Choosing courses/careers

[Rapier]

Since SF seems to be composed mostly of mid-late teens (people who think about careers and courses... probably) and young adults (people who are going through it or had gone through it), I thought it would be insightful for members to share stories and discuss about picking careers and courses, be it what they aspire to do or what they've already done, especially because there is a lot of pressure for making such choices and very little actual preparation and orientation for it. I believe that senior advising and story sharing can help answer questions about this subject.

I never had a solid idea about what I would pick as a course or career, and I think I'm too young to be sure of those things yet (I'm 21, for reference). During school (mostly during highschool), I thought a lot about the idea of studying psychology and working in that field, but I decided to save psychology until I could afford to study it as a hobby because I don't see myself as a therapist, nor do I like the idea of being a therapist or working as one. I'm not really one for lending a shoulder freely, giving emotional support/advice and listening to other people's personal issues in general. Its science attracts me a lot (despite some pseudoscientific and post-humanist issues which I'm not going to get into depth), but its working area doesn't, thus I don't see any reason for picking psychology as a career, despite being the only science that I find a lot of interest and joy in studying.

I also thought about philosophy, but decided to leave it for the future since I'm only relatively curious about the field and I wouldn't like to work on it, nor do I have a solid idea about it. It is also hard to find and enter a philosophy course where I live.

I ultimately went with Law because it seemed cool elaborating arguments, standing for causes, looking for points and developing possible maneuvres that I could take to reach a desired conclusion, and defending clients. The work field interested me and it pays well, so I went with it. Now I'm quitting the course halfway through because I discovered that I can't stand the science of Law, with its complexity, absurdly numbered ramifications, gargantuan laws and boring bureaucratic procedures. I'm pretty much sunk in debt because I couldn't pay for it from my pockets alone, but I prefer using my student loan for something worthwhile than wasting my time for a certificate that I'm not going to use since I do not like legal stuff and Law graduates are nothing until they pass the bar exam.

I'm not sure what I'll study next, although I have a few possibilities in mind (Administration/Management or however it is called in english, a System Development/Analysis course or throw caution to the wind and try Psychology because it is what I'd like to study, though I'm really having issues with working with it). The former because I have a slight inclining toward understanding how to conduct business/how they work and I'd be ok with working on offices (which is where I see myself working) despite not knowing if I'll like it or not, which is why I'll research more about it and talk with others. System Development/Analysis seemed good especially because it takes only 2,5 years and it is not as expensive but I have no idea about tech stuff (how am I supposed to know if I like programming/developping systems etc.?), it is also something that I need to research more about/talk with other people to get a better grasp on. I think I'd like to work on a secluded place where I can focus on doing my job instead of constantly dealing with people and direct teamwork though.

Anyway, feel free to use this thread as you see fit. My story inspired me to make this thread, but it is not only about it, or even mainly about it. I hope that it at least helps other people that also feel lost.

[Skynstein]

Well, law sucks TBH. The things I liked in the course were the less practical things, but I've changed quite a lot from that time and I've become a political pessimist and a pragmatist. The bureaucracy is simply depressing.

My suggestion would be to find what you're good at and start from there.

[Thor Odinson]

Speaking as a programmer, take a few very basic, intro level programming courses as electives if you can to see if you'd like programming. Be aware that there's a learning curve and it does take adjustments to get into a programmer's mindset, though idk how easy or hard your school's intro to programming is. 

Anyway in high school I was thinking of picking either art or something mathy, since art and math are my two strongest subjects and ones I actually enjoy doing. But since I figured I know what I want to do as an artist vs there's many subfields in math I hardly know about, and the job prospects in art vs stem is pretty drastic, I went with Computer Science in the end since it was a good combination of math and being on a computer, and I also have an applied math/statistics degree on the side. 

Anyway it's the right choice because now I totally love programming and I enjoy being a professional software engineer (plus I fit in really well with the general trend of more casual work cultures at tech companies), whereas I did actually have a side art job once and found out I don't like doing art professionally.

[Res]

For me it was really difficult to pick, because I wasn't really aware of what my strengths were. I was an all-rounder in high school and it wasn't until college that I really discovered what subjects I was actually bad at. 

I ended up getting a degree in architecture, because it covered a broad variety of subjects. I went to college in the UK where there are no general education requirements at the college level; i.e. I had 39 hours of classes a week and they were all architecture related (history of architecture, structural engineering, acoustics of buildings, CAD for architecture. etc.). I struggled through the structural engineering parts and although I did complete my degree, there was no way I was going to pursue a career in architecture.

My advice for college is to choose a subject you're both decent at and you really enjoy; unless you're desperate to have a very specific career (i.e. doctor), you'll quite likely find yourself in a different career in the end anyway, so you may as well have as much fun as you can. 

I worked for 5 years in administration (low paid, but appealed to my sense of organization) and I've since worked 8 years in accounting; I really enjoy accounting and the only drawback is I'd be earning more if I was a CPA. It wouldn't actually matter that I don't have an accounting degree if I had a four year degree from a U.S. college, as many of the general education requirements transfer over. An ex-colleague of mine had a degree in history and when he finally decided becoming a CPA was the right path for him, it only took a couple of years of part-time evening study to complete the requirements. I'd have to start pretty much from scratch at this point, though. Still, experience also counts for something, and you can earn a decent wage without being a CPA. 

[MadJak91]

8 hours ago, Thor Odinson said:

I enjoy being a professional software engineer (plus I fit in really well with the general trend of more casual work cultures at tech companies)

Oh, wow. I do not hear this often but then talking to fellow programmers seems to be hard for the most part because they usually do not feel like talking. Still, I totally agree and I am one of the weirdos who found cool people at work. By that I mean there are plenty of cool people but you often do not meet people from work just for the heck of it, haha.

Anyway.

Lots of people, lots of experiences. Cultures also play a role so I can only share my own view and what happened.

I was always interested in programming, math and related so I went straight that route pretty aggressively. I banned myself from a lot of things and started programming on my own because... I thought that you can rely on your skill the most. Sure, my uni gave me a lot but eh, I feel like I learned most of it on my own. Started with computer security, switched to robotics. Best decision. Now I like working with that, nobody gets me but it is fine lmao :D

I found out about two golden rules. Even if there are things you super enjoy, you might not be cut out for them long term and professionally. Sometimes you simply have to bite the bullet and go another route. I am more realistic at least about myself but I know when I simply do not have a chance at something. Young people today seem to grow up with the notion that you can do anything and all the online stuff I did not have in the past is now possible. Talking about getting famous online. Many would try again and again but to me it often seems like wishful thinking as they do not really bring much stuff to the table and... should just focus on actual life and careers. It seems to be a controversial opinion, haha.

Not that I am anywhere near secured. I am but... I still feel I need to put even more effort into my job because anything can happen. I do not feel I can trust myself as being good enough just yet. I often advice younger friends when they ask to work on themselves while they still have the chance because there are plenty of distractions and enough time to return to them later when you are set. Having interests and hobbies is important though.

Edited June 30, 2017 by MadJak91

[wheelsonfire]

I'm a recent graduate and I had quite a few different ideas for careers as well. I started knowing I wanted to do something with Spanish, but wasn't sure what. I initially considered psychology, but didn't want to go all the way to a doctorate. I eventually figured out I had a passion for teaching, and decided to go into it. I wound up having a double degree in teaching, one for teaching Spanish as a second language, and another for teaching English (specifically writing) as a first.

I've worked in a high school as an in school tutor, but are now looking to explore options with my majors outside of teaching. I'm hoping to find something that uses my bilingualism, but is not teaching, because I'm not sure I want to go back into it. I'm considering getting a post-baccalaureate degree, but I'm not sure when, or in what.

My best advice for choosing the career would be to do what you love, but also do your homework. By that, I mean research the area you might want to go into, and figure out things such as how the job is growing, turnover rates, how much money is made, and requirements for it. It's not a guarantee of finding out what you want, but statistics like that definitely help.

[Thor Odinson]

3 hours ago, MadJak91 said:

Oh, wow. I do not hear this often but then talking to fellow programmers seems to be hard for the most part because they usually do not feel like talking. Still, I totally agree and I am one of the weirdos who found cool people at work. By that I mean there are plenty of cool people but you often do not meet people from work just for the heck of it, haha.

Yeah I work in a startup-esque environment and it's pretty chill--I generally really like my coworkers and I do consider a number of them my friends and they're cool people to talk to. Also during work there's a lot of communicating between different parts of the engineering team so you have to talk anyway :P

Programming related humor helps too

Quote

 Even if there are things you super enjoy, you might not be cut out for them long term and professionally. 

This, so much. Even sometimes if you're actually good at it. I mentioned earlier with regards to me not actually liking doing professional art very much---I'd probably put myself as a better artist than at least some of the cipher/heroes artists, and skills-wise I can be considered to be at least lower professional tier, but I find doing art for money just kills my creativity and it's hard to be motivated, whereas I treat programming like problem solving and I don't need to be emotionally invested in the work I'm doing in terms of subject matter (I do want it to be somewhat challenging though). It's working out well for me to do programming professionally and using that to fund art as a continuous hobby on the side--I mean how else am I buying those super big professional drawing tablets?

Anyway sometimes your passions may not translate well into work. You might end up hating it.

Edited July 1, 2017 by Thor Odinson

[Rapier]

@Thor Odinson, stupid question, but can I use Unity as something to get an idea about how programming is in practice? I'm asking this because I got interested in Unity recently and I'd like to study it for a bit.

I talked with the head of the System Analysis and Development course and she told me to read about HTML5 and CSS, but... well, they're not programming languages (and I found CSS kind of boring). To be honest, I still see their language as a clusterfuck of non intuitive words that supposedly make sense and I need to know what they do, yet there are lots of them and holy shit how am I supposed to sort all of them out. Uh... I guess I should try with some practice. Is there a more recommended programming language for a complete newbie to get a grasp on programming?

I mean, I get the reasoning behind it but that's 1/6 of the battle.

[Thor Odinson]

1 hour ago, Rapier said:

@Thor Odinson, stupid question, but can I use Unity as something to get an idea about how programming is in practice? I'm asking this because I got interested in Unity recently and I'd like to study it for a bit.

I talked with the head of the System Analysis and Development course and she told me to read about HTML5 and CSS, but... well, they're not programming languages (and I found CSS kind of boring). To be honest, I still see their language as a clusterfuck of non intuitive words that supposedly make sense and I need to know what they do, yet there are lots of them and holy shit how am I supposed to sort all of them out. Uh... I guess I should try with some practice. Is there a more recommended programming language for a complete newbie to get a grasp on programming?

I mean, I get the reasoning behind it but that's 1/6 of the battle.

Unity is mostly do game programming type of things, but it does a lot of the heavy lifting for you so you can just use it to do some scripting. I think you might be able to learn some of the logic using unity tutorials. 

HTML/CSS is absolutely not programming. I use it quite a bunch, but it has a lot more to do with just marking up how to structure a web page and how it looks, than any actual programming logic. It's essential on a front end engineer's toolkit, but it's actually not programming. Doing actual programming and logic on the web is usually JavaScript, which is my fav but I wouldn't recommend to a beginner since it's very easy to do something dumb in it. I'd recommend Python to a beginner--it's a lot safer than JS, forces you to make your code look nice (in terms of indentation) which is good practice, and the syntax isn't terribly difficult. Java is also a good starting point--it gets a little verbose, but the verbosity sometimes will tell you exactly what the program is doing and Java is what I learned programming on. 

Unity uses a bunch of programming languages as scripting languages. If you want to learn Unity I'd recommend following the C# tutorials, since C# is also syntactically similar to Java which is one of the easier languages as far as syntax is concerned.

[Fryer]

I am going to be an incoming freshman to college and I am not quite sure what to do in terms of a career. I am going in as an Accounting major since the business field seem to interest me the most in terms of diversity and a simple desk job feels adequate enough for me. I had great grades throughout high school though no class seemed to pique my interest. I do have interests in History but I would rather study that field through videos and such rather than dedicate my career towards that.

[sirmola]

I always advocate that you should consider two questions:

1. What do I want to do?

2. WHat can i reasonably get a job doing?

I don't advocate getting a job you don't want, but if your choices are, say, history and programing, and you would enjoy either, i would advocate for programing because it pays more and is easier to get a job in. I should also point out that law is a much harder field to get a job in now than it used to be. I should also mention that I am an engineer, and knew since i was 10 or so that I wanted to be an engineer, so i had a much eaiser time deciding on a career than most people.

[Excellen Browning]

You can get a job in merchant shipping if that could interest you. 

Merchant shipping is the wonderful world of working six months a year and earning $60k/y starting out, employment guaranteed. Shortages in merchant shipping are large and chronic. 

You'll want to get a degree in it though, and college courses have about an 80% drop out rate.