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Choosing a career/university course

M

Mehta23

Android Expert
Soon I'll have to start the process for applying to uni and I'm still in the 'I don't know what I wanna do :'(' phase. So I thought I'd come here, maybe get some advice... Maybe hear/read how others made the decision....

First choice was dentistry but now I'm not sure I could actually do it as a job everyday...

Second choice was 'something in IT'. I'm not really sure which areas are the best to go in either. I think I'd like to so something in programming but I hear the real $ is only there at the very top levels.

Third option is another 'something in' this time in chemistry, mainly cos I really like the subject. By the looks of it Chemical engineering seems ok (probably need to look further into it) and it seems you do t have to have a chem engineering degree to become an engineer ^_^

So... Anyone got anything to add :-P?
 
My suggestions is don't take specific classes. If you are interested in those things then I would recommend taking Math, and Chemistry classes as programming has math in there. Take some programming classes too. Do a lot of research online too for things you may be interested in.
 
If engineering is your plan a masters will be needed. Unless you want to be evil, like me, and get a degree in petroleum engineering. Most of the guys I know with an advanced degree in petroleum engineering get it to teach.

Just suggestions, careers you won't be starving in, geology, geophysics, math(don't laugh it's helpful if you want to program).

Take my advice knowing how cynical I am. I believe in going to college to make money not what I love. I came to love engineering like an arranged marriage.
 
I wouldn't dismiss dentistry entirely - it's a pretty good career, though I heard years ago that dentists had a shorter than average life expectancy .. coz they kept sinking their boats or crashing their sports cars and aircraft :D

The advice above sounds good to me.

FWIW, my advice would be to avoid IT - and particularly programming. The entire industry is inexorably moving to India. Major UK companies have not only already outsourced the vast majority of IT development (programming), many have also outsourced analysis and management. Basically, other than paying the bills, there's nothing left here ;)

It is possible that this trend will reverse but I would say the odds are nowhere near high enough to bet your future on - unless you're willing and able to move to Bangalore and compete with the locals, of course.
 
Actually a good point there : a chemistry or maybe maths could get me a wide range of jobs without limiting me much. :-D

I haven't fully dismissed dentistry but I know it'll be extremely hard to get into even with some work experience. Plus I don't know if I would enjoy actually doing it. And my teacher said that dentists have no souls. Another mentioned high suicide rates....

I've had a quick look at petroleum engineering and I gotta say - there's a lot of
 
as far as schools go pick a diverse school and not something that a school is particularly good at. start with your undergrads stuff. take courses that you think you might be interested in and go from there. i school for just a degree these days do not mean a whole lot. it is where you go for your grad stuff that counts. and keep in mind that this is not a race.......take your time to decide. i mean i went to ucsb and got me a aquatic bio degree that means very little to me. and now i have a culinary degree and working as a line cook at a very nice restaurant. so really undergrad stuff will help you to pick something. i guess, it did not really do it for me. but, i was just a confused as you to be honest......LOL

i think i rushed in and did not really look at the horizon very well. i thought that research for me was what i wanted to do. but i saw the unglamourous sided and changed my mind at the last instant.

anyways, i hope that helps.
 
Mehta23 said:
Plus I don't know if I would enjoy actually doing it
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I tend to think, if work was enjoyable they charge you to do it, not pay you .. :D

Mehta23 said:
And my teacher said that dentists have no souls
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Seems a tad extreme - though I guess a small degree of sadism helps ;)

Mehta23 said:
Another mentioned high suicide rates....
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Apparently, that's (mostly) a myth.

Mehta23 said:
I've had a quick look at petroleum engineering and I gotta say - there's a lot of
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Dont chase something for money, you will hate your life and end up being a typical in debt human being.

I saw you put IT on your first post. If it is surrounding basic IT stuff dont waste your money with college, get technical certs and read stuff yourself.

I am a network engineer though, with a masters in electrical engineer, and then have my CCNA, CCIE, JNCIA and a few others that don't matter. I love my job, though I work on average 70-80 hour weeks. I love to mess with stuff and I get to do that and while I am only 25 this job has allowed me to be financially stable. Not to many people my age can buy stuff with straight up cash. Though I lead a moderately boring life lol

But in your search find what makes you happy. I am a raging nerd and love that I get to mess with routers that cost more than Ferrari's, but so many of my friends have gone to college for some stupid degree and are now working jobs they don't like with student loan debts that will take them years to pay off when in the end it was not worth it. I don't get why people put certain things before happiness. If I ever get tired of this job I will be done and work for something else. Or maybe just not work. I DONT KNOW either way a happy life is the way to go, not for the dollar signs.
 
Stu675 said:
Dont chase something for money, you will hate your life and end up being a typical in debt human being.
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No, you'll be miserable but without student loans. Doing something for love is how we end up with art majors working at starbucks.
 
Any opinions on A Levels? Looks like Maths, Chemistry and Physics are good to continue, but then should I drop my fourth - Spanish?
I guess having to only do 3 would be better...
 
Mehta23 said:
Any opinions on A Levels? Looks like Maths, Chemistry and Physics are good to continue, but then should I drop my fourth - Spanish?
I guess having to only do 3 would be better...
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Alternative languages are always good to have in your back pocket. Often times, that alone can score you a few more bucks on your salary.
 
I've got nothing on math and sciences, only thing I can offer is:
Like ocnbrze said, look at schools that are very diverse in course offerings (and majors). I really wanted to go to a small liberal arts school, but with the cost benefit of a great state school (UNC-Chapel Hill), that's where I ended up. I had no idea what I wanted to do and thought about a psychology major.
Whelp, about 2 months into my first semester I realized I made the wrong decision. Made the tough choice of leaving school and transferring to a culinary school. My passion was in food. I knew it'd be years if ever that I'd be making much money, but I'd be happy with what I'd be doing. Yeah, I still have some debt I'm holding onto from loans, but at least I enjoy my work.
Long story short, never hesitate to make a change a ways through school. If you are enrolled in a place that gives you more options, even better! My sister changed her major nearly every year of college. She ended up with some amalgamation of a degree. Ended up loving something even different later on and went back to school to earn another degree to move up in her field.
 
One bit of info I will give, you don't need a graduate degree to enter an engineering field. A regular B.S. Is more than enough. Engineers are the highest paid 4 year degrees out there, with petroleum engineering leading the pack right now. If you like math and science, I highly recommend it. However to be contrary to some other info, while going to a school with a diverse set of majors is good for if you can't make up your mind, the best schools as far as industry is concerned are the specialized ones. Ie. You will find it much easier to find a job once you graduate if you go to a technical school. That's what I did, and I actually got headhunted while still in school, and had an offer three months prior to graduation.
 
One field that is often overlooked but makes big $ is actuarial science. It's the one mathematics job left that's not in education. There are times where I wish I had gone down that path instead of my Computational Mathematics path. It's mostly a statistics field. Get a bachelor's degree and pass 4 out of 7 tests and starting salary is around 150k.
 
AntimonyER said:
Engineers are the highest paid 4 year degrees out there, with petroleum engineering leading the pack right now.
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For a long time unless another cold war cranks up then mechanical engineers might squeak by. We just keep coming up with new ways to get at all that 710.
 
It's been mentioned before, but I just wanna make sure - you guys would say that a chem degree might be better than a chem engineering? (In that I can use a chem degree to get into engineering, as well as maths based, and IT based things too)
 
Mehta23 said:
Soon I'll have to start the process for applying to uni and I'm still in the 'I don't know what I wanna do :'(' phase. So I thought I'd come here, maybe get some advice... Maybe hear/read how others made the decision....

Second choice was 'something in IT'. I'm not really sure which areas are the best to go in either. I think I'd like to so something in programming but I hear the real $ is only there at the very top levels.

So... Anyone got anything to add :-P?
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I don't know how the universities in the UK work...in the US smart thing to do is get your >1 year core courses out of the way first (basic math, English literature, government, history, etc.) then start taking classes towards your field of study after you have completed them. A lot of people take those "core" classes at a two-year college and transfer them to the more expensive college you actually want to graduate from...saves a lot of money. I would delay your choice of field as is practical. Keeps you from losing money on credits that do not transfer if you decide to switch majors.

As for how I made the decision on what to focus on...I did not. I went from welding, to surveying, to GIS, to CIS. Can't really help you there, other than to advise you to be persistent.

Programming can actually pay pretty well. I was fortunate...I got good programming job at a wonderful company two months out of college. Unfortunately a lot of it is being outsourced to India where it is cheaper. It depends on where you are seeking employment. You may have to move to get the job you want. As for which major...Computer Science or Computer Engineering is the major you want if you want to get into programming. I graduated with a CIS major...but again, I think I was just fortunate.
 
from the looks of it, you would enjoy engineering. Have you considered CS and maybe coding for Google/Android one day? :P
 
Of course I'd love to work at Google. Only thing is I have no idea how likely that is to happen, and I haven't given much thought for a CS degree, mainly because I found that a lot of programming jobs are available with a Chem degree....

Unless CS would be more suited to something more IT based. But then again, I doubt I'd get 2 A*'s, so I won't have much of a chance at going to as good universities... although I should stil be able to get in somewhere in the top 10

http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings/?s=Computer+Science
 
MY only advice to anyone in picking a future career is try to find something you absolutely will love. Money is really nice to have, but in the end, if you don't really love the career you have chosen, you will not ultimately be happy there.
 
Yeah I understand but I really like chemistry and IT (in the sense of computers, rather than what I did at AS level and learning theory)
 
Still undecided :-\ going to have a look at a few unis soon.

The computer science/going into programming type jobs sounds interesting, although I know that a lot of the jobs are moving to other countries.

And although petroleum eng looks good too, I wonder if it would be a good degree to have in 4/5 years as it is now?
 
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