how did you decide on your career?

sup. in same boat. kinda sucks.

kinda wish i would not have taken a brake from school. also thinking about starting part time in fall.

 

internship. find out what you like and don't like about an industry you have interest in. you'll find your niche...won't really know till you get there IMO

 

and Arabic

If you can speak Arabic fluently any Gov. Agency will hire you

 

Your career will find you no matter what you do. I went to college to be an auto mechanic and hated it. My best friend went to college to be an architect and hated it. Twelve years later we're both project managers in the construction industry for completely different types of companies and neither of us got the other one involved.

My wife has a teaching degree and found her niche in insurance.

You never know where you're going to end up. If in my senior year of high school you told me I'd be in the construction industry and going to an office everyday I woulda laughed my butt off at you. But, here I am and I'm happy.

 

i went to school 1 year and did a toyota program and discovered working on trucks is a hobby and i hated doing it day in and day out. i sure learned how to fix anything on my truck tho

 

lol. Same here. When I got out of school and realized it was the same thing day after day and the problems were so predictable, I couldn't stand it. Of course I worked at a Ford dealership so you can imagine how that went.

 

any electricians here? if so can you tell me a little about it?

 

My dad has been a electrical contractor for over 20 years now. Just has a small business only about 10 employees

 

Nothing wrong with being interested in management but if that's what he wants to do he'd probably be better off starting work with an associate's in management. The job experience is more important than the degree in business admin. Unless he's going to Wharton or something on that level where the name of the school is getting him interviews.

My parents didn't give me a dime for school. I've done all my schooling while working. But there was never a question in my house about going to college, it was assumed I would be going (in fact the suggestion I wouldn't, which I made about my sophomore year in high school, was met with swift and loud condemnation). I don't believe paying for school for your kids is mandatory; even in majors like engineering or science I wouldn't pay for all of it- probably not even most of it. Kids should work their way through college, work hard to earn scholarships, they should struggle, they should have to follow a budget and figure out how to pay their rent if they drop their paycheck at the bar. You don't help a college-age adult by coddling them and paying their way. School is an investment in your career, so why would you spend $50,000 or more on a degree that is unlikely to give you the skills you need to get a job? Finance and accounting gives you actual skills, sciences, engineering, even operations management- which is heavy in statistics- gives you actual skills that are marketable. Business administration.... I spent 4 years being taught the exact same stuff I learned in intro management my freshman year, and without an MBA the degree really doesn't mean much; 2 years of job experience would have been significantly more meaningful than my last 2 years of business admin degree work. My friends who were education majors? If they didn't get a master's degree they aren't working as teachers. In fact, most of them aren't working at all. Music majors? Not one professional musician among them. If you're a good enough musician to pursue it in college, you're good enough to get scholarships to pay your way. There's nothing wrong with pursuing those majors so if a kid wants to major in those things, AWESOME, they should go to school and have fun. But they can pay for it. I'll make an investment when they select a major with a payoff on that investment.

 

And I bet that turned out to be more expensive than you bargain for...

Shoot, I started college as a Pol Scy major. Dropped out during my second year to join the Army. Once out of the Army, I had realized that unless you go to Law School a pol scy degree is just a fancy napkin. When I went back to school I went in as an Economics Major (in Soc Sciences, to avoid math ) then swaped over Economics in the Businnes Dept ( A lot of math, but I overcame the fear). Manage to somehow get a B.A. in Hotel & Rest Management and during the third week of my 400 hour internship learned that I HATED IT. Went back and got a second degree in Accounting...


Had I known then what I know now, I'd gotten that Pol Scy degree, minor in Criminal Justice or Criminology and become a cop. Though I'm in Law Enforcement, I'm FAR from being a cop.


BTW, my dad was an Accountant (first in his family to go to college and earn an MBA) so I knew a thing or two about accounting. It can't be BORING as heck, but being a Govt Auditor pays quite well, the hours are easy (37.5/week) and the benefits are second to none.

 

Chinese? Another guy on here said something similar on another thread. I just honestly can't remember if it was you or not.

Yea that one is a given! I'm sure the pay is awesome, but Arabic doesn't really interest me. In these situations, it all just depends what is happening around the world I guess.





When this year started I had applied for State Trooper here in TX. I was the only one to pass the first exam (out of five guys ) and passed the polygraph with out a problem.

Soon after I withdrew my application cuz I didn't want to leave school half assed. That's not the way I was raised.

Spoke with the recruiter and he just told me "We'll always be hiring!"

That was one of the few jobs that peaked my interest, but I'm sure they deal with friggin' idiots from time to time out on the road. What really interests me though is the fact that it's not the same thing every day for the most part.
AND they get their own cruiser. SO I wouldn't have to waste $$ on gas to go to work and back.

But we'll see, I'm sure some more opportunities will come along.

 

Any technical/science degree and since I'm already biased, if you can pull it off and are interested in the subject go for engineering. Its 4 years of hard work but in the end its worth it and a engineering degrees doesn't lock you into engineering, its a degree in problem solving essentially.

Some of my best friends that graduated from the same school as I with the same degree as I (Aerospace engineering) are working/continuing school in various different disciplines. Just what I can count now I have friends working for Goldman Sachs (as a market analyst or something like that), Process engineering at a foundry, a few in Management, most in engineering design and one joined the Navy and went to OTS for nuclear technician on Submarines or something like that. Additionally I myself went on to continue to study Aero engineering and another went on to get a law degree from NYU, and a few continued on to obtain their MBA's.

Lastly of my graduating class (1 year ago almost to the date) all my friends that got engineering degrees now have jobs, I can't say that about others who got business/management degrees. If you can combine engineering smarts with good people skills you can go pretty much where ever you want.

 

went into school for Biology, said fuck that, found out I was good at accounting and finance, so settled in that field.

College is the best place to be exposed to a lot of different professions. If you dont go to college, you will not find truly find out what you may be good at.

 

How long were you into the Bio degree before you changed it?

 

two years. quit when i first encountered organic chem

 

When I graduated high school I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do so I went to trade school to be an electrician, almost done. Now I am going back to school for mechanical engineering because that is what I officially want to do for the rest of my life.

 

That's great, and the best part is that the time that you spent as electrician is not wasted time at all - you will always be able to use those skills and experience even as a mechanical engineer.