What do you do for work?

To be prepared is half the victory...

 

Cool picture of me at work.

 

What if high schools taught real skills, had more job programs, internships, programs to shadow real professionals... ways to help give young people insight or ideas so they don't go into a college blindly choosing a pointless major. Underwater basket weaving isn't a good degree, everyone knows that Zero gravity pottery is where it's at these days.
Also... having good parents and mentors makes a huge difference.
The military is a good option for young adults who haven't found their calling yet. Do 4 years, get the GI Bill, get some travel, some experience, veterans preference, snazzy uniforms... if you pick the right careerfield you may end up with a bright future in or out of the military. This is assuming that there aren't other factors limiting military service.

 

Stay safe!
I'm not allowed to have cameras, cell phones or any other electronic devices at work... so no photos.

 

26 year old online student here. One important piece of advice that I have been given in going back to school after about five years off, is to keep your passion separate from your profession. Some may disagree with that, but it makes perfect sense in my opinion. Go to school for something you are good at and something that will not get monotonous quickly. Turning your passion into profession will quickly take the enjoyment out of what you currently love doing.

Personally, I am in property management with a large company in a high tourism area of Colorado. I am going for a business administration degree to further my career and pay within that field. Who knows, maybe I will change my profession in a few years; but the business degree I am working on is broad enough to be applicable in other fields than just property management, as well.

All in all, find what you're good at, figure out what degree will work with it (and hopefully with other things), and just get through the schooling. If you change your mind down the road, schools will always be there.

 

That pic was taken by the news crew. It was all over Internet and TV for like 3 days.

 

We have a celebrity here with us today

 

That's the shit my wife said. Just doing my job, someone just so happened to catch it on video. I'm just glad I wasn't fucking up.

 

That's one great thing about working in a building with no windows or cameras. Nobody can get evidence of me goofing off. But I would never spend 3 hours on TW.com at work...

 

I'm not sure you would consider my job "great" but I make decent money and it's extremely rewarding. I only went to school for about 8 moths before I was certified and hired. The great thing about my job is that you have tons of time off, there are guys that I work with who have went to school while working and got their nursing degree. A person could honestly work full time at the FD and get a degree in any field they were interested in.

 

All very good points. I went to college because my step-siblings all had degrees and my parents insisted on it. Unfortunately, my parents had no idea what degree I should pursue or if the closest college (USF) was any good.
So I ended up an engineering major studying computer science. Bad choice because the engineering department was a bunch of Pakistani professor who were only employed because they could write good papers for the university. They spoke terrible English, didn't give two shits, and I almost flunked out of a few courses. I graduated in the top 5% of my High School, so I'm assuming it wasn't me. Finally a good friend ( and former USF professor) told me to either change to the business college or find a real engineering university. I changed over to management information services and graduated under the USF college of business.
This was in 87, so microcomputers were just appearing in corporate America. I floundered at a local bank for a year before landing a better job in healthcare. Around the mid 90's, PC's really took hold and my career was off and running.

So what did I learn in college? Eh, not much really. Most of my courses were either too basic or too specific. I learned COBOL and FORTRAN, which were already on the way out. I learned how to give presentations, but I'm not a sales guy.
About the best thing I learned was how to work in teams and how to work under pressure. Never to give up, even if the professor was an asshole. To just keep smiling and working hard. Could I have learned that somewhere else? Sure. Did I waste 4 years of my life, eh, who knows. In retrospect, I should have applied to MIT or Georgia Tech instead of USF, but I didn't know some schools are way better than others. At the time, USF was close and I was lazy. Things still turned out ok.

 

Well at least the Greenery Pub was around then!

I too am a former USF student one semester (84) before going to Trade School (Erwin)....

 

Sad to say my engineering curriculum was similar with many teachers being from Pakistan, Turkey, Etc. They almost turned me away from engineering as their mentality seems to be that they make a crazy standard and either people meet it or they don't. What many took away from this was to know every facet of the subject as the teacher didn't care to instruct the material and would rather have the pride of having a "difficult" class. I hear they have finally revamped their criteria at my school and many of these teachers were either bumped out or were terminated after their tenure time was up. Its sad though that this problem not only existed at my school as there are many bright individuals who could make an impact in the engineering world, but a technical field with little support can really rub people the wrong way. Hopefully you have found a field that you can enjoy...engineering has some fun, but some boring shit for me as well.

Coot

 

Greenery Pub FTW! I spent many an evening there drinking beer while cramming for an exam. Great sandwiches.
I was at USF from 83 to 87, so we are officially college buddies

 

Too Funny! The Greenery was a fun place for sure many a nights walking to my Apt off of 30th St I know it has changed names by now but it was The Gates Apts then....

 

Thank you for doing what you do -- I was actually sort of in the same line as you -I started out as a ECM tech and wound up as a airborne crew member (AMT -they call them "flight engineers" now) on RC-135M's during the viet nam era.
Amen to what you say I used the electronics training I got while in the USAF the rest of my working career! Air force and Navy have and give the best tech training, but the promotions seem to come a little slower -- at least it seemed that way then

 

I'm having an impossible time deciding on a career. I'm currently going to community college for recreation management. No idea what I want to do with it but I am going to finish the associates because I am so close. Currently I work 2 jobs, one at a rock climbing gym.

Should I just suck it up and jump into something? I don't expect handouts or want to make millions. Just want a stable job that lets me enjoy my hobbies.

 

Go talk to a military recruiter

See that all the time in our office, no real direction and wanting a stable job that has potential.

 

x2 I wish I could join the military so badly. If anything, you'd still learn a lot. Plenty of benefits also.

 

I'm pretty well set on staying in AZ and I've been dating a girl here for almost 3 years, I'm not about to run off. I've thought about military but I don't think its the direction I want to go in. Thank you for the input.