Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
Posts: 9455

http://www.fastcompany.com/online/66/mylife.html

It's long, but I found it to be very interesting. Some of us may benefit from it. I did, at least.

If anyone reads it and cares to comment on how their own life and career match up, feel free.

I popped around different disciplines in college, following the path described in the article in many ways. I was good at math and science in high school so I started college in an engineering program without really thinking about what it entailed. After Calculus 2, it was painfully obvious that I really didn't want to do maths my whole life. Biology was cool and i switched over there and enjoyed the class work until I happened to take and intro to Anthropology class and discovered what I had been wanting all along.

I've always like to talk and be the center of conversation. I like to teach and loved my ski instructing job. It made sense for me to go into academia, so off i set on the course to get my PhD and a college teaching position. THat was 7 years ago. I did a tiny bit of "teaching" in my MA program, mostly recitation sections and an occasional lecture. Ive given a few conference presentations as well, but none of it was "teaching." 3 months ago, a teaching job fell in my lap and I found myself in front of a classroom teaching two subjects to 25 students. I had kind of forgotten that I wanted to be a teacher. Man, but was it thrilling to be in front of the class, dealing with the subjects and just doing the things teachers do.

I have 18 months or so of work left until I graduate and have to get a full time job. Its a little scary because I don't know for suer that I can find a job at an institution that I will like, but I'm not that nervous overall because I haev found a profession that I truly truly enjoy. I just have to buckle down and write a dissetation that I am not embarassed about.

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Florida
Posts: 74

Don't volunteer for your church. They won't appreciate you.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Boston
Posts: 6985

Unlike so many people who go through college I actually had the time to face this question while not in school. At the same time, it was while I was working a shitty job. For over a year after I left WPI's Computer Science program I had not chosen a new major, though thankfully I did choose a school that gave me options. My mother constantly told me that sometimes you don't find what you want to do with your life until you're up around 40 years old. The downside to this comment was that I felt like it was holding me back. I needed to know I might find it this time at college, or 5 years down the road, but no mention of being 40. Being 40 isn't relevant to me right now. Being 22 is.

I lucked out in terms of chosing a field. I realized that I enjoyed quite a number of things about business and kept it open as an option. The day I went down to the University of Hartford to sign up for classes more or less pushed me in that direction for my immediate future. Tina Pesola, the lady I met with that day in the school of Arts and Sciences, was right: I had to choose SOMETHING. Just so happened it had nothing to do with her.

Do I think I can dedicate 10 years of my life to being an entrepreneur of some level? I know I can. That's what I've indirectly studied for over 5 years now, it's what I've envied and desired, it's what I live for. I write down my ideas whenever they come to me. I love what I'm studying, I'm interested in every fucking little thing that has any relevance to what I might need to know. My GPA from the fall semester, my first as I return to college, was 3.93! I never had a 3.0 at WPI. Always a little short. I find hope, now. And I love it.

There's a breed of people that exist and I have found they conflict with my interests and don't understand me. To them, I seem cold in a sense. My life is my work. By work I mean my studies and anything related to it. Apparently this is not acceptable to them. This seems self-centered, cautious, as if I'm afraid of living life. If you are someone not dedicated to your work, if nothing like that drives you, then maybe it is you who needs to change and not me. Fact of the matter is, I like my life a lot. I go after what I WANT. To me that is living, achieving your goals whatever they may be. I choose where I take the risks. And in the world of business, you only need to bat .500 to be successful. I think I'm doing pretty well right now.

Then again, I may be a blabbering 22 year old who has no idea about life and many things that will come. Good! I say bring it!

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location:
Posts: 54

Vegas:

Having a business degree doesn't give you shit right now. Get in a program, even if you are at McDonalds, that will further you in there company.

There aren't many oppurtunities out there for anyone. Having a degree out of college with no experience will only leave you unemployed and searching. Take the side job you have now seriously and go with it.

Take this advise from a 26yr old Business double major from a great business school that is unemployed and digging for ANYTHING!

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: Shreveport, LA
Posts: 3836

quote:

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What should I do with my life?

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 5526

Po Bronson. If only he weren't so damn cute. (http://pobronson.com/index_all_about_po.htm)
He's good.

I'm on the other side. I like my job now. But about 10 years ago I had to take six months off to figure out what I wanted to do and could keep doing. Sometimes you have to try things for a while to find out if they fit. I was trying to manage an office, and I found out I hated it.

And I never, ever would have guessed I would like computers. Blind luck that my first post-college temp job was in a computer science department in 1982, in which I discovered the joys of type formatting in unix (I'm not kidding) (my degree was in painting, although I knew that my ability to type would doubtless rescue me from waitressing, which I would have been absolutely terrible at).

Don't think too hard about this whole "what will I do with my life" without also getting your hands dirty. Also, maybe security and a dependable paycheck will be your goal and "what will I do with my life" won't be dependent on passion about work.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
Posts: 9455

I think that the most important thing to remember when asking this question is that the key word is do. It's not about goals or achievements, it's about what you do everyday that is going to make or break your happiness.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Boston
Posts: 6985

quote:

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Originally posted by The Lost
Vegas:

Having a business degree doesn't give you shit right now. Get in a program, even if you are at McDonalds, that will further you in there company.

There aren't many oppurtunities out there for anyone. Having a degree out of college with no experience will only leave you unemployed and searching. Take the side job you have now seriously and go with it.

Take this advise from a 26yr old Business double major from a great business school that is unemployed and digging for ANYTHING!

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