After College

How many of you are in college? If so, do you ever second guess your career path and wonder about what you are supposed to do after you graduate?
 
I will never forget the first big question my roommate asked me the first night I arrived back (I had left the school in 2008 to explore the "College Party" scene for a year).
He casually asked me "Dude, what do you do after you graduate? Do you just sell out and become a part of the system?"
He's partially joking, of course, but it's a very good question.
I've always seen movies and such about people who go adventuring and traveling after they graduate. I always thought that was because they were really into nature. If you think about it, though, once you graduate you have to start your life. That is it. That is where end-game begins.
I don't know about any of you guys but to me

that is scary!

CARL OUT!

How many of you are in college? If so, do you ever second guess your career path and wonder about what you are supposed to do after you graduate?
 
I will never forget the first big question my roommate asked me the first night I arrived back (I had left the school in 2008 to explore the "College Party" scene for a year).
He casually asked me "Dude, what do you do after you graduate? Do you just sell out and become a part of the system?"
He's partially joking, of course, but it's a very good question.
I've always seen movies and such about people who go adventuring and traveling after they graduate. I always thought that was because they were really into nature. If you think about it, though, once you graduate you have to start your life. That is it. That is where end-game begins.
I don't know about any of you guys but to me

that is scary!

CARL OUT!

i am currently in college. it is hopefully going to be my last semester. i don't know what i am going to do when i graduate. the good thing is that this semester i am taking internship so i will get to see what it is going to be like.

" i am currently in college. it is hopefully going to be my last semester. i don't know what i am going to do when i graduate. the good thing is that this semester i am taking internship so i will get to see what it is going to be like. "

" @iam3green said:

" i am currently in college. it is hopefully going to be my last semester. i don't know what i am going to do when i graduate. the good thing is that this semester i am taking internship so i will get to see what it is going to be like. "

That's really cool. I'm currently 8 quarters in and I'm sort of fresh to the idea. How do you get into an internship? Is it as bad as everyone says it is? I hope it all works out for you! "

I'm only about halfway through University right now. I'm not in a particularly corporate stream, which can definitely make thinking about 'what's next' very stressful. Usually I try not to think about it, to be honest -- but I'm not super worried about it. I'm going to school to learn about what I like best, not just purely for a job.

" I'm only about halfway through University right now. I'm not in a particularly corporate stream, which can definitely make thinking about 'what's next' very stressful. Usually I try not to think about it, to be honest -- but I'm not super worried about it. I'm going to school to learn about what I like best, not just purely for a job. "

@Frickincarl:
It depends on what type of graphic desinging you are doing. If it's just like boring layout for a textbook company, chances are you aren't going to be taking stuff home and you'll be bored out of your mind. 
 
If it's something more creative like advertising or something like that, it'll be more fun, but you'll never "truly" stop working. Sure you'll have a set 40 hours, but as all creatives are, you're mind and ideas and wanting to get things down to remember them will always be working. 
 
The best advice I got when I got out of college are these tthree things: 1) Work to live, don't live to work unless you REALLY love what you do (meaning you made a hobby a job) and 2) don't sacrifice the things you love for work. Meaning don't give up time for your family, friends, happiness; and 3) if you leave work and are stressing about it or having nightmares about it, then it is not a job worth keeping.
 
I have a friend who is an accountant that has to work 60-80 hours a week on salary. Granted he makes $80,000 (in Texas that quite the sum for cost of living) but he NEVER has anytime to pursue his hobbies or even get to SPEND his money. So take that into account too. Money does not always equal happiness, just find a job that'll pay you enough to get by and live comfortably.

Dude, you hit the nail on the fucking head. I'm a journalism major, and right now, the job outlook is really bleak for us. I'm more interested in covering sports, but I really don't care what I cover as long as I can get a job with a healthy paycheck and benefits. Unfortuantely for me, freelancing is the way to go right now. That means I'd have to pay for any sort of insurance myself. AWESOME.

Right out of high school i went to ITT Tech into their Drafting and Design Program. After 2 years i graduated and started working full time in the job i got while while going to ITT. Now i've been working in my current job for 3+ years and i dont like this career path since there is no way to advance from a "drafter" and this economy isn't treating this field very well. So this past spring i went back to community college to gain credits to transfer out. I am most likely going to transfer to Academy of the Arts San Fransisco to enter their Video Game Design section (Computer animation & 3D modeling).
 
In short, it is possible to change your career path. obviously money is an issue though.

I go to northeastern University so Im in the coop program and get to go to 3 internships before I graduate. Hopefully that will better prepare me for the real world. 

i'm going to the liverpool institute of performing arts soon to study studio engineering (just so i can hone my recording technique and make my home recordings sound better than they currently do). as soon as i graduate, i'm going to spend the rest of my days trying to make a living out of being a musician. realistically, there are no other career paths i can imagine enjoying, and i am not spending the very short amount of time we are given as humans in a meaningless, boring job.i love making music, it really is the best thing, and if i can make just enough money to live off of by writing, recording, performing and just having the freedom to be creative when i feel like it, i'll be happy. it obviously won't happen straight away and i'll have to have a bunch of shitty jobs to start with just for cash flow, but if i can reach the point where i make a living out of my music, my life is fulfilled. even if i don't get to that point, i'm still going to chase it. i refuse to sit in an office writing reports about shit that i couldn't give less of a fuck about.

also: good luck with your future endeavours.

Studying Joint Honors in French and Creative Writing at University. Basically, I'm fucked when it comes to finding a job :)
 
Oh yeah, good luck with the whole job thing

I'm about to start my sophomore year. Last year I actually attended an all-women's college, but I had to withdraw and switch to a CC because of a sudden change in my family's financial circumstances. I'll miss that place. ) ' : 
 
I always planned on majoring in English Lit. It's what I'm good at and something I actually like to study. However, I want to minor in something more useful. From what I understand, English majors don't have very many job opportunities in the first place. I'm very close to hitting the next person who asks me if I'm going to be a teacher after I tell them what I want to major in. Kids are assholes in general, and I do not have the patience nor the tact to deal with them. -_- 
  
 I was thinking about minoring in Journalism, but I'm still not 100% sold on the idea. I'm toying with the option of minoring in Computer Science, but I'm not exactly mathematically inclined. Gah, trying to sort all this crap out is stressful. 

I graduated with honors with a Mech Engineering degree from a good school right when the economy crashed.  I couldnt get a job.  I didnt have a proper internship - i did a research internship with the school.  BIG mistake.  Most important thing in college is THE INTERNSHIP. 
 let me reiterate 
 
INTERNSHIP 
INTERNSHIP 
INTERNSHIP  
 
Get an internship or a coop if you want a job after school.

I graduated in May of 2009 and had no idea of what to do (I majored in Classical Studies, which is basically as useless as it gets.) My master plan was to travel, work, and basically enjoy still being young for about 5 years and then go to graduate school to become a teacher. Needless to say, the economy was absolute crap, so it was next to impossible to find a job in a non-profit, so I ended up working as a long term substitute teacher in Philadelphia teaching music to elementary school kids. That gave me a little money to put away, but I knew it wasn't a sustainable salary, so I applied to grad school and I'm now enrolled in a 10 month program to get a Masters and a teaching certification. It's full time, so I can't work on the side, but it'll pay dividends in the long run. I get certified, I jump up an entire pay grade thanks to the masters, and I still have summer vacations to travel when I'm done. 
 
I do wish I had the foresight to go to grad school LAST year, but I had a great year with a lot of experiences I wouldn't have dreamed of had I been in school or working full time. Enjoy yourself while you're young and resilient--your life is a lot more flexible now than you think it is, and more flexible than it will be in just a few years.

Funny you say, but I just graduated college this past May. I was fortunate to find a job and start work in August. Yes, I often thought of going to a trip after graduation as a way to congratulate myself. My wallet has a different idea. But that's not to say I still can't go on THAT trip. Especially once I have my job, I will be able to save my money to have a really good trip rather than a crappy one. There is always a bright side to things.

I finished my undergrad 2 years ago, and I was initially going to try and become a lawyer, mostly because my older brother is one, and there was some pressure from my family to follow that career path. I realized my last year however that I'm the one that has to be happy with my choices for the future and switched to pre-med which is what I wanted to do in the beginning, even though quite a few people told me that I probably couldn't do it. I am now finishing my 2nd year in med school, and it is the hardest thing I've ever done so far, but it is also the most gratifying.  
 
I guess my biggest piece of advice would be to find what you really want to do, if this means you have to take those career path tests then do it, and just stick with it. You are going to live your life and have to be content with what you've chosen as a career, not anyone else. I wouldn't really advise you to go "soul searching" or whatever as you tend to get lazy and unfocused. Just rough it out, it's only a few more years and you'll be glad you put in the hard work.