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Vera
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What have you done with your life?

Mon May 04, 2009 11:15 pm

Hi everyone. My girlfriend and I recently broke up, and it's very hard. Part of the reason was I don't exactly have my life together. I went to high school, struggled, but graduated on time in 03 with my class. Now, school has never been easy for me, I guess you could say I don't learn very well in traditional ways. After high school, I took about a year off and then started attending Brown College in Egan, MN for digital photography. It was alright, though it was a brand new program for the school, so I felt I was part of a test group of the first students to take the course. I was not impressed with it, so I stopped going. Also, I quickly realized that photography will always be a hobby of mine, I don't want that to be my career. Brown was really expensive too, had I graduated, it would have cost almost $94,000.00 in student loans, INSANE! Anyways, I am now struggling to find myself, and get back into school. To this day I still don't know exactly what I want to do, and that kills me. All I know, is I LOVE computers. I love to build them, repair them, maintain them. I've been thinking about going back and doing some sort of IT program. So my question to everyone is this;

What have you done with your life? If anyone out there is in a computer related field, and can give me any insight on how you got there? What schooling did you take? What jobs did that get you? Are you where you want to be?

I'm so lost right now, I gotta get back on my feet, and get to my life. Right now I have no future, just a job. Can anyone relate to this? Thanks for reading, and leave me a comment, it would be much appreciated.
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shaq_mobile
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Mon May 04, 2009 11:50 pm

I actually graduated in '05. After I graduated I spent alot of time floating around, I didn't take school seriously at all. I did alot of messing around, did alot of drugs, drank alot, worked part time at a dead end jobs. I did the absolute bare minimum to survive. I was a real turkey to my family as well. I got fired from a job for not showing up one day, from another job for not calling in properly and a third job because I left the front desk and kicked it in a hot tub and pool and a customer found me. I was playing WoW about 14 hours a day and I was treating my girlfriend pretty aweful. Needless to say, I had a pretty depressing life.

I don't really know when the change came, but I do know what happened. I got a job at a grocery story, it started out pretty rough, I almost got fired a few times. One day my boss said that I was one of the "better" workers taht we had, to his wife, while he was standing in front of me. Now, in retrospect I can see now he was just being polite, but after he said that I realized that it didn't matter what kind of job I was doing, I wanted people to be able to say that and mean it. I started showing up on time, I stopped calling in sick completely, I offered to stay late and help with cleaning up others messes. I also started enjoying the job alot more, even though it was a crumby job, I started to take pride in the work I did. Regardless of where you are in life or what you do, if youre going to bother with something at all, do it right. As soon as you take pride in your work, you will be happier with yourself. Your coworkers and managers will want you around, it takes a while, but they will notice.

I eventually stopped drinking heavily and doing drugs,and not because I realized they were 'evil'. Moderation in moderation. Some things are just best to stay away from for some people at certain times. Sometimes I miss certain drugs, or the environment of beign with fellow users, but I can't honestly say I want to go back to it. Some things just aren't worth doing on the basis that it makes simple things in life harder. I don't want to risk dependency, spend that much money, or worry my parents, so avoiding drugs is far easier in the end.

After a while I picked up a second job while I was working at the grocery store, it was a part time job installing windows XP. I was working 6-7 days a week between both jobs, but I didn't mind it much. Eventually, the company I was working as a temp for liked me so much they hired me on full time, creating a new position and using me as the test subject. So here I am, writing this email during some downtime at work. I make a decent 22ish dollars an hour, I'm single but I'm actually pretty happy about that right now, I live in my own place, I'm fully self suffecient.

I guess one of the big things I've learned in this last four years, was that with some elbow grease, trying as much as possible to like everyone around you, a firm handshake and a little grace you can get quite a long ways. It will likely take you a while to regain peace with yourself, but just do your best. Learn from your mistakes and you'll be on easy street. That's a life long process, each mistake yielding a completely new lesson (or a really old one). Listen to your parents, listen carefully to your friends. Be as patient as you can. Don't be afraid of being wrong, assuming you accept your mistakes you can learn more from them than being right. I know this is all elementary, please do not take it as me patronizing anyone. I'm saying it for others as much as for myself.

It sounds like you have a tradeskill, don't be afraid to use it. Just because you have hobbies now, doesnt mean you wont develop new ones later. I actually work on computers now, and my hobbies are less computer related. I've started migrating to cooking (I want to get into brewing) and muscle cars. I dabble in cigar smoking and drink as many different microbrews I can get my paws on. I grew up gaming and breaking/fixing/building computers, so it's actually quite refreshing to change to a different hobby.
 
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 12:16 am

Yeah I made the mistake of going to an expensive art school without having any real natural talent. I dropped out because of my aimless priorities and lack of motivation. I floated around for FIVE years until I got in an accident that nearly killed me. After that, I met a girl and decided to throw myself at business school as hard as I could. So far, things are going okay... although the gf broke up with me last month. (oh well, it was time to move on anyways I guess)

I hate to say it, but I really didn't "get it" until I was close to dying and disgusted with my wasted life. I'm well into my mid twenties now, and my only (admittedly deep) regret is wasting so much of my youth not being in school. I'm at Western Washington University right now, recently declared Operations Management (in small, small part inspired by UberGerbil... even though he might not be a project manager at all). I don't know... things just feel different now. Maybe it's because at all the raging parties, I'm the oldest guy in the room amongst a bunch of 19-21 yr olds. :-? I actually meet classmates who don't know what an NES is, or the show ALF.( :o )

I can relate about the gf thing though. Breakups are tough.
 
just brew it!
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 1:04 am

Got interested in electronics around 5th or 6th grade. While in high school took a FORTRAN course that was offered by a local university (open to the public, so I could take it even though I was in high school). Landed a part-time job at one of the first computer stores in the Chicago area, circa 1978. Built my own computer... back then this meant actually using a soldering iron to assemble the boards yourself from kits. Taught myself BASIC and 8080 assembly language.

Went to college, majored in CS. Got good grades in the CS courses, mediocre grades in pretty much everything else (just couldn't bring myself to give a crap about a lot of the other coursework). Used the PC I built in high school to avoid standing in line waiting to use the keypunches -- typed up the programs locally, uploaded them to the university's mainframe over a flaky 300 bps acoustic modem someone had given me, and had the mainframe punch the cards for me. :wink:

I'd originally wanted to write video games, but the video game industry fell into a slump. I'd worked a couple of summers while in college at a company that did typesetting software, and planned to take a full-time position with them after graduation; but the company tanked, putting an end to that plan as well. Ended up working at a company that did 9-1-1 dispatching systems; that job lasted about a year and a half. In the nearly quarter of a century since then I've held positions as a software developer at a number of places in the telecom, government, financial, and defense sectors. About 10 years of that was as an independent consultant.

The stuff I've worked on has ranged from the mundane (financial databases, medical records transcription systems) to quite interesting (high performance computing research, head-mounted displays). The places I've worked for have ranged from tiny start-ups to multinational corporations, with a 5 year stint working for the US Department of Energy thrown in for good measure. The pay has generally been good; there were a couple of lean years as an independent consultant but that has been the exception not the rule.

On the whole, I'd say I've enjoyed what I've done for a living so far. There have been ups and downs, but overall more ups.

If I had to give any general advice to someone contemplating a career in the tech/IT field, I guess I'd say the following:
- Be flexible; don't allow yourself to become pigeonholed. A specialist may be able to make a killing if they happen to get lucky and pick the right thing at the right time to specialize in, but a generalist will almost always be able to find work.
- Never pass up an opportunity to pick up new skills. If your current job doesn't provide these opportunities, pursue them on your own time, and make sure you play up any new skills you've acquired to potential employers.
- Look for ways to turn things that interest you into marketable skills. You're more likely to put in the effort required to be good at something if you find it interesting.
- Start building a network of personal contacts. Changing jobs somewhat frequently at first may help you here, but there's a fine line you don't want to cross -- if you're perceived as a "job hopper", some companies may be less likely to hire you. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, sometimes taking a job at a place that is not in the best shape can help -- as co-workers leave and scatter to the four winds, you implicitly get a network of contacts at other potential employers!

I'm really sorry if that advice seems sort of vague, but it's the best I can come up with looking back at the career path I've taken to date.

Lately I've been feeling restless, kind of like a career midlife crisis. (With a kid in college now, and another one starting in 3 years, I sure can't afford the traditional midlife crisis car anytime soon!) I suppose you could say that the occasional blog posts I've been doing for TR over the past year are part of a broader exploration of what might be next for me. Launching a web site of some sort... or getting back into the independent consulting game when the economy starts to rebound... these are things I'm considering.

Or if someone knows some investors who'd be willing to front the money for me to open my own brewpub, I'd consider that too! :wink:
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 2:56 am

Well my life "starts" at the end of this year when I graduate from high school, but I've been half-arsing my way through high school and most likely won't go to University to do IT like I had planned a few years ago. I've had a job since 2006 doing the continuous replay for the Flemington Race Course. Might be trying to chase up a career in Auto after I finish school, who knows. I'm just floating along at the moment.
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iDenTiTy
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 4:29 am

I matriculated (I think in the US, you guys 'graduate' from Gr. 12) from High school in 2000.
I was a bad student. That is, I spent more time doing sports than studying. It became so bad, that I ended up choosing standard grade mathematics because of my laziness.

After school, I attended a BA (Tourism Development). Again, my laziness got hold of me, and I left in 2nd year.
In 2003, I (for some unknown reason) went to the SANDF Navy. Basics.

That's where things started to change.

In 2004, I came back home and found work in a local PC store. Fixing PCs and software etc.
I then, because of my laziness at school, signed up for a Software Development Diploma at a local college (wanted to do CS at Varsity, but had no HG maths). Completed it with good marks, and decided to go further and do an International Advanced Diploma in CS. Again, finished it nicely.

It was then that I took a chance and applied to do a BSc(Hons) Computing and Information Systems through London Met. I was told that, luckily, my courses had covered the various credits, and I was told I could attend it even though my maths from school wasn't good enough (I ended up having to do a 'bridging course).

Awesome. Finally, I'm making something out of my life.

Finished it last year with honours, and now am as happy as a pig in p**. :P

Lessons I learnt:

1) If you going to do something, do it properly. First time.
2) NEVER pass up an opportunity. It may lead to greener pastures.
3) Make use of the resources available to 'stretch' your capabilities.
4) Trust/Know that you are more than you think you are.
5) There's very few feelings that can compete with the feeling of accomplishment...

If you like computers, then apply your you abilities. At home in SA, people go around teaching the elderly how to use Linux (Ubuntu) - helps them save money on OSes. It also becomes something you may feel proud about (helping others)...

Good luck. Sure everything will be fine.

:wink:
 
Jypster
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 5:01 am

Just remember mate each day is a new one and therefor a new start. Quick summary of my life. 15 - Expelled and assult charges for knocking out the headmaster. 15 1/2 stole my first car. 16 GF pregnant. 16 and a bit, up before the courts for a high speed chase, GF leaves me. 17 a few more charges for stupid things (drugs etc) but the judge took the time to speak to me as a person. 18 decided that I had better get things together as I would be spending time in goal, stopped hanging out with the wrong crowd and got myself a job in a supermarket. 19 working two jobs and things looking up, GF comes back. 21 very bad acceident at work, 3 operations on spine later can never go back to any sort of manaul work. 22 put myself back though school finished in top 3 percent of the state, more study then a uncompleted Uni course. 25 Ended up working for IBM in a great Job.

I am now 40, 4 kids but only two at home, retired and living comfortably. Like I said just remember that each day is a new start. What the judge said that changed my life ? "You don't soar with turkeys son" That's it, pretty silly but that has always stuck with me. <grins> I hope my sons don't read this
 
lordT
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 5:36 am

Graduated high school with 96%, got into IIT Chennai, studied there for 2 semesters, quit due to health problems and boredom, working for a firm as a front end developer/designer while doing freelance on the side for a couple of years now. Can't complain really.

Though I must admit, the fall from the train about which I posted here some time ago really shook me up and got me to quit. It still hurts in the back of my head. Let me tell you skulls and concrete are never supposed to meet.
 
pikaporeon
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 8:22 am

I did decently in highschool [famously being 0.2 percent away from an A average =\]

I started university for philosophy and promptly failed two courses which has put me on the brink of suspension ever since.

Last year I assumed i was going to be suspended and started technical college (its a diploma-granting institute here in Ontario) for computer programming. I'll be done that in December. GPA is currently sitting around 3.6 so im not droppin the ball here

However I never actually got suspended so now im trying to slowly change my major to Computer Science at university. I'm fine on the programming front but im terrified of the math involved for the theoretical sides of the degree.
If I do get suspended im likely to transfer to York (another nearby school) or go to Athebasca (online) and actually get a job with my college diploma
Last edited by pikaporeon on Tue May 05, 2009 9:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Fighthouse
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 8:43 am

I found an interest in computers about ten years ago, and ended up getting a BA in Computer Science in '06. I worked for a bank at their help desk for about a year, and then my gf got into a graduate program down here at UNCC. I had lived in Vermont pretty much my entire life, and I looked forward to an opportunity to broaden my horizons (even if only slightly), so I packed up everything and moved down to Charlotte in the summer of '07. I was lucky that I found a job after 3 weeks (almost the EXACT same thing I was doing at the bank - for about 35% more compensation), and have worked here since. My fiancee got her teaching license, and is about to complete her first year as a teacher. We are getting married in July, and are closing on our first house at the end of the month. Everything is going much better than I ever expected!

...but I still have an itch. The job I am working at is VERY mundane, and I am not a fan of working 8-6 M-F with a 45 min drive each way (will be the same from the new house). My fiancee has to be at school early every morning, so she usually goes to bed around 8ish. I would prefer to see her for more than an hour a day. I'll sit tight for now because of the reliable moneyflow, but when our economy is in a state where it can present more opportunities, I would love to do something that I would enjoy. I have thrown around the idea of getting into an education setting myself (sharing summers off with the lady would open up MANY opportunities), coming home everyday feeling like I am pushing society in a positive direction would be bliss. On the other hand, I have thought about doing something similar to what JBI mentioned earlier:

just brew it! wrote:
Or if someone knows some investors who'd be willing to front the money for me to open my own brewpub, I'd consider that too! :wink:

I have been a fan of beer since the beginning of college, but my interest in it has changed the past couple years. I have learned to appreciate the complexity of it, and in the last couple of months I have learned to start brewing it. My long term goal is to add and refine my knowledge of brewing, and eventually share it with others by opening up a microbrewery or brewpub.

Hmmm, opening up a brewpub with JBI - how could you go wrong?
Does not compute
 
roont
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 8:58 am

You're not alone out there. Im sort of in the same position. I stuggled through high school. took me almost 2 years longer then it should have, but i finally finished it. Went to college for a networking program, but (not trying to be cocky or anything) they taught very little to nothing that I didnt know already and I felt it was a huge waste of my money. Through a family friend I had gotten a job as "the IT guy" in an office building, fixing pcs, printers, etc etc part time while I was in school. which i was extremly grateful for.
I stopped going to class and stopped really caring about my schooling at all, failed a few classes, and needless to say, I was put on 1 year suspention before I could go back to school. I have yet to go back and finish off the 3 or 4 classes I need to graduate.
I'd been with my girlfriend for close to 3 years and on Boxing day last year, the day after christmas, she told me that she wasnt happy anymore. Apparently she'd found someone who did make her happy. and that just about killed me, since that was now the second time that my significant other had been unfaithful. started drinking like a maniac and spend many a night passed out on the floor instead of my bed. started smoking 3 or 4 times as much as i normally did and coughed my head off constantly.

One day I found myself still drunk out of my mind at 6am on a tuesday morning, so i called in sick to work. The next day I came in and found out that there had been a bit of a crisis. One of the servers had gone down and because the network specific guy had been on vacation no one really knew what to do about it. Had I been there I could have resolved the problem in a number of hours rather then the next day. Since I've started to take my job a lot more seriously. I stopped drinking on weekdays and pushed myself to do the best i could, trying to take pride in SOMETHING that i do.

While im still in a bit of a rut, im slowly but surely pulling myself out of the grave that I had dug for myself. cut down significantly on the smoking, started eating properly and excersizing, i started to write again, which i hadent done for years. and im looking to find myself a new hobby to spend my time on, which I think ive found.

Im still undecided on my school issue because ive so commited myself to my job, if i were to take the time off to go to school, i really think this place would fall apart. im not sure what to do there.

but anyways. i guess my point is that everyone finds themselves in a crappy situation at some point or another and something I read somewhere really made sense to me. "regret is the most useless and wastefu emotion a human can feel." ive really taken that to heart. whats done is done and no amount of hoping or wishing or going over it in your head how you may have done this or that differently will make a lick of difference. you can only look at now and ahead, theres no rear-view mirror in life.

again man, youre not alone out there. things can and will get better, if you really want them to and work towards it.
"...and she says, 'That's not my expansion slot.' So my friend says, 'That's not my gold plated 22-pin connector!! Ah-hahahaHA!"
 
holophrastic
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 9:23 am

I don't understand at all. So many people here "lost" "poor students" "dislike school" "looking for a job". This all makes zero sense to me.

I hated school, couldn't stand it, never found it worthy of any real time. Made it all the way to the last year of university before realizing that I had no interest in anything academic. But I wasn't lost, and I wasn't looking for a job.

I STARTED A BUSINESS.

You don't need any qualifications (in this country) to start your own business. Especially with these new-fangled computer jobs. No client ever asks for my credentials. And when I just started out, they wanted me to have none. You simply have to know more than your client -- to be able to do something that they cannot.

Building basic web-sites, repairing computers, building computers, sourcing components. All you have to do is print a business card that says: "Joe Shmoe fixes your computer". You'll get everyone and their uncle calling you. As for the amount of money, it'll start small, and it'll grow.

So stop looking for jobs. Stop draining society. Make your own job. It's really not difficult.

Oh yeah, it's a lot of work, and a lot of reward, and your friends will have no idea.

Ask any small business owner for help getting started, and they'll help you. Don't know any, call me. 416-230-1410. Every small business owner in this country will do just about anything to help another small business owner get started. Because our friends have no idea.

You don't like the world, all you have to do is be willing to change it. Stop accepting crap from a distasteful world. You have no need to follow it.
 
pikaporeon
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 9:44 am

416...

A shocking amount of people in this thread are from the GTA.
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mph_Ragnarok
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 10:17 am

I'm just finishing my freshmen year at a business school. I go to NYU Stern. I feel like perhaps I chose the wrong major in this time; a few years ago the banking and all that looked so nice. My supervisors at the places I intern tell me its near impossible to get a paying internship, and that the investment banking industry is dead. I hope it will be a more welcoming industry in 3 years :(
High school was nice, a nerd the whole time. 2250 SAT and such.

On the bright side, I did put together a computer with a gtx 280 with money from the university library job I work on weekends. I am playing all these video games I haven't got to play in the past 2.5 years because of not having a capable computer.
 
holophrastic
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 10:37 am

Unless you believe that tha banking industry in your country will never recover, you're better than fine. When it does recover, there will be so many opportunities that you'll think yourself the most psychic and genious person of all of us.

I've got a second business like that. We've spent 18 months engineering and prototyping a new product. Because now is not the economy where anyone would buy it, but now is the economy when manufacturing fabricators will give us huge breaks on teh prototyping fabrication. By the time we're done, the market will appear as if from no where, and we'll be poised to take it over.
 
paulWTAMU
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 10:53 am

I dunno, I've never *looked* for fufillment. I don't have this need to feel warm and fuzzy all the time. I don't exactly dislike my job, but Im not in love with it either. I hated school, but that was only 14 or 15 years out of my life too, so *shrug* it's done. Just find things you like and do 'em, if not as a vocation at least as a hobby. I'm reasonably happy. Life is not perfect of course--I'd love another zero on the end of my salary :wink: But it is enjoyable enough. Find that which fufills you and pursue it as best you can...it doesn't have to be your job. I don't know why folks are so tied up with the idea that fufillment onlyc omes from your work. If you do get a job that fufills you great, but you can also fufill yourself in other ways.
Ugly people have sex all the time. We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion humans if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
 
ssidbroadcast
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 1:17 pm

Wow, Jypster that's quite a story! Retired at age 40? Nice! 8)
 
Looking for Knowledge
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 1:44 pm

I'm in my 40s, have advanced degrees, am half-way through a 30 year carreer, and still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. :wink:
Probably PUI. Definitely an كافر
 
silvervoid23
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 8:45 pm

I graduated in the same year as you ('03) and spent the next three years at community college. I started out well with a B average but a few semesters in I basically stopped going to classes and spent all my time at school smoking weed with various friends and strangers, and partying almost every night. I payed for it as I went, so luckily I don't have any student loans from those three years. After three years of accomplishing basically nothing and working various lousy retail jobs I decided to come up with an actual career plan. I was never overly interested in computers at the time, but it seemed like a good career path, so I enrolled in an IT program at a local 2 year tech school. Luckily for me I took to it pretty well and actually found it interesting, to the point that I see this more than "just a job". With creds from community college and a few classes I managed to test out of, I got an associate's degree in three semesters (including the summer).

Initially it's hard, without experience you'll have a tough time getting your foot in the door. After graduating in the beginning of august I couldn't find a job until the end of september (a long time when you're broke). I managed to snag a job working the help desk for a credit company (third shift, less help desk type stuff, more system monitoring/data busy work, though there were some interesting parts sometimes like helping programmers debug jobs and programs on an AS/400). I did that for about a year, until I got another job offer. Right now I'm a tech support engineer for Sun (I know, I know) supporting mainly their LDAP server software. I also, as a result of graduating from said tech school, have an open door to Drexel University, if only I could find the time and money to go :lol: Oh well. If you're into computers I say go for it, even if you're not specifically in IT, computer skills can be a very handy thing to put on a resume.
 
Captain Ned
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 8:59 pm

Looking for Knowledge wrote:
I'm in my 40s, have advanced degrees, am half-way through a 30 year carreer, and still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. :wink:

Excluding the advanced degrees, we seem to be on similar paths.
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paulWTAMU
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 9:06 pm

I actually think Ned's job sounds sort of interesting, in a hair pullingly frustrating way. Rules and regulations have always interested me in a strange perverse way.
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Captain Ned
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 9:51 pm

paulWTAMU wrote:
I actually think Ned's job sounds sort of interesting, in a hair pullingly frustrating way. Rules and regulations have always interested me in a strange perverse way.

Interesting, eh? That depends on which of the regulated entities I'm dealing with on any given day.

Most of my regulated population is run by smart people who really want to comply with the regs as well as the nebulous "safety and soundness" standards. Unfortunately there are a few whose need for the clue bat is so profound that if they were clue-batted back to sentience, they'd be unrecognizable bloody pulp. Within that group there is a pair of executives that drive me to such rage that if I were holding the clue bat I'd be arraigned and convicted for manslaughter.

As Ron White makes so clear, extreme stupidity is beyond any human power to correct. I just wish that these two individuals had chosen employment that did not put me in the position of exposing their extreme stupidity to the world. Unfortunately (for them), state law requires me to publicly rub their stupidity in their faces in front of their customers and the public in general.
What we have today is way too much pluribus and not enough unum.
 
paulWTAMU
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Tue May 05, 2009 11:31 pm

think of the satisfaction that last bit gives you :lol: My dad's job is very similar but he works with pipeline companies. He's had similar situations to yours over the years--people who want something that can't legally be one. It's gotta be frustrating. And of course you deal with lobbyist and politicians and political appointees all day.
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Jigar
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Mon Jan 24, 2011 3:32 am

This thread is bookmarked, need some reading... Thanks guys.
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thegleek
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Mon Jan 16, 2012 12:16 pm

iDenTiTy wrote:
Lessons I learnt:

1) If you going to do something, do it properly. First time.

Not true. At all. A quote from Samuel Beckett states, ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

iDenTiTy wrote:
2) NEVER pass up an opportunity. It may lead to greener pastures.

Not true. Opportunities are always a case by case basis.

iDenTiTy wrote:
3) Make use of the resources available to 'stretch' your capabilities.
4) Trust/Know that you are more than you think you are.
5) There's very few feelings that can compete with the feeling of accomplishment...

All true!
 
derFunkenstein
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Mon Jan 16, 2012 12:26 pm

thegleek wrote:
iDenTiTy wrote:
Lessons I learnt:

1) If you going to do something, do it properly. First time.

Not true. At all. A quote from Samuel Beckett states, ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

You're misunderstanding him. He means that the lesson is to do your very best. Don't cut corners. Don't fail because you didn't give 100%, which is absolutely the way to live. You're going to fail; you're human. Do your best and you'll fail less often.

I feel like his #2 is true insomuch as you should always thoroughly investigate opportunities. Never dismiss one out of hand based on a glance judgment. Always look into it. Don't always take it, or you'll be selling Amway and Avon in your free time.

As for me, I drank myself right out of college. I knew a guy who did support for a student data management tracking package. Because I knew him and he said something nice about me, I got a job there, too. A few years later I acted in ways that totally burned the bridge with that guy, though I still work with student data management packages. I spent the first 26 years of my life being a huge turd towards everyone - my wife, my friends, people I didn't even know. When I hit the bottom of being a huge turd (I dunno, early 2007?), I decided I didn't want to be a huge turd to people anymore and worked very hard to put other people ahead of myself. I'm still a huge turd, but now I'm a huge turd who tries not to be. And more importantly, I *recognize* that I'm a huge turd and that's my nature that I have to fight. In my heyday as King of Turd Mountain I didn't even know what I was doing to people. I credit my wife for verbally smacking me straight, though at the time I was a huge turd to her denying that I'd been a huge turd to her. Even this fall I stumbled; I was a huge turd towards a guy who works very hard and it messed up my friendship with him. We've reconciled but it won't be like it was before that event. I just never learn.
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Mon Jan 16, 2012 12:39 pm

derFunkenstein wrote:
As for me, I drank myself right out of college. I knew a guy who did support for a student data management tracking package. Because I knew him and he said something nice about me, I got a job there, too. A few years later I acted in ways that totally burned the bridge with that guy, though I still work with student data management packages. I spent the first 26 years of my life being a huge turd towards everyone - my wife, my friends, people I didn't even know. When I hit the bottom of being a huge turd (I dunno, early 2007?), I decided I didn't want to be a huge turd to people anymore and worked very hard to put other people ahead of myself. I'm still a huge turd, but now I'm a huge turd who tries not to be. And more importantly, I *recognize* that I'm a huge turd and that's my nature that I have to fight. In my heyday as King of Turd Mountain I didn't even know what I was doing to people. I credit my wife for verbally smacking me straight, though at the time I was a huge turd to her denying that I'd been a huge turd to her. Even this fall I stumbled; I was a huge turd towards a guy who works very hard and it messed up my friendship with him. We've reconciled but it won't be like it was before that event. I just never learn.

Did you have a spy cam on me?

Your first sentence speaks volumes to me and, like you, it took a wife who saw the part of me I could not see to smack me out of my turd.
What we have today is way too much pluribus and not enough unum.
 
cjcerny
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Mon Jan 16, 2012 12:46 pm

I'm in my mid 40's now too and I'm of the firm belief that there isn't such a thing as a "dream job". There are great jobs, for sure, but it's still a job. No matter how much you love where you work or what you do at work, there will still be plenty of mornings where hopping out of bed at 6am on a cold January day to get to work on time for an early meeting is going to need to be done. My point is that you should not expect to ever get a "dream job", no matter how much time and effort you put into getting one. Even getting paid to wash Playmates all day long has a downside--massive prune fingers!! Instead, focus your mindset on the fact that work is just something most of us have to do to then be able to spend our remaining free hours on the things that we love the most and with the people we love the most.
 
pikaporeon
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Mon Jan 16, 2012 1:16 pm

It's cool coming back to this thread almost three years later

pikaporeon wrote:
I did decently in highschool [famously being 0.2 percent away from an A average =\]

I started university for philosophy and promptly failed two courses which has put me on the brink of suspension ever since.

Last year I assumed i was going to be suspended and started technical college (its a diploma-granting institute here in Ontario) for computer programming. I'll be done that in December. GPA is currently sitting around 3.6 so im not droppin the ball here

However I never actually got suspended so now im trying to slowly change my major to Computer Science at university. I'm fine on the programming front but im terrified of the math involved for the theoretical sides of the degree.
If I do get suspended im likely to transfer to York (another nearby school) or go to Athebasca (online) and actually get a job with my college diploma

I eventually just stopped going to the Philosophy university when I realized it'd be way too much of a pain to complete with the restrictions the yoffered.
After I got my college diploma I was hired into a program with my current employer to 'learn the ropes of hte business (grocery)" then drop me in my destination department somewhere in IT. the salary was okay and I figured it'd be good working experience. After slogginmg through 6 months in a grocery store, I got a tour of a few IT departments before settling into a Database Build role - there are certainly stresses in the position I wasn't ready for, and I'm still not 100% sure this is what I'll be doing for the rest of my life, but what I do know is just doing this job is making me smarter, making me more experienced, turning into a bolded line on my resume, and paying for my car, soon to be paying for my rent, and paying for tuition as I finish off my degree in CIS at Athabasaca university.
Plus the company is more than willing to shell out for training for me - there aren't that many people at 23 who already have a fair bit of Oracle and SQL Server experience, so I can't take any of this lightly.
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derFunkenstein
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Re: What have you done with your life?

Mon Jan 16, 2012 1:43 pm

Captain Ned wrote:
Did you have a spy cam on me?

Your first sentence speaks volumes to me and, like you, it took a wife who saw the part of me I could not see to smack me out of my turd.

Here's to great wives who not only stick with but pull at least some of the potential out of the huge turds they have for husbands. :D
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
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