How did you decide?

**Praetorian** · 02-25-2003 12:45 AM

How did you decide what to do with your life after HS? What did you take into consideration when you chose a field and/or college?

**Saint Patrick** · 02-25-2003 01:41 AM

I went to community college for a year, got sick of doing homework, dropped out, got a job that paid $6/hour. That was 3 jobs ago. I now work in a completely differen't field, and last year I made more than my dad, who not only went to college, but has been in the same job for 20+ years. He said he was proud of me.

**McBain** · 02-25-2003 03:19 AM

cent i had (have) the same problem, i took this year off (finished HS last year) to work and travel later on- hopefully by the end i will have some idea. theres a helluva lot to chosoe from so i just picked somethign pretty broad to start with and ill see where that takes me.

**bigedge** · 02-25-2003 03:20 AM

depends what sort of job you want i guess

i just finished high school (college in Aus) and im having a year off working at a supermarket and im doing a crowd control course soon so i can be a bouncer and next year im going to uni (college in the US) to do a bachellor of computing

**McBain** · 02-25-2003 03:40 AM

bigedge whereabouts are you doing the course?

i had a look around for some places that do the whole ABC security thing and was half considering somethign liek it.

**bigedge** · 02-25-2003 04:34 AM

mcbain,

in hobart most likely. i am goin to uni of tasmania but it depends if i make enough money this year to qualify for ausstudy so i can move to hobart otherwise i have to stay in launnie

**Celestial** · 02-25-2003 05:16 AM

I am hating school right now. I get excellent grades but I think the homework is bull****. I feel the time I am wasting doing homework I could be making money and some damn good investments/field work. Oh well, who knows what the **** I will do.....

**razordot** · 02-25-2003 06:49 AM

Havent decided yet...

**MrWebb78** · 02-25-2003 06:56 AM

school is overrated. save some money on classes and go buy some finance books about better ways to make money, in far less hours of work. besides, the wealthiest people in the nation are all dropouts ofeither college or high school. my first suggestion is 'rich dad, poor dad' by robert kiyosaki, incredible read.

**Tryska** · 02-25-2003 08:09 AM

heh...i'm not necessarily the best example, but i choose my school absed on it's location, the fact it gave me a scholarship and the deciding factor was the quality of their stationary.

i hated school (always have) and so i chose a major i was interested in to keep me occuppied (Anthropology) so i got 3.5 years of knowledge for knowledge sake, and then "took a year off" so that i could decide if it's what i wanted to graduate in. I never went back.

from their i got some computer training and became a secretary. I did that for a couple of years, steadily progressing in position, responsibilities and salary. I finally ended up as an Office Manager and had negotiated myself into an insaley high salary for my position. My company was closing the branch in my city, and i decided i wanted a career change, since getting that salary would be unheard of at most other places. SO i became a PC geek. I started taking classes for that, but then i got my first gig, and it was in my salary range, and they taught me everything hands-on so i dropped out again and have jsut been working ever since, and of course steadily progressing as well.

I don't necessarily recommend this path to anyone else, but it worked for me.

**Manveet** · 02-25-2003 08:58 AM

I agree with what MrWebb78 said. Learn how to invest and make money that way. Right now I'm a freshman in university taking Criminology. Not to many options in that field. I don't know even know if that's what I really want to do right now. It would be better if I just won a huge jackpot in the lottery or something lol.

**Just some girl** · 02-25-2003 09:04 AM

i disagree. i think having a degree is essential. sure, if you're gonna become filthy rich all on your own, maybe you dont need it. but even people who make their money from their own company need a way to start up. if they have no money of their own, they need to get investors or get a bank to give them a loan. they basically need other people to think they can do what they say they can. and a degree really helps with that. ive seen my older brother get hired for jobs simply because people were impressed with the fact that he has a college degree and where he got it from. it opens doors, and in a job market like today's, that's key. of course, people do it without. its just likely to be a lot easier with.

**Manveet** · 02-25-2003 09:05 AM

and sometimes it's all about who you know.

**Just some girl** · 02-25-2003 09:07 AM

of course.

**Berserker** · 02-25-2003 09:09 AM

Whoever said school is overated, need to rethink the degree. Sure some very wealthy people did, but theya re 1%, very driven. If your here reading this probably not them. Its getting harder and harder to advance without one. In my field, maintenance, they used to advance from with in, now they pretty much engineering degrees. Not always, but it can sure jumpstart you. I started in postions in my mid 20s that guys worked 20 years to get to. What ever you do you need a skill or trade. If you do go to college pick the right degree, there not all equal. Doing what you love might only pay 30K a year, which isn't awful either.

**Gyno Rhino** · 02-25-2003 09:10 AM

Go to a decent school, major Undecided. Give yourself more time to decide. But go to college.

**Relentless** · 02-25-2003 09:16 AM

the main things that college should do for you in terms of your future work prospects are:

- teach you how to learn and synthesize rather than simply regurgitating facts

- demonstrate to prospective future employers that you are capable of committing to and succeeding with a 3-4 year engagement

as far as deciding what to do with your life, there are a lot of different opinions on that. Some people just seem to KNOW what they want to do. Others (like me) had no bloody clue. The best thing to do IMHO if you have no special love or passion for a certain field, is to go to college and take as many different courses as possible. Broaden your horizons and explore your options. If all else fails, take a general business degree and then you'll have skills to work in the corporate world even if you still don't know what you want.

IMHO it's better to still not know what you want out of life and be making a decent salary rather than being POOR and not knowing what you want.

**Tryska** · 02-25-2003 09:18 AM

word.

**WillKuenzel** · 02-25-2003 09:18 AM

Originally posted by Gyno Rhino
Go to a decent school, major Undecided. Give yourself more time to decide. But go to college.

:withstupi

Very wise words. Its a good life experience as well as part of the building blocks to getting a career jump started. Its very rare this day in age to get a job without a degree and a good deal of work experience.

With the economy sort of down turned, you have people out there stuggling to get jobs with years of experience. Its tough to compete against those people when you first come out of school but the better your education the better your chances.

**Just some girl** · 02-25-2003 09:22 AM

so what you're saying is i cant just skip my test today and hide out in my apartment? dammit.

study time...

**WillKuenzel** · 02-25-2003 09:51 AM

As far as deciding a career, it won't happen at your age. People change over time and the things that once interested them don't. I went to school for engineering. I enjoyed math and science in high school so I figured I'd try to enjoy them both. Found out how much I love computers and it changed middle of the way through. Now I think I have another interest and I'm going to actively pursue it.

Also before business planning and such didn't really interest me all that much but now it does. Hopes of one day starting my own business keep creeping into my head.

It changes from time to time, but does that make any difference. Hell no! Chase your dreams. Do what you want to do and if you try you can be profitable and happy if you apply yourself.

**Praetorian** · 02-25-2003 04:03 PM

its good to know that im not the only that has/had doubts about what they wanted as a career. Man, its so friggin difficult. I dont have any real passion, nothing that im burning for, so im just clueless now. I got pressure from my parents to choose this and that field, my counciler wants me to go to Germany to study, my friends wants me to do something else. The thing with Norway is that we have gotten a new reform here, we cant just choose a lot of different courses without any real goal and just study for the sake of studying. Now we have to choose a module and take the courses given there, like if you choose the Law-module, you can only choose some special courses and nothing else.

I have managed to narrow down what i want to do into these 4 thigns :

- medicine in Australlia or England
- geo-or petroleums engineering
- law school --> international buisness lawyer
- military

its kinda hard to choose....

**Munky** · 02-25-2003 06:41 PM

I'm wondering the same thing right now. What the hell will i do once i get out of highschool... Right now i work for a Fence and Deck building company its a pretty good job for a 16 year old and its something i'm good at and love to do. I was always interested in building and fascinated by how things where put together. I don't really know what i want to be though theirs so many jobs to choose from in the construction field. All i want is a decent paying job doing something i'm happy with. Right now i'm thinking about going for General Contractor. I hear the engineering jobs pay ALOT more but again i don't really know whats out their to be.

**PowerManDL** · 02-25-2003 06:55 PM

Well let's see-- when I got out of high school, I went to a junior college because I only tentatively knew what I wanted to do (computer science).

I spent a year there, then didn't go back. Then I thought I knew what I wanted, so I went back for about a year. Well it turns out I didn't want it that bad, so I ended up quitting again.

I spent two years in "the real world" after that, basically hopping from job I hated to job I hated. I finally realized I was going nowhere fast, and settled on something fairly respectible that I'd like to do (law enforcement).

The degree doesn't guarantee anything, but it makes it a WHOLE LOT easier to get where you want.

My long-term goal is to start a business or three of my own anyway. That's a lot easier to do if you're established on your own finanically before you try it

**McBain** · 02-26-2003 12:30 AM

Originally posted by bigedge
it depends if i make enough money this year to qualify for ausstudy

thats my plan aswell

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