sociology with individualized concentration on media and culture. also graduated cum laude. i feel like employers should want to hire me, but at the same time, im not really applying for any kind of job that would use my degree, so maybe im overqualified? im trying to save up money for a road trip across country because ive never really been outside of the northeast corner of the us. i so badly wanna see the rockies and the pacific ocean. i also might move out to california if i can save enough money so it doesnt make much sense to look for a career type job around here. and yes ive worked many shitty jobs. hell i was a canvasser, i dont think it gets much shitter than that. hell even the warehouse jobs ive had werent that bad haha
The best decision-maker from my childhood acquaintances was a big skier who decided to go get a job with the ski patrol in Colorado. Graduated with a degree in mathematics but wanted to be a ski bum for awhile. He spent 3 years doing that and related jobs for a low salary but enough to pay the bills. Then when he was 25 one of the resort managers he worked for got a new gig running Antarctic whale tours out of New Zealand. He wound up as a safety manager down there for 5 years working on the Zodiac boats. That gig paid a lot more than the ski patrol. Then one of the big multi-national resort companies heard about this guy everybody was buzzing about who had 8+ years experience working in the trade who knew safety from all angles and they hired him at a 6 figure salary to trouble-shoot for them. His only condition was he wanted to be out in the field and close to the action. They said, no problem. He retired a few years ago as a multi-millionaire and never worked a day in his life. He finished about 5th in his class in the mathematics program at the big state school he went to but the closest he came to ever going into the profession was working out fuel efficiency ratios in cold weather and the like.
I jumped right in after graduation but to be fair I wasn't 21/22 when I graduated from college. I was 25 because I failed out of Arizona State at 19. I took some time off and saw the world because I was lucky enough to get a job with Continental Airlines. Once 9/11 happened I decided to go back to school and get my degree, I got my degree in a field that would get me into a career that I loved however it is ultra comptetive. This was around 2005 but I did all the right things and marketed myself to the right people and got my foot in the door. My guess is there are less than 5000 people in the country who did what I was doing however it also wasn't high paying, Everything was going good, I got married, had a child, bought a house, a new car and then the economy went to shit because a few rich people decided they could make it. The bottom fell out, I got laid off, I am divorced and I had to work a shitty job to get off unemployment, now long removed from my career going away I work with a very large dot com dealing with some extremely complictaed issues that cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars but I am grossly underpaid for what I do. Fortunately I live in Vegas and the cost of living is really low here. I've had thoughts of going overseas to teach English. My advice is to enjoy life because you never know when your career will end because of circumstances beyond your control. My life experiences make up more richness and happiness than any paycheck I've ever recieved. Sure it'd be nice to have more money so I can have more life experiences but I can't control what some millionare wants to pay me.
ur honesty should score major points with the youngans here....there are alot of millionaire executives, lawyers, and politicians that wouldn't admit to failing...anything. u r head and shoulders above them.
As others have said, and I will empjasize and repeat, this is a crucial crossroads for you, don;t fall into the complacent, conformist attitude if you can avoid it. I spent much of HS and college thinking i knew what i wanted to do, when really all I knew was to pursue the path of least resistance which required the least thought, risk etc. Got an Acct'g Degree, had a job lined up before I graduated college, started that job got my masters degree, and locked myself into a career that I don't even like. Makes for a long career. Had opportunities to change course as I was single for a while but never did then compounded my issues with marriage and kids (who i love) but I can't change now because now I need to support them with a crappy job that I loath. Only way I make it through a day is knowing they are counting on me. Think carefully and pursue things you love or are passionate about regardless of degree etc!!
DO what the fuck your heart wants to do!!! Fuck conforming to "Society Standards" on what is the "correct way"... Oh, send a cover letter here but not here, oh only used linkedin in but no facebook.. Oh, and you must have an email set up at.... FUK THAT! Realize what makes you happy and make a career of it. EOS. Also, StinkyB and Barry are spot on!!
Me personally, I'm going to be a senior with a Broadcast Journalism/History double-major. I really want to work in sports media but I'm scared as shit that I'm dooming myself because it's a very low-paying and unorthodox career path. I'm usually pretty optimistic but with the way Journalism as a field is being gutted it's very hard to do sometimes.
see, don't fall into that trap. follow what you want to do, forget about the articles, research everything else that ell you what's the best jobs are and shit, you'll be better in the long run. Your path might not be straight or even go where you were planning exactly, but you'll wind up somehwere doing something you like to do. i don't want to preach but really if i had to do it all over again........passion over security!!
Well I can tell from first hand experience that it is extremely competitive, you won't make any money and you can get cut at any time unless you are a big deal. Don't let that scare you, if that's really what you want to do then do it. Be prepared to intern in shitholes for 200 bucks every two weeks or no money and don't think right away you'll be doing updates on WFAN (unless you know the right person and suck his dick really well) more likely you'll be doing the farm report followed by Friday night high school football in Eau Claire, Wisconsin or covering school board meetings and a 2 hour a week sports show in Clinton, Iowa. You also have to consider that many markets are closed to people like you because you might not live and breathe Ohio State football so forget Columbus or you may not know Steeler players from the 1960's so you have no shot in the Steel City. Instead you'll be looking to top out transient cities like Phoenix, Miami, San Fran, Seattle, Las Vegas. These are good markets but you have to remember there are 2000 people just like you fighting for that one job a year in those cities. I have a friend in Kansas who interned under me in Vegas, he took a job in Woodward , Oklahoma and is now on his way to some town in Kansas. It's a move up for him but you have to willing to bite the bullet and be willing to do that. It's not for everyone and the people who have the knowledge before they committ themselves are better off. He is originally from Long Island, you think he wants to be in hellhole Kansas? Of course not but he loves what he does so he lives in hell hole Kansas. If you are serious about it and this would be my advice to anybody getting into the business. Learn two things, learn to blog and really well. Open your mind to non traditional things like gambling and this is the most important. A host doesn't make the station money, an account executive does. If you can sell advertising and host you are an asset, if you are a host and nothing else you are expendable. All that being said fuck the money... I didn't make great money doing it but what I took away from it made every sports fan I know jealous. Being on the field for the Jets/Chargers in the playoffs at Qualcomm. Going into the lockerroom with Team Japan after they won the World Baseball Classic, having dinner with Walt Frazier before a Knicks game, drinking beers with Michael Bisping at an English Pub in Vegas. You couldn't pay me enough to have given that up. I got to race go karts against a Nascar Champion, go to an NBA All Star game, all sorts of other shit that I didn't pay a dime for. The experiences more then make up for any monetary value.
Buy a cheap used van. Wake up tomorrow, pack some shit into it and drive. Go across country. Go with a friend. Wash dishes/waiter in different towns across the country. Sleep in the van. Google "free local washrooms" and use them. This will be the only chance you have to see this great country. Do that for about 6mos to a year. You will have stories to last your entire lifetime. You can look for a serious job after that. I believe an employer would respect you if you just came out and said, "I figured this would be my only shot, - so I took it." When you get married, - you'll have kids. When you have kids, - you'll have bills. When you have bills, - you'll have responsibilities. When you have responsibilities, - you'll be out of choices.
Exactly, I have always wanted to travel and I did. I've been to places most Americans only dream or don't want to go ie Russia, Israel, Venezuela, Brazil, Guatemala and I never had to pick up a firearm or commit to 4 years to do it. I don't think I'll ever get rid of it. I just need to find a way to travel to SE Asia and bang a few women a week and have the money to do it. If I didn't have a child once I got divorced my ass would have been in Vietnam or Korea teaching English and saving some cash to travel on my days off. Even with that child I interviewed for a job in Dubai and if offered I may have seriously taken it. I freaking interviewed with Aer Lingus and would have had 8 weeks of training in Dublin and likely would have had to move there. Can I get a fuck yeah... didn't get it but would have loved it. Currently I'm trying to come up with an idea to sell shit online that would take me to places like Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia and PI. I've got an idea but right now it's about making it work. It's all about life, like someone else said. Once you have kids you have bills and once you have bills you have responsibilities but until that day comes live life and worry about tomorrow when it becomes tomorrow.
I graduated back in December with a BA in Sociology and a minor in marketing. 4 months after i graduated i found the job where I work now as a sales rep at a call center for a marketing firm near my home full-time. Not my dream job, not the most exciting or fulfilling job in the world, but for where i'm at right now its not bad. It fits the recent grad lifestyle well. i get a nice paycheck every week, have weekends off and my boss is a smokin hot dominican milf, so i try not to complain lol. The 4 months prior to finding my current job i went to Florida for spring break and worked as a server at an pscale bistro near my home. I guess waht i'm trying to say is just do what you want to do, ignore what your parents "want" you to do, or think you "should" do, and just do you. you create your experience of life.
When I graduated college, I got a job in Afghanistan and worked 12 hour days, 7 days a week. I made serious bank. Paid off my students loans. THEN I did nothing. Month long vacation in New Zealand. Brand new car. High roller. The longer you do nothing, the harder it's going to be to get a job.
Graduated 2 years ago then took a year off to apply to graduate school and make a few bucks. I just finished my first year of my doctoral training in psychology. It is nice to hear all the encouragement to follow what you love... I have heard a ton of people tell me not to pursue the field because of the competition or mediocre pay grade but I can say that I love what I am studying and I am very happy with my decision.
This is another good way to go. Pick a field or location that is wide open and make as much as you can as quickly as you can. Adds a decent line to the resume also. For people at a loss of what to do after college one of the prime gigs right now is ESL in China or Japan. If you have any communications skills at all and think you could teach people how to speak English from a prepared text you could make a *lot* of money in a very short time period. The pay rates for that kind of work are usually double a normal entry level job and you get many of your expenses paid as well. It's not hard to find info on the opportunities either. Just do a search on ESL China or Japan and something should pop up right away.
ok, so wiht that degree you should have absolutely no job prospects. Soooooooooo, I would say take as much time off as needed.
Cali is awesome. San Diego is where I would move. I think my Wife's cousin has the coolest job in the world, she works for this dance company called Polabolus, they are based out of CT, but are massive in Europe. They basicly make shadows and get paid ass loads of money to travel the world.
You have to do what makes you happy. The fact that you got divorced and had a kid makes these goals very tough. So in the meantime if you can get into travel industry or just traveling on your own you may feel rewarded with you life which you seem like are experiencing whenever you do travel. Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, are all places in demand for foreigners. You could find work there if you looked hard enough or asked people about it.
I graduated from college this past May, so I understand where kids are coming from. The one piece of advice I remember getting is that you should never decline your first job offer. Well I interviewed with two companies, one I really liked, and one that I wasn't much of a fan of. I ended getting a job offer for the second company, but I honestly felt that I was better than that. I ended up blindly declining that offer for the hope that I would get the first job. Long story short, after two months and about 7 interviews I got the job. Now I will be at an exciting growing company, and I have the opportunity to travel to Italy, the UK, and other countries too. I think with a career, you should always think with your heart because you'll be at your job 8+ hours a day, so you might as well somewhat enjoy where you are at. Don't be afraid to take a risk because you never know what you will find out about yourself!
