work on drawing for years and years and don't make any money out of it, making a meager wage working part time when I could of been working towards a higher paying job, at least I enjoyed doing something I'm passionate about.
I don't think this should go in the Help/Advice sesction of the forums as I'm not making this thread asking 'omg, what should I do with my life?', I'm slowly, finally making up my mind about that myself (although I wouldn't be opposed to some freindly advice), but I just want to hear how you decided that the career path you took was the career path for you, or, if you are in a similar situation to me and are confused about what to do to earn your keep or do with yourself in terms of career choices.
After nearly 7 years of higher education I still havn't a solid idea of what career path I want to aim for. I could do loads of things, I know how to use lots of digital art programs, 3d modeling programs, I have a good knowledge of graphics, how to work with a client who is asking for something specific (poster design, buisness cards, what have you, 'graphics' related stuff), I can even work various forms of heavy machinery and work with metal and wood to some degree and can work with electronics in a basic manner (soldering, wiring, etc). I have learnt quite a lot from these courses but still don't really have much of an idea of what sort of (realistic) dream job I would like. I am actually starting to get a good idea of what I want to do for a dream job, I'm very passionate about drawing/artwork in general and have been for a while, I'd love to get paid to draw all day and show off my crazy ideas so I'm thinking of putting some serious time and effort into getting my drawing skills up to scratch and seeing where that takes me. On the plus side, even if I just work on drawing for years and years and don't make any money out of it, making a meager wage working part time when I could of been working towards a higher paying job, at least I enjoyed doing something I'm passionate about.
I don't think this should go in the Help/Advice sesction of the forums as I'm not making this thread asking 'omg, what should I do with my life?', I'm slowly, finally making up my mind about that myself (although I wouldn't be opposed to some freindly advice), but I just want to hear how you decided that the career path you took was the career path for you, or, if you are in a similar situation to me and are confused about what to do to earn your keep or do with yourself in terms of career choices.
Hotlead Junkie on
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the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I'm with ya on the whole "real world' thing.
I still haven't figured out what I want to do. I'm leaning towards journalism and freelance writing, specifically for gaming and technology, but I'm also thinking about enlisting in the military. I might enlist for either combat or intelligence because I think that working in the intelligence field for the government would be pretty lucrative. That, and it interests the hell out of me. I've always been into military related things like weapon systems (U.S. and OPFOR), firearms, and what not.
So, I'm kinda torn.. especially considering I'm not content with the way the current administration is handling foreign policy. I dunno yet and it scares the shit out of me.
But - then for about 2.5 years of my degree there were periods of "oh fuck what if I've gone into a dead end degree?" and "oh fuck, what if I hate this and should have done computer engineering anyway?" Basically I had no idea if what I was doing was what I wanted to be mixed up with as a career.
But! But then I did the chemistry project laboratory, which is basically doing research work in chemistry and oh man was that ever the best course I took. It turns out I love doing research work, planning my own experiments etc. and that I definitely want to do more of that - it also got me amped for doing my honors year as I am now. So in about 2-3 months I'll probably be posting about Ph D. applications with any luck and pretty damn happy about it.
I've been doing it ever since, and I love it.
I've wanted to be a cop since I was like...11 or 12.
Who knows what I'll be doing (commercials, writing, producing, TV, et all) in the future, but I know it will be through some theatrical means. That particular outlet of creativity is what I am passionate about.
Around the age of 15, my home life began a slow process of unraveling. My mom was working 3 jobs to support my grandma and I and the mental duress of this was quickly catching up with her. She became less and less functional emotionally and was prone to calling in sick days at a time and sleeping the entire time etc. So, my very hard working mother was losing it quickly.
Meanwhile, I'm a fat, awkward teenager going to an almost all black high school. Great. I was awkward, overweight, and white. Needless to say I was picked on to the point of fearing for my life at this school. It was a poor area and gang violence was high. Now, I'm not trying to pretend like this was some school in the trenches of Los Angeles. It wasn't nearly that bad. However, it was bad enough for me to experience severe anxiety. Basically, I was fed up with school (10th grade) and I told my mom I was quitting.
At this point, my mom was just trying to keep it together so she agreed. She checked me out of high school and bought some second hand homeschooling materials. Of course, I never used them past the first week because I was an unattended minor with an internet connect and a penchant for killing people on Ultima Online and Tribes.
So I spent the next 3 years of my life playing video games.
Of course the psychological impact on a kid who drops out of school and plays video games all day, all whilst watching his mom fall further and further into crazy-town is pretty profound. OH sure, it sounds awesome to play video games all day and have a mother who doesn't care on PAPER. But in reality it creates a severe disconnect in a kid between him and the outside world. Needless to say, I became a classic shut in prone to fits of paranoia, and once again, crippling anxiety.
It really was all down hill from there, but this post is about how we decided where we got in life so I'll fast forward.
I eventually broke out of this unhealthy cycle and obtained my GED. I then enrolled at the local community college where I spent 3 years getting a pretty general Associates Degree. I pretty much took every academic class available with a slight slant towards philosophy and computers. During this time I also worked for GameStop for a year and a half and then a small ISP serving as tech support rep for the last half of college and the following 6 months afterward.
I quickly learned during college that I wasn't talented or interested enough in programming. So gone were the childhood dreams of video game development. As much as I wanted it to be, it just wasn't for me.
Oh, also, my last semester of college I got married.
When Katrina hit the gulf coast, it left my mom's home in Jackson, MS pretty damaged. My wife and I had an opportunity to land jobs with FEMA and we needed to move out anyway.
So now, almost two years out from Katrina, I worked my way up quickly through the ranks of the I.T. Department and am now a GS-12 Information Technology Specialist (Network Administration) for FEMA.
Through a series of Unfortunate, Fortunate, and Just Plain Weird Events, my career path has been chosen for me.You really can't beat Federal Service, especially once you make it into the I.T. world.
I guess my point in saying all this is, once you take initiative and decide that you ARE going to do something with your life, and you keep it positive, Fate, more than anything will put you right where you belong.This is pretty much my counter-point to the academic answers you'll get.
That's how my ex ended up in medical school. About five years in, now she's decided "Meh, I'll settle for working an MRI instead."
--
Personally I'm still working on it. I didn't figure out my major until I was about twenty, and that was, frankly, just based on my habit of playing roleplaying games; I literally went to back to college initially with the idea of becoming a Dungeons and Dragons writer. Maturity and sanity kicked in eventually, and now my official interest is in editing, whether fantasy or science or travel or whatever. I basically just want to make the world appear to be a less horribly illiterate place.
But I haven't actually broken in to my field yet, at age 25. Instead I'm essentially a secretary in a construction office, where I only really get to use my experience to criticize regulation text and to try and keep my supervisor from appearing horribly illiterate.
If I can get people to respond so I can sign up, I hope to start working on my MFA in Creative Writing come January. IF. :x
after about five years of tutoring middle and elementary school kids in a classroom setting, despite the fact that they were pissing me off on a pretty consistent basis, i still wanted to keep going back every day and try to make them smarter. that's when i knew i wanted to teach.
That's a part of why I went for an English degree. Being able to read is useful in 99% of decent careers. It's not going to get me six figures, but it's hard to starve.
That said, civil careers can't be that hard to keep considering some of the people I've had to deal with in those positions, so you won't starve either. :P
My only problem is that I wasted a good 5 years of my adult life smoking weed and fucking myself over. So here I am, nearly 25 with no certification trying to rebuild my nearly shattered dream : b
Civil servants are essentially impossible to fire. It's much easier to just keep shuffling the bad ones out of your department and into another.
*We played bingo with latin vocabulary for squares. Vinco!
I'll be fine, just give me a minute, a man's got a limit, I can't get a life if my heart's not in it.
--LeVar Burton
Me posting the thing about programming since I was 9 actually made me stop and think for a while. I've been doing it for 20 years. Ok, professionally for about 10-12, but still...
I want to do something different now but I have NO idea where to start!!!
I originally chose the degree because I wanted to make video games, but when I learn what the demands of the industry were (cough, EA scandal,) I decided to go into web development. I absolutely hate practicing in my own delicious free time, so I grabbed as many internships as I could. I think it paid off, but that internship destroyed my confidence in Graphical art and design. I guess I'm more of a programmer. (I DESPISE FLASH I TRIED TO LEARN IT FOR A YEAR AND A HALF AND I WANT IT TO DIE IN A FIRE.)
So now I'm going back to go to the Air Force ROTC and try a computer engineering degree. And I'm going to look for an internship as soon as possible to explore what the degree is all about. Since I know web programming, I'm hoping I can learn something like JAVA. My goal is to go to the new AF branch opening in Louisiana, called "Cyber Command," which deals with US network security.
Oh, and a scholarship would be nice, I HATE paying for things. My first degree was free too.
The best way is to get a job programming just part time, so you can get another job in another field. It'll be a crap job, with terrible pay, but you will be able to mock out whether or not you like that field. If you do, you can work hard, and work your way up into better jobs. If not, you can give your two weeks notice, and look for something else.
That's part of how I became a cook. I kept my job bartending weekends for the good pay, and found a job during the week in a restaurant.
--LeVar Burton
what is a session musician?
are you still playing clarinet?
Session musicians are those guys who get paid shit to play drums for Mariah Carey's new album at 2 in the morning, basically. And I'm playing clarinet a little bit, but I'm playing saxophone more now. Oh, and literally two minutes ago I blew out my headphones playing bass and channeling the signal through them.
yeah that sounds like a wretched job. no creativity, you have to get it right on the 1st or 2nd try, and I keep on imagining Maria Carey saying something like
"No NO! The drums! The drums they must SING!"
It's my brother's goal to be the asshole music teacher who says shit like that and creates the best perfomers. His own words.
Shogun Streams Vidya
I'll be fine, just give me a minute, a man's got a limit, I can't get a life if my heart's not in it.
So, in asnwer to the OP, I've known what career I wanted since I was 12, basically.
I honestly have no idea how any of you do/did it. I am 23 out of college with a business degree, and have no idea what im going to do with myself.
I took a journalism course and quite liked it. I took the next course that involved reporting for the high school paper. I had always liked to write, and admittedly I made a shitty journalist in high school and for part of college, but I got an internship with a big media company because of my very rudimentary technology background, and that was enough experience to really give me a strong base for the rest of my education in the field.
I finished out college, working as a reporter and then web editor for the college paper, during which I landed another good internship (money-wise). After graduating, I floundered at some shit jobs and with some periods of unemployment, but started writing for a cluster of community newspapers. I've been there going on two years now.
It was pretty touch and go. To say I didn't look back in fear would be a lie. I just stuck with it, and I'm glad I did. I'm meeting a lot of important people in this line of work, in particular a powerful city mayor that I have a feeling will play a factor in my career later down the road. He already wrote me a glowing endorsement letter due to my accuracy and fairness in reporting for his city, should I seek new employment in the future.
I wouldn't be surprised if after he is done with politics, he goes on to work on the advisory board of some large company or decides to go into state level politics, and honestly, I would probably follow him. Those are the kinds of opportunities that you have to look for. It could very well change my career, or I could just move up in my given field on the strength of the reputation that I'm building.
So I guess I'm pretty flexible, having wrote that.
I want to finally get a chance to go out and work and experience a couple of professions and lines of work before really settling down. Doing my Ph.D. in political science was an option a little while ago, but I'd feel like such a fraud announcing "I'm going to spend the next five-six years researching x" without ever having experienced x outside of the classroom.