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Alright...question about everyone's career.
tehkensai
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I have the option to go back to school. I want to, but the problem is that I don't know what I want to do. Seems like there are so many cool careers I could get into if I tried, but I don't know what they are.
So what do you do for a living? What type of schoolage did you need? Why did you pick it?
So what do you do for a living? What type of schoolage did you need? Why did you pick it?
tehkensai on
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If you're considering a career in accounting, having a vetrinarian come in here talking about vet school isn't going to help much now is it
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Come on now. Figure out what YOU want to ask, and what YOU want to do and then ask it.
What you get your degree in doesn't necessarily matter. Skills and experience matter.
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I hated both jobs with a passion and am now exploring doing my own thing as my own boss because bosses suck...srsly.
Do what you really enjoy first and foremost. The more you like it, the better you will be at it and you will be way less likely to drink a shitload and then kiss a shotgun goodnight forever.
This is really the important question. Theres lots of books on helping people figure this out. What Color Is Your Parachute is the classic on the subject I believe.
Oh, I know. That's actually the same book my dad recommended to me.
Really I just asked because I wanted to know the types of careers out there, etc. Obviously I'm going to choose what I want to do in the end-that's a given.
I might as well go pick up that book.
If you just won the lottery and then retired and was like "This is boring as shit, I'm getting a job" what would you want to do?
Whoa, 10th grade guidance counseler meeting flashback. I'd run a game store... not exactly a solid career choice without the lottery money.
Anyway, I took a 2 year college course for network administration becuase I like computers. I ended up getting loads of scholarships during college, so I kept going for 4 years by taking a bunch of electives. I wasn't interested in taking american history and calculus and that other bullshit to get a 4 year degree.
It's paid off moderately well. I supervise a night helpdesk for law firms.
tl;dr: Yes, going back to school is always an option.
There's a crapload of money in geology if you don't mind working for the mines (its not the ethical concerns so much as the 'living in the ass-end of nowhere' that is the drawback). Same goes for chemistry. You can make a decent living in soil science at the moment since there's a major skills shortage, but its difficult to find anywhere that has a dedicated faculty. or faculty member. or more than a couple of texts in the library basement *sigh*. its making a comeback though, because soil science is often closely involved with things like agriculture and urban development, and that means there's money in it. Its quite interdisciplinary, so you can gad about from geology to chemistry and biology as you learn.
srsly though, find your own interests before committing to spending so much money and time on schooling.
For what it's worth I am a software engineer. The industry is not super hot right now but by the time you graduate it will probably be better. A lot of companies are starting to outsource software development right now (hire people in India to do the work cheaper). This turns a lot of people off to the industry, meaning in five years there wont be shit for people to hire here in the States. So this actually may not be a bad field to start studying right now.
Being a computer programmer requires a certain type of mind though. If you are good at and enjoy using your head. Solving complicated problems. If you find yourself picking up on abstract ideas and concepts (such as calculus in high school for example) then you would probably be a good programmer. That of course has nothing to do with whether or not you'd enjoy it though.
For any given semester 1/4-1/2 of my classes are spent at the airport or in the air, and when I graduate I'll have my choice of careers ranging from flying for private investors in the corporate sector, flying cargo around the world and chosing my own schedule to do it, or selling my soul to fly the biggest and fastest jets (and having to deal with the 50-500 people in the back who think that it's my fault we're delayed due to a blizzard or some other ridiculous weather phenomena) in the commercial sector.
And then there's instructing and agricultural aviation, as well as production assitance aviation, anything to do with helicopters, etc. There are so many jobs to chose from if you have the right qualifications/ratings/hours.
However, it takes a lot of $$$ and a lot of loans to get that money to pull off your training. So if you hate flying, pass it by.
I sort of fell into it, really. I got a job at my current library 11 years ago and never left while I attended school (got my undergraduate degree in history). I found I enjoyed it, looked into what it took to advance beyond what I was doing, and enrolled in a distance learning program. I guess I just like helping people find information.
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I'm curious, how much does all that cost you in the States? It's heavily, heavily subsidized up here and if you had any interest it would be stupid not to do it.
Just my $0.02
Good Luck choosing what you want to do.
"Thinking you should" do something isn't the same "wanting to" do it. If you really wanted to go to school you'd have a goal or a destination. Wether it's cooking, or computers, or clown school, there's either a drive to do it or there's not.
To me, it was the perfect way to go. The material (no pun intended) is quite amazing and there's always a demand for it. I'm getting into biomaterials, and the first 2-hour lecture was all about the freakin' sweet stuff that is being developed.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
"Don't feel bad if you don't know what you want to do with your life. Most people didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't."
I got my undergrad degree in Business Administration at a business centered school because I figured that no matter what I ended up doing, the business degree would be the most marketable thing. After getting out of undergrad, I still didn't know what I wanted to do and sitting at home being a bum wasn't an option. Thus, I did exactly what everyone says not to do. I went to law school.
Now I'm in my second year and I STILL don't know exactly what I want to do.
Well, it depends. It's not subsidized at all, and it depends on the FBO you're renting the plane and getting instruction at. $100-150 an hour is about average for a relatively new single engine wet (including fuel) rental, and then another $25-45 an hour for the instruction. So for the 40 hours you need under part 141 for you private (under those costs) would run you about $7,575 (on top of tuition if you're doing a college program). Then another 35 hours at least for your instrument, and another 120-140 hours for your commercial license, and then whatever ratings you want to get after that.
I will have loan debt out the ass when I graduate, but it'll be possible to pay them all off within 10 years afterwards should I land a decent commercial job when I get the hours. And I can't in right mind put a price on fulfilling my dream, which makes the debt easier to handle, I suppose.
Its a fairly good job, i get paid well. I didnt go to college, barely made it through highschool. I did nothing for a year, was a security guard for a few months before this. As much as i enjoy my work, if i had to do it over again, i would go to college and get a degree. Even when you end up getting a job, 90% of the time you will not be payed the same as your coworkers because you dont have a college degree (Im not talking about retail or other jobs where highschool-only educations are common). If i had gone to college i would be making 5 more dollars an hour, which is a lot of money.
College also opens up a lot more opportunities, and works well for you when youre interviewed by someone who believes anyone without a college education is a moron and a failure. Ive had more than a few of those interviews.
Even if you just go for a 2 year degree, id really recommend it. Ive been wanting to go back, but its really hard, especially once you have a job that pays the bills and pays for toys. I cant really imagine giving it up now, but if anything ever forces me to have to leave, ill definately be going to college.
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The majority of the people in this field have a bachelors in crminal justice or a similar degree. If you are interested in DNA fingerprinting and those topics, then a bachelors in biology or another core science is recommended. If you are interested in the Cyber side of forensics, then a Comp Sci degree would be helpful. There is also forensic psychology. I have a BA in bio but I do not want to stay in the lab all the time so that is why I chose the CSI concetration. A Masters degree is not needed for some of those jobs, but it will help you advance faster and really separate you from the rest of the applicant.
Edit: when I say "Federal jobs" I mean every Federal department: Homeland Security, Secret Service, FBI, CIA, NCIS, OSI, State Deparment, ATF, DEA, etc.
By "up here" do you mean Canada?
I almost did this, what are the hours and pay like?
I used to major in Biological Engineering but I wasn't happy with the job prospects from it (I mean, yeah, they all would pay really well, but I didn't want to do the jobs).
So I switched to a major in Physics. This will still allow me to get a technical job, in some cases an actual engineering type job if I want. I'm just not pigeonholed into "bio" type jobs.
Basically my advice for you is pick a major in a field that interests you, depending on the major there may be a wide swath of job opportunities so you don't have to worry about "what am I gonna be when I grow up?" until your final years of undergrad, or even later.
Crap, getting $8.50 an hour, but 40+ hours a week, and play-by-play pay is $35 per game, (there are usually 2 back to back.) Also $50/per hour doing remotes, (that's where you go to a gas station and give out T-shirts, bumper stickers, and such. Doing remotes are rare here.) Right now I go to work at 1 in the afternoon, and stay there until 7-8 PM I also work Saturday's from 4 Am-noon every week, and then usually do a game or board op a game.
Ouch sounds tough. Do you have a second job to support yourself or is that enough to get by in montana? Makes me have second thoughts about going back to school.
PirateJon's point was really good, though. Don't do it if you don't wanna much, you'll feel like you're wasting your time. Uni's are more and more accepting of older students, and its often easier to study when you've got all that other stuff like houses and relationships and finances established. Most of the mature-age entrants in my course kicked us young-un's asses with regards to work ethic and committment >.>
Not so, it depends on the university.
The university I went to I did a straight up structural engineering degree, we didn't look at concrete til second year, but everything is solid structural based units. Our idea of an elective was whether we wanted to study offshore engineering in final semester or construction technology. They've since change so that all 1st years have a common first year and learn bits and pieces of everyone's subject.
Anyway, I was kinda in the same boat. I listened to my friends who were just solid in the belief that I would be an engineer. It's not that I didn't want to be an engineer I mean I was good at those type of subjects but I really just didn't want to make a commitment cause I was scared at failure.
My advice is, look at what you are good at and enjoy and see what follows from there, and ask your friends and family what they think you should do.
And now I'll be stupid and finish off a quote.
And nearly all of them are unemployed drug addicts forced to live on cat food
Satans..... hints.....
Yeah, but the point is that the year of liberal arts (history/geography/social science/english lit type stuff) that most US colleges require all undergrads to complete is pretty much absent here - although Melbourne Uni is trying to move toward a similar model, amongst much tut-tutting from the other local schools. So there's not nearly as much room to poke around different faculties once you're enrolled - if you're doing engineering, you've got no chance of having to do an art history unit, for instance, and that means you need to at least decide which faculty you're heading for and then poke around within it. That's largely off-topic, but it does lead in to mentioning that double degrees can be really awesome for broadening your range of subjects, so long as you match up your two majors well. If they're too different, it can be hard to adjust to the differing expectations of your lecturers, and the dropout rate is quite high for people who decide to do, say, law and geology at the same time.
Yeah, I'm curious about that too, because I'm in an aviation-related program as well (Aircraft Maintenance Engineer), and a decent portion of my fellow students are pilots. One thing I've never heard any of them say is that they received lots of money to help them become a pilot. Every one of them mentions how it's all out-of-pocket. Particularily the helicopter pilot who's probably spent at least $250,000.
In any case, it was during the narrowing down process that I realized I was just matching it up with my hobbies and creative urges. Find your hobbies, find things that you love doing (ie, do you enjoy doing your accounts each month, but never thought about them beyond that... perhaps doing accounts all the time would be fun)
It's enough actually. Costs are low, I have not had to fill up my car since before Christmas, rent is $350 a month utilities included. Student loans are about $450 a month. Also there is nothing to do here. So mainly it's video games that I never got around to beating, surfing the net, reading, or watching movies. You know, the classic indoor sports.
Now I work as a Systems specialist doing pretty much that, co-administrating a Windows 2000/XP domain across Canada. My job is mostly unlocking accounts, dealing with ISPs to resolve connection issues, administrating VPN connections, and maintaining the twenty or so servers in our headquarters and branch offices.
And while I'm pretty good at it, and can stand to do it for now, I'm looking to change careers completely within two or three years, hopefully to Professional Firefighting/Rescue.
My point being, my expenses for college ran about $15,000 for one year of college (my cost, including my share of tuition and living expenses, not including what my parents paid). The college I want to go to for Firefighting will cost me around $14,000 just in tuition and supplies, I'm figuring a shit-ton more for living expenses.
Be absolutely sure you know what you want to do before you pony up the coin.
Teaching has many advantages: good vacations, a certain prestige, and the fact that you're actually helping other people in a direct way. Of course, the pay sucks, you have to deal with young people all day as well as their psychotic parents. Plus, alot of states have incredibly annoying requirements for teachers that often tend to discourage skilled, curious, adventerous people...you know, the ones that actually make good teachers.
Fortunately, I was able to avoid alot of that (along with Massachusetts's onerous MCAS test system) by teaching at a private, Catholic school. Even though I'm not Catholic. Or Christian.
Shhhhh...don't tell them a heathen is around.
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And of course the majority of jobs excluding physical labor use computers.