Life and Work (credit, degrees, degree, employers)
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I am interested in people and their work and how people choose their careers. I know exactly what I want to do with my life and have already been preparing myself since high school. I don't understand when friends who are capable of going off to college decide not to and end up working odd jobs for low wages. And I don't know how many college students i've met who seem to hate their classes, why choose a major that you hate? It upsets me to see people not going after a career they can love. So many college students appear to be going to college because they are expected to, and then end up getting a business degree and selling used cars. Is this lack of motivation something new in young adults today? Any other thoughts?
When I was a kid (junior high), I used to take apart various appliances to see how they worked. This bothered my mother (like when she tried to use the blender and it was in pieces on the kitchen table) but then she kinda liked it when I started fixing broken stuff. I also liked to take apart my bicycle down to the ball bearings, clean it, and put it back together. My guidance councelor convinced me to go to a Vocational Tech school for the day, just to see what it was like. Fortunately, my parents stepped in and convinced me to go to college for Mechanical Engineering.
Although I loved the thought of one day working for GM or Ford designing cars, I found thermodynamics and some of the other classes a bit much for my brain to comprehend. I ended up switching to Electrical Engineering and ended up getting a masters degree in that field. However, I don't use that degree at all. I mainly do software engineering and test. . . .something that I never learned in school, but picked up on my own.
I have known what I wanted to do since about my freshmen year in college. I was always good with technology (learned two programming languages in high school, built a computer from scratch in high school, etc.) so I majored in computer information systems in undergrad. during my freshmen year I started to realize how much I liked business (the idea of owning a business/working in the less technical side of things). I set a goal to get a job in IT straight out of college, then get an MBA at night and then transition from IT to business. Because of that goal, I only applied for jobs out of college which had educational assistance programs (where the company helps pay for grad school). I am currently a computer programmer and have been accepted into a nighttime MBA program to start later this year.
I have a dream of either starting my own company, or becoming part of the senior leadership in a large corporation that is inefficient/corrupt/poorly run and turning it into a good, quality company. I have always been drawn to the positive aspects of the business world, and think leading a large scale company can really provide everyday people with the things they need to make their lives easier...
It is much easier to pick what you want to do when you have a dream/goal that is a few years out.
I got two associate degrees (related to drafting) right out of high school, and went to work in my chosen field. I loved drafting and architecture in high school. It got me started, and I am glad I did it, but would have been far better off with a 4 year degree. I went back to school again when I was 25 while working professionally, so I knew exactly what I wanted for a degree. Even then I still hated most of my classes and dreaded every minute of it. But I toughed it out for 7 years and don't regret it.
Someone just out of high school doesn't have the same advantage I have in knowing what the working world is like. They may not realize that college might only ready them for 10% or less of what they will do on the job.
For most degrees you will sit through two years of pre-req's. So someone just out of high school, going for an engineering degree, is sitting there in economics class, or his 5th semester of literature (just like I did), wondering what the heck does this have to do with engineering. I can totally understand why they would hate their classes.
I have noticed with our 19 y/o that he envy's his friends that work odd jobs but make 10 or 12 an hour. It sounds like a lot of money when you are making minimum wage, but in reality it is not enough to live on without making sacrifices or having a roommate. They can't see the bigger picture and don't realize that that is the best it is ever gonna get for them. If they are lucky they will get involved with some kind of trade and can move up the pay scale. For most they will be stuck in those jobs forever with horrible benefits and a poor outlook on life.
Our oldest eventually went to school but I am still on the fence about whether or not he will complete it. Does he think I make all this money because I got lucky? How do you inspire someone if not with your actions? I was luckly enough to have a mentor that showed me what was possible out there in the world. And it wasn't because he told me how to make something of myself, he simply made something of himself and I learned from his example.
Eventually they get it, and some turn it around later in life. But most have tunnel vision.
Suck it up for four to six years right out of high school and the rest is gravy. Stay away from a general degree, and make the sacrifices necessary to get your foot in the door.
I understand that generals can be boring, but my classmates express a huge lack of interest in major courses. I know that academia is not the same as the real world, but it's a taste. I admit that I have suffered through many courses but as each semester goes by, I know more and more that I am in the right field.
I too used to think anything over $10 was great (i've never held a job that paid more than $7.50!) and it's sad to see friends holding these dead end jobs with no prospects for the future. My good friend is in this position and he is against going to University, I believe he thinks it doesn't prepare you for the real world. He may have a point but the fact is, most employers won't hire you unless you have a degree. Hopefully my post graduation plans work out and I can change his mind.
Yup, I'm in college cause I'm "expected to." I really don't know what I want to do with my life, yet my parents insist on me going and spending their money to 'discover myself.'
I'd much rather be working some job and going to school part-time until I really figure out what I want to study and do.
And yes, the gen-ed requirements annoy me. I realize it's good to be "well-rounded" and such but come on. I much prefer the way the Germans do it... if you decide in high school to go to higher learning, you spend your time in uni learning the relevant stuff. If you decide to go to vocational school, you spend your time learning your vocation.
I am interested in people and their work and how people choose their careers. I know exactly what I want to do with my life and have already been preparing myself since high school. I don't understand when friends who are capable of going off to college decide not to and end up working odd jobs for low wages. And I don't know how many college students i've met who seem to hate their classes, why choose a major that you hate? It upsets me to see people not going after a career they can love. So many college students appear to be going to college because they are expected to, and then end up getting a business degree and selling used cars. Is this lack of motivation something new in young adults today? Any other thoughts?
When I was younger, I had no desire to go to college but I went after a fear-talk from a guidance counselor that said I'd starve to death if I didn't. I had dreams, wanted to be a singer/dancer/model/actress extraordinaire, problem was I had terrible stage-fright and was quite shy back then.
So I enrolled in school studying television and film til the teachers scared me out of that by telling me how horrible the fields were and how I'd never land a job. That turned into mass comm which is the only thing in the college catalog I thought I was capable of. Fast forward to the present and I'm a former marketing specialist in a sea of marketing specialists who cant find jobs (after losing one) and working as a coordinator by day and in a bookstore on the weekends. I don't really like either job.
But pursuing my initial dream didnt seem feasible so I went with what I thought would bring stabiliy. Little did I know.
This here working-class gal has always thought that college is how the middle-class pays its kids to run away from home, and to a "better" school for "a better class of people."
At least that's seems what it's like when people lump into college, don't care for it or feel at all focused about it (for career or pure learning) and why so many people borrow impossible amounts of money to continue and finish this autopilot idea of college.
The OP's friends with the dead-end $12 jobs- they can always take college courses around their earning times if they see the need or desire to attend college. Likely they'll put more into it (and get more out of it) than being 18 and getting paid or borrowing to run away from home.
I went to post-high school education four times. The first time because that's what everyone else did and I dearly wanted to get out of my family's house. Did two years at an urban university (hated the environment) and didn't want to end up a waitress with loans, so dropped out. Several moves and one career job, six years later, I went to a hospital RN school (low loans). Four years later, I went and got a master's in public health, went part-time, paid for some, borrowed some more, and joined the Army Medical Reserves and got the loans paid off (and did not get deployed to Gulf I- it was close). Two years later, I got an intensive one-year certificate in tech writing, worked two years, hated it, and went back to various forms of my RN as the best answer I could come up with about work and money and all.
I now make six figures (barely) for having so many years in the saddle, have a great pension to look forward to, a wonderful home and charitable causes. I consider myself an auto-didact. I think you can get a great learning experience by reading the NY Times every day. If you want credit, then you have to cough up the money to get credits for your learning. Why not audit/read if you just want to learn?
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