In what are you studying? What's your job? Your dream?

[AuthenticM]

I thought a thread like this would be nice. Post some information about your current studies (or job, if you've already been through that, lucky) In what are you studying? Do you like it? Was it forced upon you? Did you made a random choice? Is it interesting? etc.

I'm currently still in school. Here in Québec, we've got a system that requires you to go through what we call 'CEGEP' in order to enter university. That's where I currently am. Here's a quick summary:

École Maternelle (kindergarten)
École Primaire (Elementary school): grade 1 through 6
École Secondaire (High school): grade 1 through 5 (the equivalent of grade 7 through 11 for the rest of Canada and the U.S.)
CEGEP: either a 2-year pre-university course, or a 3-year course which leads directly to work
University (finally)

At first, I wanted to become a helicopter pilot. The idea of flying these things excited me. But I changed my mind not long after. Next was video game programmer. Since I've spent at least a quarter of my life in playing video games, I thought this would be a good choice. I am well aware that creating video games and playing them is two very different things, but nonetheless, I am very good in maths and thought I could do a living out of this. But again, I changed my mind.

There is one other domain that interests me, even moreso than video games, and that is: movies. I've watched a lot of movies in my life. Good ones, crappy ones, but all of these contribute to my general knowledge of films. I currently have projects of my own, and to realize them is my biggest dream.

Here in Québec, the government funds movies. Since the market is expanding more than ever these last years, particularly thanks to [WIKI]Bon Cop, Bad Cop[/WIKI], I find myself in a great position, as getting funds for movies will be easier when I'll be finished with university. But my movies won't be the same as BCBC. I am not going to do 'popcorn movies', in which the movie serves only as entertainment. I want to produce thought-provoking movies with low budgets, and actually make a living out of it, since this is what I want to do.

What about you?

[Mundane]

Issaquah Valley Elementary - 1-5
Stahl Junior High - 7-9
Roger's High School - 10-12

I'm aspiring to become a marine biologist.

Here fishy fishy.

[Ornette]

Went to Carnegie Mellon University for VLSI design, graduated 96 with BS in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Jazz, went back for my 5th year and got another BS in Mathematics (only needed 7 more classes). Would have gone to graduate school except some friends of mine conned me into starting a software company with them. A year later we got bought out (kinda in a bad way) then moved back to Pittsburgh and started a new software company. We released an open source application server in Java and have been selling custom software solutions to a mish-mash of clients like Goldman Sachs (data mining), VISA (smart card authentication to online banking), Seagate (research and cryptography), St. Thomas Hospitals (embedded devices, db, and patient data management), etc. In 2002, I took over an ISP that my friend ran out of his house and I run it out of mine now. Angstrom, Inc. was the first ISP in Pittsburgh that provided 56k dialup and we serviced thousands of users. These days we lost the phone banks and lease lines from the local telco for DSL. The most annoying thing about the ISP is dealing with people who don't know what they're talking about, and dealing with spam (angstrom's mail servers block about 180,000 spam messages a day and some still get through).

Being your own boss is awesome and suits me well, since I don't have a regular sleeping schedule, I'd never be able to hold a regular job. I wake up whenever I wake up and I go to sleep whenever I'm tired. I'm not filthy rich, but I make enough to buy about anything that I want and pay for a month long vacation out of the country once a year, and pay for my expensive drinking habits. I work from home, only going to the office when a server requires me to actually be there (very rare, but happens once every 2 or 3 years) or if there's a meeting I absolutely have to be at in person.

[Eternal Yamcha]

I'm currently in college at a local community college taking Broadcast Journalism.

Since I was lucky and my parents allowed my brother and I to stay up way late for kids (when I was 3, I was allowed to stay up until 10:30 PM) our age, this allowed me to learn about the world of Meteorology. Since then, I've been interested in it. Unfortunately, it's an interest that's having issues right now.

I took Broadcast Journalism thinking it'd be more about, y'know... Being infront of a camera. That would have allowed me to take a couple years of it and have some real credit in the career I want... Being an on air (television) Meteorologist... Yes, one of those bastards that never get the weather report accurate (despite an 80% to 90% success rate >.<)

I chose this career so that's a plus, but right now I feel like I'm being pressured into it by all sides and well... I'm not a mentally stable person, which makes it hard to want to pursue it because I feel like others are chosing my future for me and for some reason if I feel like people are trying to dictate my future, I automatically become dis-interested in any areas that I feel that are being violated.

I'm going to be taking a rotating schedule of classes... I'll probably end up with a degree in fine arts in literature since I love writing. I'm hoping to take Tai Chi, Karate, some sort of History, some sort of Psychology, Broadcast Journalism and a few others since I'm pretty much a jack of all trades... Minus well... Being good at any of those trades.

There's a bunch of endeavours I want to go into... That includes working at a card gaming company (like Wizards of the Coast,) writing a novel, being a coin collector/seller, being a psychologist or psychiatrist, being my own boss and being on a few trivia game shows (Jeopardy, One vs. 100, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, et al.) The thing that'll make my life feel complete is if I decide to run for President of the United States. I wouldn't win, no way in heaven or hell... But atleast I could look back at my life and say "I was a presidential candidate."

Pipe dreams, that's what they really are though. I'll probably end up working in mid-management in some conglomerate that's victimizing the world and end up hating myself more and more each day. Hey, if the pay's good.

[Reichu]

@Ornette: I'm totally not worthy.

Made it to high school and out on a 'normal schedule'; graduated in 2000. Wasn't ready to fly away from home, so I studied Visual Arts at a local community college. I'd always been good with art and stuff, so I figured why not. Took me four years to get an Associate's -- and that was without any part-time jobs distracting me. Fall of 2004, I attempted to go to a 4-year school to major in Illustration. Tried the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York state, ~5 hours from home.

Despite an enthusiastic start, my first three quarters were plagued by depression and fail (TM). I did make a couple of neat things (like a certain infamous sculpture), but by May I was such a miserable wreck that I had to take a leave of absence and go home. (Incidentally, the part of me that likes to draw/sculpt/etc. stuff took a leave of absence, too.) I spent the rest of 2005 being a bedraggled, emo-riffic lump slowly deliberating over what to do next. Spent the beginning of 2006 mostly doing the same, although I achieved a healthier mental state.

In June I took up a Crappy Job (TM) -- pays shit, but it was something I needed to do. I'm looking for better-paying work now (even if it's still just another Crappy Job) and giving some thought to perhaps finishing up my college ed. What I don't know yet is what I'm gonna aim for. I don't have a plan, although I suppose I have some ideas.

Being a lost Child-Adult sucks.

[felineki]

Sorry to hear about that, Reichu. :( Glad you're feeling better now though, and I wish you luck with whatever you end up deciding to do next.

Anyway, after high school I just took a break for a couple years (yeah, I'm a lazy good-for-nothing. Sue me.) I recently applied to a nearby community college and am pursuing a graphic arts degree. I'm currently taking a whopping ONE course! (Lazy good-for-nothing, etc., etc...) Although I like drawing and such, I don't think I have what it takes to be an actual "artist". But I also enjoy more general graphic design, and I think it's a career that might suit me well.

[AuthenticM]

Made it to high school and out on a 'normal schedule'; graduated in 2000. Wasn't ready to fly away from home, so I studied Visual Arts at a local community college. I'd always been good with art and stuff, so I figured why not.

Can you elaborate about your Visual Arts degree? What were the courses like? I'm asking because it could probably help me. Visual Arts + films = :shock:

[cat42]

I had a K-3 primary school, 4-6 middle school, 7-9 Jr. High, and 10-12 High School. I went straight to college from High School, though I still live at home. I attend MassArt, where I am studying Film/Video.

I know I want to make movies that make me happy. Some of them are stupid and fun, some are complex and ornate, some that are perplexing, and some that are a mix of the two. At my school, there is sort of a rivalry in the Film/Video department between Narrative and Experimental. Personally, I go to the school to learn how to tell my narrative stories in experimental ways.

Currently, I'm making a project about out lawing glomping that is to be projected on 3 screens and have 5.1 stereo surround in the penultimate version. There will be 4 versions of it (be prepared for some vaguely familiar names). The first version will be called Plan C/(take care of yourself), The next 3 versions are different presentations, so it's sort of a second version with 3 different cuts. Fiddle Sticks, Fiddle Sticks (true), and Fiddle Sticks (true^2).

The most personally important project is called Underground. This work is very loosely based off of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the photography of Charles Dodgson, and the 5 stages of grief.

[Eternal Yamcha]

Am I the only person seeing a bit of a trend here? Lotsa graphic and visual art people and I would wager that there's more people on this site that are studying such. I feel like an outcast... Or I could say that I feel special since I'm the only one who's posted about pursuing a career in Journalism (though that's a stretch to say) thus far.

[Mr. Tines]

Lotsa graphic and visual art people

C-c-c-combo breaker! — my résumé from 1975 to 2005 (I need to update it next week when the fruits of the last year's work goes public).

[Hexon.Arq]

Hey, you made this thread on Trivialbeing. Well, I'm certanly not going to respond twice.

...


D'oh!

[BobBQ]

Mr. Tines is in the same line of work as my old man... that's disturbing.

I dropped out of school after grade five and self-studied for the next three years. High school was a slug in the guts, since I was totally unprepared for the social minefield that everyone else took for granted. After two years of that, my parents decided that my brother and I should be ahead of the curve like everyone else, so they bumped us into a local college. After two years of that, I finally went to Canada and started attending college properly: Japanese, computer science, classics and so forth.

I like telling stories and tend to be fairly good at visualizing things. Unfortunately, I can't draw worth spit, so I'm limited to writing screenplays and such. My dream is to become something akin to a mangaka or anime writer/director, because I think my work would be better received over there and because I really don't like the way Hollywood does things.

The challenge thus far has always been finding proofreaders, not finding ideas. It's very frustrating, because I have a hard time motivating myself to write more unless I know that somebody actually cares about what I'm writing.

I like to think that someday, somehow, I'll get lucky and ten years from now people will be discussing my work the way we discuss Anno et al's. That's my dream, I guess.

[Hunter21]

I graduated from UMD (University of Minnesota Duluth) in the summer of 2001 with a main degree in Geology and a joke degree of Environmental Sciences. (Only needed five extra classes to get it due to coasting around different science majors when I first got to college.) Promptly found out my job field did not exist and was greatly frowned upon by the current administration so I was forced to find another job. Got employed as a Industrial Hygiene Technician in the fall of 2001 and am still in that field.

My future is a little hazy right now as I am currently deciding if I want to continue on in that field. The company I am working for is offering to pay for my schooling to get a Masters in Industrial Hygiene and just about everyone, including my boss, co-workers, parents, and fiancé are pushing for me to do it. But I am not sure if I am ready to give up on trying to get a job in the field of land reclamation (rehabilitation). Odds are though that I will become a professional Industrial Hygienist (IH) as my future is not my own anymore and I have more to think about in the terms of future wife and family than just myself. Mainly because an IH averages more than twice as much as any job in the land reclaimation field. Plus I have a good chance at a six figure job as my boss is grooming me to take over his place when he decides to move on in 15 or so years. All I would currently need is a Masters degree for that to happen.

[TriLink]

I'm currently taking a whopping ONE course! (Lazy good-for-nothing, etc., etc...)

Sir, you and me will get along just fine.

I too am currently in the process of taking some time off after HS in order to save some money for college. I plan to attend a community college next year where I'm looking to get involved in politics somehow (probably political science). I've always been a good debator (some would say a MasterDebator...think about that one) so I figure what better way to put that skill to use. Basically I want to be like Toby Ziegler from "The West Wing", except without the creepy beard.

[AuthenticM]

Odds are though that I will become a professional Industrial Hygienist (IH) as my future is not my own anymore and I have more to think about in the terms of future wife and family than just myself.

Dude, that sucks. Even if it's true that you need to think of others also, it's your job we are talking about here! Don't do something you don't want to do, especialy if it's going to last your whole life! Go for something that you are actually interested in, even if it pays less than Industrial Hygienist. Trust me, if you bow down and let others dictate your life like lil' Shinji, you won't be happy. You'll be tired and depressed, and at the very worst, come your 40th birthday, you'll kill yourself.

[Reichu]

Or at the very best, Hunter would get to switch to his preferred job later on. That seems to happen often enough.

[Eternal Yamcha]

Psh. I'm talking about how a hobby and potential career I am very interested in is in jeopardy because I feel as if people are dictating my life and no one says anything. Then Hunter comes on and everyone starts pulling for him.

...Screw you guys, I'm going to 'Nam.

I hate to admit it, this is the first forum I've been to where I feel young. It's shocking to hear about how old many of you are... I'm not use to it.

Oh! And Global Warming for the win!

[Ornette]

Psh. I'm talking about how a hobby and potential career I am very interested in is in jeopardy because I feel as if people are dictating my life and no one says anything. Then Hunter comes on and everyone starts pulling for him.

I'm for anyone who pursues their interests. I'm well aware of how people and corporate politics tend to run people's lives, especially prominent in technical fields. I interned at NASA one summer and it was utterly mindblowing how ineffective my department (design engineering, I worked on the tethered satellite, which failed miserably) was at getting anything done. It wasn't that people were incompetent, but there was so much red tape that some projects were overmanned while others were undermanned, with people whose expertise should be applied to a certain project end up on a completely different project. Nobody could do anything about it, there were deadlines and too much red tape that ran all the way to the top of the corporate ladder. It was the same when I interned at IBM, but they actually got things done (probably because they weren't spending taxpayer money).

After those experiences, I vowed never to work for anyone except myself. There are people who are into large corporations, and then there are people who go into fields that feed large corporations (like my original field, VLSI chip design). I have friends who graduated with creative writing degrees and end up editing technical manuals, which they're not interested in, because they couldn't find a job, and they hate their jobs but can't leave, they're a cog in the machine now. I also have a lot of friends that went into art (rockthing) or music composition but do random shit jobs so that they can pursue their interests. For example, rockthing speaks fluent Japanese so he went to Japan to teach english, which funds his performance art projects.

If you REALLY want to do something that you're interested in, you can make it happen with some creativity and maybe a bit of luck. Starting your own company (or publication) may not be as far fetched as some may think. You just need to find the right people, and people you can trust. But don't think it's going to be easy, there was a time from 99 to 2001 when I didn't get a single paycheck from my company due to the tech market crash (and the bills needed to be payed), but I'd rather starve than be a cog in the machine.

[tinmeigut]

Well now I'm in Form Six (in US I think you guys call it high school or stuff like that?) and doing science class. Chinese Literature and Culture, Use of English, Physics, Chemistry and Biology are my current subjects. The three science subjects are A-Level ones which count a full mark while the CLC and UE are AS Level which will only count as half of an A Level subject. Pretty heavy stuff. Lots of books for this 2 year course.

Dream... The most realistic dream should be getting into the university opposite my school, the Hong Kong University, and if I can study law I would be very much obliged.

[Reichu]

Oh! And Global Warming for the win!

Hmm, speaking of which -- environmental-something work is one of the options I'm considering. Probably the only one that makes any real sense at the moment. I just need to start doing my research.

I must say, one of my latent fears is becoming another "cog in the machine", as Ornette put it. Tho, I'm not interested in starting a company or whatever; I just want to find something that resonates with me, even if I don't get paid an outrageous amount of money.