what kind of current affairs are you interested in zachandhobbes?

there are lots of different jobs with different roles you can do that are connected with current affairs, though it depends where your interest really lies.

try thinking and looking at a few of these possibilities, and see if any interest you. Then you can figure out a route to get there. There's lots more options too, and no one correct way to get to many of them, so don't worry too much.

1. journalism. obviously this is highly involved in current affairs. i have a friend who's working at the wall street journal... she took languages at university, did a ton of internships and worked on the university newspaper, etc then went to columbia university, made contacts, did more internships, and got the job. It's going to take a lot of extra work outside classes to make it, i think, but it's not a bad job when you get there!
2. diplomat. check out the recruitment process in america, i'm not sure about it there. But in the UK, you don't have to have a politcal science degree to get in, a lot is in the recruitment process. But this way you'll have a hand in directly affecting and implementing policies. Voluntary work can help prop up your CV for this.
3. medicins san frontiers. You could please your parents by becoming a doctor, midwife, or nutritionist, etcetc and also be very involved in current affairs at the same time, travelling to save lives in current crisises! Check out their website, as you'll need to learn another language (i think...) http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/wor...=main-menu . An extremely worthwhile job!
4. NPO, or charity work. There are tons of these organisations, usually working in the developing world. You'll need some specific skill, have tons of voluntary work, and usually a masters degree in a very specific subject. This is good if you have a specific interest though, for instance, human rights, child prostitution, etc.
5. army. There are tons of different jobs in the army, if that's your kinda style. You could even be an army musician i think...

hahah @ your parents & becoming a hobo they're just worried about you though... i think if you can come up with a concrete plan about what you want to do, and how you expect to get there, they'll feel a lot more at ease, and come to accept your decision, i'm sure!

Whatever you do, do challenge yourself. Choosing an easy route won't lead to anything interesting.

All interesting, secure jobs have a high degree of competition associated to them.

Long thread ,didn't read it all but: Find something you really enjoy and would have fun working as a job. Study something you enjoy, it should also have good chances to get employment.
This really comes down to a few things for people: they have to enjoy it(fun), a lot of job opportunities and the pay well/decently/with chance of gaining more money.

As a person that just got out of the medical field, let me assure you that it sucks! Unless you have a real passion for medicine, don't even think about doing it. This comes from my 6 years of experience of being a nurse.

vix86 Wrote:4) Don't go med route unless you are committed to losing 10 years of your life. I'm not sure, but I think law might be the same?

The market for law students is ridiculously poor. A few people I know have made the mistake, and one even wrote up some nice reasons why it's a mistake for most people: http://barelylegalblog.blogspot.com/2007...t-you.html .

Note the guy who posted this, despite being very intelligent and going to a great school, only managed to get a job by learning Spanish and working with non/poor-English speaking immigrants.

His post also links to his friend's post at http://in-it-but-not-of-it.blogspot.com/...chool.html , which is also worth a read.

Personally, I've spent so much time with jp, that my heart says (you should be doing something related to jp for a future career). Just not sure what exactly.

Do not get a political science degree. There's nothing you can do with them, aside from entering law school (in the US and Canada), or get another degree later. All the career options (and many, many more) open to someone with a polisci degree are also open to someone with a business or economics degree. Consider the former if you're not too mathematically inclined, the latter if you can handle the math.

If you want to get into a public affairs career, you can study pretty much anything you like, as long as you love it and are good at it, and then get a graduate degree in something like International Relations.

If you really can't decide, go somewhere where you can do a double major in something that imparts good foundational skills and is interesting at the same time. Music and Philosophy. Or Math and philosophy. Or Music and math. Or Music and rhetoric. Etc.

Irixmark Wrote:If you really can't decide, go somewhere where you can do a double major in something that imparts good foundational skills and is interesting at the same time. Music and Philosophy. Or Math and philosophy. Or Music and math. Or Music and rhetoric. Etc.

Oh crap, why didnt I think to suggest double major. Thats a really great suggestion.

I think most people would be extremely wise to vanquish the notion of needing to find something they "like" in regards to their college degree. This is a myth that I think ends up hurting the vast majority of college students as young kids enter college thinking they are supposed to find some selection of courses that causes some magic tingling in their heart.

If this doesn't happen with you then congrats....you are normal, as this doesn't happen with most people either. The problem is a lot of people don't figure this out and end up getting depressed or hopping around from major to major trying to find their "special place".

So what this means is if you have decided to go to college, and you don't have some super crazy passion that you think college can help you with, then please, PLEASE don't get some generic degree. It costs the same amount of money and time to get a liberal arts degree as it does to get an engineering degree (or any other technical degree) so if you ARE going to spend that money and time NOT being passionate about the degree you are getting then please take as much advantage of it as possible and get the degree that will be worth more in the end.

Or in short stop thinking of college as having to determine anything in regards to your passions and start thinking of it simply as a tool. And the better the tool you buy the better equipped you'll be to embrace your true passions in the future, whenever you happen to come across them.

You can also give ItunesU a try. Since you're still undecided, it probably won't hurt to just look at the different courses you're interested in to see what a typical lecture is like. I wish I did that for Physics last year...

EratiK Wrote:...Basically there are two kinds of people: those with will power, and those with passion. Those with willpower can do anything they want, as long as they know what they want; but those with passion often only know what they don't want, so they end up doing their passion because it's the only thing they can do over a long period of time...

You forgot the third, and by far the largest, category; people without willpower or passion. For those people, a year of travel and reading and reflection is probably advised. It does seem a little ridiculous to expect even half of the freshman class to have a clue what they really want to do with the rest of their lives.

I would suggest the year of travel to anyone before college. But when you get back you need to take your classes seriously. ( I have a problem with this )

I didn't do that but I'm doing that next year in the middle of my college degree. Next year I'll only being doing Japanese and living in Japan. Those classes don't do anything for my engineering degree lol. But It's a much needed break for me I think. Engineering burns me out more than Anki reviews ever will. Try talking about stress in materials for two semesters straight it sucks.

I'm not so set on engineering but it's what i chose and seems logically the best option compared to a degree in East asian studies. I will probably move on to master in business and become a Manager/Executive Director of an Engineering division of a copany. I'm still minoring in Japanese so thats good. Oh and my engineering school is $1300 more per year than a liberal arts degree. "Computer and lab fees"

Oniichan Wrote:

EratiK Wrote:...Basically there are two kinds of people: those with will power, and those with passion. Those with willpower can do anything they want, as long as they know what they want; but those with passion often only know what they don't want, so they end up doing their passion because it's the only thing they can do over a long period of time...

You forgot the third, and by far the largest, category; people without willpower or passion. For those people, a year of travel and reading and reflection is probably advised. It does seem a little ridiculous to expect even half of the freshman class to have a clue what they really want to do with the rest of their lives.

I'll be honest.. if anyone at 18 years old know's exactly what they want to do with the rest of their life.. they are both Naive and deluded.

Your working life lasts something like 50 years normally. If you don't decide in the first few.. no biggie. Honestly. Tough break kid,, you didn't pick the right course your first week at college.. your doomed to a life a being shit and poor and no one will ever love you. Talk about being over dramatic. It's mostly people trying to fool themselves and others that the fact they got stuck in a dead end job they hate straight out the gates is what everyone should do. Providing you can live and support yourself and anyone else you happen to take along with you, lead life how you wish. ***** everyone else.. they really don't matter.

Thanks guys.

A friend of mine who plays Trombone is going to UC Berkeley with an Economics declared major. She is going to play in the orchestra there because that's the type of thing she likes. Maybe I could do something similar... I'm pretty good at math (I'm getting an A in AP Calculus right now... hopefully I can keep that lol) and I do like business as a potential degree, so maybe economics would be the best?

This is all somewhat hypothetical though since I know absolutely nothing about the degree except what you are telling me though haha

Gingerninja Wrote:I'll be honest.. if anyone at 18 years old know's exactly what they want to do with the rest of their life.. they are both Naive and deluded.

So... all those doctors/engineers/<other academic professionals> who went to university at 18 and stuck with their careers were naive and deluded? :S

Economics is a good choice OP. Hiring in that area seems to be picking up now. I'm doing financial mathematics myself.

dizmox Wrote:

Gingerninja Wrote:I'll be honest.. if anyone at 18 years old know's exactly what they want to do with the rest of their life.. they are both Naive and deluded.

So... all those doctors/engineers/<other academic professionals> who went to university at 18 and stuck with their careers were naive and deluded? :S

Economics is a good choice OP. Hiring in that area seems to be picking up now. I'm doing financial mathematics myself.

Maybe saying all.. was a bit strong. But I'd imagine the statistics would say that most people who go into university / college at 18 saying I will definitely do this!! End up either not doing it, or hating it. They're not old enough, experienced enough, or know anything enough to be making such long lasting choices. I think a system were your forced to do a work internship for a year BEFORE going to university would give a lot of students better grounding, more realistic life choices, and less arrogance. So many graduate thinking they're something great, and they know nothing about how the world works.

Gingerninja Wrote:I'll be honest.. if anyone at 18 years old know's exactly what they want to do with the rest of their life.. they are both Naive and deluded.

one of my roommates in college loved math. i mean, LOVED math. he went on IRC to talk about math, won several awards, and when he started college he knew he wanted to do research.

he's a ph.d math candidate at harvard now.

Quote:Your working life lasts something like 50 years normally. If you don't decide in the first few.. no biggie. Honestly. Tough break kid,, you didn't pick the right course your first week at college.. your doomed to a life a being shit and poor and no one will ever love you. Talk about being over dramatic. It's mostly people trying to fool themselves and others that the fact they got stuck in a dead end job they hate straight out the gates is what everyone should do. Providing you can live and support yourself and anyone else you happen to take along with you, lead life how you wish. ***** everyone else.. they really don't matter.

after i graduated i had one of the most miserable years i've ever had right after, as i couldn't find a job. i would sleep at 5am because i had nothing else to do, wake up at 1, send out resumes/get critiques/build skills and just stay at home because i had no money to do anything.

i think the point is that after high school, you can easily look at other professions and ask yourself if that's something you want to do. the vast majority of people don't even think about what they wanna do in life, at the most they only strive to get into a nice university and get good grades. at the most they'll say "i want to work in engineering!" when there's like a billion different types of engineering jobs and fields.

the more quickly you figure yourself out, the better your first step will be, and big first steps make life easier.

heck you might even go 8 years before you realize finance sucks or something like that, but if you worked hard in that 8 years and had a good first step it still makes it easier to transition out of.

I def think it's a good idea to take a break to work out what you want to do.

I have a good generic 'useful' business degree from a good university, but I when I graduated I wasn't interested in doing a good generic management job, which the degree is for, so it was kind of a wasted opportunity.

Having that useful business/economics degree is only useful if you *want* to do whatever job it can get you. I basically couldn't see myself stuck in an office, which ruled me out of most business/economics style jobs... so it wasn't so particularly useful.

Having a degree has helped me of course, but I could have done it in something more interesting and it would have helped me just as much.

Gingerninja Wrote:Maybe saying all.. was a bit strong. But I'd imagine the statistics would say that most people who go into university / college at 18 saying I will definitely do this!! End up either not doing it, or hating it. They're not old enough, experienced enough, or know anything enough to be making such long lasting choices. I think a system were your forced to do a work internship for a year BEFORE going to university would give a lot of students better grounding, more realistic life choices, and less arrogance. So many graduate thinking they're something great, and they know nothing about how the world works.

Everyone I know who had a clear idea of what they wanted to do when going into university studied it, loved it and is now working in that field...

thing is, I don't think my passion will be in an office or in any kind of job available. However I don't think majoring in music or video games is financially viable... I want a job that is not kill-myself boring - something interesting, but it doesn't ahve to be a -passion-, and something I'm decent at, so I can get some money to do the things I really want to do.

I'm not really cut out to be a journalist or a senator (I'd love to be one but so few people get to be, is it really worth trying?), or something like that. If I were to get a job it would most likely be in an office... at least if I did economics I'd have a chance of working in a nice one haha

I doubt I'll find a major that I'll just fall in love with. Well who knows, but so far in high school I haven't 'fallen in love' with any subjects yet, well except band lol.

caivano Wrote:

Gingerninja Wrote:Maybe saying all.. was a bit strong. But I'd imagine the statistics would say that most people who go into university / college at 18 saying I will definitely do this!! End up either not doing it, or hating it. They're not old enough, experienced enough, or know anything enough to be making such long lasting choices. I think a system were your forced to do a work internship for a year BEFORE going to university would give a lot of students better grounding, more realistic life choices, and less arrogance. So many graduate thinking they're something great, and they know nothing about how the world works.

Everyone I know who had a clear idea of what they wanted to do when going into university studied it, loved it and is now working in that field...

I know people who after studying something for 3-4 years totally burned out despite going into it, totally loving the subject. So now have a degree that's useless because although it has real world. job applicable skills... they have no desire left to do it. My GF's ex housemate's for example, one had a degree in some political thing (forget exactly) worked in government type job.. one day up and quit and went back to university to study.. acupuncture.. now that's a job transition you don't see everyday. or the other one who after 3 years of studying and is now a fully trained Physiotherapist.. has no desire what so ever to do the Job it burned her out so bad. Anecdotal evidence doesn't really prove anything though.

Yea, I while anecdotal evidence can be useful it depends on the person.

Like me, I thrive in situations that have moderate competition, but I can still be among the so called 'best' students or competitors. Being overshadowed by a bunch of seemingly extremely smart people causes me to lose focus and give up a lot easier, but when I know I am still in the running to be number 1 I push myself really well. that is why I fear a bio/medical degree... I know a ton of geniuses are pursuing that and it will be self destructive for me to do that. Of course there will be smart people everywhere, but by signing myself to a class that is known to be extremely hard that a large percentage of the cream of the crop is signing up for makes me writhe in fear.

I know a few medical students, and pre-med etc. I wouldn't say they were necessarily smarter, but they are hard working and it's long hours compared to a lot of other degree's. Plus you then have a lot of placement work also.

Don't worry too much about whether you're going to mess things up by majoring in the wrong thing.

I majored in Computer Science (which I did enjoy), but couldn't find a job out of college since it was right after the dot com bubble bursting. I ended up working for a year at Apple (doing phone tech support), then went on the JET program for 2 years, and then have been in graduate school since then. Working on a PhD in Japanese at age 31 was not in my long-term plans when I was 18, but that's where I ended up. Your college major doesn't decide your life.

I also don't know that you necessarily have to have intense passion for what you do in undergraduate. When you're getting up to MA or PhD level then you do, but as long as you're able to do the work it doesn't matter that much if you're in love with it.

Nagareboshi Wrote:Yes, it is a good idea, if you take a year off before you follow any career path. Tell your parents that you are not yet ready, to make such a decision, because it is not easy. I guess they will understand you very well, and will support you, in all you are trying to do or become in life. Just don't waste your life, not acquiring as much knowledge, as you possibly can. Because only knowledgable people can take control and shift their life in a direction, that makes them happy, and guarantees a good life.

In the end it comes down to what you want, and what you think is right, and not what anyone tells you is right or wrong. Make the best of it, and go, find your way.

NoSleepTilFluent Wrote:I would suggest the year of travel to anyone before college. But when you get back you need to take your classes seriously. ( I have a problem with this )

I'm going to second these ideas, there is absolutely no rush to get into college. Rushing into college is a great way to build up a large pile of never ending debt. You can take a year off and see what kinda jobs you can get without a degree. You can do some more interesting things in your free time. For instance you can blog about current events on your own site, or volunteer your help on someone else's site. Find things to do that can build yourself a portfolio of things that interest you. If you can build up the "work experience" in your own time, you can find your way into jobs via this experience. Yes degrees help, but you don't need them for everything.

As far as that becoming a hobo statement, I call scare tactics. Your parents are just trying to control your life. (And to be honest, you can make quite a living just panhandling for money in the right places. But this probably takes the correct personality type though.)