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xeno

Everything in a nut shell....

I do feel I'm second guessing myself. I talked to several people about there majors and why they picked them. All there responses were the same. They enjoy or liked their major. My doubts also come from my Finance 340 class. I find this stuff interesting but I can't see myself having a career in finance. I'm not that driven by money or power. I talked to the Head of Accounting and Finance. I still feel iffy about going into finance. And I know I'm not going into accounting. I never left feeling like this is what I want to do with my life. I see the people that come into Starbucks everyday. They all are in the accounting and finance field. I talked to them about it all. And I can't see myself in their shoes. I am in my mid-20 and I feel I might want to change to Management, Marketing or something else in business. The feeling of almost being done with school scared me into the real world. ..

Questions like
"Do I want to do this all my life?"
"Do I really like this stuff?"

They all swamp my thoughts.

I randomly talked to someone in the visual art department. They told me they love to draw and paint and that's what they want to do. "If you hate your classes now your going to hate your career."

Those words echoed in me "If you hate your classes now your going to hate your career."

I would like to do something in Art Entertainment/Animation or creative photography. Maybe I could capture the world the way I see it or something.

What exactly is bothering me.
Did I choice something because I'm interested in it?
Or did I just follow everyone else in business?
Is this the career for me?
Am I doing what I like?
Where is my passion?

Art - not as safe of a career
Finance - boring and a little safer then art
Which one do i want to follow. Follow my passion and hobbies. Or follow the business suit.

I have a well rounded group of friends. Its a mixed of do what you want to do and the just finish and go back and get a degree in art. Age is another factor for me. So is $$$$ for school. I really want to choose a major i can use and see myself in. For now all this is a learning experience and not a waste of time.

Randy

Very wise indeed is the person who told you:

"If you hate your classes now your going to hate your career."

And if you hate your career, you won't necessarily hate your life, but you will learn up-close and personal how Sisyphus feels.

I'm probably the worst person in the world to talk about this stuff, to leave anyone else with the impression that I'm "giving advice."

All I know is this, and it's all purely anecdotal:

I never went to college. Regrets? Not really, but every now and then, yes. And that's because here I am, fifty-six years old, at employer fifty-something, and still no bloody clue "what I want to be when I grow up".

As you said, I've never had interest in "money and power".

And so I lived my life, working and paying bills and losing jobs and finding jobs and doing okay and making ends meet and all the rest that's the saga and reality of "working" people. Employment/careers/jobs have always been nothing more than a true "necessary evil".

And as I alluded, except for those occassional moments, I've no regrets whatsoever. I've had fun, focused on the things that mattered to me, met more people and had more experiences than I could've imagined and hoped to do had I chosed one specific career, etc.

I don't know if we create our destinies or we're pushed and pulled along the way, kicking and screaming.

But I do know this:

If you follow money and not your heart, you really will regret it. And maybe that becomes a way to look at the thing: Would you rather die with regrets for things done, or those left undone?

Personally, I'd hate to think of things I'd have never experienced, people I'd have never known, had I followed the conventional wisdom and made my path in life all about money and social status.

xeno · Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 2:33 pm Post subject:

Thanks Randy for your reply. I'm thinking of maybe switching into another field of business. I'm 26 and only have about 9 or so classes left to finish school. I have a few upper division GE classes (about 4). And I have to take a set of core classes to graduate in my field. I kind of want to start over in art but that would be at a 2 or 3 year process. I've learned and put so much time into business and then found out that Accounting and Finance isn't for me. Learning life the hard way. I have concern for time and money for school. Should I just take the minor in business and start over in Art or Japanese?

Randy · Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 4:07 pm Post subject:

Should I just take the minor in business and start over in Art or Japanese?

You're about to see why I'll never write a book title "How to Win Friends and Influence People".

I've been working for, oh, forty-two years, with, among, and for men and women (mostly men) with "business degrees" of all varying types. And without absolutely zero exceptions, not a one has shown me, through their knowledge and ability to deal with people (lack of ability, if truth be told), what the big deal and advantage of a "business degree" is supposed to be.

And I've asked scores of people--friends, co-workers, bosses, total strangers.

Here's the only straight answer I ever received to my simple question which goes this way: "What is it, exactly, that makes someone with a degree in business better suited and qualified for a job than someone else who has actual experience?"

The man who gave me a straight answer was a chap who was interviewing me for a job but it was clear he was far more interested in discussing his son who was in college and getting a degree in this and that and on and on and so I interrupted and asked my question. This was his answer:

"A college degree shows an employer that the person has what it takes to stick with something, to see it through to completion."

Never missing an opportunity to challenge authority, especially one that reeks of arrogance, I didn't blink an eye.

"So let me get this straight," said I. You personally would be more impressed with someone who has a four-year college degree then someone who stayed on the job for oh, maybe ten years or so and got their experience and knowledge that way even though the college was probably paid for by their parents or a student loan and that for those four years they had absolutely nothing else to do but attend class? THAT impresses you but not the man or woman who has actually done the work, has proven to themselves and the rest of the world that they know the thing inside-out and top-to-bottom?"

Yes, the interview was immediately over and I did not get the job.

So to answer your question:

Knowing the current climate of things and the "business model" imposed upon the rest of us (and if it was and I could do things all over), yes, I'd make sure to get that "business degree" in addition to what it is that is your passion. After all, it's funny as hell--to me if no one else--that the preponderance of jobs that state a need for a "four-year degree" never mention a specific area of study, as if all four-year degrees are the same.

The tragedy is that this presumed requirement for a "college degree" is, in and of itself, nothing more than just one more big business out there, the sole purpose of which is to separate you from your money, or start you out in life in debt up to your eyeballs.

So hedge your bets and play by "their" rules at least to that minimal degree.

If nothing else, a few years down the road it might be you sitting there after having been rejected over and over and saying, "What the hell? I went to school like I was told and got the degree like I was told. So NOW what's the reason you won't hire me?"

Nothing but the best, okay?

xeno · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 7:24 pm Post subject:

Thanks Randy. I'm looking into different fields of business now. I'm leading towards maybe marketing or management. Then again. I don't know how I would fill into management roles. I'm more of the i'll be if not 1st then most likely 2nd to try something. My mind set is on people more then business as well. Marketing I guess I could be creative and come up with things. I'm not really sure. As always thank you for your replies.

"If you follow money and not your heart, you really will regret it. And maybe that becomes a way to look at the thing: Would you rather die with regrets for things done, or those left undone? "

I would rather die with regrets for things I've done then not done.

For the most part I think I'm gonna take a few of my upper division GE and a art class or two.

Randy · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 9:10 pm Post subject:

I would rather die with regrets for things I've done then not done.

Me, too.

That's why everything's going to work out for you.

xeno · Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 2:43 pm Post subject:

Randy I stopped by the Visual Arts Department and was looking at the list of course and what type of concentrates and something inside me said "This is what I want to do" I can see myself doing this. I had the total opposite reaction with everything I read in the business concentrates outline. I'm afraid to switch but I can't see myself in business at all anymore. I have about 10 classes left. But 4 or 5 are within my concentrate. I'm thinking of switch concentrates out of Finance to another field in business. I'm afraid of making the jump to Visual Art.

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