SK’s thing is true, of course. But it’s all about finding my own thang, probably, so like, while I’ll totally keep your suggestion in mind (bio was actually my favorite of the three sciences I took in high school - I like physics a lot, but I don’t have a mathematically intuitive enough mind to really do a lot of creative good there I think), but there is a pretty widely spread, huge swath of unknown territory in the field of human knowledge, and ultimately I’m gonna be experimenting with seeing which “unknown” I feel most comfortable in. It’ll be cool, I hope.
I’m going to college to study:Computer Science :eek: :eek: :eek:
kidding aside,im not just going to study it just because i like video games,but because is in front of a computer where i can really work and be comfterble.But other areas I’m interested are music and art.
I wasted my years in college so much that I ended dropping out. I was undecided on what I wanted to do and changed my majors several times. After time off doing other things I became an EMT and plan to continue onto medic school also fixing computers. It’s not much at all, but I have something now that interest me.
When i was a kid i wanted to be a marine biologist, still have a thing for the ocean though. I always enjoy watching science shows about dinosaurs, so maybe something involving that. Languages would be fun to learn but i’m not sure i would be that great at it. Took a year of Spanish and passed but teacher said i should take the course over again. Might be silly, but love making designs so theres fashion designer and maybe graphic designer. Problem is with graphic deisgner is you have to do something that the company would like, but thats always a good challenge. Theres also my interest in astrology and such i’d love to further one day. Play the flute, piano, or sing, though i probably dont have the greatest voice. Create my own techno music and have a basic understanding of music.Would like to take literature courses and better my writing as well. Don’t think i would mind too much tutoring other if ever i relearn the stuff from high school. Become a better photographer though that probably will just stay a hobby. Further my artistic skills in drawing, painting, maybe even calligraphy. I have always been decent with math of course with the right teacher; would like to expand my knowledge on that.
Realistically am looking towards bookkeeping and eventually accounting someday.
Currently I’m working on a bullshit Comp Sci degree that really is absolute bullshit and means nothing but is all I can currently get due to being a lazy bitch and RPGD in early High School. After I finish this in about 2.5 years (I don’t neccesarily have to, just for my backup plan) I’ll stick myself shit-deep in debt to pursue a Gaming Design and Development Bachelor’s in America. I just really want to work in that field, despite the odds and horror stories, and I think I’m enough of a stubborn headed mule to make it work. If, against expectations, I fail at that, and I finished this bullshit degree, I’ll just go for Software Engineering back in Holland. If that fails, well, I think I’ll just kill myself or something, since pretty much my entire life will have gone to waste 
And yeah, I know it’s the old “kid wants to make video games” thing, but I really think I couldn’t take a job that didn’t involve computers (my entire life has been focused on them, really, and I constantly beat myself up mentally for not knowing as much as some of my RPGC peers. Silly, I know.), and I have a really strong urge to just create something that will bring entertainment to people. I want to somehow raise games to the “next level”, to properly make interactive entertainment for people. To suck you into the game itself. Blah, I’m ranting.
I’ve also always had some interest in learning and studying how the human mind works, but I doubt that I could go into bio now and end up at doing that, plus I want to pursue my primary interest first.
Currently I’m training to be a voice actor, although when I work up the funds I’m going to major in Audio engineering and become a music producer.
So, you want to be Sythe, Maz? =P
I dunno, I’m looking into sort of ambassadorship work in Japan since I’m majoring in PoliSci and Japanese. If that doesn’t work out, I’ve still got a lot of options really since a lot of major companies like people who are fluent in Japanese.
TD, since you live in Holland, if all else fails, you could just be a pimp and drug dealer.
Sure, lead a meaningless life pursuing romanticized and heavily socially constructed, untestable delusions is a constructive and self-fulfilling thing to do. There’s a reason that its not a financial safe haven, you’re the laughing stock of the community. The only reason you see their bullshit in the media is because it entertains people that help maintain these magical things which they think life entails.
Like Maz, I aim to do something which can produce results. As for Maz’ response, sure explore. Have fun. You shouldn’t have too many problems having profs talk about their research and how and why its done.
I hope maybe to someday get into the gaming industry as well with my business degree. I’m going to be getting my Bachelors next year, and I’m planning to get my Masters soon after.
There’s a lot of people who get into comp science for the wrong reasons… the intro weeder classes at UCLA wiped out about half of the incoming freshman, I’d guess. Hopefully they found another major they liked better.
Back when I entered (fall of 2000), the industry was still doing great, and I know many people who majored in CS just because they saw it as a way to get a nice high-paying job. Now it doesn’t look so hot. There were also the game development people, of which I am one, who found that they just weren’t cut out for the more mundane programming stuff. (Which is a fact of game development, a lot of it doesn’t have to do all that much with the fun part of the game.)
It’s a shame that young people are made to feel like they have to choose a major so early on. I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if I had gone with one of my many other interests when I first got into college. But then I realize that for most of my interests, they’re only hobbies. Programming is one of the few things that I love, that I’m really passionate about, and like a relationship, I’m willing to see it through the good times and the bad.
I think that’s the most important thing, to choose a career that you can picture yourself getting up and going to work to every day. It’s gonna suck some days, no job is perfect. But if it’s something you really love, even the sucky days should provide you with some sort of satisfaction, that you’re actually doing something worthwhile and not just getting old.
What you’re doing is very commendable, XCG. I wish you the best of luck. To answer a couple of your questions:
“do you know what you want to do with what you’re learning in college once you finish or do you even know what you’re shooting for in college?”
I’ve found that the skills I’ve learned in college are a start, but I discovered after working a couple programming jobs that you learn 99% of the stuff you need on the job. It may be less true for other majors, but I think that’s the general trend. College is more like a preparation, where you pick up basic skills like time management, critical thinking, and teamwork. My college experience started to feel much more rewarding when I stopped looking at it as a place to get my diploma or learn to program stuff, and started looking at it as a place to learn life skills and grow as a person.
“And one for the guys in or past college already, did you have a change of heart while you were in college about what you wanted to do?”
Yes, all the time. I am frequently bored out of my skull by engineering classes, so I started to take Japanese and other humanities (even though by that time I already had fulfilled my GE requirements). Those classes help to balance things out for me, they’re fun, and they also serve to remind me that while learning about philosophy or music theory are fun, there is no way in hell I’d do that for a living even if I had the skill. When you’re in a major that you know you want to make a career out of, it doesn’t always feel good, but almost always it feels RIGHT. Hope this helps.
Kero’s got it right about college. Bio has similar issues as comp sci. One of my profs’ fav things to do thing is ask “who wants to go to med school?!” in 400 people auditoriums to make everyone raise their hands and also make everyone realize the stupidity of it all. A lot of these people you DO NOT want to be doctors and its not just something you learn by being a dept’ tutor or listening to me rant for hours about these people. People really don’t know shit about what it is that they want to get into when they enter college, as demonstrated by the cataclismic failure and drop out rate of bio majors to name one. One of the things you learn in college is the meaning of an econ or a communications major :P. Its what people who don’t know what to do, have a passion for nothing and don’t really have any applicable skills or will power to apply applicable skills get into very much more often than not.
What’s really funny in bio is how you see the subdivisions of the former premeds that were in bio. The ones with the higher grades you see going into med school, followed by the people who usually did not get the good grades; they’re going into dentistry, optometry and pharmacy. What always amused me was hearing people say "I WANNA BE A VETERENARIAN SO I CAN TAKE CARE OF THE PUPPIES AND THE KITTIES AND MAKE THEM FEEL BETTER!! :hyperven: ". Me: :noway: if not p:unch:: .
They should have a big disclaimer about college: its not going to tell you what your job is going to be like. College is going to give you (hopefully) a decent enough work ethic, knowledge and exposure to certain topics so that if any interest you in the least, you will have the oppurtunity to get off your ass (emphasis on the fact that YOU HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF - a lot of people don’t get that concept) and try to enter one of those fields (hopefully while still in college, so you can modify your aspirations in case that the field didn’t interest you - one of the good things of having undergraduate research available to you, as well as doing clinical volunteer work, programming, interships and all that rot).
As Kero said, there’s a difference between what feels good and what feels right.
>_>
My grades really fucking suck. I doubt i will be able to get into college with them, so i guess my current summer job will become my full time job.
<font size="-8">(plumbing…kill me now)</font>
I wanted to get a job in computers, or something. Just be a cube farm slave, or something deliciously mediocre like that, but…my fucking grades.
And beside. I have no motivation at all, i doubt i would be able to do anything but sit on IRC if my job was to use a computer all day.
I dont know what im going to become. It kind of worries me. I actually think i might just, i dont know, live on welfare or something. Nothing fucking interests me.
Maybe i will go down the whole army route, or something. But i would get kicked out, because i would be such a lazy asshole.
Yeah, believe it or not when I’m not in school I do plumbing with my dad when I can. He pays me well enough but I don’t like it too much, that’s why I’m hoping to get a job doing something else.
I’d like to add something smart to what Sin, SK and Kero already said, but I couldn’t probably say anything better. I just think it’s great you decided to aim for something you really like now instead of waiting a few more years, XCG. I also heard many stories of people who chose to study computer science because they thought it would help them getting into the video games industry, but have been deceived.
Yeah, I never understood how in Hell you stood it. I am not a physical worker. Ugh. X_X
Well my mom puts me on a little guilt trip thing about not helping my dad out all the time, (but I think my brother will take over the business when able instead of me) so I worked with him despite me not being a physical worker and I hate getting dirty. (Dame you, crawlspaces!)
Well, if you get good enough at plumbing, you could always move up the plumbing business ladder and actually own or just run a branch of some plumbing company. Don’t discredit those blue collar, non factory jobs. My uncle owns a plumbing service in a semi-small town, and he makes plenty of money. A house painter lives in my neighborhood, but through his hard work, he has started his own painting service and he must make good money to live in the house he does.
Though im sure it could have been interpreted that way, and if it was, im sorry, but i didnt mean it like that. I’m not bad-mouthing a blue collar job…it’s just i am not the most phsyical guy in the world, so its really hard for me right now, and perhaps not the field of work i would <i>want</i> to pursue.
However, due to the lack of options i have, i will end up <i>needing</i> to pursue such a career.
Thats what i meant >_>;.
I have no idea. Anyone know where i could get a good free online career aptitude test?