tdc asks silly questions (part uh...III iirc)

[Testin da Cable]

at lunch just now the thought struck me that (at least in holland) schools and other formative entities expect people to know what they wish to become at an earlier and earlier age. this idea becomes a guideline and defines further areas of study etc.
judging purely by my own err...erratic path through life it made me wonder if the current model isn't simply destined to fail miserably.

anyway, when I was 8 I wanted to be an architect, when I was 12 I wanted to run a cafe and I ended up studying photography. now I work in IT. has anyone actually become what they set out to do? do you feel you've 'made it'? curious me is...well...curious

 

[Wij]

I wanted to be a pr0n star.

 

[MYstIC G]

I wanted to watch Wij star in p0rn

 

[Testin da Cable]

I wanted to beat off to....hey




answer meh questions dammit!!

 

[nath]

I always liked computers, so I wanted to work in IT.

I have worked in IT a year now (well, it'll be a year exactly in a week and a half, work experience over, back to being a slothy student, hurray!, too many commas :/). I have discovered that it sucks SERIOUS arse. I really hope not to end up working in this industry.

Anyway, being a bit of a film nut, I'd really like to work in the movie industry. Well, not the mainstream hollywood shit one, but I'd like to have something to do with films. What with my brother studying to be a screenplay writer, working on several ideas now, it'd be quite fun. Perhaps we could be the next coen brothers .. or not :/

Fuck knows what I'm going to do to get there, I've got 2 years left of my computer science degree and I don't quite know how that's gunna help me with anything. I'll probably end up working in pc world for the rest of my life :/

 

[dysfunction]

Schools in South Africa tend to narrow down your path fairly early on.

This is because if you wish to be an Accountant for example you have to do a degree in Accounting.

Unlike the UK where you could do a degree in Philosophy and then still become an accounatnt.

Therefore in the schools you have to choose the subjects that would give you the highests "points" to enable you to do the degree that will be most beneficial to your career path.

It sucks really cos I didnt really know what I wanted to do and then got stuck in accounting...

 

[wolfeeh]

nath

what is it you feel sucks about the it industry??

i kinda know how you feel actually, because for years and years i wanted to do something "in computing", typically programming...

but as i grew up and got the skillz, i've become disillusioned with it... same boring shit every day... stress when something won't work as it should ( i can think of 2 days i wasted when i was doing a program for my HND trying to troubleshoot code that did not in fact have anything wrong with it, it was just the stupid fucking compiler - it worked perfectly in college after i'd gone in to get help from the lecturer)..

and the rewards don't seem to be that great anymore either... been looking at IT jobs around here, and they don't pay spectacularly well over what i already do (bearing in mind this is wales, lower cost of living etc = lower wages, but anyway)... the conditions with these jobs are pretty fucking shit....

in comparison the job i do now is if not... "challenging", then at least requires a little bit of concentration and thinking, problem solving ability, etc... and the benefits are FAR better than you'll typically find in the it industry... (ten weeks worth average holiday a year, paid, anyone?) no corporate whores uniform, flexitime, not having to put up with crap off ANYONE... massive promotion and pay increase potential... and the chance to work in a variety of new projects...

kinda gutted that i did my HND now... even though it will stand me in good stead when i get promoted and can move out into different departments

 

[-fus-]

ICT(AVCE) + Business(A LEVEL) + Electronics(BTEC)



If only i had a fucking clue what i want to do when i finished em :|


edit Oh, i took those subjects because i didn't have aclue what i wanted to do after college(uni, job etc) and thought they would give me quite a broad range of paths to take when i left.

Only time will tell if i make it

 

[kanonfodda]

I always wanted to be in IT, totally screwed my A Levels, so didn't go to uni, spent 3 years working to get into "the industry".

Now I work for local government, writting software and supporting MS office :S Gah

the development side is good, I tend to get the new projects, so I get to play with new software/technology.

Other times it can get very boring, hence I sit on these forums all day, and write my own websites/applications etc

/Edit:

suppose I should answer the question really

Yes, I think I made it, but I still have a wa y to go as well

 

[Tom]

I wanted to work in a recording studio when I was at school (of the pop band variety), went to college for ND and then again later for HND, I got within 2 months of my final HND exams and started getting work experience at a video production company. I ditched the HND, and haven't looked back. Nobody has since asked my qualifications, although I am kind of screwed if I want to pursue another career.

 

[old.D0LLySh33p]

I wanted to be a fighter pilot at first. But bad eye sight meant that went out the window. Then I wanted to be a swimmer, but being too short meant that was duff. Then I thought about writing... but 4 years of doing academia has put that on the back burner...

So now? I'm stoner

 

[old.milou]

I wanted to be an architect when I left school (or at least something similarly creative) so that's why, 24 years after leaving school, I work for the DTi.

It's tragedy (apparently).;/

 

[leggy]

I have never known tbh.
I went to Uni because everyone else was doing it and I finished a masters degree in engineering.

Since I graduated I have been working for a high tech startup company that is developing a technology for flat panel displays (I have since been given around 2% + extras of the actual company). It is shit and boring.

I am seriously considering a move to canada (permanently) next year. I have no idea what I'll do there but as long as I'm relatively content I dont care. If I applied to the right companies I could earn a shit load of money but all I really want is to do something I enjoy.. shit money or not.

 

[old.Fweddy]

Originally posted by nath
Anyway, being a bit of a film nut, I'd really like to work in the movie industry. Well, not the mainstream hollywood shit one, but I'd like to have something to do with films. What with my brother studying to be a screenplay writer, working on several ideas now, it'd be quite fun. Perhaps we could be the next coen brothers .. or not :/

Have you tried video editing? Get hold of a semi decent editing program (one thats timeline based, not storyboard) and give it a try, you might like it.
Or you could consider 3d graphics/effects. Harder to do, but theres the bonus of a decent UK industry (from what I've heard).

I'm going to uni soon to do a mixture of these things

 

[Jonny_Darko]

I wanted to be a Fighter Pilot, then a retail store manager (errr...why?), then a radiographer, then a teacher.

Secretly I always really wanted to be a games journo though. Which is what I am now \o/. Never actually looked into it seriously until I went for a chance interview though because it wasn't really a viable option to follow.

 

[Testin da Cable]

I wanted to be a teacher too at a certain point. makes you wonder really, because the majority of my education consisted of getting kicked out of school

 

[old.Fweddy]

Is this silly question part three or silly question part one hundred and eleven, teedles?

 

[Testin da Cable]

it's part three of the series mate

 

[doh_boy]

I've gone through : Fireman, Priest , architect, Aeronautical Engineering and code monkey .

Just been to a careers fair and some guy promised me an interview.

I went with a friend of mine and she knew for AGES. She wanted, originally, to be an astronaut and because of the way she is, she refused to acknowledge that it would be kinda hard so she did a Mechanical Engineering masters at Loughborough. After an astronaut she wanted to design rollercoaster’s. Now she is considering working for the company who make nuclear war-heads. I always look forward to hearing what she wants to do every time we talk its always interesting She was also far too interested in working for greggs :s

 

[Garaen]

I finished school last year and came out with a great set of GCSE's, i then decided to goto Collage, did a National Diploma in Computing for a few months before i realised how board i was and how much i hated the work. (I had always wanted to do somthing with computers since i was young, now i don't)

I got a job for the past few months and i am going to go back to school and do A level's in September. Ashame i have 0 idea of what i want to do when i leave, i am just thinking about getting a few qualifications under my belt while i decide what i want to do with my life.

I have a difficult discission at the moment about what A level's i am going to do, i will definatly do History and English literature as i got good GCSE grade's for them and they interested me the most. Now the hard part, i am also thinking about taking Sociology, Maths or German but i can't decide which one or two to take. I have about a week to decide and it is doing my nut in.

/rant

heh sorry thought this was a good place to vent

 

[Tom]

Originally posted by .Asmo
Collage
board i was
A level's in September
discission
A level's i am going to do
definatly
grade's for them

heh dont mean to put you down m8, but perhaps you should retake English

 

[Garaen]

hehe i was just waiting for a post like that. My spelling and grammar is quite poor, but the content makes up for it I got an A for English and English Lit for my GCSE's. I usually think more about my spelling and grammar when doing coursework/exam's so it is'nt that bad

 

[nath]

Originally posted by old.Fweddy
Have you tried video editing? Get hold of a semi decent editing program (one thats timeline based, not storyboard) and give it a try, you might like it.
Or you could consider 3d graphics/effects. Harder to do, but theres the bonus of a decent UK industry (from what I've heard).

Not so interested in that side of things, more (like my brother) screenwriting, directing, that sorta jazz.

I'm 99.8% certain it's a silly pipe dream, just like wanting to move to san francisco/canada.

 

[ECA]

Originally posted by .Asmo
I finished school last year and came out with a great set of GCSE's, i then decided to goto Collage, did a National Diploma in Computing for a few months before i realised how board i was and how much i hated the work. (I had always wanted to do somthing with computers since i was young, now i don't)

I'm in a similar position.

I did GCSE's then A-levs, was really bored didnt do a lot of work, didnt want to go to uni, always wanted to do something w/ computers so I enrolled on a HND course w/ intention of doing a degree after.

Just about finished the first year and i've realised IT is horribly boring ( in a job situation, or interesting, but shitly paid ) and i want to just get a job for a while and sort out what I want to do. Hard part in all this is telling the parents lol.

 

[doh_boy]

Asmo:

(this is all IMHO obviously)

Strengths

Maths: Well respected, will give you a few 'points' with some of the particularly stringent employers and uni's love it.

Sociology: Useful for business, marketing and stuff like that. Depending on what (if any) degree course you want to get on some courses/uni's prefer at least one scientific-esque A-Level (esp the scientific/maths type ones )

German: Only really useful if you intend to join an international company or get a job involving travel. Also German is at a disadvantage because since French, Spanish and Italian share a few similarities knowing one is a sign that you wouldn't have a problem with learning those languages. Will still count highly in a job where learning another language is important/desired.

One thing, just to confuse you a bit more , Good A-Levels and a good degree no matter what discipline will get you into a lot of jobs that aren't necessarily anything to do with the degree. One example being a girl who worked for Astra-Zeneca's Software Dev department had an English degree.

 

[Scooba Da Bass]

1) Worked out what I wanted to work in.

2) Did it.

3) Profit

4) Repeat?

 

[mank!]

I still have no fucking idea what I want to do, I don't even know whether or not to go to college in September now. If I do go to college, it'll probably be I.T.

I left, well dropped out of school in Jan 02 before my GCSE's that summer, the school kindly let me go in and do my exams and I passed them all with relatively shit grades, highest was two B's in English. For some odd reason I got an E in History, which was my favourite subject and I got A*'s for both pieces of coursework. To this day I don't know what went wrong there. I went out to work after I dropped out of school in a textiles shop as a 'sales assistant' selling curtains, bedding, towels etc. It sucked tbh, and I never want to work in retail again.

I'm contemplating going to college in September but I don't know, I've been doing nothing since I left my job in December last year except some youth project one day a week. I'm at a bit of a loose end really, I've got three options - go to college, go to work, or move out. All three have equal appeal and simultaneously put me off the idea :/

If I was fit and a few years younger, I'd have taken P.E. at GCSE and then something sports related at a-level and university to try and head into football, although that's not likely now

 

[echo]

At the moment I'm doing A-Levels in English Lang&Lit, History, Philosophy and General Studies (though obviously it doesn't count), my last exam is going to be over by dinner-time tomorrow, and then I'll be free forever

Haven't a fucking clue what I'll do after this, though I'm getting (comparatively, against what my same-age friends are on) alright wages working as Warehouse Manager at my local Currys (I know, it's 'teh lose', but what'ya gonna do? ).

I'd like to do something either:
- web-design related, since I'm actually half decent at that, despite having a D in GCSE IT as my only half-relevant qualification in that area.
- band managment/record label type job, I know a few people who run their own little indie labels and run community projects, fanzines etc and the independent music industry would be my dream job, however I have no idea how to get into it, and no idea what I'd do there, and similarly, no idea how I'd make it pay bills - everyone I speak to from those jobs is hard-up That said, they love what they do and wouldn't not do it for the world, kinda cool.

'Part from that I'm a monkeyboy who eats NikNaks and goes to the Blue Pig in the afternoons

 

[Garaen]

Thank's for the Advice doh_boy. I am leaning towards sociology at the moment. German does not interest me much as i know quite a bit of German, and some of the family speak perfect German so i can learn it if i put some effort in.

Math's would be nice to have at a level, but i got a B grade in my GCSE's and i am unsure if i am skilled enough in it to achieve an A level in it as i had quite a hard time with it. I've been told sociology ties in with English and History quite well. (In a perfect world i would of taken Psychlogy, but the school i am going to does not teach it).

At the moment i don't know what i want to do in the future, i see the A level's as 2 years of time to decide my future and gain some qualifications. If i get resonable A level's i will probably move onto Uni. I've always been taught that i should keep trying to better myself, and working for 2 years in say Asda deciding what i want to do with my life instead of doing A level's would be a waste of potential in my opinion.

 

[Greef]

Story so far.

True story:

Lad hates scool, but leaves with ok results. Lad goes to college, hates that too. Lad gets kicked from college, twice. Lad gets menial job. Lad hates menial job. Lad does home-study A-level, Lad does 'mature student' thing at uni, while lad is at uni he thinks 'Wouldn't it be great if, one day, I got headhunted for a job'(dreams a bit), lad wakes up & thinks 'that'll -never- happen'. Lad flunks degree in final year (of bloody four!). Lad goes for even more menial agency work. Lad gets menial (more than the first place) job working for madman councillor. Lad is helped to get semi-menial job in office by best mates dad. Lad makes the best of it, thinking 'this is the best I'll ever get'. Lad rises is small company. Lad gets HEADHUNTED by large rival firm!

The ending - unknown as yet - .

The moral - make your own. lazy git!



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