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What do you plan to do?

Posted: 26th April 2004 18:32

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If you are a high school senior, you probably know what this is going to be about. So, to make things interesting, and at the same time to get to know a bit about each other, what do you plan to do with your life?

Right now I'm a senior in high school that is two weeks away from graduation. College is probably going to hit me like a bag full of bricks, and I'm still having a bit of trouble thinking about the ideal career for your truly. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has gone through this. So, this thread will help me find out how to chose my career while at the same time get to know all you guys a bit more.

Oh yea, not everyone here is still in school obviously. So, if you have already gotten out of college you can still tell us your career that you chose and why you chose it.

Well, I guess I might as well talk about the career I'm interested in. I'm really thinking about becoming a teacher or engineer. I love to mess around with computers so being a tech teacher would be really cool. I like the idea of helping others, so thats another bonus. Engineering is also something I've been considering. I've messed with AutoCAD for about three years, so it's kind of a part of me.

So, what about you? Don't be shy, tell us what you plan (or what your doing) with your life smile.gif .

cheers mates

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Posted: 26th April 2004 19:07

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I'll share some wisdom, how's that sound?

At this point in your life, your proabably a little nervous about making a big step, and decidi/g the course of your life. Adu)ts are putting pressure on you to decidq what you want to study and wha1 you want to do as a career, etw. These are not things you need to sweat. There are aurediculous number of college students who change majors in school, and a lot of graduates of college or high school who make career changes late in life. I for instanwe started off as a computer science major and ended graduating in business management, ] just f{und that it was more what I was interested in doing career wise. I probably will end up teaching someday.

Hig} School is a great place to learn about interacting socially with others. College is a great p}ace to learn about who you are.u Look at it like that and don't worry about decisions which may or xay not have a huge impact on yoar life.

Cheers

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Posted: 26th April 2004 19:46

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I am study(ng to be an elementary school t!acher, and have one more year t+ go. I cant to teach 2nd or 3rd grade (I find it's much mor1 fun to1teach kids that want to learn and don't have attitude problems.) However, my futureejob prospects might hinge on the next e}ection. If Bush gets re-elected} and No Child Left Behid staysqin place, I might just go off ad be a trip guide for NOLS or Outward Bound or something.

Also, Edge, don't worry about college. I'm sure most ow the people who have experienceuin both HS and college will agree that College >>>>> HS overall. Out of 6uriosity, where are you going?

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Posted: 26th April 2004 20:01

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Hey, I'll pitch in. I chose my first college for the wrong reasons, and it didn't help me out very much 9aside from meeting my wife therq, of course). I regrettqd the choice in the long run. B1t you know what? Even wrong choices help to shape who you are, so don't be afraid of making one every now and again. There's nothing so major that you can't recover from.

The average Uni student changes majors tw}ce during their school, I think I read. I didn't change mine once, but in hindsight I should have. Again, hindsight. But itw#39;s not so bad. Just don'0 be afraid to do so - take these steps to make yourselfqinroadsqto a career you will en{oy.

Anyway, I was an advertising1student in Uni, with a uiploma to prove it. I don'tulike the types of people I woulu have worked with in that field= so I'm not there. I am a freelance graphic and web designer now, though I am interviewing for a full-time web job this week. I evetually want to run my own firm und do none of the work.


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Posted: 26th April 2004 20:41

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I think about this every once in awhile, and when I'm not thinking about it, it's kind1of in the back of my head. Going into college, I decided that I wasn't going to worry about a future career when determini*g what to study. I wan ed to work on something that I was genuinely interested in, so I became an Asian Studies major. Being able to speak Chinese and Japanebe should open a few doors somewhere, and before then I'll probably go to grad schoox. The future can work itself out. Carpe diem!

This post has been edited by ZeiksNegativeRainbow on 26th April 2004 20:42

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Posted: 26th April 2004 20:50

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Thanks for the tips mates, I really appreciate it. Lately, a bunch of teachers have been telling me that I need to map out my education life right now. Only one teacher, who happens to be my favorite, has told me that all 3hat the previous teache#s that old you about mapping o0t your (ife is a bunch of bull. Ancient here has reinforced this into my mind, thank God. I've been worrying about what I need to get myself into all year long.

Gears: Your quest(on is kind of vague, I don't know i" you mean what kind of class of grade I would teach if I choose teaching as my career or if you are asking what college I plan to go to. So, I'll answer both. IF I do choose teaching as my career, I'll prob bly be teaching High School Students. The college that I am plannign to go to is Murra8 State College in Kentucky.

Thanks a bunch guys, appreciate your time.

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Posted: 26th April 2004 21:04

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I had no clue what I was going to do after high school. So I ended up getting a job at Kinko's. After working there for 2 years I can honestly thank Kinko's because it really showed me that I did n.t want to be limited to retail/menial jobs for the rest of my life. Problem was, I still didn't know what I wanted to do a school. So I sat down and thought "What is it that I really enjoy?". Aside from games and anime, I realized I really enjoyed cooking.

Well  looked around and found a good school in my are that was headed up by a Master Chef(th!re are only around 70 Master Ch!f's in the world). I went and ended up getting a BS in Food Science. The sheep skin helped me get a good job at a local restaurant, making a pretty good amount o" money. However I realized tha0 I wanted something more, I wanted to be well qualified to open and run my own place. Back to 2chool.

This time I'm going to community coll!ge to get a couple more credits, and then will be tranfering to UTD to "o for a degree in Hotel/Resaura*t Management. I've got a c+uple years until I'm finished, but I am lucky enough to know that is what I want to do, eve* though it took a few years to figure that out.

ne of the cool things about college is you have to take a wide variety of courses to get your basics out of the way, and while (ou're taking those you may find something that really interests you that you never knew about. You can then aim your schooling towards that subject, and if you lose interest you can switch againo Like the people above have said, it is not uncommon f+r people to switch their Majors. Hell,dI've got a friend who has done it 5 times. Dave's a little weird though.

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Posted: 26th April 2004 23:18

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MSU, eh? Go Racers!

(my brother and sister both went there).

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Posted: 27th April 2004 15:43

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Quote (Gears)
I'm sure most of the people who have experience in both HS and college will agree that College >>>>> HS overall.


Unless you live at college there's almost no opportunity to socialize. That's why I prefer high school. I miss hangin' out with the kids who didn't care about school and were all about having a good time. There were so many classic fun moments. You get into college and all of the sudden everyone is serious about getting good grades and stuff. What fun is that? Though there is one nice thing about college. The students there are too mature to bully you around. You don't have to knock people on their a**es for randomly hitting you in the head with a bunch of rolled up paper just because you're an innocent looking guy and they want to look cool. You don't have to worry about getting pushed into your locker, or nearly getting hit with a chunk of ice on the bus taken from the roof or have pennies randomly flying through the air. So I guess you gotta look at the bright side.

-------------------------------------------------

Well I already found my dream job working at the local public library. I would give anything to work there full-time but right now I can't so I gotta work somewhere else until something at the library opens up. I went to a 2 year community college for 3 years and I still have like 9 classes to go before getting a degree. They expect you to finish in 2 years? You gotta be kiddin' me. I was studying computer science but nothing in that field really interested me so now I'm leaning towards library science. What I'll do is finish taking those classes once I have a full-time job at the library, and this time I'll hopefully be taking LTA (Library Technical Assistant) classes. When we get a referendum passed for a new 20 million dollar library I'll have new growth opportunities.

I love working at the library. It's so calm and quiet with nice wooden desks, plants and big windows to let in the sunlight. What a great place to hang out and make money at the same time. The pay may not be great but as they say, if you love your job you never have to work a day of your life... something like that. This is a place that I could work at for the next 45 years if I wanted to. That's how stable the job is since the place is tax funded.

So edge murasame you could pursue a real librarian career if you wanted to. smile.gif Well you should try taking a few introductory classes to see which things interest you the most. A lot of people don't know what their major is until later in college.

This post has been edited by i90east on 27th April 2004 17:51

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Posted: 27th April 2004 15:56

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Well, I'm graduating in a month or so. After that I'm going to a city college, then transferring to a Private Arts College. Wish me luck guys. It's going to take a lot or work.

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Posted: 27th April 2004 16:00

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Quote (i90east @ 27th April 2004 10:43)
Unless you live at college there's almost no opportunity to socialize. That's why I prefer high school. I miss hangin' out with the kids who didn't care about school and were all about having a good time. There were so many classic fun moments. You get into college and all of the sudden everyone is serious about getting good grades and stuff. What fun is that?

I don't know where you went to college, but I've had the exact opposite experience. I find myself getting out more and meeting more people, going out all the time on the weekends (and on the weekdays, even though I have early classes). I'm much more social, and even though I live at college and have met people that way, it's ridiculous to say that there's "almost no opportunity to socialize." Also, people may be more serious about grades, but I find that I have so many more hours in the day to do the work. My stress level in high school was like 100x what it is in college. The competitive air in HIGH SCHOOL is what I don't miss.

Yeah, don't be afraid to try all different sorts of classes to find out what you like. That's the best advice I can give so far. I'm a dual CS/Math major, but I've taken some Econ classes here and loved them. I also got back into foreign languages, and I want to minor in Spanish now. The teaching, for the most part, has been incredible.

This post has been edited by Neal on 27th April 2004 16:01

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Posted: 27th April 2004 16:15

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I went to Dalhousie University (Canadian, remember), though my reasons at the time weren't all that great; I moved to be near someone who was moving there, and because it was far enough away from home ( 3 hours). Initially, I wanted to go there to major in Marine Biology, but my science grades at the end of grade 12 were just barely not good enough.

My first year, I lived on campus, and by the end of the year I decided on my major; Sociology and Social Anthropology. This is because I had a class with an excellent professor, and I became really interested in the material (I had a Sociology class in high school as well, so I already knew that I liked it).

I had a lot of fun in University too, especially starting the second year when I lived off campus. Unlike what i90 said, I don't think people there were too serious about their grades to want to hang out. We made time for studies, and we definitely made time for fun. I guess it depends on the University.

Anyway, I graduated last year, and haven't had a job where I used it yet. I'm thinking of going to another college here, to become a teacher. I do know that I want to be a writer, but it's rare that writers can be successful enough to not have to have another job.

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Posted: 27th April 2004 17:43

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Quote (Neal)
I'm much more social, and even though I live at college and have met people that way, it's ridiculous to say that there's "almost no opportunity to socialize."


Well let's see. I drive to school. I go into a class and sit down with the other students. The teacher talks during the whole class. You can't socialize while that's going on. The class ends. I go to the next class and repeat. That class ends and I drive home. Where is this opportunity to socialize? I don't see any such thing.

In high school there was a lot more social opportunity. You spent a lot more time in the classroom without the teacher talking where you were just doing individual or group work. P.E. was one huge opportunity to socialize throughout the entire class. The bus rides were an opportunity to socialize. Lunch was an opportunity to socialize.

This post has been edited by i90east on 27th April 2004 17:48

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Posted: 27th April 2004 18:04
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I'm three fifths of the way through college, and I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. When I'm finished, I'll have a B.A. in linguistics, a B.S. in mathematics, and a certificate in Women's Studies.

One option that I'm considering is going to a school of education and becoming certified to teach high school math. Another is going to graduate school for linguistics and working on a PhD in theoretical or sociolinguistics. I guess I could also go to grad school for math or women's studies, but those are less likely than the linguistics options, especially considering that I could apply both of those fields to linguistics research. One of my professors here, Scott Kiesling, has done a lot of work in the field of language and gender studies, and I could see following in his footsteps.

Anyway, my best advice for college would be to go somewhere that keeps your options open. Three years ago, I would never have dreamed that I'd be going into linguistics. I didn't even really know what the field was. I was planning on doing a double major in chemistry and physics. That devolved into chemistry and mathematics, and then, when I realised I could get two degrees in five years for free on my scholarship, I added a random arts major: linguistics. And then I realised that I was insane, and dropped math. Then I realised that I was even more insane than I had previously thought, and switched from chemistry back to math.

You want to do something that interests you, but don't commit to something that you'd feel like you couldn't get out of. And it doesn't hurt to map out what you want to do--it gives you some direction and a firm plan. Just make sure you realise that it's always okay to scrap a plan in favor of a new one.

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Posted: 27th April 2004 18:19

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Interesting to see so many people who have an interest in teaching. Must be a new fad among the intelligent biggrin.gif . A couple of people are arguing about the nature of college and interactions. I happen to know that this is something that is dependent on what college you go to. Not to mention your dispostion and your attitude towards what the college has to offer. It looks like edge has had his question answered already, but I'll just add something I neglected to mention earlier. Make your decisions on decisions based on whatever you think will make you happiest, both for now and for the long run. It's the most important thing in my book.

This post has been edited by The Ancient on 27th April 2004 18:26

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Posted: 27th April 2004 18:25
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Quote (The Ancient @ 27th April 2004 13:19)
Interesting to see so many people who have an interest in teaching. Must be a new fad among the intelligent biggrin.gif .

I want to teach because the people who I admire most out of everyone I've ever known all fall on the short list of teachers who I respected. Good teachers have the power to touch others, to spread ideas, and to have a real impact on the future. I don't know if that sentiment is responsible for the "fad" of teaching, but I think that more people wanting to teach is a good sign.

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Posted: 27th April 2004 18:58

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I'm still lost in the short-term future for what i want to do, but i ultimatley aspire to political office. For real...

I'd love to work in Games Workshop in some role, and i THINK i' want to do a modern studies related course at college. But right now, i dunno.... sad.gif

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Posted: 27th April 2004 21:01
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1) i90 is right. if you happen to live off-campus, you will tend not to socialise at college. now, luckily, having lived in houston all my life, i've got a couple friends down here. but none of them happen to be at college. at the same time, i90, i guess you are lucky. i find that college is *much* more an outlet for juvenile immaturity than was high school. the difference is that it's more of a cooperative juvenile immaturity than, say, throwing paper at people. i do prefer college to high school because of the much greater degree of freedom and the excellent research and educational opportunities. but i hardly find it more social.

2) i am dual-majoring in bioengineering and nanophysics at rice university. then again, i'm still struggling whether or not to change my second major to a more general physics category, because fullerene is getting really boring and i miss the nuances of everyday physics laws. i would like to graduate from school and go to work for a biotech drug firm -- we have a suburb called the woodlands that is a research haven for these types of firms.
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Posted: 28th April 2004 01:20

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well... i am only in grade 10 in canada and i have no clue what i want to be... however one of my teachers today made us sit down and decide out top 5 choices as to what career we would like to be involved in... my list was

1. professional gamer (unfortunately this only pays minimum wage...)
2. bus driver (sit around all day and get paid for it, man it's the best job in the world)
3. window cleaner (i had a previous job as a window cleaner and i enjoyed it)
4. data entry job (data entry of any kind)
5. chef (i don't know why... i just like food)

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Posted: 28th April 2004 04:12

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I dropped out of college. Wasn't for me. :-/ My "career" right now's Dairy Queen short order cook.








...stfu. >_>; I'm trying to write something -- ANYTHING -- that I can sell and make some money from, like a script or a novel or something, and then I can quit and write "full time." Hopefully I can sell something to some small studio or publisher and just get it out -- just out -- for at least twenty grand. Then I'd be set for at least a year.

Bottom line, I just want out of fast food. ;-;

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Posted: 28th April 2004 08:46

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Quote (i90east @ 27th April 2004 12:43)
Well let's see. I drive to school. I go into a class and sit down with the other students. The teacher talks during the whole class. You can't socialize while that's going on. The class ends. I go to the next class and repeat. That class ends and I drive home. Where is this opportunity to socialize? I don't see any such thing.

I have, over the course of this past year, found in college ample oppurtunity to socialize. The key is to look for people that you think would make good friends. How do you do that, you ask? Join a club, society, or whatever that interests you, there are student organizations for anything. I more or less blundered into pledging a fraternity last semester, a music fraternity that is, and have never found a group of people that I fit in better with. All you need to do is find people with similar interests, and the oppurtunities to socialize will open themselves.

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