A job, a career, college, or .......

[cassidyta]

Mr. Photograph's post got me to thinking. This is not meant to sound like an old man saying "Back in my day" This is a few things I have learned over the past few years. I offer this based on experience. I have done both college and the military. I have worked for minimum wage and also been a Sr. Executive with all of the perks. Some of you may not agree with this, but I offer it anyways.

Understand that there is a difference between a job and a career. Almost all of us have had a job that we did not like. But it was required to pay the bills. It does not become a career until you can foresee it taking you to the finish line.

You may not know what you want as a career for a while. There are many people asking "What do I want to be when I grow up?" when they are closer to 30 than 20.

Neither college nor the military is for everyone straight out of high school. If you have the ability and desire to go to college, then by all means do it. That being said, there are a lot of college students who don't belong there.

Have a plan B. There are a lot of people stuck in jobs they hate because they have no where else to go.

I do not envy your generation. You are entering the work force at one of the scariest times in US history. If there is a silver lining, it is that you will likely be the hardest working generation since the end of WWII. You will have no choice because you are competing against men and women with 20 years experience and a mortgage to pay.

My generation has really screwed things up. Your generation will be the ones that has to fix it for my grandchildren.

[Bubba_Bruiser]

I catch your drift Cass. I just hope the career I have chosen will hold up. I have witnessed over 400 people get laid off by my company alone. And thousands of other oilfield workers are scratching to survive right now. And I know it's this way everywhere. I am glad I found a career early. I did make some changes to my goals though. I tranferred from drilling operations to QA/HSE (Quality Assessment / Health, Safety, & Environment) because I know the rolls of the oilfield. My grandfather worked it for many years and always told me to have a contigency plan if I pursued a career in it. I chose this path because, eventhough you have a 100K position as a driller, it don't mean squat outside of the drilling industry. I now have training and certifications in govermental agencies like OSHA and various others. I have hopefully created a path that could lead me to any industry, because safety is everywhere and in every industry. I can't say that I believe in all of it. A lot of it is BS to CYA for liability to a company. But hey, you have to justify a check by the following the policy and procedure guidelines established by the company and agencies.

[WTL]

I agree.

I will even go so far as to say college, especially right out of hs, is not always the right choice. But damn well do something, try to have a plan or at least an idea if you can, or if you aint got the idea at least be responsible about the decisions you make so that when something finally does hit you, you can pursue it. Thats where I am right now.

[Jim80]

I started in a career job right out of high school and ended u taking a couple years away from my trade to kind of find myself and access where i wanted to be in my professional life I did every thing from sales to management just to end up back in a shop , trust me when I tell you there is a major difference between being good with people and dealing with them for a living .


Jim

[MallenManson]

Understand that there is a difference between a job and a career


Truer words have never been spoken.

[bamabassman]

cass you are right on the money pal. so is everyone else. i have a job that i hate. had several jobs in the past that i loved. but for one reason or another, they didn't last. when i worked for my father i thought i had my "carreer", 9-11 did us in, it was the final straw. now pop is trying to make a comeback. i try to help as much as i can form here (1 1/2 hrs away), making calls and reading ads in the paper and telling pop who,what and where. but it ain't loking too good right now. maybe things will get better, maybe not.
now the job i have now really isn't a bad "job"..... it is the people and the management that i truly hate. i have been in those positions as well, and can tell when a "boss" is making stupid decisions and when he is not. politics really hurt the government employee. if the city, county, state or even the federal government was run like a REAL BUSINESS "should be", things would be great and wonderful. this is why i am so disheartened by our contry as a whole i guess. yes the last generation has done this country a great dishonor and has truly hurt us. we AMERICANS have had it so very easy in our lives that we have forgotten what true hard work stands for, what pride in the quality of products mean. used to be "made in the U S A " really meant something. now it means overpaid and poor quality. we do just enough to get by. i hate that, and i do it too now. and it really bugs the he77 outta me. when i do that, i will go back and re-do it cause i KNOW that it is wrong. ok, sorry for venting. wtl said it right, if not college....DO SOMETHING. PLAN ahead.

[aikenyounggun]

um here im gonna try to post somethin b/c earlier i tried to post long things twice and both times it said "you cant post here, refresh the page and relogin" so i dont want to type it again and not be able to post it

[aikenyounggun]

ok it worked' i guess the third time is the charm

so as i was saying, i know my generation is gettting a lot of stuff dumped on them and i was thinking one day how this was unfair, but i came to a conclusion. Every generation gets something dumped on them by their parents and its how you react. If you react in the right way you can be remembered as a generation that saved America or the generation that screwed up big time. I see this as a time for my generation to prove what we can do since a lot of time people say we just play video games and are all fat/obese people. I just want to disprove this and help our country.

2nd thought: Cass is right about a difference between a job and a career. I get a JOB over the summer to make some money, but i want to go to college so i can find a CAREER.

Great thread, sorry about the pre-post but i was havin issues this mornin...

[crankybait]

Indeed, this generation has a lot to face. Especially in the medical feild, the competition is ridiculously fierce. Technology is also adding to the competition... Robots will be a huge part of the workforce in the future. The future is a very scary thing... Thankfully, I have a direction that I know I'd like to go in, making things easier for me. But great points cass, what you say is completely true