Educational majors

[DakAttack]

I'm currently majoring in psychology at UMBC, and I'm wondering if it's really what's right for me. I can't really see myself in any of the jobs within the field and it's become a bit concerning for me. I don't want to major in one thing, then take a completely demeaning job where I contemplate what I really should have done with my life over lunch in that off-yellow room without windows in the back of the building.

What are some of you guys majoring in, or what have you majored in and to what kind of job has it lead you? If you're still in school what kind of jobs are you eyeing?

[Mhurron]

Re: Educational majors

I majored in Fry making and got my dream job at a place within walking distance of my home.

Ok, seriously, it's been nothing but computers since got out of High School. I've been thinking of taking some more courses somewhere getting a pure Mathematics degree just to exercise my mind in different ways.

[KoukiRyu]

Re: Educational majors

I'm majoring in Culinary Arts. There's a good Fine Arts Institute not too far from me, and I'm transferring next year. It's this sort of...all-encompassing Culinary Arts, learning stuff from each field, and covering a Business Plan towards the end, so that in the future, I have a chance to open my own Restaurant.

What do you actually want to do Dak? Can you think of anything? Cause that's kinda where this decision starts.

[Skoal]

Re: Educational majors

I obtained my degree in General Business Administration. This allowed me to get a feeling for more than one type of business. Besides the core classes that everyone in the entire business school took, I was able to choose my own path. I have to have a certain number of classes in 3 different disciplines. I chose Real Estate, Management and Marketing as my extra classes.

Once I was in the "real world" I found out that a degree in business is nothing more that a piece of paper you have to have. What mattered most were the years of experience you had.

I have been in the sales/marketing side of business since I graduated. I find that selling is natural and I like meeting all the people.

My wife got her degree in Elementary Education. That didn't hold her back from working on the hill in D.C. and another job that had nothing to do with teaching.

[eticket109]

Re: Educational majors

I majored in Communications but I never finished up.

Pretty much just worked in customer service call centers. I'm actually working in a small office now though instead of a huge faceless corporation. I'll probably stay here as long as the position and company are viable.

[Murphie]

Re: Educational majors

Well, I'm only just now going to college, after 10 years of working in various jobs (retail, administrative assistant, temp, etc.). I'm genuinely torn between two paths. Both are liberal arts options, which is difficult to justify, because the practical side of me thinks that I should get a degree in accounting or something that will give me a clear direction when I'm finished with school. But I think I'd be selling myself short if I did that.

So for me it's either going to be teaching English (at a college level, which means MA or, really, PhD), or Arts Administration (helping to run non-profit arts organizations). That means that I'll likely be in school for the next 6-10 years, but I don't really have a problem with that.

Honestly, most liberal arts degrees at a BA level don't get you much of anywhere. You end up having to apply for general purpose business jobs, along with hundreds of other liberal arts majors, and you have to do the hard sell on your "communication skills", which sucks.

[Mhurron]

Re: Educational majors

Both are liberal arts options

I thought the OP was asking about degrees that would get him a job.

/snicker

[Murphie]

Re: Educational majors

I addressed that in my edit. If you want a job with a liberal arts degree, plan to get a Masters or PhD. If you're not interested in that kind of commitment, then pick something else.

And honestly, I have a number of friends who have MAs who still don't have jobs in their field of study.

[Evion]

Re: Educational majors

What Skoal Said. Seriously, I've been out of college for 3 years now and have some advice for you. Pyschology majors are for Psychologists, Psychiatrists, and house wives. If you are not going to be one of those things, you are wasting your time. I've found that majoring in the JOB you really want to be helps the most. Pre-med/Mcat/Medical School/Doctor. College/Firefighters school/Firefighter. Pre-law/LSAT/Law School/Lawyer. I took 4 years of Japanese and did my senior year in Japan. Now, I work for a Japanese Company importing freight from Japan and around the world. But, I didn't need any of my education to do this job. It was just what made my company interested in me... GL!

Evion

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Educational majors

Mhurron, you said you specialised in Computers, and are thinking of Mathematics. Apparently, you and I think in a way more similar than previously thought. (Also, I found wording that sentence deceptively difficult from a perspective of pleasing you Grammar Nazis. It's "more similar," right?)

You have any advice for somebody planning on going in the same direction?

[DakAttack]

Re: Educational majors

I think my dream job would be developing video games. My only problem is I can't draw and fall asleep rather quickly trying to program. I interned at Bethesda Softworks and noticed that you can move up from QA, to QA Manager, and up into actual production positions. QA makes on average about 34k a year if I remember correctly, and managers around 48k on average. I think production makes slightly more than a QA manager, but it tops off around 60k on average for programmers. That was a job I really enjoyed, even though all I did was play the same game day after day.

I enjoy the informational aspect of psychology, so I've considered taking more research oriented classes. I hear it pays well, but eventually they settle with the joy of teaching at community colleges. I wouldn't mind teaching if all my classes were lecture hall style and I wasn't required to know anybody's name.

Mhurron, you said you specialised in Computers, and are thinking of Mathematics. Apparently, you and I think in a way more similar than previously thought. (Also, I found wording that sentence deceptively difficult from a perspective of pleasing you Grammar Nazis. It's "more similar," right?)

I believe it would be 'more similarly'. I could be mistaken. You could circumvent the entire issue, though, by rewording the sentence. 'We think in similar ways more extensively than previously thought.'

[Murphie]

Re: Educational majors

"More similar" isn't incorrect.

Dak - It's possible to not go to school for game design/programming, and still work for a game design company. They need all the things that other companies do as well. So perhaps a business degree would be a smart bet.

[Mhurron]

Re: Educational majors

Mhurron, you said you specialised in Computers, and are thinking of Mathematics. Apparently, you and I think in a way more similar than previously thought. (Also, I found wording that sentence deceptively difficult from a perspective of pleasing you Grammar Nazis. It's "more similar," right?)
You have any advice for somebody planning on going in the same direction?

Have a bunch of systems. They don't have to be expensive (i got a lot of 10 of ebay once for $10) but they do have to work. Free VMware makes this easier but you need slightly beefier hosts, you save on power though.
Use them. Reading about stuff doesn't mean you learned it.

You will have a lot of 'What If' questions that you won't be able to explore in your more or less directed studies so you would have to do it on your own, so do so. Once you're out of school you're going to have to keep up with things and products on your own anyway.

Take the hard route and do things manually yourself. Just don't test things on your main machine, that way it doesn't matter what breaks (you can still get into FFXI).

Don't aim to be a generalist, it doesn't work, but don't narrow yourself so much either. Programming and Administration for instance are very different things, focus on the one you want to do. Know about both, but focus on one. However, System and Database administration are not as different. To do one, you should know a little about the other. So you don't want to focus so narrowly that you're good when sitting infront of Windows 2003 but useless with anything else. (you can still get jobs like that but damn, if your going to do it, do it right).

Oh, and don't care about grammar nazis, most of what you'll be typing won't be english anyway.

It's possible to not go to school for game design/programming

It's preferable not to, 'Game Programming' courses are to narrowly focused.

[Murphie]

Re: Educational majors

All the more reason not to worry about a lack of interest in programming, or a lack of skill in design. Which is essentially what my point was.

[DakAttack]

Re: Educational majors

It's preferable not to, 'Game Programming' courses are to narrowly focused.

Also they're usually pretty hoaky. I thought it was strange when UMBC offered their own game design degree program in both art and computer science. Unfortuantely the laughability of the entire idea is beyond acceptable. I think I'd be better off being an art or computer science major.