If you could go back..

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

...and change career directions, college majors, et al, what would you do differently?

I think I might have liked to have gone into Marine Biology or perhaps Film School. Both were obsessions from an early age that I foolishly ignored in adulthood. Now it's too late for me, but one can still dream like Walter Mitty.



top 5 dream careers I should have pursued:

1. Marine Biologist and Deep Sea Explorer
2. Film Director
3. Film Score Composer
4. Undercover Investigative Journalist
5. Movie Special Effects Guru

I think some of these could've been paired, like I could've been a documentary film maker and showcased the world beneath the waves, then written the scores for my undersea exploits and adventures. I could've been Kubrick, Costeau and Goldsmith, rolled into one, whilst moonlighting as Woodward. Imagine that. By day, I would dive to the wrecks of ancient mariners and study and document the lifeforms clustered around these burial grounds, by night, I would uncover government and corporate treachery. Or maybe night diving would be more fun.

 

[The Cat]

I can't really do these things per say. I did the best I could at the time with what I had to work with.

I don't really have an end game though, I assume at some point I'll simply stop one way or another. Regrets of the past for me are best left there. There's enough spectres in the present for me.

 

[Mind Maverick]

Same as Gentleman Jack for me.

 

[Peter Deadpan]

I started thinking about this 10 seconds before I came here and saw this.

I really want to go back to school so I can do something I don't hate. The problem is that there are so few things I can see myself enjoying long-term. I've had a million ideas over the years and changed with the direction of the wind, so maybe I'm fucked.

Things I consistently like:
- writing
- creative problem solving
- thinking outside the box (original creativity)
- being my own boss
- decor design (minus the math)

I can only picture myself happy as an entrepreneur who writes on the side. I could potentially see myself as some sort of life coach, but I need to be careful when it comes to psychiatry-ish stuff because I am so permeable to others' suffering, which could leave me perpetually fatigued and depressed.

I could also be happy working with like-minded people in some forn of the humanities or art/culture scene, or even a cafe/bar combo that stands out from the rest.

Ultimately, I need autonomy and creativity and flexibility of schedule to some degree, along with reasonable pay (I don't need to be loaded).

So, I don't really know what to go back to school for, but I need to decide because I want to start this year.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I started thinking about this 10 seconds before I came here and saw this.

I really want to go back to school so I can do something I don't hate. The problem is that there are so few things I can see myself enjoying long-term. I've had a million ideas over the years and changed with the direction of the wind, so maybe I'm fucked.

Things I consistently like:
- writing
- creative problem solving
- thinking outside the box (original creativity)
- being my own boss
- decor design (minus the math)

I can only picture myself happy as an entrepreneur who writes on the side. I could potentially see myself as some sort of life coach, but I need to be careful when it comes to psychiatry-ish stuff because I am so permeable to others' suffering, which could leave me perpetually fatigued and depressed.

I could also be happy working with like-minded people in some forn of the humanities or art/culture scene, or even a cafe/bar combo that stands out from the rest.

Ultimately, I need autonomy and creativity and flexibility of schedule to some degree, along with reasonable pay (I don't need to be loaded).

So, I don't really know what to go back to school for, but I need to decide because I want to start this year.

become a wealthy entrepreneur and fund my deep sea expeditions. I'm also gonna need you to pay for my scuba diving classes. And please keep wearing that bunny suit.

 

[ceecee]

I would have stayed with health care but I would have gotten into policy.

 

[Coriolis]

...and change career directions, college majors, et al, what would you do differently?

I would not change my education or overall career direction. The only thing I might have done differently is follow up on an opportunity to change employer several years ago. It wasn't the right position at the time, but I probably could have turned it into that after a couple years. I am finding it much harder to move on now.

 

[Earl Grey]

There were several times I questioned several things I did. But yes, looking back, I did what I could with what I had.
Certain things were unforeseeable, and certain investments did not pay off.
Focus on what you have, not what you lost.

I read a nice analogy once, if you were given $50, busted half and have $25, you still do have $25. It's not 0.
You lost $25, but it's not everything. Treat it as if you were just given $25, go on from there with the knowledge gained from the other $25 lost.

 

[Peter Deadpan]

I think I'm gonna look into philosophy, either a major or minor or maybe even double major with something like psychology. Ultimately, I want options with the primary goal of being able to pursue writing and/or teaching. The way my mind works, I think I need an excessive amount of stimulation and tinkering with conceptual connections to avoid general neurosis and feelings of dread/pointlessness. People tend to view philosophy as a pointless major, but the statistics show that philosophy majors have the highest jump in income by mid-career and the options are essentially limitless because philosophy teaches you how to think, not what to think.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I think I'm gonna look into philosophy, either a major or minor or maybe even double major with something like psychology. Ultimately, I want options with the primary goal of being able to pursue writing and/or teaching. The way my mind works, I think I need an excessive amount of stimulation and tinkering with conceptual connections to avoid general neurosis and feelings of dread/pointlessness. People tend to view philosophy as a pointless major, but the statistics show that philosophy majors have the highest jump in income by mid-career and the options are essentially limitless because philosophy teaches you how to think, not what to think.

Not to repeat the trope or mantra that philosophy is a terrible major, but I think you're on the right track, pairing that with something a little more practical. I don't necessarily believe that trope, I think that can be the same case with any major. Like, I've met business majors who didn't do squat with their degrees.

 

[Peter Deadpan]

Not to repeat the trope or mantra that philosophy is a terrible major, but I think you're on the right track, pairing that with something a little more practical. I don't necessarily believe that trope, I think that can be the same case with any major. Like, I've met business majors who didn't do squat with their degrees.

I think all broad majors are a risk because of competition, but I think focusing on my natural skills is the way to go regardless because that's what I'll be most motivated to pursue post degree.

I don't want to sell my soul, I want to enjoy my life and scrape by semi-comfortably, no mansions or island retreats for me.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I don't want to sell my soul, I want to enjoy my life and scrape by semi-comfortably, no mansions or island retreats for me.

but in the bunny suit, right?

 

[Peter Deadpan]

but in the bunny suit, right?

Sure.

that's actually kinda what my skinny legs look like

 

[1487610420]

Sure.

that's actually kinda what my skinny legs look like

theres no pix in the spoiler tag.

 

[cascadeco]

I think knowing more about myself now, with the idea of seeking out a career that I think I would have both *enjoyed*, that would have utilized some of my strengths, AND would have been practical, AND where a degree would actually be required (vs many jobs that just want you to have any degree and then you work your way up into a unsatisfactory office job) I'd probably major in one of the following -

1. Landscape Architecture
2. Architecture
3. Actually remained in engineering but stayed in my original Environmental Engineering vs my switching out into another engineering which wasn't for me at all and then leaving engineering completely. Ironically if I'd stayed in environmental I'd quite possibly have been satisfied with options post-graduation.
4. Interior Design -- I think I'd enjoy/be good at -- but I'm pretty darn sure the people/sales/finesse element would drive me bonkers, so honestly this would probably be a bad choice for me.

I honestly think that's all I've got. For practical degrees, that is.

 

[Yuurei]

I'm fine with my major.

I would like to have career at all and I may have had a chance back in the past. Both of those times they were ruined by my Grandmother.

In one instance I was still a minor so I'm not sure if anything I did could change that but if there were-that.

The 2nd I was an adult but had been under my grandmother's thumb my entire life so when she told me that she would call...whomever you call when you've convinced some authority that your child/granddaughter is mentally deficient ( I wasn't. it was just one of her control methods)

Knowing what I know-that anyone she would have called on me would have met me, seen I was fine and told her to fuck off-I'd go back and well, tell her to fuck off.

 

[ducks]

I went for electrical engineering. I didn't like school. It was way too theoretical and focused on regurgitating information thrown at you. But I wanted to engineer things, so I stayed. I loved modifying cars and messing with microcontrollers. I made an autonomous toy car that used sound waves to build up a map of what environment was around it, so it could navigate. I graduated in 2008 with a 2.98 GPA (where most jobs won't hire anyone with less than a 3.0 minimum, but usually want 3.5) because I failed a semester due to depression and not knowing if I wanted to stay in. Coupled with my increasing anxiety at the time, due to many personal factors, and anxiety about student loans and working while in school, and no one was willing to hire me. And I think I got two interviews over a years time and send out thousands of applications. It was also kind of depressing because corporations do most of their applications online, so it's hard to get a leg up for hiring consideration, unless you know someone working there or work there already. Then I found out later that Electrical engineers are over-saturated and I kind of gave up...I do work for a government contractor, but all the "engineers" are just incompetent managers, doing whatever the guy above them wants so they can move on to a "better" management job. Too much dick sucking for me.

But I realized after graduating that I had a poor understanding of what was really going on with electricity; the college I went to didn't care about that. So I spent a lot of time going over more quantum related physics in order to figure it out and I think I've gotten to a point where I'm pretty happy with my understanding, even though it's not all complete. So when someone talks about inductance or capacitance or radio waves and Einstein's relativity, I can abstract why they behave the way they do, and I'm not bragging or something because it's not for everyone, but I really like mysterious shit. But all the other stuff is pretty incredible too; for example, the Higgs Boson and the Higgs field is pretty interesting because there are a lot of theories about what that implies and what that would really mean. My favorite are the motionless ether theories where matter can be created and destroyed (matter and anti-matter). I read that Tesla believed in a similar theory, which fascinates me because he thought the sciences were too narrow-minded and preachy of their pet theories, such as particle physics. Like for example, they say that The Michelson-Morley Experiment (which includes Einstein) contradicts there being an ether because its movement can't be detected, but it's also possible that the ether is inherently motionless. So maybe theoretical physics would have been fun to do instead. It would be really neat to understand enough about it all to finally create a decent theory of gravity and a resulting anti-gravity machine.

But more realistically, I think I'd be happy being an Indie developer. I some money on an Ethereum investment playing with the bubbled cryto-space. So I could fund an operation for some years. I've been thinking about using my GI Bill to go to Digipen for the Real time interactive simulation degree. I could so get engrossed in a career like that and maybe it's what I should have done from the get-go, instead of trying things I was clearly not good at, or passionate about, or passionately disliked, such as being a soldier, or playing the corporate ladder, or working a trade and trying to get really good at it (too much repetition and profit focused). But I guess that's life; don't they say most people don't really get to their right place until about their middle 30s or so? Sounds about right for me, I'd say.

 

[rav3n]

Zoology and paleontology are two majors that appeal to me but had I taken them instead of the finance/econ route, my son wouldn't have existed and that to me would be a crime. The reason he wouldn't have existed is the inability in either field, to have a consistent and stable family life so we would have opted not to have any children.

 

[Kanra Jest]

Would I risk splitting into a parallel reality by changing the past and screw shit up? Nah

 

[Maou]

I would:
- Completely redo High school, and get on honor roll and take classes I knew I would enjoy by actually trying.
- Join the military
- Go to college and get a degree.
- Get a decent job, and save religiously.