Looking for guidance/ input (career/ education related)

[Inflikted]

Here's where I stand... I've been taking classes at community college for four years, now. The first three or so years, I was trying out a lot of different IT-related majors, because that was the only thing that really seemed interesting to me. But, whenever I'd get to the more advanced classes, I just couldn't get into it, and see it being my future career.

 

After exhausting the IT majors, I shifted to majoring in business management, which was mostly just a "transitional" major, in my mind, until I figured out what I really wanted to get a degree in. Right now, if I stay with business management, I could have an associate's degree in it by summer of 2013. But... I'm not really sure what kind of careers I could have with a business management degree. I mean, I don't really like the accounting side of it, nor do I like the legal side of it, and I can't see myself ever being a "manager" of even a small group of people. I'm just not "tough" and "cut throat" enough for it. Is there anything else one can do with a business management degree?

 

Honestly, I'm just tired of school, and tired of being a 23 year old part time cashier. I want to move on to something bigger and better, but I don't know how to do that. Everyone makes it out like a degree is absolutely necessary to get any kind of decent work, and even then, it seems like an associate's degree is more or less useless now, compared to a bachelor's degree, so I don't even know if it's worth it to go after an associate's degree...

 

I just don't know what to do. Registration for next semester opened up a couple days ago, and I want to figure out what I should be quickly, so I don't miss out on registering for the better classes...

[january2011]

What are you good at?

 

What are the most popular jobs for your location? What are the job requirements?

 

With a business management degree, you could potentially start your own business.

 

Why not get some internship/voluntary experience under your belt? Try different industries. Work abroad. Travel. Tutor in basic IT skills. Learn a language.

[Inflikted]

What are you good at?

 

Honestly? Nothing, really.

 

I'm not really sure what kind of jobs are popular in my area, I don't know how to look into that kind of thing. I have such limited work experience that I don't know how to get myself out there, anyway. All I've ever been is a cashier.

[january2011]

Google is your friend. Look for job websites and just do a search for your local area. Get copies of the local newspapers and check out the jobs sections (your local library probably has these available to read for free). Complete online aptitude tests to see where your skills lie. As a cashier, you have customer service skills, basic numeracy and cash-handling skills.

 

If your college has a careers counsellor or careers library, start doing some research there. Check the college's website if you don't know.

 

Internships and volunteering can give you experience. Start applying now.

 

Everyone has had to start somewhere. Everything that I mentioned in my previous post are viable options for you. You need to just get up out of your seat and start doing your research.

[Inflikted]

Well, I don't mean to sound like I'm making excuses, or anything, I'm just... very "sheltered" when it comes to all this stuff, and I feel incredibly overwhelmed and at a disadvantage trying to find something better for myself. I don't exactly come from a family of proactive "go-getters", and I don't even have anyone within my social circle that can kinda help get me on the right track.

 

I've talked to a counselor at my college twice, actually, and neither instance really "helped" me, any, because it all came down to what I want to do, and truthfully, I'm not sure what I want to do. There's nothing I'm good at, nothing I enjoy that I could reasonably make a stable career out of, etc.

 

I've kinda looked around online for jobs, internships, etc., but the general descriptions always scare me off, because I read them and think "I don't think I could do any of that...".

 

Plus, it's tough enough for me to juggle being a full time student, and a part time job; I'm not sure I could fit in volunteer work or an internship on top of that, and I don't really want to be without a regular income for an extended period of time.

 

It's such a frustrating spot to be in, because I know I want change, I know I want to do something bigger and better, but I just can't seem to figure out what that is. I want, so badly, to have a "calling", a "passion", in life, but there's just... nothing. :/

[january2011]

It's such a frustrating spot to be in, because I know I want change, I know I want to do something bigger and better, but I just can't seem to figure out what that is. I want, so badly, to have a "calling", a "passion", in life, but there's just... nothing. :/

 

Until you go out there to try things to see what you like and don't like, you're unlikely to find that calling.

 

There is a wealth of information online and it's free! Don't let your background hold you back. No one is going to hand you your dream job on a plate. You have to put one foot in front of the other in order to get somewhere. Standing still will get you nowhere. Keep doing the research online. Apply for various things. Going through various recruitment processes will be good preparation for you. Just try.

[Mr Scorpio]

I've been in your position and it took me way too long to pick a path. As it is, I'll be 36 by the time I finish school and hopefully get a career.

 

My advice? At the very least, look at it like this: you know what you dont like, and that is being a cashier. So maybe you pick a career choice that you aren't passionate about. Granted, it would be great to wake up each day excited to go to work doing something you like.

 

However, there are other areas (friends/family) that you can derive happiness from. If I could go back and do it all-over, I'd stick with the IT simply because it is a high-demand area. Health care is another area with a ton of available jobs.

 

Better yet, while an associates degree won't likely get you a high paying position, when combined with an internship, it could help you get your foot in the door. Once you're employed somewhere, then you keep slowly adding on to get the bachelors, then a masters if you see fit.

 

That way, by the time you're my age, you could be pulling down a seriously nice salary, then have fun on the weekends.

[KathyM]

I shifted career paths a year ago, and recently helped one of my sons to plan his career path when his original plan didn't pan out. We are both in college now--I'm working on my Master's Degree, he's working on his Bachelor's Degree. What we did was to make a list of all the jobs we would consider doing. We used the internet to help us, and googled what jobs are the most popular, what jobs pay the most, what jobs have the most job satisfaction, what jobs are the most exciting, etc. Then we compiled our list from those sources. We then narrowed down our choices to our top ten preferred from that list, and then made a separate list of the pros and cons for each type of job. That enabled us to better evaluate which type of job was doable. Some required too much travel. Some had too little chance for getting that type of job. Some would have too much of an uncertain income upon graduation. So we narrowed our choices down to three, based on the pros and cons we came up with. Then we explored our resources for getting the education required for those jobs, and that led us to our chosen occupational field, and where to go for the education required for it.

[setsenia]

OP, I know EXACTLY what you mean. We finished community college last year. My husband has an associates in Management and it seems like it's not worth the paper it's written on. He did find a job about a month after we graduated, but whoever hired him had horrible business sense and decided to hire him 3 months before their yearly seasonal business decline. Naturally, he assumed it was a permanent position until they told him 3 months later they had to lay him off due to lack of business. This was almost 6 months ago now and he still hasn't found another job. My advice to you is to forget about the associates degree and go straight for your bachelors. My H wishes he would have done this, as we still have a year to go before we get our bachelors degrees in business management. If we would have just transferred instead of getting the 2 year degree, we could have had our 4 year degrees this year. The more education you have generally helps, but the bachelors degree is a much bigger deal and it is worth it, because it's very versatile. I cannot tell you how many people I know graduating with Psych degrees who decided too late they didn't want to spend years in school to get a job in that field. If everything else fails, business is ALWAYS useful in almost every field, but yes I would suggest you go for the bachelors instead of the associates.

Edited April 27, 2012 by setsenia

[Inflikted]

See, I know in the long run, a bachelor's degree is going to be more beneficial than an associate's, but the that would require me transferring to an actual university, and the reason I'm very skittish about doing that is, well, because of the money. Right now, community college costs me about $1500 for tuition, and about $500 for books, so total for each semester has been about $2000, which I've been fortunate enough to have grants that cover that entire amount. But with a university, tuition and books would be much higher, and grants and scholarships would only take care of a fraction of that, meaning I'd have to go in debt.

 

The reason I'm not ready to take that risk is because I'm still so undecided. If I transfer to a university, I HAVE to know what I want to do, and I HAVE to follow through with completing it. Because if I don't, I'll amass tons of debt, and it'll have been for nothing. At least in community college, I'm not taking any kind of hit by being so aimless. But I just don't feel "confident" about following through with any majors... I didn't feel "confident" about IT, and I don't feel "confident" about business.

[january2011]

If you can't choose, then do a mix of both. Find a job that pays enough allowing you to save some money towards a bachelor's degree.

[setsenia]

$1500 seems a bit high for community college. Are you a foreign or out of state student? My costs at CC were at most, $400 per quarter without financial aid. (3 month periods). I also reduced my cost of books by renting at Chegg.com. I've saved hundreds of dollars. Yes, it's a good idea to be fairly certain when you transfer to a university. I know plenty of people with degrees they won't actually be using because they decided they don't want to pursue Psychology shortly before graduating. However, these people paid for their education up front or they had a free ride with grants issued. But in my opinion, you can never go wrong with a business degree, you can use it in just about any field. And a lot of fields just want a bachelors degree, no matter what it's in. If you must choose a major and you're not sure, my advice is to always go for a business degree. I think it's the most useful.

Edited April 29, 2012 by setsenia

[Inflikted]

$1500 seems a bit high for community college. Are you a foreign or out of state student?

 

Nope. It's based on credit hours, and I've been taking 12-14 every semester since I started.

[Inflikted]

So, after doing a little looking, I'm curious, how concerned are employers about where a bachelor's degree was obtained, versus having a bachelor's degree at all? I was looking up some information on degree completion programs my school sponsors in partnership with other schools, and I found an interesting one. It's basically an "online school", and the tuition seems very affordable; I'd estimate it'd cost no more than $10,000 in order for me to finish my bachelor's degree that way, and that's not even counting potential financial aid.

 

Thing is, I've never even heard of this school prior to looking up this information offered by my community college. I don't question the school's legitimacy, since I doubt my school would be helping promote an illegitimate institution. But I wonder, will it make employers less interested?

[pink_sugar]

My school is outside my state and offers an online program, but it is an on-campus private school. I decided to go with that, because I was certain "it wasn't just an online school" and I'm more comfortable going to a reputable University that has an online program versus just online. However, I've come to realize "Accreditation" matters much more over "Location". It depends on the school's reputation and accreditation much more than location. You don't need to go to a high cost university to land a good paying job. There are some obvious differences like lets say Stanford and Harvard, which are really well known prestigious schools, but when it comes to online schools, state schools such as Oregon State University and University of Oregon blah blah blah, I don't think it has to matter. Accreditation ALWAYS matters over location.

[writergal]

I'm 41 and just finishing up (well, trying to anyway) a masters of arts in teaching program which helped me realize that my true passion is journalism.

 

You are only 23 and have your whole life to try on different career interests. Everyone who has posted here has given you great feedback and advice.

 

If you don't feel like you have a good social support system then roll up your sleeves and build your own, in whatever field/area you want to try first. Surround yourself with those people who share your interest and before you know it, opportunities will abound for you.

[Mr Scorpio]

You are only 23 and have your whole life to try on different career interests.

 

I am going to respectfully disagree with this point, although I admire WG's positive attitude and support. In this economy, by twenty-three you "should" already have a four-year degree finished. Period. Especially when so many high-school students are earning college credits via AP courses.

 

While I think your concern about on-line schools is valid, IMO your primary concern should be your choice of career.

 

If you don't want to go to graduate school, then don't even consider any sort of "liberal arts" degree (i.e. - english, history, political science, etc). In my experience, they aren't worth the paper they are printed on. Even if you wanted to teach these subjects at the high-school level, sooner or later you will be required to get a graduate degree to do so.

 

If a bachelor degree is as far as you want to go, choose wisely and make sure you get a good internship. No good internship = no experience = no difference between you and the thousands of other grads in your area.

 

Granted, my opinion is heavily tainted by pessimism toward the educational system. I fully expect student loan defaults to be the nail in the coffin of the American economy.

 

Of the most successful people I know, one got straight A's at one of the top grad-programs in the nation and makes around $60k per year with great benefits and great job security. The others attended no college whatsoever and work in software engineering making well over 100k a year.

 

In other words, it is a world of extremes. Either choose wisely and excel, or don't take on the debt in the first place. Hell, you could work as a bartender and make about as much as plenty of college grads.

 

End rant.

[pink_sugar]

What do you think of Psychology? I know several people who just have a bachelors degree in Psychology with no plans to pursue graduate school. Even if you do decide to go into HR or social work, you need experience and/or internship. I know a few recent grads in Psychology who are expecting to land better paying jobs than your usual retail, but my thoughts is that they have no experience whatsoever and you're quite limited with just a bachelors in psychology. I'll be 24 when I get my bachelors degree and I don't think anything is wrong with that. Plenty of people change their minds as far as majors and sometimes it's worth it to take a little longer rather than end up with a degree you decided not to use or that won't be useful.

[Inflikted]

Well, I don't plan to go into any liberal arts. At this point, my two most likely paths are either business or IT. For these degree completion programs, I first have to obtain an associate's degree from my community college. If I stick with business, I can do that by this time next year. If I go back to an IT major, well, that might take an extra semester or two on top of that.

 

My biggest concern is the risk factor. Being that universities are so expensive (at least, if I understand correctly), I don't want to end up taking on tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt, especially if I suddenly realize I don't want to stick with that major any more and have to start over.

 

So, again, this online university is very attractive to me, because tuition is very affordable. A total expense of about $10000 seems much less daunting than one that could potentially be 3-5 times that. I'm not so much concerned about the online nature of the school, since I've taken several online courses at my community college, and in fact, I actually really like the flexibility of it. Like I said, I just wonder if it's going to matter to employers where my bachelor's degree would've come from, or if they'll just be happy with me having one at all.

[Mr Scorpio]

What do you think of Psychology? I know several people who just have a bachelors degree in Psychology with no plans to pursue graduate school. Even if you do decide to go into HR or social work, you need experience and/or internship.

 

In my opinion, getting a bachelors degree in psychology could land you a career in social work or HR. However, there are programs specified geared towards HR, and probably towards social work as well. Thus, I would expect a hiring manager to take the person with the degree in human resources as opposed to someone who learned about people being electrocuted and rats running in a maze.

 

I'll be 24 when I get my bachelors degree and I don't think anything is wrong with that. Plenty of people change their minds as far as majors and sometimes it's worth it to take a little longer rather than end up with a degree you decided not to use or that won't be useful.

 

I agree with you that there is nothing wrong the getting the four-year degree at age twenty-four. I also agree with your reasoning. I did the exact opposite by switching majors over-and-over, which was the point I was originally responding to.

 

In hindsight, I was a fool because I was more interested in playing in bands and partying in my early 20's. Thus, while I was in college, I didn't have any direction. My case is an extreme one, but perhaps a good cautionary tale to those younger than me.

[Mr Scorpio]

My biggest concern is the risk factor. Being that universities are so expensive (at least, if I understand correctly), I don't want to end up taking on tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt, especially if I suddenly realize I don't want to stick with that major any more and have to start over.

 

This is where "soul searching" comes into play. You're young and the resources are out there. Assuming you dont need to stay in your hometown, your options are limited only by the quality of your grades.

 

First, is there something that you would really enjoy doing? Nothing could be better than being excited to go to work at least some days because you enjoy your work. If so, I would say screw the risk of debt. Bust your *** in school, get the education you need, and enjoy yourself. If not, and you just want to earn a pay-check, then we have the question below.

 

Like I said, I just wonder if it's going to matter to employers where my bachelor's degree would've come from, or if they'll just be happy with me having one at all.

 

The answer to this would require research on your part. I'm not sure what sources would be unbiased. My concern would be in regard to internships. Without an internship you have no experience, and without experience you're in trouble in this job market. If online schools don't work with local businesses in your area to provide internships, I wouldn't consider them.

 

As for studying business, MBAs are a dime a dozen and competition will be fierce. I dont know what you can/cant do with a four-year business degree, but I would expect to be going up against MBAs for some positions.

 

In regard to IT, I've known people who were hired without a degree at all simply because they could perform the job. On the other hand, I've known people who had the degree and got the job, only for it to be outsourced to India. Not that either business or IT are bad choices. Especially if you combine them with the healthcare field.

[Inflikted]

First, is there something that you would really enjoy doing? Nothing could be better than being excited to go to work at least some days because you enjoy your work. If so, I would say screw the risk of debt. Bust your *** in school, get the education you need, and enjoy yourself. If not, and you just want to earn a pay-check, then we have the question below.

 

Nothing I could viably make a living off of, no. The interests I do have are major long shots, in terms of career potential. Basically, things you have to be either really lucky or really talented to do well in, and I'm neither of those things.

 

As for studying business, MBAs are a dime a dozen and competition will be fierce. I dont know what you can/cant do with a four-year business degree, but I would expect to be going up against MBAs for some positions.

 

In regard to IT, I've known people who were hired without a degree at all simply because they could perform the job. On the other hand, I've known people who had the degree and got the job, only for it to be outsourced to India. Not that either business or IT are bad choices. Especially if you combine them with the healthcare field.

 

I'm not really sure what I could see myself doing, with either a business or IT degree, to be honest. In terms of business, I'm not much of a "salesman", I'm not so good at the accounting side of things, I don't care much for the legal aspects of it, and I can't see myself being a "manager" over a group of people. I'm not sure what, exactly, that leaves open.

 

As for IT, I tried engineering and programming, and I didn't like either of them. I tried focusing on the networking aspects of it, but I found myself having trouble wrapping my head around it, in the end.

 

As far as internships go, that's not really something I have to go through my school for, though, is it? I'm sure there are viable ways to find internships without having to deal with my school directly. Actually, in one of my classes I took last semester, the instructor recommended a website that allows prospective students to find and apply for internships; I've bookmarked the site, and signed up for an account, but I've only browsed over it a few times. Every time I look to see what's available in my area, I end up going through the list and finding reasons why I don't find any of them to be interesting.

[Mr Scorpio]

It sounds like you're in the same position I was in at your age, except for the crucial fact that you actually appear concerned about the issue, which is good. All I was concerned Bwas getting into a relationship -- and if I couldn't do that -- then hanging out with 4am because thats what my friends were doing and I didn't care to be lonely.

 

But alright, you can't think of any career that you would really like to do. Then maybe look beneath the label. What sorts of things would you want to be doing in your career? Working with computers? Working with your hands? Working inside/outside? Working with the young/elderly?

 

Another way to look at it is, what do you want to avoid in your life? Nothing is guaranteed, but if you dont "settle" on a career, there is a good chance you'll end up working in a factory performing manual labor, where you can look forward to minimum pay and minimum benefits.

 

In other words, you might not like programming, but you might like making 40-70k per year as opposed to 18-25k?

[Inflikted]

In other words, you might not like programming, but you might like making 40-70k per year as opposed to 18-25k?

 

Well, let me rephrase that; I'm not that good at things like programming and code, and I don't like them enough to actively try to get better at them.

 

I dunno, I guess I'd kinda like to be working with computers in some way, but I'm not sure how. Everything I've tried thus far, I haven't really found to be that interesting. Part of me isn't really thrilled about the idea of spending 40+ hours a week tinkering around with computers and whatnot.