A career...?

First off, i am 16 going on 17 at the end of this month, and i am a junior in highschool. I have always been able to do the work of the Honors and AP classes, i just never had any reason within myself to work hard, so i switched back to normal classes this year to lighten my work load. I am doing pretty good now, but i am doing no almost no work at all (i somehow get by on little or no work a day). I am at the point i have to start looking at colleges, and i have to look at colleges based on their better departments and what they are well known for. The thing is, i have NO idea what i want to be. I loathe normal work, stuff i do in school, i hate it. I do enjoy working on computers, but i don't really have a great technical base of knowledge, i can use most progs and figure out the rest, but anything past that i am pretty clueless. I like web design but my knowledge is way too limited to get into that, i started to look at stuff like java and it was just a lot to take in. I actually enjoy writing articles or reports, not essays though, but i seem to always fall short on vocabulary, grammar, or other useful tools for writing. I feel like i need something to aim for, something very specific to motivate me. I know if i find something i really like doing, and want to do i can motivate myself to obtain that goal. I can't motivate myself to get better grades, i don't enjoy school enough. I need help, i just feel like i have to throw myself into the normal type of job. I just don't know, i need a motivation in life, i need a career or job more specifically that i know i want to do (at least right now) and that i can work for....

Join the army!

hmm you could go for the army, i cant say i havent thought about that....

man, we're in the same boat.....i just got a letter from a college and it mentioned one of the majors available is human factor psychology, and that caught my interest.......i know what i wanna do, i just dont know where i can get in to do it....lol

you could do web design, just get into it right now, start doin some amateur stuff, get into it and start working with it......actually, do that for whatever you decide you want to do.....coz you can do whatever you want to....and college is gonna broaden your skills......

youre not required to be an expert at anything right now, thats where college comes in :)

Sit down and make a big list of 50 things you like and 50 things you hate. They can be just about anything, but you might want to try to keep it slightly work and school related.

You might just be surprised what themes come out. :)

A little bit of advice too: Undergraduate school is not really teaching you a career. It's not a trade school. Good UG programs are genuinely designed to teach you how to learn. Up 'till now, you've just had facts stuffed in your head by teachers who don't get paid squat. At a decent UG program, you'll actually have to learn stuff on your own.

Most employers could care less about exactly what you got your degree in - I know a ton of guys with physics degrees who don't work with physics at all (there are no actual jobs in physics!). But damn, if you can figure out that stuff and get good grades in it - you can probably do well in any field you want. And employers know this!

Go to UG school to learn how to learn. Don't worry about exactly what facts you'll be taking in. It's the process, not the result. Then you can hit graduate school or a research job if you really want to know your stuff about a particular field.
:cool:

I have considered the army, but i don't think its my cup of tea. I am going to be getting into web design in about 2 or 3 weeks again, and i'll try to learn more, but it just seems over-whelming with the amount of stuff i need to learn. About UG teaching you how to learn, which college to attend isn't my biggest concern, its just what i want to do with my life. I know i will end up more successful if i have a goal or aim to strive for. I like working with media like audio (any audio media), video (again, any type), and the web. I don't really know how to get into a career or job for any of that stuff since it isn't a mainstream, normal job that we are taught about from youth.

Originally posted by -cy-
I am going to be getting into web design in about 2 or 3 weeks again, and i'll try to learn more, but it just seems over-whelming with the amount of stuff i need to learn. Wow bro, we seem almost identical, only im about 2 years older than you. But i was at the same exact place you were. I had NO clue what i wanted to do nor do i now. However i do have an idea. Going to college the first 2 years, as Fritz said, is basically trying to find out who you are. Finding out what you like and dislike, good at and not good at. do that, its very very important. But dont committ to anything yet. I'm going to be going Web Design...but eventually i want to a Web Art Director... So I'm going to get a degree in Graphic Design. Go to Barnes and Noble and do some research on careers and see what interests you. I suggest the Princeton Review Books...they have the most information concerning this and its simple. But i pulled your quote above for a reason. Dont go into this thinking its a cake walk...nothing is. no matter what, your gonna have to learn a substancial amount of information with any major. Just do it. take your time, have fun and try to enjoy learning.

Dude, sounds like you should goto a technical school. So what if you don't know C++ or Java et cetera now. YOU GOTO COLLEGE TO LEARN THAT STUFF, FOO! :)

Or just goto a state school where there are lots of chicks (unlike me :( ).

Your career is one thing that should be 100% for you to decide

Cisco Networking

very easy class, witha very high paying wage

thats what im shooting for

i also despise school, i hate doing work that means absolutely nothing

i do just enough work to pass my classes
and physics is my most hated subject

"if a cat falls off a fridge and lands with 85J of Potential energy how tal is the fridge?"

the anwser?

get a tape measure :)

i like working with computers there lots of fun, and unlike some freinds, there always there, unless u get a virus or something :)

but i work at Dominos Pizza right now and thats a fun job tho u dont get paid well until u make it to the top like most jobs

Computers are the future, just like most ppl say

Cisco Networking is a pretty new feild and has lots of openings


but dont take my advice, choosing a career is hard, and usually anything anyone suggest is going to be the oppisite of what u want, but u gotta compromise, becuase no job meets everyones want

i mean wouldnt it be great to get paid for posting on AF?
but i doubt they have very many job opening for that

just find something ur good at and stick with it, and sometimes u gotta start off in a bad place to get in a good place

Yeah, make sure whatever you decide to do, you enjoy doing. You're going to spend decades working so you might as well make the best of it.

dood, that's exactly what college is for. to find what you want to do. 99% of kids goin to college dont' know what they want to do come their first year. a lot don't figure it out til their last year. your first two years are the years you need to figure out what you like, what you're good at, and what you don't want and are not good at. most of your classes are general studies anyway. do all your general studies that you can within the first 2 years, take a variety of subject and based on which of those you like the most or think you'll do the best in, that's what you should major in. the average college student in a 4 year span will change their major 3 times. you don't need to settle on a major right away. if you're forced to choose in your 1st year, just pick one and you can change along the way. dont' be afraid of not knowing what you want to do. you're not even in college and you're freakin out about it. you have at least 4 years to figure it out. don't get this worked up about it. coz you're just gonna end up settling for something that you really dont' like. take your time. this is your life you're talkin about. you have time. just worry about gettin into a college right now and not what's gonna happen afterwards. you never know, what you may be interested in right now may change, and odds are they will. shit i wanted to go into aeronautical engineering. i ended up with a BS degree in business, then getting my MBA. and i'm doing very will both financially and job satisfaction.