Inspired from this thread on business loyalty. My brother, MrPrime, who is another member of this forum has recently been accepted into school again. This time to finish a degree in Mechanical Engineering. While he's a few years younger, this event, combined with a quite a few external and internal influences has driven me to the idea of going back to school and getting my engineering degree as well - here's the catch; I'm twenty-five and have a full-time career* that I could easily work until the day I retire. Truth is, I hate this job and on a daily basis think of something else. When I was young, I wanted to be a scientist, an engineer, a fireman and a chef for a prestigious restaurant; I had big dreams that I failed to follow through with. The reasons are unimportant but that desire to follow my dreams is still there and has been there, simmering and cooking, trying to find an outlet and time to explode. Focus: What were your dreams? Did you follow through with them and capitalize on your vision of a excellent career? Or are you like me, a destitute of your envisioned perfect life, desiring more and wanting a way to find that dream again? Alt-focus: I'm a firm believer that you should follow your dreams - I don't think twenty-five is to old for University. Yes, I'll be in debt and yes, I think that the idea of a university designed education is slowly going to the wayside but my reasoning is solid and ultimately what I need to do to follow my passions. Have you been in this position or have you followed through with what my brother is about to do and I soon to follow? What were the outcomes. *A career, in my mind, is a job that has long-term potential.
This is very similar if not exactly like the other one suggested only worded better so it's gettin' the bumpolla.
I followed my dreams to college, into a great job and after realizing my dream, came to the conclusion it's not for me. After five years I got fed up working for other people and dreamed of working for myself. I've attained that dream. I have two new dreams right now. 1: Spend my days training in the gym, learning to fight and just generally getting swoll. 2: Live out in the woods playing with motorcycles and cars all day. Both are options right now as soon as I ditch the relationship I'm in. Money isn't there, but fuck you if you try to tell me money is happiness. I always manage to come up with enough working independently, to get my bills paid (sometimes late, other times very late) and have enough to eat. I know myself, and know that money and stress are not what I want.
Went to college. Got a job. Leave job and copy their business model. Make more than I need, in a recession, with no boss and a handful of employees. Life is good.
I come from a long line of tobacco farmers. While I have no interest in personally toiling under the hot sun and in even hotter barns I do want to keep the business running. My uncle runs day to day operations now while I handle the books and some of the selling (I'm the only one besides my father who will set foot on a plane). All of my work takes approximately 2 weeks a year for me. Easy gig. My uncle is getting older and thinking about retiring so we'll probably have to find someone to manage the day-to-day operations soon unless... Massachusetts changes its marijuana laws and makes it legal to grow it here in the state. If that happens I'll have over 750 acres of prime fertile farmland at my disposal and you can bet your ass I'll be growing more than tobacco. Crazy? Maybe, but I already have a lawyer working on a petition to the state for a privatized medical marijuana facility. At the very least I'll be first on the books if the laws ever change.
Brother here! I have finished what the americans would call College, a 2 year certificate that lets me work in my field. I love the field I am in, but the problem is without getting a degree as an engineer, you go no where. Its been 3 years since I graduated and all I have ever had is a glorified drafting and bullshit paper work jobs that the employers hate paying me a premium to do. For me, University is the next step towards doing what I want to do in life, what field its in, I don't know, but I cant take the level of bullshit I have to put up with right now. Whether the BS will get worse (it most likely will), Ill be pulling in 100k a year, it makes it all better.
Growing up there was only one thing I ever really wanted to do with my life, and I'm proud to say that I'm doing it. I decided at an early age that I'd never be good enough to play hockey/baseball/football beyond the age of 18, so I'd call the games on the radio or television instead as a sports personality. I was the guy in high-school who did the daily sports updates on the announcements and then at night I'd go to the local junior hockey game with a hand-held tape recorder and call the game to myself from the top row. My post-secondary path was a little bizarre and maybe a tad 'unconventional' but in the end I earned a Diploma in Broadcasting through a private institute, and got my first job two weeks later. Granted my first two jobs have been low-paying jobs in shit-hole towns, but I've made the best of it. I've met some great people, and earned valuable experience along the way. Sometimes I get discouraged because virtually all of my friends make more money than I do, but I know for a fact that I enjoy my job the most, and bar-none I get the most personal satisfaction from a hard day's work.
I'm going to try to make this as short and to-the-point as possible: Always wanted to be a published book author, since I was in elementary school. Started writing at age 16 for several sports websites, didn't get paid and didn't care to at all. I just wanted experience. Eventually got an offer of a legit position and a press pass from one of the biggest basketball websites out there (at the time). Before I could accept it, the floor on life fell out from under me. Brain tumor, I was surely dead, yada yada yada. Survived the surgery, out of the hospital five days later, should have been a drooling retard but for whatever reason I wasn't. It was absolutely terrible, and I had to re-learn everything, from walking, to writing, to math. It was the worst kind of hell I hope you could never imagine. Naturally, I wrote it into a manuscript. After I realized what the fuck I was doing, eventually I signed with a decent book agent. For a variety of reasons, and despite the offer to renew, I decided to cut the relationship after the initial 6-month contract period. Had other ideas about what I wanted to do, and it didn't involve her. I was still crushed. I had worked hours a day, every day, for over a year. The manuscript was solid, the marketing strategies even better. But it didn't go the way I thought; it didn't follow the path I had fought so hard to forge. I was depressed, and initially I drank a lot. But life has a funny way of working out when you least suspect it, and what I learned from writing that initial manuscript turned into skills I now use daily in my job. I get paid to edit, and write, and market. The profits they make, are at least initially the result of me. I've been getting paid for years now and I've never "worked" a day. And yes, I'd prefer my position to soda. Writing another version of the book now, and compared to the initial manuscript it's night and day. It'll take another six months, minimum, but I think I can see the end of the tunnel now. I think. I'm slowly getting excited about it again. If not, I'm sure it'll still work out.
I think I mentioned it before but I pussed out of my "dream" degree and went the safe, and supposedly easy route of Marketing, what bunch of shit. It is a Electronics Media degree at UCs College Conservatory of Music. Basically a film and television production degree. They have great job placings at many major studios and networks. There was a "try out" because it is a performing arts school where you are required to write an entrance essay explaining why you think you should be accepted. This coupled with the fact that they have stringent GPA requirement in that school lead to my puss out. Sometime during my last year in business school I talked with an E-media student who said that that particular program isn't stringent and it is a breeze to get into. DOH! Turns out it was a small but popular degree and they wanted it to grow so they let a lot of people in. DOH! DOH! Fuck I'd have been happy editing car commercials together. Fuck. I don't how dedicated I was or am to this dream, I never tried my hand at any sort of video editing or production even with the easy access to tons of that shit to the common PC user. I actually went through 8+ math classes taking the easy route... Fuck business. Instead Im almost a year out of college, I finally get my license back after a lengthy DUI trial, and I haven't held a job in two years. I shuddered thinking about how unemployable I am to any sort of legitimate business.
I always wanted to be something of an artist. I used to draw a lot when I was younger. For some reason, though, my focus shifted from drawing to computers and video games in high school. After high school, I ended up enrolled in college in an information technology program and I hated it. I made it to the fifth semester of six, I think, before I couldn't take it any longer. I was taking 6 classes or so and I was studying 3 or 4 different programming languages. Absolutely wasn't for me. So... I quit the IT program and I took a few months off. I then went back to college and enrolled in a 2-year computer animation program. Loved it, was great at it and graduated. But... The problem was that all of this took place in Newfoundland. I couldn't find a worthwhile job right out of college and I certainly couldn't find a job doing what I'd studied. I needed experience to get a job and I needed a job to get experience. Vicious cycle. I ended up abandoning my education and moving to New Brunswick. Said abandonment was supposed to be temporary. I ended up working in a goddamn call center of all places. I wasn't thrilled about the position, but I was decent at the job and it was paying my bills. Just when I'd had enough of that, I was given an opportunity to move to Toronto with my last college roommate and start an office job. And here I am. I've been living in Toronto for almost 6 years now. Met a good woman and married her. Found a great administrative position with a large insurance company. It's not what I went to school for, but I'm happy and I like what I do. That's what's important in the end. I still draw occasionally and I still spend entirely too much time fucking around with my computer and playing video games.
I gave up a great job back home at the police department to go back to school. I graduated with my bachelor's in May '07 and I finally decided to back last August. It was extremely hard to give up my position at the police department because I loved working there. I was a dispatcher and say what you want about police, and how the profession attracts assholes (it does) but there were some good men and women there and it was awesome to be apart of something that made a positive difference in people's lives. It was much more satisfying then my previous jobs as an insurance agent and as a mortgage broker. Honestly, I could have stayed at the police department for five years or more and been good. It was a good job, not too hard, meaningful, full government benefits that included a pension and a 401k, but there was no growth or upward mobility. I could be sworn and become an officer, or try to be a supervisor for telecommunications. More importantly, I want to be a psychologist. I wanted to be a lawyer until I was 12. Then, I wanted to be a construction worker until about 17, when I took AP Psychology in high school, that class crystallized the dream for me. So I applied for admission to several programs and I was accepted into an accredited clinical psychology PhD program, but I was not going to be funded by my university. So, I took out loans to finance my education and I am currently networking with as many people as possible to increase my chances of being funded next year, be it through my institution or through an outside institution like the NIH. I walked away from the best job that I ever had and took out my yearly salary in a loan to pay my tuition. I am the first in my family to graduate college and the first to even attempt an advanced degree. I had been side tracked for far too long for a variety of reasons, a failed engagement and subsequent drinking problem being one of them, but I appreciate the journey that it took to get here. I don't think I would appreciate my program as much as if I had gone straight through from undergrad, and the time between programs allowed me to mature and grow as a person. Currently, I am still not funded, but I am working on it. I met with this man last week to discuss research on minority health disparities, which could possibly lead to funding. I've spent the last year administering cognitive assessments, academic achievement assessments, personality measures and adjusting to the life of a graduate student. Next year at my practicum site, one of the few sites with a psychoanalytical perspective in the DC area, I'll be engaging in therapy and diagnosing for the first time. I am excited...but I'm still trying to find a way to pay rent for July and money for food. I think the notion that a university designed education is becoming obsolete depends on which field you plan on going into and what you ultimately want to end up doing in life. There's no other way to be a psychologist without getting the PhD. It's expensive and there are a lot of barriers to entry, but I couldn't be happy while being complacent, and there's no substitute for the quality of education and experience that I am receiving. I just finished my first year last night, and I am sure the experiences I've had this past year has shaped me into a slightly different person then who I was before, and I think it is for the better.
I'm a pretty nerdy guy and even as a kid I always wanted a cushy office job like my dad, at first I wanted to be a lawyer but when I figured out I was better with numbers than words I wanted to turn to a more technical (math wise) field. I've posted this before but I ended up becoming an actuary which has been a sweet gig so far. The good: -Cushy, high paying job with good benefits (401k, pension, H&W) -Generally low pressure -Technical enough that no one in management understands how the job works, so actuaries can get away with a lot of crap(I don't work for a large firm, so this is hearsay I've heard from others). -Intellectually stimulating -There's a set of exams you need to take, you usually get around 10 days off to study for them and there's a raise and a bonus after you pass each one. The bad: The exams are a motherfucker. There are 8-9 of them (depending on what path you take) to get fully credentialed and they are all brutal. I've taken some of the hardest math courses available in college and I can honestly say that these exams are the hardest thing mentally I've done in my entire life, not just because the subject matter is so hard, but the way they ask the questions on them is painstakingly confusing. If I worked for a big firm that made me work 40 hours/week there would be no way I would do this, my roommate is also an actuary and he gives up most of his weeknights and weekends to study. Fuck. That. All that said I love the job, I'm rarely bored but also rarely under the gun which is nice.
I went back to school fulltime at the age of 47 for my masters degree. I'll be 49 when I graduate, credentialed with my CRC (certified rehabilitation counselor), but I'll have another two years until I can sit for the LPC (licensed professional counselor) exam. Too old? I don't think so. While I initially enjoyed my career in advertising and publishing, and did quite well financially, I burned out and became miserable in the last few years. I'm loving school, resolved the existential angst I was mired in, and look forward to a counseling practice I can carry into semi-retirement when my wife retires. Was this a life-long dream of mine? No, but it's a desire I have today, and one I'm fulfilling. You're never too old.