Hey guys! I'm always interested in what people hope to do for future careers. What do you guys go to school for or want to go to school for one day? Or better yet, who here has gone to school for what they love doing and have bagged a job doing it? Personally I don't really know what I want to pursue in life yet.....probably should figure it out an idea soon though as junior year of high school kinda calls for that.
As one of the resident old guys here, I can maybe offer a different perspective, maybe it will be interesting to some of you guys. For some background, I'm 33, very happily married with 4 young kids. Graduated from High School in Austin, TX, went to Texas A&M and got my bachelors of Business Administration in MIS (management information systems.) I totally understand your desire to want to figure out what to do next. I remember the same pressure in high school to try and figure that stuff out. However, DON'T think you have to figure it all out. There is some crazy high percentage of college graduates who DO NOT end up doing anything related to their degree. Sometimes it is just hard to know ahead of time. Sure there are crazy people who have always wanted to be a [fill in the blank] and then go do it, but for the vast majority of people, these things change over time. If I had to go back to college I would do things differently. I got into the business school at A&M (which was a big deal but I didn't realize it) so I figured I SHOULD do something business related. Long story short, I didn't realize that I was in the wrong major until my last semester, and by that point I just wanted to get out with my degree. Now don't get me wrong, college was great and I learned a lot. I don't necessarily regret it. But if I had to do it again, I wouldn't be so "plan oriented" and would be a little more open and free to explore and find out what I truly wanted to do. My degree is sitting in a storage box. I've never done anything related to it after I graduated, lol. Basically, I think it is a shame that we expect kids in high school and even early college to figure out their lives ahead of time. That's just not the way it works for most of us. And sometimes when we limit our mindset to those boxed expectations, we end up missing out on something much better. Is college for everyone? Nope. Is having a plan for everyone? Nope. CAN college be great? Absolutely! Can having a plan be great too? Of course, but be careful that you don't miss the other stuff! Okay that's all. Maybe some people disagree? I'd love to hear other opinions on this. TL;DR - Don't make hard and fast rules or try too hard to figure out what you want to be. Hold all that stuff with an open hand, maybe you will and maybe you won't achieve those things, and that's a good thing! Follow your passions, but remember that sometimes passions change.
School was never my thing. Hated it in high school hate it now. I'm in college trying to learn shit about computers to help with magazine design and editing vids and stuff but I'm not gonna get my degree in it just learning what I need to learn then getting out. I feel like that's how school should be. But like @Ben Lowe said your gonna change your mind like 50 times before you start doing what you do for a career. Theyr might be a job rn that's perfect for you but you don't even know that it's a career. Just by growing up and finding new things to do you'll end up where you need to be. Don't stress on shit as long as you're putting in a good amount of effort everything will work out.
I agree with @Ben Lowe 100%. I actually am doing something related to my degree, but literally nobody has ever asked me to see my degree. I could have lied. I could have told them I went to Harvard, or I could have never gone to college at all. It wouldn't matter. To my knowlege, in the history of mankind, nobody has ever gotten a real job just from submitting a piece of paper. (Not counting first jobs like McDonalds or The Gap.) It's all about your social circle, who you know, and how you present yourself in a room. In Europe, especially northern Europe, they have a better system where after high school people tend to work some simple job for a few years, they live somewhere cool, and generally just finish partying and growing up, so that when they actually do start to know what they want to do for a career, they don't pick the wrong one. The down side is that the entrepreneurial spirit and general aspiration that makes America so awesome is just not there... or I don't see it. That said, everyone changes careers 5 times in their life (on average). Not jobs, CAREERS. So nothing is a death sentence.
So far I've worked as a ski salesman, a barback / bartender, an office assistant, a script reader, a producer, a freelance editor, and now working with our great developers for this site. 99% of any education I learned for any of those jobs happened on the job.
I went through a couple years of a general science degree before I found myself drawn into some Ochem and materials chem courses. Finished up a BSc with a major in chemistry and minor in philosophy... and I haven't used it yet haha. I miss being in school though, I'm planning on heading back for a grad degree in the future. I spent the last year and a bit of university working in a lab that concentrates on group 14 nanomaterial chem, and it was awesome! I really enjoyed it, and miss it now that its over (I might've given a different response back then though). I try to read as much new info as I can online, but a lot of the most current and interesting research is behind journal paywalls... so instead I read physics papers on the arXiv server, and philosophy blogs (mostly phil of science, computing, mind, AI, etc). It'll feel like you need to have your life figured out near the end of high school... and certainly you should put some thought into it, but don't be afraid if you don't know your exact career goal. It's probably best to think bigger picture, find your strengths and weaknesses, consider how you can start heading down a path that best utilizes them.
Thanks for all the advice guys! I really appreciate Love reading your stories too it's always awesome to hear about the many skills of other dama players.
I've recently found a love for journalism, being on my school's newspaper staff for two years now and a section editor this year, and while I might not specifically go into journalism I've always been interested in communications in some form or another and I'm hoping to study communications in college and then (hopefully) get a job in that field! But I think its perfectly fine you have no idea what you want to do, you're only a junior in high school. I know I want to do communications, but within that I have no idea. Personally, I think it is really messed up that society makes 16-18 year old kids decide what they want to do with their entire life, when obviously their opinions and interests can change. Its perfectly fine if you don't know what you want to do! You have plenty of time to decide!
I went to school for filmmaking, cinema & media arts was the technical term. I'm using my degree...but like mentioned above, no one asks to see it. Not discouraging going to school though. For me, it was an awesome place to get motivation to actually progress. Like having the assignments forced me to make films instead of me just sitting around doing nothing all the time. Also, the connections I made while there are still benefiting me to this day (graduated 4 years ago). I do wish they taught more of the business side of filmmaking though. My degree was more Hollywood focused but since I started my own business outside of Hollywood it's been a lot of "learn as you go". Most people change their majors too, so don't feel like you need to lock something down right now. Just go for something that gets you excited!
@htimSxelA i didn't know you were a philosophy minor. Do yourself a favor and subscribe to THE NEW PHILOSOPHER magazine. It's a great publication that you simply Kant miss if you want a Thoreau understanding of modern issues.
I went to UT Dallas for a BS computer science. TBH, throughout college I thought I was gonna be a mobile developer because i thought it was gonna be something i love to do and like everything revolves around using mobile apps nowadays amirite? lolol. I took classes centered around User experience and heck, even my senior capstone project was a mobile app. Things changed and there were limited opportunities available for me and eventually I got hired as an IT developer. I don't even work on mobile projects anymore and my current job is centered around an existing project and making sure it doesn't crash. BUT if it wasn't for being in this IT position, I wouldn't have found my great interest in data science/analytics. And now on my free time at work, I study up on those things and hopefully going to go back to school for a masters in the future and/or finding a different position that more focused on data science. Like what most people have said: it's okay to not know what exact career you're going to end up with. in the past 3 years I've changed my path at least 3 times. What I suggest is find something you're super interested in and branch out from there. Like if someone is hardcore into video games, it's not all about game engine engineering, it's also the art, audio, writing, networking, testing, etc. Finding the right career is just going to take time, experience, and an open mind. Just enjoy the journey and take advantage of opportunities when they come your way
Word, I just checked their site, and they have over 600 stockists in Canada, all of them in Ontario or further east still. wtf! There is a Chapters a few blocks away, I'll check if they carry it next time I head that way. Just read through one or two articles on their site and it seems like it could be a good read
@Zack Gallagher Nice thread! For me, this question has always been followed by, "I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher." (Except for 6th grade. I was dead set on being a skateboarder...so says my yearbook) More specifically, I wanted to be a PE teacher. Both of my parents studied Phys. Ed. at SUNY Cortland in Central NY. It's the best PE school in the country with more than 800 PE Majors. I wanted nothing to do with Cortland. I wanted to go anywhere else, study anything else or simply just make my own path instead of following in my family's footsteps. In the middle of Basketball season my senior year my coach asked me what I was going to study. My answer was something like "marketing and management." He looked me dead in the eye and said "you are going to be a teacher." and concluded with "find what you love to do and find a way to make money doing it." I loved working with kids and knew I wanted to be a teacher in the back of my mind but just couldn't come to terms with it. I spent so much time looking at other school and just ignoring my gut feeling. (generally bad practice) I ended up going to Cortland and made the most of it in every way. Going into my second year teaching and I couldn't be happier...unless I get a second cup of coffee before class starts. Just choose the path that your gut is telling you to follow, college or otherwise.
I went to Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture in Zagreb, Croatia. Got a masters degree in Power Engineering two and a half years ago. I had serious doubts about what I want to do; study psychology, philosophy or mechanical engineering. I was good at all sorts of classes during high school so it was pretty hard for me to choose something. I asked some people whose opinion and experience on this subject I found relevant. The second hard decision I had to make was to choose a module at the 5th semester. Had doubts between two of them and decided to go with the one which is regarded more difficult; I already had difficulties with some professors from the other module and learned it can only get worse. After some time I was like: "If I'm gonna fail a class, it will be because I don't know enough on it, not because someone is bad tempered.". I got good at thermo and fluid dynamics, did a master thesis for a company which specializes in IC engine simulations and am currently working here as a software tester. It does cross my field of study in a way because of the software being tested, but it is not what I expected my first job to be. In spare time I enjoy training my doge and turning kendamas (RajKendamas). Maybe I'll be able to earn money through these activities, or some other activities I haven't come across yet, in the future. Who knows. My tips would be: Ask some people whose opinion you find valid (parents, teachers, etc.) to talk to about the subject. It might reveal some aspects you were not aware of. Don't choose the 'easy way out' just out of conformity. Make sure it is something you find interesting and what you are passionate about, be it college or job. Don't have a bad attitude towards a class or a job already from the beginning - you're the one being affected by it directly and other people consequently. In college, don't buy into those 'this is the most difficult class in the world' bs (not even thermodynamics! ) - you haven't even started taking the class and you're already failing it in your head.
Well, im near finishing college this year. Currently taking Animation & Game Development & taking my internship in some sort of a local game company which is legit btw hahaha. At first, im very low on the skill that required to my course but what makes me last to all is my passion for it. up until now i suck at drawing/sketches but i found myself more good at 3d modeling. So when it comes to work, well im always at home doing office stuff cause that's the nature of the company i applied for so much time to slack i guess ahahaha but it's very fulfilling when they praised your work.
I'm currently majoring in sociology at a junior college and then transferring in 2018. When people ask me what I want to do with it, I tell them I have no idea. Like people mentioned above, I just think its weird to know what you're going to do for the rest of your life, just because I don't even know what I'm going to do next week ya know. I felt the same way as a junior/senior. Other classmates had full on plans of what they were going to become and what school they were going to, and I was just sitting there like "idk anywhere that admits me." Definitely good advice above though, I have to remind myself from time to time that its okay that I don't know right now. Something I think I would do differently if I had the chance to would be to attend a school where I lived on campus. Its cool living at home and getting to be with family, but it gets very repetitive and boring. It's just school and work for me, my only reliefs are KG Tuesday and any other free time I have. I think if I were living on a campus, I would be exposed to many new aspects of life that could potentially open up new paths. So don't attend a junior college if you want the full experience. I thought I wasn't missing much, so I chose not to attend the schools that admitted me in favor of saving money and staying at home. Getting funny/crazy snaps from friends always makes me wonder how different my life would be if I hadn't made that choice lol
I've worked at Game Stop, been in the U.S. Air Force, worked at McDonald's, went to nursing school, and now I'm a nurse. If I didn't want to pursue nursing, I'd wanna get into theater or acting. That usually surprises people, haha. I'd say if you have a hard time deciding what career you want to pursue, @nikki_deo pretty much explains it! I agree with everything she suggested above!