Directions In Life (No Spam)

giles337 · #1 (**permalink**) 04-15-2005, 12:25 PM

Ok, I am at a stage in life where I need to start making desisions. My subject choices in the next year will determine what I study for the next 3, and then what I take at university. Unfortunately, while I am not clueless as to what to do, I have three or four options that appeal to me, depending on which subjects I take. All of them end in me doing "what I want to do", I'm just not sure which one I "want to do" most. So here goes....

I take 4 "A levels." Depending on what I take it gives me the qualifications I need to take different courses at university. I have two ideas as to what I want to do at Uni, which are either computing, something involving travel/geography or design. In order to go down the computing route (at uni), I have been advised, rather than takign computing now, to take maths, physics, and Design Tech. Unfortunately, I dropped Design Tech last year, and so would have to take something else such as further maths\mechanics etc. Alternatively I could take computing, maths, physics now, and then continue my computing studies at university. My next option is to take geography, french, and two sciences (which will provide me with grounding for geology etc) Or Geography, French, one science/english and general studies. This will place me in a better role as a travel guide/worker etc. A third option is to split my ideas, and take,

Geography, French, Maths And Physics: Splitting My Ideas Entirely, leaves me with another 2-3 years to decide what I want to do, but the possibility of not being able to do it when I get there.

Maths, Physics, Geography, Computing: Take a compting A level, as well as maths and physics, (with the hope of studying computing at A Level) but leaving geography a a get out clause, possibly strong combined with Physics/Maths

Geography, French, General Sudies, Computing. As above but vice versa. Bias towards geog, but a possibility of Computing.

Finally, I could say blow to it all, leave school without going to uni, get a job, earn some money, and see how I fell in 5-10 years down the line.

What I would like from you, is your education choices, where they led you, and how you feel, as well as suggestions as to what to do, and what would be the best/most stable job/market to enter in to. In essence, I'm calling on those of you with greater life experience than me to advise me. It's not a matter of what I enjoy, as all the options appeal to me. It's what will provide me with the best future, and what WILL work. So thanks in advance, and please,

Spam Very Lite please, I don't mind a bit of light heartednss, but don't want to have to wade through tons of the crap.

CM · #2 (**permalink**) 04-15-2005, 12:29 PM

Dropping out of school is the dumbest thing you can do in your life. If you do well all i can say is your are a dumbass

But seriously my choices were always politics and economics. I have been taking economics since i was in O levels. I love the subject and was a big fan of history since i was in 5th grade. I never wanted anything else.

Personally my choice of education was decided by what i wanted to do in life. I wanted to work in the UN or the Pakistani Govt but basically as a diplomat. So i chose the subjects i needed.

Decide what you want to do and work for it.

giles337 · #3 (**permalink**) 04-15-2005, 12:34 PM

Thats the problem, I have no idea what I want to do, and need you guys help on what will lead me furthest/give me the stablist future.

Also, when I said leave school at 18, I meant to go and earn some money, then go to university later in life, as a mature student.

CM · #4 (**permalink**) 04-15-2005, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by giles337

Thats the problem, I have no idea what I want to do, and need you guys help on what will lead me furthest/give me the stablist future.

Also, when I said leave school at 18, I meant to go and earn some money, then go to university later in life, as a mature student.

Good. So what do you like? What would like to be? A fireman, a policeman the next james bond?

Cuchulain82 · #5 (**permalink**) 04-15-2005, 12:38 PM

Stay in school and get it done- CM is right about that, 100%.

Do you have any idea what you want in life?

A good place to start is to try to think about what criteria are important- where you want to live, what you want to do, etc. Are you the kind of person who needs to love their work, or will you be fine going to work as a means to an end?

giles337 · #6 (**permalink**) 04-15-2005, 12:41 PM

Well maybe if you read the thread....

Quote:

I have two ideas as to what I want to do at Uni, which are either computing, or something involving travel/geography.

Thats as far as I can see ahead. I want to travel the world, or do something with computers. I need to enjoy my work, but as I said, I enjoy the subjects necessary for these, so thats not an issue. I don't mind where I live, within reason, so thats not an issue. I just don't know how much security each choice is going to provide me with, and am also interested in what you all did/chose, and where it let you.

oozae · #7 (**permalink**) 04-15-2005, 12:43 PM

Go with computers, work for Bethesda, there are always jobs open in Bethesda.

jopperm2 · #8 (**permalink**) 04-15-2005, 01:54 PM

My education hasn't taken me far, so I can't really advise you that way. I will say this though, I have met or talked to a lot of Travel type majors that are unemployed or not employed in the field that they chose. So I wouldn't recommend that. I'd say design is probably your best bet. IMO there will be a large surplus of poeple with computer degrees making it hard to get a job. That's what is happening now in California.

oozae · #9 (**permalink**) 04-16-2005, 01:11 AM

Hmm, well I think I'll write books for Bethesda, if they're still making TES games when I'm of age. Probably won't happen, but that's what I want anyway.

jopperm2 · #10 (**permalink**) 04-16-2005, 09:05 AM

I think Betheseda will make TES games until RPGs go out of style. That's my opinion though. COmpanies like that are usually no more than maybe 30 people though so I wouldn't count on a career there.

C Elegans · #11 (**permalink**) 04-17-2005, 10:24 AM

@Giles, since you are very young and also, since you plan to do some travelling etc before starting uni, I think it is important that you choose what gives you the most flexibility at this stage, nothing too specialised. Almost everybody I know have ended up wanting to do something else when they were 25 than when they were 15. Usually in the same or similar area, but not exactly the same. To take some examples, my prof wanted to be a mathematician when he was a teen, but later he changed his mind and ended up as a physician doing research involving a heavy part of physics and mathematical modelling. One of my best friends wanted to be an architect, she did that for a while but then leaned over towards furniture design. Many of my colleagues have been interested in physics, medicine, psychology and art, and now we sit here doing brain research with a method involving anti-matter. So I believe it is good to set your aim at a few fields, but not aim specifically for a certain job.

Apart from considering what field you want to work in, you should also consider something else of major importance, namely: what kind of people do you want to surround yourself with and what environment do you want to work with? I never thought of that when I was a teen, but when I started uni I started to realise the importance of this issue. During my "road bum" years, I tried many different jobs to earn money for my travelling, and these experiences taught me a lot about different work environments.

There is a deep gorge between working in the business world and working in the academic world. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but they have very different basic fundaments for their activities, which gives them quite different characteristics. You'll never get rich quickly in the academic world, but you'll never get bored either.

Another fundamental question is, would you like an "ordinary" job, or would you prefer a more unusual type of job? Do you want to work mainly for money and focus on satisfying personal needs at your spare time, or do you want your job to be personal passion? I ask because some career options demand the latter, and the two routes have different features. For an "ordinary" job, I think nothing beats computing right now. You don't need to spend 194 years at education, the job market is fine and will be fine for a long time to come, and you usually make quite a lot of money. It's often flexible and allow you to spend time doing other things, like travelling or studying. All my friends who are in the computer business have both the time and the money to travel a lot, to take courses in languages, literature, philisophy or other things that interest them and make their life richer. However, all of them have the same major complaints: they have to spend 40-50 hours/week doing something they don't really enjoy a lot and they lack social stimulation because people in the computer business is a quite homogenous group. Some of my friends hate their jobs to the verge of depression, and for the same reasons: lack of creativity and novelty, lack of freedom, monotony, being closely tied to economic ups and downs and always having to do a bad job for fincancial reasons. Do the advantages I described above outweight these heavy disadvantages? My husband thinks yes, I would think no, but you should consider this issue.

Many of my friends also have more unusual types of jobs in less safe areas, and what they all - and I - have in common is that we work a lot. If you want to be an artist or scientist of any kind, a designer, a writer or relatively successful in a narrow field, you must not only be talented and be able to contribute something "special" to the field, you must also work bloody hard without being sure that your work will really pay off. This will affect other areas in your life, such as family, social life and your ability to do other things.

From you post, it seems that three options that are most attractive to you is:
1. Pure computing/maths
2. Geology (perhaps combined with computing/maths? In geology research, advanced mathematical models and computing systems are used for analysis and hypothesis-testing)
3. Travelling/guide work

I happen to have friends working in all three areas, and this is my understanding of the advantages versus the pitfalls:

1. In the academic world, there are very few unis where really good research is going on. You have a few places where pure academic subjects are dealt with like Pure Mathematics, AI/neural networking etc, but the vast majority of research is either at uni labs sponsored by the industry, or in the industry itself. For "normal" jobs in the IT/computer world, most people are working as consultants or at companies, with the advantages and disadvantages I described above.

2. Geology is an academic research topic, quite a large field which can include geomorphology, palentology, economic geology, marine geology, mathematical modelling and more. Aside from that there are some companies working with questions of relevance for engineering, for instance how to make buildings earth-quake proof or with infrastructure issues. I have known three persons working in geology, two of them are researchers and one is working with safety issues. One of the researchers was the father of a schoolmate of mine, and he was in paleontology. He travelled all over the world collecting and investigating fossiles, rock and minerals. He and also always ruined the peace of his family by every year forcing them to spend their holidays at geologically interesting places, and always ending up hunting for fossiles and minerals instead of relaxing at the beach. As a child my friend swore that she'd never become a scientist herself when she grew up - well, now she is a neuroscientist

3. Travelling guide/travelling industry: I have two friends who have travel companies where they themselves also work as a guides, and I have several friends who are or have worked as guides in various regions. I must say working as a guide full time seems horribly boring after a couple of years. You are limited by your customers demands and you go to the same places all the time. Most people I know who have worked as guides, have only done so for a limited time or as a part time job. My friends who has their own travel companies seem much happier with their work, but both of them also have other jobs and a different basic education: one is a PhD in physics and the other is an antropologist. I think you would like to lead a life like my friend who is an antropologist. He started out with physics, then changed to antropology, and he has travelled all over the world to study native populations. He and his team from a German university has made long expeditions in the Arctics, the Amazonas, Central Africa, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Polynesia and documented the populations, the living style and traditions of many different native tribes. Then, in order to make some money, he started his travel company where he travels only with small groups to unusual places, so he usually go on two or three 3-4 week trips each year and work for several governments regarding populations issues the rest of the year.

Just to mention examples of some possible career routes that people I know have taken and are very happy with

Like music, maths and languages are best to learn when you are young, but on the other hand it's not so useful to take a language at school if you have no possibility of travelling to a country where that language is spoken.

Quote:

Geography, French, Maths And Physics: Splitting My Ideas Entirely, leaves me with another 2-3 years to decide what I want to do, but the possibility of not being able to do it when I get there.

This sounds like the best option to me, but why may this alternative mean there is a possibility that you won't be able to do what you want to do later? Also, how large is this risk do you think?

Quote:

Maths, Physics, Geography, Computing: Take a compting A level, as well as maths and physics, (with the hope of studying computing at A Level) but leaving geography a a get out clause, possibly strong combined with Physics/Maths

This would be the 2nd best option, but I advice you to investigate the possibiliy of taking a language course perhaps during the summer. What do your parents think of letting you go away to language summer courses? My ex husband went to different language summer courses each year between age 14-19, he is fluent in 5 languages and decent in 2 more.

Sorry for the long post, I needed a break in my grants application writing

fable · #12 (**permalink**) 04-17-2005, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by giles337

Thats as far as I can see ahead. I want to travel the world, or do something with computers. I need to enjoy my work, but as I said, I enjoy the subjects necessary for these, so thats not an issue. I don't mind where I live, within reason, so thats not an issue. I just don't know how much security each choice is going to provide me with, and am also interested in what you all did/chose, and where it let you.

Keep flexible, Giles. This is a perfect period to open up and gain new experiences. Go overseas, check out different cultures. Live among 'em for a while. Contrary to wise heads in business and academia, you can learn a lot about life by moving outside the cultural box. Find out how others think, how their neighborhoods operate, what they find important, what keeps them alive and kills them. Absorb it all: it'll furnish enough experience to keep feeding into future experiences as cross references when you get back home.

Don't yet decide what you want to do. IMO, it's best to hold off, to become somebody outside a chrysalis, before you choose a life path. You're smart, young, and (presumably) healthy. Travel, have fun, and grow. Who knows: you may find that even after you settle down, you still enjoy having fun and growing. That's my advice, for what little it's worth.

frogus23 · #13 (**permalink**) 04-17-2005, 11:31 AM

Giles, I am very sure that your ideas about what to do at Uni will have changed drastically by the time you finish your A levels. I was torn over wanting to be a physicist or an artist at the time I chose my subjects, now I want to do languages, but I'll probably end up doing philosophy or linguistics.

The only advice worth listening to IMO is do what actually fires you up. If you are passionate about a subject, do it, and if this means that you end up doing Physics, French, Psycho-geography and Cartomancy, it will not affect your prospects nearly as much as you expect.

If you decide to do 'appropriate' subjects with a specific job in mind, you will begin to confine yourself into one area, at a crucial period when you will be changing immensely. Who plots their life at 16? Chosing a specific route is very easy to regret if you find that you are a radically different person at 19 to who you were 16 (as CE says). Moreover, over the two years, if the subjects become less appealing to you (or if they're not all that appealing now) your actual exam results will suffer. It takes an extremely special person to work their very best on a subject with a possible future job as their only motivation...

Whereas, if you chose your subjects purely on what you're most interested in, you will not have motivation problems and you will be able to say that you enjoyed school! You will also be left with choices more open, so you can discover a latent passion for some particular subject and pursue it without ****ing up your job-oriented life plan. Admissions tutors care much less than you think for your choice of subject (although you'll sometimes need essentials, i.e Maths for a Maths degree), and at a University Computing department, the admissions tutors will look through the applications for the one that says 'AAA', not the one that says 'MathsPhysicsComputing'.

Follow your passions, do not think that some courses are more 'respectable' or 'appropriate' than others. This way you will be more flexible, and happier and therefore do better, and therefore have a better chance to do whatever you may have decided in the future.

giles337 · #14 (**permalink**) 04-17-2005, 03:52 PM

So in all, I need to go with my heart, and do what I want to do, and am competent at (thankfully I'm good at what I enjoy.) thanks and hugs all round

You guys care to share how your paths through education went?

Thanks again
Giles

frogus23 · #15 (**permalink**) 04-17-2005, 05:16 PM

Well I chose A levels purely for what I enjoy, did the first half of them, applied to some universities, got into some of them, and am now gonna finish the second half. I'm not so much more in the know than you