[quote]fisch wrote:
Bare with me here. I’m 17, senior in high school, and going to college soon. Problem is, I have no clue what. I an need to decide soon for some careers (like engineering). I’m a very hard worker and am inteligent (32 on ACT), so almost any career is possible if I put my mind to it, I just need help finding a direction.
Something people always tell me is find something you love. Well, I don’t “love” anything really. I have things I am good at and like somewhat like business and math more then most subjects, I have hobbies like weightlifting, but I can’t think of ways to choose a career that will be challenging, interesting, and pertains to weightlifting while making good money (I don’t care if I make $100 k or $60k or whatever, I just want enough money to be able to support myself and my future family. Money isn’t happiness to me.)
So what I’m really asking is can anybody give me some career choices that fit my criteria that I could do some more research into? Right now im looking at engineering or actuary, but it’s not likely i’ll become an engineer. I’m kind of stressing out about my lack of direction, and I would really appreciate advice.[/quote]
Sorry for the triple post but i realized i did not address the OP properly.
You have many jobs, and many of them are respectable.
You can be a cop, or a soldier, or a pharmacist or whatever you like.
I don’t know about the states, but in Canada, soldiers and cops make good money (+60k within the first 4 years of enlisting).
If you look at a profession or anything requiring a university degree, consider the following:
Biology and chemistry degrees on their own are useless.
You use your biology and chemistry degree as a stepping stone to something else. In most cases, it’s medicine. That means regardless of your career choice, you will need to go to a master’s or phd level to be able to acquire a good job.
Many people drop out of engineer (it is difficult) and switch to chemistry and biology because it’s “easier” (not always the case). However, they don’t know that at the end of the day, they will have to put in much more school work (7 years of work as opposed to 4 years).
In most cases it’ll be research or medicine related (doctor, pharmacist and whatnot).
That means a guaranteed 5-10 years of schooling before you get a ‘good’ job.
Physics major is the same deal. Somewhat “useless” on their own, their application is best seen on the research level (masters or phd). Again, we’re talking approx. 7 years of schooling.
Math is a different beast. You could go the way of accounting or, again, research.
If you wish to teach at the high school level, you need a university degree.
If you wish to teach at the university level, you need a phd.
Now, engineering is something that is “special”, because it’s a stand alone.
To be an engineer you don’t need a master or phd. You can be a successful engineer after your initial 4-5 years of schooling with a B. Eng. In Canada, after you get your degree, you are required to work 4 years as an intern.
I don’t know how it works in the states. When I say intern, I mean you are supervised by a senior professional engineer and well paid for your work.
The reason for this 4 year intern is the impact you have.
If a doctor makes a mistake, he might end a life. If an engineer makes a mistake, he might end lives.
That being said, you are practically guaranteed a job, paid well and have a variety of things you can work on.
You can go in to law as a lawyer, which is also about 7 years. You start with your 4 years of university, then you must 3 more years of work by doing bar admissions and exams, etc.
Nursing is a profession and a good one too. There are negative connotations that nursing is girly but that is not the case. Nursing is as important as doctors. Think of doctors as generals, and nurses as sargeants. The nurses do most of the important, technical work while the doctors do more of the important theoretical work.
However, that being said, doctors are the key players on the operating table because of that theoretical work they know.
If you want to take care of people, and help out, nurse is a good choice. Doctor is also a good choice, in it’s own way. Both are important.
Doctors will make more but it may be a drain on your life. You will save lives (if that is what you end up doing as surgery or otherwise) but you will see some things that may not allow you to sleep at night.
Regardless, if it was up to me i’d go as doctor.
Architect is also a good profession and somewhat similar to civil engineering.
Business: if you make it, you might make it big but it’s a very tough field to actually make it.
If you want an idea of what to do, I’d go search on the web on exactly what each profession, or job you are in interested in, does and check the library. Ask people (family members of friends, teachers or maybe your own family friends).
I am biased towards engineering. All professions and jobs are good. I have not named them all here because there are thousands of them. I named most of the professions though.
Good luck