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Varian
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey all,
I'm a 22 year old guy about seven months out from separating from the Air Force, and am having a hard time choosing a path of sorts on which to continue my odyssey. My interests are widely varied and there probably isn't a job out there I couldn't do, and the GI Bill should let me attend school without much financial burden, but deciding on a school/career direction is only made more difficult by this. So! Help me figure out what to do. I'll try listing some things about myself:
Education
---
Graduated HS
Defense Language Institute - Attended nearly 1.5 years, got AA degree in Korean Area Studies. Practical result of which is I can speak, read and write Korean, but not fluently due to lack of opportunity for practice in a non-military application.
Completed all requirements for Community College of the Air Force degree in Communications Applications Technology by attending additional tech training with CLEPS and a few college courses which I needed for the Korean degree as well.
And then I have my clearance which I hear can get you mad jobs in defense contracting, but I wonder how much I really need that money. Don't want to become the Man and such.
Some Interests
----
Music, composition - I write songs but often only get about a minute into them before being distracted, however the last two weeks I've pushed myself to create a more complete product which I'm really proud of so far. I think of it as a fun, important hobby and would like to study and learn more but it seems unrealistic to expect to make money doing this.
Writing, filmmaking - This isn't something I do too often, but I feel like I could if I applied myself to it. I often find myself thinking of story ideas, which subsequently turn into musical ones because I feel like every word I put to paper has to be put to music. But nevertheless it's something I think I'd be pretty good at, since language in general makes sense to me. Maybe editing? Is that even a job anymore?
Design, marketing - I always analyze advertisements and commercials and feel I have a pretty good basic grasp of the ideas and psychology involved, and it seems like it'd be fun.
Environmentalism - I don't have much knowledge base here but I get a warm fuzzy when I think about a brighter future with clean energy and efficiency and so on, and hear about these supposedly forthcoming "green jobs".
Entrepreneurship - I think it would be totally rad to run a small business, be part of the economy, have customers/clients and people working for me. I come up with ideas frequently but have no practical means of making them a reality since I lack a basic understanding of business and the various legal/administrative concerns. Maybe I should go to school for this?
Politics - But who isn't? My personality indicates a predilection towards delusion of grandeur, and our leaders never seem to impress all that much. It's easy to think you could do better sometimes, though I realize it requires a good deal of charisma and/or connections to get anywhere. But I've always considered myself a heroic figure and want to do something to demonstrate it, and I can speak well enough. XD
Essentially my wide interest set is prohibiting me from making a choice, and my ample resources are failing to provide me with the urgency/impetus needed to push me towards something, and yet I recognize that I have 7-8 months before I'll no longer be with the military and ought to start planning for -something-. I lean more towards Art/English/Social studies versus technical fields like engineering or computer science.
But yeah I don't even know where I want to live or anything! Aaaghh. How does anyone decide these things?
I'm a 22 year old guy about seven months out from separating from the Air Force, and am having a hard time choosing a path of sorts on which to continue my odyssey. My interests are widely varied and there probably isn't a job out there I couldn't do, and the GI Bill should let me attend school without much financial burden, but deciding on a school/career direction is only made more difficult by this. So! Help me figure out what to do. I'll try listing some things about myself:
Education
---
Graduated HS
Defense Language Institute - Attended nearly 1.5 years, got AA degree in Korean Area Studies. Practical result of which is I can speak, read and write Korean, but not fluently due to lack of opportunity for practice in a non-military application.
Completed all requirements for Community College of the Air Force degree in Communications Applications Technology by attending additional tech training with CLEPS and a few college courses which I needed for the Korean degree as well.
And then I have my clearance which I hear can get you mad jobs in defense contracting, but I wonder how much I really need that money. Don't want to become the Man and such.
Some Interests
----
Music, composition - I write songs but often only get about a minute into them before being distracted, however the last two weeks I've pushed myself to create a more complete product which I'm really proud of so far. I think of it as a fun, important hobby and would like to study and learn more but it seems unrealistic to expect to make money doing this.
Writing, filmmaking - This isn't something I do too often, but I feel like I could if I applied myself to it. I often find myself thinking of story ideas, which subsequently turn into musical ones because I feel like every word I put to paper has to be put to music. But nevertheless it's something I think I'd be pretty good at, since language in general makes sense to me. Maybe editing? Is that even a job anymore?
Design, marketing - I always analyze advertisements and commercials and feel I have a pretty good basic grasp of the ideas and psychology involved, and it seems like it'd be fun.
Environmentalism - I don't have much knowledge base here but I get a warm fuzzy when I think about a brighter future with clean energy and efficiency and so on, and hear about these supposedly forthcoming "green jobs".
Entrepreneurship - I think it would be totally rad to run a small business, be part of the economy, have customers/clients and people working for me. I come up with ideas frequently but have no practical means of making them a reality since I lack a basic understanding of business and the various legal/administrative concerns. Maybe I should go to school for this?
Politics - But who isn't? My personality indicates a predilection towards delusion of grandeur, and our leaders never seem to impress all that much. It's easy to think you could do better sometimes, though I realize it requires a good deal of charisma and/or connections to get anywhere. But I've always considered myself a heroic figure and want to do something to demonstrate it, and I can speak well enough. XD
Essentially my wide interest set is prohibiting me from making a choice, and my ample resources are failing to provide me with the urgency/impetus needed to push me towards something, and yet I recognize that I have 7-8 months before I'll no longer be with the military and ought to start planning for -something-. I lean more towards Art/English/Social studies versus technical fields like engineering or computer science.
But yeah I don't even know where I want to live or anything! Aaaghh. How does anyone decide these things?
Varian on
0
Posts
Shoot as high as you think you can go. The best schools in the world love veterans and people who are self-motivated and mature enough to go about seeking a higher education a few years later in their life, instead of right out of high school.
It shouldn't matter too much what your HS performance is, though you should inquire at the institution if you need to submit an SAT/ACT score. If you do, and think you can do better than you've done previously, you may want to. The economy in the tank means that school is pretty much one of the best place you can be at the moment, and since you've got GI bill benefits, it's a no-brainer.
You probably won't have to enter as a declared major in any field - all the extra credits that you have means that you'll have a lot of time to take survey courses and find out what you enjoy doing and are good at.
It sounds like you're more interested in the liberal arts than the sciences, and so should look at prominent liberal arts institutions.
In your application, you should consider making a statement to the effect that you intent to finish your Korean degree while doing whatever else you figure out, just to show that you're someone who's motivated and finishes what they've started.
Entry level positions in design and marketing pay poorly, like school teacher poorly.
But then again you really seem to have picked a lot of interests in that creative realm that are really not "surefire" career paths in terms of getting right up on your feet after college.
I don't think you can go wrong with business management, you should look to see if the government offers any help to veterans when starting businesses and weigh that into your decision.
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
Which is about the same as an entry level graphic designer here, if not slightly more.
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
For you, after reading your interests, I have decided that you should create a startup advertising/film making outsourcing/insert your interest here/ company. Maybe something like the guys at threeleggedlegs.com. To do this I would suggest that you double major in graphic design/art/animation/etc and business management, and through college you'll get a handle on what your artistic abilities are and if you can make it doing that, then you can start out there, and if you can't you can start out on the bussiness side and start making talented friends for your future business.
Anyone have any experience with organizations like the Americorps? I was thinking I could do that as well for a while to learn some practical skills, like when I have my own house eventually I'll be more familiar with maintenance and home repair.
Those open you up for numerous jobs located at or around military/government locations. You could look for any type of job; design/creative jobs, IT and other technical related fields, teaching, and damn near anything else you could probably think of, along with some you probably wouldn't.
It certainly doesn't limit you to defense contractors at all (I work for one), but it can open a hell of a lot of doors. If there's any way for you to keep the clearance current and not lapse until you figure if you need it or not I would do so, better to have and not need than need and not have.