I thought I see if I could get some career/school advice from everyone considering two of my possible choices have been mentioned here already. So here’s my situation:
I’ve got 3 yrs of college under my belt so far with most of my focus going towards an economics degree. However, I’ve discovered some other interests. So, I’ve got about 4 options:
Finish the Econ degree and go into Law School
Switch to Chemistry/Pre-Pharm and get a doctorate in Pharmacy (or Pharm.D)
Switch to Chemistry/Pre-Med and go to med school
Screw the money, get the Chemistry degree and get into the culinary arts (no way I’m going into culinary school/work w/out a chem degree. I think Alton Brown is the coolest)
or
Really screw the money, get good at cooking, go to massage school and travel the world as a hard-working soigner. My gf doesn’t like this one very much. The other guys on my cycling team think it’s a great idea (after trying my cooking), but they think I should also get my Pharmacy degree (joke).
The problem is, I’m actually really into every one of these things. Also, time isn’t much of a factor considering I just turned 20 this month, and I like school enough to not mind staying in it for a while. The grades and honors cred are also good enough to get me into any decent (but not great) post-grad school. So, what does everyone think? Any advice for the young?
My advice is find out what you’re really good at - what do you have an edge on other people doing? Hopefully you also enjoy doing that.
Also, don’t consider whatever you pick to be the final word. One of my regrets is that I didn’t pick a more analytically rigorous undergrad degree like Physics or Applied Math, because I was planning on going to business school anyway, and those degrees would have been helpful from a recruiting as well as intellectual standpoint.
The other thing is that whatever you do, including law, you will probably end up in business or end up thinking about starting your own business. In this way, the business part of it can always be added on through grad school, so it’s probably more important to actually have some sort of technical specialty first, which can’t be added later, even cooking.
And either way, grad school tends to be good at erasing any sort of ski bum/soigneur/military past and scrubbing you for a new career.
You are only 20, take your time and do what you enjoy the most. People who are successful are those that enjoy what they do for a living. Very few successful people hate thier jobs.
Also remember that most people change careers about 3 times in a lifetime. I have recently become a personal trainer and am attending massage school at age 45. It took me until my early 40’s to figure out what I wanted to do.
Success is not always measured in dollars. #5 sounds like the best solution, especially if you like to travel.
Good luck. Remember, very few decisions are final. There are always other options.
You may consider this mean but at the age of 20 my girlfriend would have very little impact on my career choices. If her answer to the questions you are asking is anything other than " whatever makes you happiest?" than I would look for another girlfriend.
Dont feel the need to immediately go into law or med school - work for a few years, try the soignier thing perhaps, and see where you want to be. I worked for 3 years before starting my MD/PhD program, and although I’m an old-ass man now, I’m really glad I made the decision to go back to school as someone who was really convinced that’s what I wanted to do, rather than a seat-of-the-pants “I-dont know-what-else-to-do” decision right out of college.
Look at jhc’s post. Read, and memorize. The biggest mistake I’ve ever made is to go directly into grad school from undergrad. Just why the hell I was in such a hurry to get out of school I’ll never know. Time in school is amazing. Don’t hurry.
Now I’m tied to a business (which I am starting to enjoy), with gobs of school loans, mortgage, etc. and have little to no chance of allowing my wanderlust to express itself.
Also, I wouldn’t be in the business I’m in had I actually experienced the world before making the decision. I’m making the best of it and actually starting to enjoy it, but I think I could have done much better had I not been in such a damn hurry and had actually experienced more of the world first.
The dumbest thing about our education is expecting people to know what they want to do at the age of 18-23. Take some time and don’t be afraid to change your mind.
Seeing that you are through a good portion of your coursework…have you thought about doing a double major in economics and chemistry? It might take you a little longer but you’ll always have the degrees and the opportunity to change your mind as to what to do for grad school or the job market. What to do after undergrad? Well that is entirely dependent on you. Even with a double major you could go to law school and be out of school by the time your 25…and still have plenty of time for a mid-life or even early 30’s career change if you find you don’t like it.
Am currently working for one of the big national gym chains. Would like to open my own place someday. Need to build a reputation and client list first.
Transition was easy as I was fired from my last real job.
It also helps that I have a tremendous support system in a wife(in 13 days) that makes good money with P & G and allows me to pursue my mid-life dream.
Re #4&5, read Kitchen Confidental, then see if you want to still be in the food industry. I think about this all the time too, but after reading that book (granted it’s not all as depicted), I think again.
First of all, thanks to everyone for responding with some very good advice
I picked up Kitchen Confidential on Saturday night, and I’m most of the way through it right now. So far, I haven’t been discouraged. This is partly because I’ve read some other similar “inside views,” though none quite as entertaining. I picked up “How to Become a Chef” a while back, so I was let in a little more gently before I got to the hard stuff in KC.
I’ve definitely decided to take some time and figure out what I really like to do. I’ll still keep doing the school thing, but I’m not going to try and rush out through my undergrad and certainly not into post-graduate school. I think that, after being generally ahead in a lot of things in my life (finishing high school early is what got me ahead in college) I just thought it would be nice to keep the trend up and be out of school with a pH.D. and a job by the I’m twenty-five.
I’m going to give a try at the chef and soigneur things first (at least while finishing my bachelor’s). When I was a junior I did a 6-day stage race in Canada with a regional team. All the nice teams had soigneurs, which became really noticeable when you’re waiting in a 90 minute line for a 15 minute massage with the rest of the riders unlucky enough not to have their own masseuse. So, I think I might offer to be a volunteer. The coach that goes with the team always liked me because I was quiet and smart enough not to get into trouble. Plus the food there is terrible. You eat toast until you want to die. I got lucky because I could speak enough French to explain I was a vegetarian (at that time). This got me pasta dinner instead of indigestible casseroles that smelled like old people.
I think the big thing I’m trying to decide is whether I should do something I kind of like so I can have money and free time (per last tri’s suggestion) or pick a hard job that doesn’t allow much free time (or give too much pay) that I enjoy a lot. I mean, what if I become like, a weekend warrior or something :). Of course, I am inspired by that 18 year old German that won the national title while working 6am-4pm in a factory 5 days a week. I can do everything, right?
Spend as much time in school as possible without accruing too much debt (ie, if you graduate and owe $10K no biggie, if you end up owing $100K your life will have to suck in the near future) … School is a fantasy: more time than you know what to do with … Seriously DO major in a science. That gives you tons more options than econ. (about as worthless as my journalism degree, IMO) Then go do that cooking & massage stuff until you are burned out then you will be ready for grad school.
