What do you do for a living?/Help me pick a career.

[Ghonzo]

Well I'm a recent grad from UCR with a Computer Engineering degree and I just landed a job(starts on the 15th) at General Networks Corp as a Support Consultant where I'm on a support team assigned to Disney for programming/troubleshooting/sys admin needs across the U.S. I'm not struggling with the bills atm because I just moved back home and my job is a 3-4 minute drive.

In college, my GPA steadily decreased every year and I had originally planned to go to grad school. That plan is on hold because of how hard some of these classes were for me. But my final overall GPA was a 2.8, I failed Calculus, Machine Language Programming, as well as an intermediate algorithms class. I was extremely stressed because if you don't pass the second time your booted from the major. I know I wasn't the brightest or smartest in my class but I knew that I didn't want to do any other major so I stuck with it.

My advice: Get through your shitty basic courses and re-take them as many times as it takes. Upper div CS classes don't even use calculus. Almost everyone I know who was in my major or related major is doing something different from each other so Comp Sci can take you to many different places that spark your interests. To sum it all up, Don't quit and I don't think your Plan A has failed yet.

On a side note... while I was job hunting, most jobs actually didnt not ask for my GPA. I'd say about 20% ask but most of them liked that i had 1.7 years of internship experience over my GPA. Once you graduate your an engineer regardless of your GPA.

Also, just doing what you enjoy doing to make a living realistically doesn't work most of the time now a days.

They may not use calculus but we have something called differentals, multivariables and so on XD God Im going to hate math and programming classes... oh and O Chem gonna be a bitch to pass as well

Dawg ur like 20min away from my school

 

[Spray]

They may not use calculus but we have something called differentals, multivariables and so on XD God Im going to hate math and programming classes... oh and O Chem gonna be a bitch to pass as well

Dawg ur like 20min away from my school

Plug n chug n'til u become a thug.

 

[tuc0]

I know some people actually got a degree in something and hated doing the work and end up doing something else. But I guess, if one gets paid a lot to work on a job, one will learn to enjoy the job somehow!

 

[S-Dawg]

They may not use calculus but we have something called differentals, multivariables and so on XD God Im going to hate math and programming classes... oh and O Chem gonna be a bitch to pass as well

Dawg ur like 20min away from my school

yep

 

[fAt Kaka]

What do you guys do for a living? whore myself to fat chicks for $50 a pop

Are you happy at your job? sometimes

What did you have to do to get there? went to 4 years of undergrad and 2 years being a graduate assistant

Are you struggling to pay your bills? work overtime when I have to

 

[built[4]sin]

what do i do? infectious disease, biodefense and cancer drug discovery (i help run a high-throughput compound applications lab)

are you happy? absolutely

what did i have to do? become unemployed from my prior career(s) and fall into a program that paid me to go to school - i do NOT advise this route

are you struggling? i'll never be rich as far as money is concerned, but my "life" is fucking fantastic



dude. find out what you like doing and do it. the money will come or it won't. as long as you are spiritually fulfilled (and i'm not talking religion), then fucking do it. you're going to be working for the next 40+ years of your life - you better like what you do haha

 

[FuZion]

Don't join the military, that is my advice If you do, just go reserves, and have them help you pay off your student loans.

 

[TheGateKeeper]

Backstory for those who don't know.

I'm a 19 year old community college kid, living at home with ma. I was set on a B.A. in Compute Science. Since 11th grade I wanted to get this degree, CCNA certificate, and just get a stable well paying job as a network administrator. Over the past 2 years I've mostly been taking GE classes, and I've just got 2 more classes to go. However my Major Prep classes I've still got a year and a half of VERY hard classes. I've failed Calculus twice in a row, though I studied my ass off. The stress drove my immune system to such a low, that I contracted shingles. People usually don't get that until they're in their 60s.


So now I'm trying to figure out what I want to do. My plan A failed, and I'm scrambling to find a plan B. I've been thinking more about doing some sort of trade school; carpentry maybe. Jesus was a carpenter. I've also thought about photojournalism, or some sort of photography. I think I'd be content shooting weddings/special events and portraits. At this point I'd like to move out (somewhere distant and completely new, my hometown sucks), find a new job, keep going to community college until I find out what I want to do.

I'm not out to try to change the world with some new product. I don't want to become an accountant like my dad, just for the money. He hates it and has told me since I was 5 that he'd rather be doing anything else and make far less. Being 19, I don't have many living expenses. I'd be happy with just being independent and going to school at my own pace until I figure out what I want to dedicate myself to.

My questions to you:

What do you guys do for a living?

Are you happy at your job?

What did you have to do to get there?

Are you struggling to pay your bills?

Thanks guys.

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH the Jesus thing had me laughing for minutes man lol!


Seriously though just because your first plan failed doesn't mean its game over. You ever read about Bill Gates? He failed most of his subject but is one of the richest people in the world lol. I worked a "basic" run of the mill job a year ago even though I was always a good programer, so I left and started my own self employed business. I'm not rich yet but I just started making some money, and you would be surprised how happy you feel when you make money doing something on your own.

Keep your head up man.

 

[Psychedelic.Penguin]

PP. Which courses did you do well?

I did really well in History and Biology. I found those courses to be very easy, both in high school and college. Its all vocab/names & dates; memorization. However I never found them to be interesting, just required for graduation and general ed. I took some art classes that I always enjoyed going to and did well in, photography specifically.

I'm starting to notice a trend. People that have been working for a while are saying to go with what I enjoy doing, while the youngins are saying pick a career with high demand and good pay.

 

[tuc0]

what do i do? infectious disease, biodefense and cancer drug discovery (i help run a high-throughput compound applications lab)

are you happy? absolutely

what did i have to do? become unemployed from my prior career(s) and fall into a program that paid me to go to school - i do NOT advise this route

are you struggling? i'll never be rich as far as money is concerned, but my "life" is fucking fantastic



dude. find out what you like doing and do it. the money will come or it won't. as long as you are spiritually fulfilled (and i'm not talking religion), then fucking do it. you're going to be working for the next 40+ years of your life - you better like what you do haha

Agree with you on the "find out what you like doing and do it. the money will come or it won't" part. Amen. If you dread doing your job, you will begin to not show up for work then eventually get fired for that or from poor performance. But, as I said before, if you can't match what you enjoy doing to a vocation or degree then find one which you enjoy somewhat or tolerate doing.