Help me decide on a career

Like nature? Field botanist or ecologist, get to run around the woods and fields like a perpetual boy scout.

 

get some education, travel and don't take a job you don't want. If you enjoy what your doing you'll do it well. Have fun because life is pretty short and it isn't a trial run!

 

Thanks for all the comments guys, it is getting to me that I'm about to be out of school and don't know what my next step is. My dad asks me every week or so and I have to tell him Idk.

 

Hey its ok, I was clueless on what I wanted to do out of highschool. It's common for people to not figure out till later in life. I didnt find out till I was 20. Also people change career fields all the time.

P.S. money means nothing if your not happy, enjoy something you'll love to do.

 

Water treatment and distribution. Lots of hard and wet days and long nights, and also a lot of interesting, fun, and easy days. I'm 22, been doing it for working in 3 years now. Get to play with big toys like back hoes, work on some huge pumps ranging from 150hp to 1100hp electric motors, lots of cool stuff.

 

I'm with Christopher on the career choice & wish I'd went his route...that said, without money even if you have a hobby you enjoy the rest of your life may suck. I can't imagine choosing a career with pay not being somewhere on the decision tree or factored in.

I just read a "news" story about pay. Something on the order of 90% of the people with a liberal arts degree and 10 years on the job earn <$50k. I've got a few relatives in this exact boat. One with kids, and paying child support & it leaves him in his parents basement. Does he like his job yes, is he happy, no.

 

I work for a city FD, the pay is pretty good, school was short, I get a ton of time off with a full month vacation every year. There are a lot of guys I work with that have went back to school for degrees while still working with us. I often think if I hadn't done the FD that Coast Guard would have been a good deal.

 

heres one for you seasoned guys... company wont give a raise after over a year (I make 10 an hour.... the next lowest guy makes 14...), and my coworkers in the field treat me like shit. I do the most work when im there, but im part time in school to get my lisence, which even my boss doesn't have... time to send resumes elsewhere right?

 

Your call. I worked for $10 for 2 years while in college. They couldn't give me a raise, so they gave me a new position (went from parts to service writing at an auto store). I made between $15-17 an hour average that way (part commission based)...which was more than most managers. Became the "fleet service" manager too.

I still got hosed...because I worked 40 hours most weeks but wasn't "full time"...so no paid time off. But I was in college. Once I graduated I was gone, and happy to have had steady employment that worked with my school schedule. Only you can determine if you need a new gig. I sent out some resumes which did push them to give me the new position.

 

A last bit of advice:

You have lots of time. Truck driving (if you can get into it at your age) is a GREAT way to see the whole country! Move around. Home is great, but the world has tons of places and some feel more like home than others.

I got my career going immediately after college. Financially it was great, but I always wish I had moved around to some other places first and explored...while I didn't have a mortgage and other payments to really worry about.

 

Wind turbine techs make around $20 an hour usually and are outside. Usually get to do some traveling and you have a cool job.

I would highly recommend college though. It's certainly not for everyone, but it can open a lot of doors.

 

Well I am a surveyor with a good bit of experience and understanding. They could give me a raise, but won't. They wouldn't let me work full time in the summer either. I think it's time to send em out considering I pretty much hate goin into work to hear the shit talking all the time I'm there.

 

I did the mechanic thing out of HS. Working on cars and trucks is fun until you add a boss and a customer. The boss wants you to sell as much as you can and will entice you with money. That woks if you don't have good morals. The customer, well they never want to spend money on their cars and yes many of them drive junk that they expect you to fix like new.

I went from there to driving a tow truck on 24 hr call. After hours commission was great but, I had no life. Our company was contracted by the local police department so, I was always in the middle of the action, when there was action. There's not always action so, spent a lot of unpaid time waiting.

Also did the Fire Department thing at the same time. That was for a very active volunteer company that was a great experience until I relocated out of the area. Professional FD was limited to the major city in the area and new opportunities were limited and included social service exam to be put on a waiting list.

My next career move in life was inside to manufacturing. Yes it was inside but, had overtime pay that allowed a better lifestyle and nice toys. I liked the environment and stability so, I went back to school and became a designer / manufacturing engineer. This took extra time because, I now had a wife 3 kids to support. Currently I have a two year degree and have done well although; I've been denied some far better opportunities that I could have had with a four year BSME degree.

You have the Internet at your fingertips, do some job research on monster.com and indeed.com and glass door.com for reviews. Then find a school that will guide you through getting the degree needed.

 

join the navy and become an aircraft mechanic, i spend most of my time outdoors working on planes.

 

This past summer I worked as a ranch hand making 12 bucks an hour startng out

 

I also wanted a career outdoors. Like some others I went into law enforcement straight out of college. Spent 8 years at a local agency before being lucky enough to become a state game warden. Pay sucks but I can say with relative certainty that my office doesn't get any better and I enjoy my job more than ever.



Here's one out running a 4th of July storm.

 

I think that would be a great job.

 

I would love to be a game warden, them only problem is that its so damn competitive

 

I was lucky for sure. I know several guys I work with went through the hiring process 7 or 8 times before they were hired. That was dedication.

 

Any one in the air force or army want to chime in, leaning more of this route.