How Did You Decide?

[Graceful-Lily]

I'm curious how other people made up their mind on what they wanted to do for a living. And if you didn't choose on purpose then what happened that lead you to where you are now?

It seems like everyone else has things figured out except for me. I'm thousands of dollars in student loan debt and have no career. I could go back to school but we don't have anymore money. I tried finding a job to help pay for courses but nowhere will hire me without experience.

It seems like every time I see a family member I haven't seen in a long time, before they ask me how I'm doing, they ask if I found a job yet and then ask me what I'm waiting for. Even looked into volunteering at some places but most didn't respond to my request and the one that did doesn't need immediate help.

I've inquired about internships and nowhere has responded...

I'm not sure what to do. I'm tired of sitting at home and doing nothing.

Before all this, I had planned on becoming a vet technician but I found out that I have a severe cat/dog allergy that could very much be life threatening depending on how much dander the animal produces. I was refused an offer when I applied anyway because I failed the HOAE which I worked hard on.

The one thing I'm good at is art but no one cares about that. I may be talented but that doesn't necessarily transfer well into the professional world I guess. I actually left art college because one of my instructors told me that I wasn't at the other students level.

I took all his advice, went for extra help and classes, asked him to help me, but he kept failing me. He made me feel so worthless that I left and tried a totally different field which I hated and made me extremely depressed...

I just don't know what to do with myself anymore.

 

[Lari]

I didn't know going into college. I wanted to work with children, and I was thinking child psychologist before I decided that might end up being too depressing for me. On a whim I decided to take the intro to education class, and we had to do some hours helping a teacher in a classroom and something just clicked for me. Most other teachers I've met say they've wanted to be a teacher since they were little, and that's not been true for me.

It's hard to find a job when you don't have experience! That's what I found a lot with teaching. And for public schools, it was like you needed to know someone to get in if you were a new teacher - that's how I ended up in a private school. I've been teaching long enough I can actually get public school interviews now, I think, but I'm definitely staying at my school at least one more year since I have so many other changes happening in my life I need some stability.

 

[Willowy]

Nobody has anything figured out, trust me on that. We all just muddle blindly through life.

Anyway, get a job. Any job you find tolerable. Just go to Job Services and see what they have that doesn't make you want to run away screaming. Once you're in a job, you meet people who have connections to other jobs, and so on.

 

[Graceful-Lily]

I've been actively applying to jobs since I dropped out 8 months ago. I've been emailing and contacting different companies for help. No one can help me. I even contacted an old instructor that was very encouraging during my studies and he couldn't offer any useful advice.

Design related jobs, pet sitting, inventory/stocking, assistant jobs, cleaning jobs, etc. I've applied to so many things, I can't even remember all of them. They always tell me, "Good luck!" and never respond to anything I say.

I wish it was easy to go out and just "get a job" but it's not where I am... I don't know what I'm doing wrong. It's stressing me out because people make it seem like I'm not trying.

 

[denice]

I dropped out of college after two years because I couldn't decide what I wanted to major in. Big mistake. That was in the mid 70's when college was much cheaper. I should have just picked something and finished, it would have been history if I picked something I liked or Business to be more practical. I am 63 and still catch myself wondering what I want to do when I grow up. I think people who find work that they are passionate about are in the minority, the rest of us just find a job to pay the bills and go on from there.

 

[KarenKat]

When I was little I wanted to be an astronaut, but the kind of one that meets aliens and goes on adventures. Obviously not a valid career choice so I thought engineer might be the closest thing. I went to school for my bachelor’s (I thankfully had kind parents that assisted somewhat financially in addition to student loans) and I moved across the country for my only job offer. I’ve never had much passion for it, but it’s a job that pays pretty good. In that way I super lucked out but I feel like it wasn’t because I planned any better.

My older brother got a teaching degree in English, but the Illinois teaching market is brutal and he ended up in a tiny town teaching Spanish. He left that job because he didn’t pass the Spanish teaching test to qualify him in the subject, so he sold insurance for a while which he hated. He has since moved to Oregon and is subbing.

My younger brother got the same degree but decided he didn’t want to teach. So he worked at a movie theater for a while and now if back at school studying sociology - with only a vague notion that there are jobs out there.

My best friend went to school in music performance, was similarly to you discouraged by professors and came out with a music admin degree. Then he went to grad school for ethnomusicology - a narrow field regarding jobs. He still lives with his parents and does some teaching as an adjunct professor with no guarantee he will have classes year to year.

This was just my long winded way of saying no one has it figured out, often good careers is luck and networking. Mostly colleges are overpriced and often a bad investment. An associates college or trade school is immensely cheaper and you can still have a great career making good money that way with less debt. Have you thought about doing something like that?

 

[Willowy]

Hmm, unemployment is low so it shouldn't be that hard in at least a mid-sized city (small/rural towns are a whole different thing, of course). Call centers? Walmart? Food service (maybe fast-casual like Panera not like McDonald's. Or at a hospital or nursing home)? I mean, the jobs aren't great but you do meet a lot of people that way so they can lead to better things.

 

[Graceful-Lily]

Thank you, KarenKat .

When I started studying for the HOAE, I realized that I was very good at math. It was a huge self-esteem boost so I took the steps to possibly becoming a mechanical engineer. I have to redo several high school courses and it will most be about $2,000+. I certainly don't have that kind of money and if I can't earn it by next month, I won't be able to finish those high school courses. I'm not even sure if I'll be smart enough for engineering. I have no idea what that field of work is like despite hours of research. I thought engineering would cater to my imaginative/advanterous side...

 

[GaryT]

I really didn't know what I wanted to do as a teenager. When I enlisted in the Army, they gave me an aptitude test. It showed high proficiency in engineering. So they sent me to aircraft repair school. I was fascinated by aircraft so it clicked. I got my A&P license and got a job working for a major airline after the Army so I ended up in a rewarding occupation. I eventually got into quality control as an inspector. LOVED that job. I guess in many cases, I was in "the right place at the right time".

 

[KarenKat]

I got my degree in aeronautical engineering, which is air and spacecraft. It’s basically a more specialized mechanical engineering. From there you would get a job in a specialized area: for example you could join a stress/structures group, and likely you would be using a computer program to analyze a design for how strong it is or how well it would perform under a stress (ie how much weight could a bolt hold).

My specialty is thermal engineering. I work with satellites so I use a program to graphically model how heat flows from the sun, from earth, and from electrical components and heaters and come up with temperature predictions.

In general, most of engineering is talking with others in the team to get information, using that to simulate how something would perform and then making design decisions so you can optimize performance. It’s mostly mathematical modeling, collaborating and there is some opportunity to be creative with solutions. Not sure if that helps a little? Each engineering discipline is a little different.

 

[susanm9006]

I had to come out of college with a degree that could get me hired quickly so I majored in business. When I started taking business specific classes though, I was bored to death by most of them. The only interesting ones were insurance so I figured I would concentrate in that. Then I took my first Human Resources class and LOVED it. After that I took as many as were available and when I graduated I had a job waiting for me in that field.

 

[Graceful-Lily]

Thank you to everyone who has responded so far. I appreciate you taking the time out to read and respond to my post.

I was actually watching a kids program on TV called "When I Grow Up". If I remember correctly, there was a mechanical engineering working with NASA, specializing in robotics. I started researching right away. I'm not sure what I'd specialize in. How was the work load? I can imagine it would be heavy but from your perspective, how was it?

 

[vyger]

Where do I start ----
First I do believe that getting more education beyond just High School can be a good thing. But I now also believe that the line they so often use, that it helps you get a better job or career is often not true and is used as advertising to get students. Everyone needs to understand that Universities ARE BUSINESSES that make money and recruit students. It is an industry that depends on a flow of new customers so they will do and say anything to keep the student flow going. I went to 2 different colleges for a total of almost 5 years. Yes the education was very helpful, but did it help me get a better job? In my case it was just the opposite. I was told in numerous job interviews that they preferred hiring High School graduates. Why? First they don't have to pay so much to start. Second they don't have to UNTRAIN people and retrain them to do things the way they want. Some of these were lab assistant jobs. Much of my education was in the sciences. They want people to know the basics but will then train them for specific positions. The exceptions are the PHD positions.
Many many of my friends from college did not get jobs in any field related to what they studied. In fact a lot of them went into things like truck driving which paid really good. Education was and still is one of the few exceptions to this. You need the teaching certificate to become a teacher and you only get that from a university. But I have a friend who has MASTERS in education and has a teaching certificate and other than a few years after he graduated never became a teacher. Now he runs his own business that does cleaning. Carpet cleaning, floor cleaning, store cleaning, fire and smoke restoration are all his things. He has not set foot in a classroom in many years and has no desire to.

How about me? I could go on for several pages. Ultimately I majored with a double major of Cinema and photography and a double minor of animal industries and physics. But here is the thing that you really need to know ---
everything changes over time.
What I know about photography is now considered a lost art because digital stuff has made the entire industry disappear. Who would have ever thought that Kodak would stop making film.
Ultimately my main success came from a field that didn't exist when I went to school. The PC. I bought several 286 computers and learned how to run them program them and fix them. I didn't plan on it being a business but I had people asking me for help all the time. And then school districts that contracted with me. And wannabe gamers that paid me to custom build high end machines for them. My son basically apprenticed under me and never went to college for any of it. He now works for a fortune 500 company as an IT expert. And now the PC is dying, being replaced with phones and tablets. Everything changes.

So here is specifically what I would recommend for you right now.
Get a job with the Census Bureau. Look them up and apply. They are gearing up now for the 2020 census. They are establishing hundreds of local and regional offices to do this job. It is a temporary job but could last for years. You can get rolled over into other operations. It will give you experience and help you learn how to work with other people. If you become a field rep you will work with the public and develop those skills also. The Census Bureau is a politically neutral agency. You won't have to worry about issues or parties. It has one task to do, get the count. You can help with that and get paid for it. In the end it will give you a starting place on your resume. It is beginning now so do it now and don't worry about making a career of it, put everything into doing this job now and it will pay off for you down the road. It might help you figure out what road that will be.

 

[susanm9006]

Thank you to everyone who has responded so far. I appreciate you taking the time out to read and respond to my post.

I was actually watching a kids program on TV called "When I Grow Up". If I remember correctly, there was a mechanical engineering working with NASA, specializing in robotics. I started researching right away. I'm not sure what I'd specialize in. How was the work load? I can imagine it would be heavy but from your perspective, how was it?

Most of my career I worked at companies that had big engineering workforce’s - geological, electrical, structural and aeronautical engineers - and they probably had the most demanding and biggest workloads of all employees. Long hours, high stress. There are always employers that are smaller and that may have fewer demands but engineering is a tough field.

 

[KarenKat]

Thank you to everyone who has responded so far. I appreciate you taking the time out to read and respond to my post.

I was actually watching a kids program on TV called "When I Grow Up". If I remember correctly, there was a mechanical engineering working with NASA, specializing in robotics. I started researching right away. I'm not sure what I'd specialize in. How was the work load? I can imagine it would be heavy but from your perspective, how was it?

I found the school workload to be quite heavy. I was a focused student and so I was normally always doing a lot of homework, mostly math. You use way less math in the industry, but it is important to understand how the programs calculate things. I found that most of engineering classes taught how to think critically more than actual skills.

As for my job, it’s mostly a regular 9-5 with spikes of extra work during specific times (when we test a satellite in a vacuum chamber, or have a customer review of the design). This depends more on the company I think for the work/life balance.

 

[KarenKat]

Actually, right now I’m working a 9/80 schedule - so 9 hours per day and every other Friday I have the day off. I love it!

 

[denice]

Many many years ago my father went to college for electrical engineering, he had to drop out because of the Great Depression. He did talk about the homework especially the math. It is a difficult major requiring a lot of homework. The people in the easier majors definitely have more fun and more of a social life while in college. Another area that uses a lot of math, though a different type would be actuary science. It is more about statistics.

 

[Lari]

Get a job with the Census Bureau. Look them up and apply. They are gearing up now for the 2020 census. They are establishing hundreds of local and regional offices to do this job. It is a temporary job but could last for years. You can get rolled over into other operations. It will give you experience and help you learn how to work with other people. If you become a field rep you will work with the public and develop those skills also. The Census Bureau is a politically neutral agency. You won't have to worry about issues or parties. It has one task to do, get the count. You can help with that and get paid for it. In the end it will give you a starting place on your resume. It is beginning now so do it now and don't worry about making a career of it, put everything into doing this job now and it will pay off for you down the road. It might help you figure out what road that will be.

I worked the 2010 census. It was a pretty good gig! Definitely agree to that one.

 

[vyger]

Where do I start ----
First I do believe that getting more education beyond just High School can be a good thing. But I now also believe that the line they so often use, that it helps you get a better job or career is often not true and is used as advertising to get students. Everyone needs to understand that Universities ARE BUSINESSES that make money and recruit students. It is an industry that depends on a flow of new customers so they will do and say anything to keep the student flow going. I went to 2 different colleges for a total of almost 5 years. Yes the education was very helpful, but did it help me get a better job? In my case it was just the opposite. I was told in numerous job interviews that they preferred hiring High School graduates. Why? First they don't have to pay so much to start. Second they don't have to UNTRAIN people and retrain them to do things the way they want. Some of these were lab assistant jobs. Much of my education was in the sciences. They want people to know the basics but will then train them for specific positions. The exceptions are the PHD positions.
Many many of my friends from college did not get jobs in any field related to what they studied. In fact a lot of them went into things like truck driving which paid really good. Education was and still is one of the few exceptions to this. You need the teaching certificate to become a teacher and you only get that from a university. But I have a friend who has MASTERS in education and has a teaching certificate and other than a few years after he graduated never became a teacher. Now he runs his own business that does cleaning. Carpet cleaning, floor cleaning, store cleaning, fire and smoke restoration are all his things. He has not set foot in a classroom in many years and has no desire to.

How about me? I could go on for several pages. Ultimately I majored with a double major of Cinema and photography and a double minor of animal industries and physics. But here is the thing that you really need to know ---
everything changes over time.
What I know about photography is now considered a lost art because digital stuff has made the entire industry disappear. Who would have ever thought that Kodak would stop making film.
Ultimately my main success came from a field that didn't exist when I went to school. The PC. I bought several 286 computers and learned how to run them program them and fix them. I didn't plan on it being a business but I had people asking me for help all the time. And then school districts that contracted with me. And wannabe gamers that paid me to custom build high end machines for them. My son basically apprenticed under me and never went to college for any of it. He now works for a fortune 500 company as an IT expert. And now the PC is dying, being replaced with phones and tablets. Everything changes.

So here is specifically what I would recommend for you right now.
Get a job with the Census Bureau. Look them up and apply. They are gearing up now for the 2020 census. They are establishing hundreds of local and regional offices to do this job. It is a temporary job but could last for years. You can get rolled over into other operations. It will give you experience and help you learn how to work with other people. If you become a field rep you will work with the public and develop those skills also. The Census Bureau is a politically neutral agency. You won't have to worry about issues or parties. It has one task to do, get the count. You can help with that and get paid for it. In the end it will give you a starting place on your resume. It is beginning now so do it now and don't worry about making a career of it, put everything into doing this job now and it will pay off for you down the road. It might help you figure out what road that will be.

By the way, one of the things they will be doing first, if they haven't started it yet they will soon, is the mapping. They map the entire country, everyplace where someone lives. They have to revise all those maps to account for new roads, new structures, and ones that have been demolished. Last time they issued hand held GPS units and the field workers went to every house, stood next to the door and punched the button which logged the GPS coordinates. Most people don't know about any of this but the mapping is very important and is also considered to be confidential information. In some areas field workers were assigned to drive every single road and ally in the area with the GPS unit tracking the entire way so they could verify or map out every possible road. It's a pretty big job.

 

[vyger]

I worked the 2010 census. It was a pretty good gig! Definitely agree to that one.

I started in the Quality control phase and then got rolled over into 3 other operations. Even after the count is done they do several other operations. One is even designed to determine the accuracy of the first count and another to determine the Plus/minus factor. In other words there is not an exact number but rather it would be something like 1,000 plus or minus 3.