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Frogman
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I majored in Chemical Engineering 20 years ago. At the time the average salary starting out was 27k. Now I make 110k but I'm in sales and not really doing engineering. One field not enough people think about is sales. I sell chemicals and anyone with a chemistry or chem eng. background and 5 years experience can bring down 60k in sales. You're not stuck behind a desk, you visit all sorts of different companies, and really learn whats out there.
I thought I'd go back for an MBA but I'm glad I didn't. I wouldn't trade 40 hours in a cubicle for the office in my home.
The issue for me now is what advice to give my 17 year old daughter. No math or science for her she says though she does well in it. Its a little tougher with girls, they got the family life thing to consider more than the guys do. Whats a good major for girls who want to raise a family at the same time or have something to go back to? She's thinking about law.
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Worthingtons
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Pride Park,Derby
Jan 2002
time: 05:28
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Frogman I'm in Sales as well (Part time,and not hard sales at that), although I dont quite agree with your reccomendations.
Sales is something most people with just a bit of Charisma can suceed at. Sure, if you're good at it then you're not going to be poor, but the extra pay is because salesmen work damned hard for it!!, and you also have to arselick somewhat too, which i absolutly hate doing.
I Choose my options of what to study later today (I have a choice of Accounting,Business and Marketing , either Joint , Major/Minor or Minor/Minor/Minor). As I will probably choose Marketing (I know i shoudnt be making that decision today!!) I guess Sales is something I wont be likely to leave for sometime.
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Jon Miller
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quote:
Originally posted by Kramerman
What a very helpful thread!
I cant decide on a friggin major! I originally was planning on aerospace engineering, but several months ago I started having second thoughts, and have heard many horror stories in that field.
Currently im thinking about electrical engineering, but i hear the major is one of the most difficult.
My interests are very broad, and so ill be doing what ever i end up doing because of the money. Does anyone have any suggestions for a lucrative field to go into that isnt plagued by long hours of desk work? |
physics?
Jon Miller
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Jon Miller
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it is lucrative (as much so as EE)
you don't have to sit behind a desk all day (depends on what you do)
Jon Miller
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JohnT
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Capitalist
Mar 1999
time: 00:28
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quote:
Originally posted by Kontiki
A huge amount depends on your personality/drive/etc.. One of my best friends from high school - who was incredibly bright, BTW - decided to totally slack off his senior year and barely graduated (again, if he applied himself even to half his ability, he could have gotten into university no problem). He was a compu-geek, but not in the programming kind of way. He got some crap job testing games at Electronic Arts, and within a few years became a producer and even designed/created/launched a top-selling game himself (well, with the help of his team at EA). He then went on to co-found a tech company, left to do some free-lance consulting work, and is now a producer at one of the top electronic ad agencies in Canada, handling Microsoft's accounts. All of this without ANY post-secondary education, but alot of drive and determination. |
Kontiki gets it, or at least his friend does.
The more important thing than your major is your career path. Do you want to work for a large company your entire life? If so, are you executive material or do you want to stay in middle level positions your entire career? Do you want to be an entreprenuer somewhere down the road? Do you want to work for government, academia, or non-profit organizations?
The above are the real questions you need to think about in determining your career path.
But the real secret to success is to find something that you will want to spend 50-80 hours a week doing it, a task or a question so fascinating that you don't mind thinking about it even while off the job. One thing about successful people is that they never really turn it off... even in relaxing moments, you can always tell that there's something going on, that they are thinking about the job. If you can get into this sort of zone, and keep it for 20-40 years, you've got it made.
So my advice is this: throw away that stupid income chart and major in something that will enable you to get paid for doing stuff you love to do, even if the chart says that you are making a financially wrong choice.
Then, you ever have the opportunity to work and socialize with people in your chosen field, do so. If the history department has a dinner for people with history majors, go. If you have a chance to grab a beer with one of your departments TA, then by all means grab it. Why not apply at EA for a games tester?
In short: DON'T BE AFRAID TO TALK TO PEOPLE!!!!!
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09-05-2003 10:30
@loinburger
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