I suppose the conservative thing to do would be to open this thread to a "any/everyone's career issues" Q&A. But first, me! Relevant "About Me" -(some) beliefs- Love; sensationalism; cause & effect; Beauty; zeteticism (then absurdism); environmentalism; risk, subtlety, & relativity; explorative hedonist humanism; good(evil -formal education- college - History, Renaissance Man (creative writing, philosophy, music theory, East Asian studies, political science, cooking [chemistry], anatomy via dance, sculpture, art history, and consumerism studies) study abroad- Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology, History, Business, and Law -some interests- Love, vim, variegated stimulation, theatrics, games, dancing, athletics, singing, vast lexicons, politics, Robert A. Wilson, freerunning, Garrison Keillor, (body) surfing, soccer tricks, running, (open water) swimming, (touch) rugby, racquetball, cycling (especially for exploring), martial arts (MMA), (ultimate) frisbee, sociological/fitness/psychological studies/theories, history, Tolkien, sleeping, (int'l) pop culture, (int'l) eclectic culture, minimalism, anarcho-primitivism, engineering & manipulation Vague Goals I love... *. some sort of practical manual labor outdoors (like chopping wood, building things, gathering food, etc.) *. socializing *. pushing myself physically (dancing, MMA) *. pushing myself intellectually (very interested in the future of humanity and how much science is/n't helpful in making the world a better place. strong recent interest in engineering) *. education/children; being apart of the African proverb "it takes a whole village to raise a child." Financially I don't want ANY debt, but I already have about $15,000 from college (which is neither awful nor great). Part of me wants to stay out of school, pay off my debt, and start living life to the fullest as much as possible within whatever means I make. The other part of me thinks that--especially given these economic times--maybe I should return to school, do graduate work even, and join organizations that help extend my loan payment deadline while also helping to slowly decrease my loan debt, so that I can slide through the recession as painlessly as possible while increasing my formal credentials. Additional Info 1. I'm currently an 'au pair' for a French family near NYC. I only work ~30hrs/week, food/housing/car is paid for, and I spend most of the day researching current events/technology, listening to/watching enlightening media, and/or just enjoying a slower existence (walk a lot). The kids keep me moving (intellectually/physically), family keeps me grounded. On weekends, I usually go into NYC to explore the experimental side of life (read: Brooklyn hipster scene). But the pay is not amazing, and I'm living in someone else's house. Also, probably most importantly, my lovelife sucks and it seems I need more money to further my romantic endeavours. 2. raised on computers since 5th grade (relatively great with them up until high school, then just used for information and stealing media) a. i THINK i would love computer programming, but hear this field is very hard--emphatically due to competition with outsourcing. b. obviously would balance trancing office work with great social/physical activity in my hobbies. 3. very interested in sustainability/minimalism/anarcho-primitivism a. 'would love to work to promote people freeing themselves from consumerism. 4. relatively good at writing (grammar/punctuation errors are intentional on these forums); generally enjoy the idea of being an artist. a. ethically, I feel everyone should be (considered) an artist and that it is ridiculous to make a profession out of it. Conclusion So, that's more/less me and where I'm at. If anyone has any advice on where to go from here (I have one year left in college, should I choose to return, but it costs $54,000), I would very very very much appreciate it. I do realize that the genius-introvert thing to do is to Google all of these ideas and do weeks of research. Which I do a little of here and there. But, I think asking for help can save one from "reinventing the wheel," especially when some people love to give advice. Thank you all sooo much! Love, gM
Are you asking for career advice? And what the hell is "vim"? When identifying what you want to do, it's always helpful to explain exactly what you've done and what you bring to the table. The above post is somewhat helpful, but I'd need a career history and skill set to offer any substantial advice. ~String
My advice... dont do drugs... an then no mater what coherent choises you make about you'r life... you will likely be twice as happy as you woud have been otherwize.!!!
Unfortunately the majority of people out there who are 'renaissance' won't get very far because they can't be 'held down' to any one topic of study. Often, specialization is key to furthering your career. Being average at a lot of things is not half as marketable as being specified in a specific topic. My suggestion would be to take one thing that couples the most of your passions and specialize in it. That's what I've done, I have general knowledge in physics and mathematics, specialized in Climatology, specialized in Dynamic Meteorology, specialized specifically in Dynamic modelling. Well...I can't attest to its success yet, so I can't assure you it's the correct path, it's what I've decided to be the correct path.
Most of the issues you raise are not career issues. You describe in great detail what you would like to receive from civilization, but you don't seem to have much of an idea of what you intend to give back. I'm a hiring manager reading this "resume" and so far I have no clue as to what you might be able to do to earn your living. Most of your studies are in academia and art. Do you want to be an artist or a musician? Have you taken the necessary courses to go into that kind of career? If you've taken the usual couple of classes in business and law that's great and everyone should have them, but it doesn't give you anything to build a career on. What do you want to do for a living? OK, so you like to play. But we're supposed to be talking about work. What kind of work are you suited for? Where do your interests and aptitudes lie that aren't concerned with fun, whimsy, philosophy and other types of goofing off? What kinds of things can you do that add value to civilization and repay the world for your room and board? Communism died. Everyone finally figured out that what a man receives from civilization has to correlate to some degree with what he gives back. Those aren't goals, those are hobbies. Unless you plan to live in Zambia those jobs are largely automated. People do them for recreation, not as a way of pulling their weight. Yes yes but what do you want do do for a living? If you were going to be a dancer you would have been dedicating your life to it since you were eight. It's not a part-time job that you decide to go into when you're twenty. "Pushing yourself" is what you do in school. Once you're out looking for work you're supposed to already know what you can do. That's one I can answer: all of science. Look elsewhere for the negative forces that are trying to thwart our attempts to make the world a better place. The most onerous is Abrahamist religion. It reinforces our primitive tribal instinct and sets us against each other. If you have a writeup on how you would go about freeing the world from the influence of Judaism, Christianity and Islam so that we can finally merge into a relatively peaceful global community, I might hire you. What kind? Chemical, electronic, software, bio-? Actually all it takes is two committed parents who will stay together and provide good examples of how to be healthy productive adults. Unfortunately families like that are increasingly rare in America. The "village" slogan is just a disingenuous attempt to avoid telling Americans that they have become shitty parents. You need to get in touch with reality. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life at the mercy of a landlord you're going to have a mortgage like everybody else. Don't let the subprime mortgage catastrophe scare you off; if you're as smart as you think you are you wouldn't fall for one of those. As long as the population continues to expand at the same time the supply of real estate remains constant, a sensible person will have at least one piece of property in his portfolio. That's not bad compared to the loans some people graduate with. Yes we would all like to live a fairytale. If you really want to make a good living without finishing college you need to be a skillful tradesman. The best thing to do would be to apprentice yourself to a plumber. That is a trade that is not likely to be able to be automated in your lifetime. After ten years of learning the ropes you can open your own plumbing business and hire other people to do the grunt work for you. Plumbers have phenomenal incomes. Go into any small city that doesn't have a corporate center with executives and limousines, and you'll often find that the wealthiest man in town is the plumber. They're the only people who get to charge for their frelling drive time! Listen to that sensible voice. Some people can drop out and make it, but you don't seem to have any idea of what you can do that people will pay you for. Manual labor may sound like fun for a young healthy energetic fellow like yourself, but it wears off in a couple of months, and the pay is miserable. How old are you? This sounds like a teenage life. I thought we were talking about the transition to adulthood and contributing to the economy. Nobody can live on what an au pair makes. It's something you do while you complete your education. The Information Age is just starting. There's lots of software to be built. The bloom is off of offshore outsourcing because it's too hard for the users to write the requirements for developers who don't share their cultural background and don't take the same features for granted. But if you were interested in software engineering one would think that you would already have tried your hand at it. Twelve-year-olds are writing software. It isn't like my day when third-generation computers first hit the market and they were hiring 30-year-old refugees from teaching, social work and law offices to be programmers because there weren't enough to go around. If you want to get in on that you'd better start studying it pronto. Yes wouldn't we all love to live on a planet where we could custom-design the perfect job. I've been working for 48 years and have some very marketable skills, and I still don't always get jobs that make me giggle with enthusiasm. About the only other thing I can suggest is what a lot of kids did in my day: Take a year off and see the world. You may think Brooklyn is exotic but you've never been to Oaxaca or Budapest. Seeing how people live elsewhere, what they put up with stoically, what they contribute to their societies, what they think is a reasonable tradeoff for a good life... that can be a greater education than anything you learn academically. You'll grow up more in that year than in four years of college.
