Adults 25+ years: Would you or would you not change your career if you were younger again? (SAHM, girls)
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I would have NEVER gone into my current career--teaching. I would go into science / medicine or law. Of course I was 30 when I went to college...after I spent 12 years touring USA by car and bicycle (TAE 517)--something I would never change and highly recommend to everyone!
I majored in the sciences and I wouldn't change it for anything.
I would encourage children to major in something they are passionate about, but be mindful of the need to also be financially secure. There is no point in doing something you hate and ending up unhappy in life. At the same time, if you are passionate about something that may not pay all the bills, you should be willing to find other work as needed so you can afford necessities.
Best advice ever!
I wouldn't change my career (clinical psych) but I wish I had realized the extent of the impact of having so many years of very tight finances during training would have on finances during my 30s.
I wouldn't change my career (clinical psych) but I wish I had realized the extent of the impact of having so many years of very tight finances during training would have on finances during my 30s.
Thanks for sharing- my daughter (who's a junior in HS) took AP Pysch last year and absolutely LOVED it. She's 99.9% sure she'd like to do something with psychology, most likely a psych/business double major and go into market research, but she's still considering going with the clinical psych route. As we've heard from many people, a psychology degree alone won't get you too far so it's best to pair it up with something else. It's always interesting to me how our head market researchers have their doctorate's in psychology.
Speaking for myself, I started with pursuing an English degree. Throughout my first year of college I realized my calling was working with people, so I decided to pursue a business degree with an emphasis on marketing. I'm now working full-time for a personal care products company as a sales/marketing director and absolutely love my job. My company paid for me to get my MBA as well.
If I could do it over, I wouldn't have wasted my freshman year of college going for that English degree. My BA and MBA have served me much better than an English degree would've, I think.
Thanks for sharing- my daughter (who's a junior in HS) took AP Pysch last year and absolutely LOVED it. She's 99.9% sure she'd like to do something with psychology, most likely a psych/business double major and go into market research, but she's still considering going with the clinical psych route. As we've heard from many people, a psychology degree alone won't get you too far so it's best to pair it up with something else. It's always interesting to me how our head market researchers have their doctorate's in psychology.
Speaking for myself, I started with pursuing an English degree. Throughout my first year of college I realized my calling was working with people, so I decided to pursue a business degree with an emphasis on marketing. I'm now working full-time for a personal care products company as a sales/marketing director and absolutely love my job. My company paid for me to get my MBA as well.
If I could do it over, I wouldn't have wasted my freshman year of college going for that English degree. My BA and MBA have served me much better than an English degree would've, I think.
While it's true that an undergrad psych degree isn't all that marketable on its own, the game changes at the graduate level. It's a big decision to make as a young adult, though, trying to figure out if you want to do another five years of training (for clinical) after undergrad when you've just started undergrad. I knew it's what I wanted to pursue, so it was a safer bet, but I would wholeheartedly encourage a double major if an undergrad was the least bit uncertain of their interest in and competitiveness for grad school. As I alluded to above, there are also some financial sacrifices involved in being in training for so long (like putting off buying a home, etc.) that I hadn't considered the full extent of as a 21 year old! Best of luck to your DD with her decision!
I would definitely change direction if I could go back. There are a lot of things I enjoy about teaching high school and some of the students are awesome, but much of the time I feel like I am trying to herd cats...lots of apathy and errant attention spans. I don't like having 30 teenagers crammed into a room, who expect to be entertained 24/7, who can't be bothered to participate or complete work for a class that they signed up for, who seem offended that I am even asking them to try, who complain perpetually about having to do assignments (what do they think we are all there to do? Chat about their social lives?), who don't have any interest in the subject at all...... uhhhhh, I'm going to stop there. I just hate wasting my time forcing people to stay on topic and do what they know they need to be doing, not to mention having to always keep an eye on them so they don't do childish crap like destroy my books or draw on the damn walls. Some of them are just destructive brats...ugh.
I taught English as a Second Language abroad for a year and loooooved it (b/c the students were older and focused, didn't have to spend all my time on freakin' classroom management). I'm thinking I ought to go back to school to get certified for ESL, but not sure it's in demand or who would hire me...
Yes, law school as a second career. There are way too many lawyers, and people really think they all make a ton of money which just ain't true There are plenty that only take court appointed cases at $50/hr and basically work out of their cars, especially in rural areas. $50/hr sounds like a lot but you can't charge for everything and you would have to work like 60 hours a week to make a decent living (maybe $50k). Or you can make $150k your first year out in a larger city at a large firm, and work 80 hours a week.
The health field seems to have good job security. of course being married to a doc, I can say there are inherent problems there, too, for primary care docs especially (pay versus student loans.) After having looked for a job for over a year now, I do look wistfully at the tons of physician jobs out there.
In the end, I will wholeheartedly support my kids in whatever pursuits they choose but will likely throw in some practical advice here and there, lol.
Forgot to add: my biggest regret was making up my own major in college -- "The Social Psychology of International Relations". That landed me a job as a supervisor in a bakery. Grad school was only a few years off, luckily.
If you had the opportunity to be 20 yrs old again, would you follow the career path that you did, or would you change your career/major?
When I was 19/20 - I had a pretty good buddy of mine who decided to drop out of the school where we were at and chose to pursue a nursing degree at a local community college. He asked me to join him. Back then, there weren't many guys in the profession. I truly thought he'd gone lost his mind! Did I ever give him a hard time about it, too.
OK, so fast forward some 20+ years and I find out my buddy is a supervisor/nurse practitioner and he's making well into six figs. As an added bonus, he's had a rather awe inspiring number of relationships with many, many gorgeous ladies. So, guess who's laughing all the way to the bank! I mean, I gave this guy endless - endless grief! I was so, so wrong...it's enough to make a grown man fall down and cry (which I have done, a few times...).
Hind sight is 20/20, as they say, but for those who are either smart enough or just plain miraculously lucky enough to fall "back a**wards" into a thriving/hot field - kudos to you. You have hit the jack pot.
Absolutley! I regret almost every day my choice of career. If I had known then what I know now, I would have run screaming down the street rather than go to law school. Sadly, I am in so deep on student loans that I don't have the freedom to pursue a lower paid but more fulfiling career... unless Sallie Mae is feeling really forgiving!
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