@KTC, "How enjoyable your job is to you is entirely irrelevant. What matters is how much you earn for your job"

but won't a job you do not like or want to do, become a tedious ritual in your lifestyle with time??

Totally agree with MoonReader on that thought. My mom doesn't really enjoy her job. Now it's gotten to the point that it's affecting me, since she's been getting rather irritable.

Having a job you dislike for a long amount of time can make you an incredibly miserable person. I've seen people who have well-paying jobs, but they're still bitter because they're never really happy.

Though, right now even having a job- let alone a well paying one- is a good thing. So even though I hate my job as a cashier and working with the irritable, wretched public with a passion of a thousand fiery suns... It's a job. Of course, I'm sure if I went back to school and got a degree in something I -might- be able to get a better job... Except right now the only thing that even interests me is either Library Sciences or Graphic Design- the first pretty useless overall, and the second worthless in my area.

Blargh. Why is education so expensive?

@moonreader: It's just a job, something that earns money. How you feel about it is irrelevant as long as it provides a whole lot of money to live comfortably.

All you have to do is separate your feelings from the job. We do it all the time with things we don't particularly care for. For example, I don't like school. Never have. Do I still go through the motions to get that high GPA? Of course. How I feel about school is irrelevant as long as I get that GPA.

You do the job, get your money, and pay your living expenses and debt.

@KTC, but your job is like 50% of your lifetime, if not more. something you have to go through every single day, you say you don't like school, but school is not like your future career; school is temporary, you can forget about how annoying it is by thinking that it'll be over with soon, (which by the way works extra well in the senior year ) but your job is not the same thing, you can quit if you like, but that means no more money to support you, IMO, a job is a implied obligation, so might as well do something you enjoy.

@KTC: Just out of curiosity, what type of medical career are you considering, something research/lab-based or clinical/working with patients? If you're wanting to work with patients being emotionally detached and going through the motions aren't the best characteristics to have with that type of job. They don't help with having a good bed side manner.

Edit: Just in case you say bedside manner doesn't matter in health care, there's a pile of literature that says otherwise.

@moonreader: Again, You simply learn to make do with the job and separate your feelings from the job. A job is simply a means to an end. When you've collected enough money from the job and is living comfortably, then you think about whether you enjoy it or not, not before. I'm not sure if it's an asian thing or just what my family and people I know do. The goal is to make a lot of money first before you even think about happiness. Can't tell you how many times the parents go "See how much I sacrifice for you? You will go into medical school to earn a lot of money so you don't have to struggle like me."

@mizzou: I'm aiming to get into medical school first before I think about what career to choose. Parents are pushing for specializing in surgery since it has a bigger paycheck. As for bedside manner: let's see if I can even get in first lol. If I can't, it's off to Mcdonald.

The parents threatened to pull me out of HS if my grades didn't improve [3.5 GPA was not good enough for them]. Add on the extra pressure of 90% of the school being similarly pressured asians, yeah it was no wonder my HS once had a suicide help program lol.

They also threatened to cut college funding for me if I didn't take medical school requirement classes.

As such, I'm rather apathetic about the whole thing lol.

I understand Moon's feelings.
I love art as well and I would have loved to continue my photography and graphic designing--my instructor would always praise me as gifted student and helped me improve my photography and my photoshop techniques. However, I knew that not only was it too late for me to build a portfolio (for art school--my friends who are majoring in art-related subjects have been building theirs since the beginning of high school or earlier, I was merely a hobbyist that started in junior year), but it's also a gamble on where I would go in the future if I did continue to pursue photography.
A career in medicine really is the way to go these days if you want stability. Personally, I have always enjoyed my science subjects, and the PreMed course I took was Medical Laboratory Science. I don't enjoy it like I enjoyed my photography, but I liked it. It was a good second best and I know I won't end up hating my job in the future.

So the way I looked at it was that I listed what is enjoyable to me from greatest to least--photography being at the top, AnaPhy second, etc etc. That way, you can show them to a guidance counselor or in my case, the lady in the career center, and they can help you.

Unlike most people, I refuse to have a job that I'd hate in the future--that's why I made that list and had a talk with the woman at the career center. If I like my job, waking up in the morning would not be so difficult and you'd generally feel happier or content--life would be easier whereas instead of having a job you dislike or hate and you end spending a lot of energy just getting through the day because you feel the job drags on for too long and you really desire to get out already.

I would go for a career in science, but you should see what you like. If you enjoy science, then I suggest that you go for it.

Money is really important in a job, and you should probably try to go into a field where there are many stable jobs. While money is important, though, you should also make sure that you enjoy what you're doing, because if you don't, you might find it difficult to stay motivated and positive. If I had to go and work at a job that I didn't like every day, I would be a mess. :|

Like everyone else is saying, the art industry is too unstable to really rely on, so unless you're amazing, you might be struggling with the cost of living.

Then again, guidance counselors can help you with that. They are the best people to consult with career guidance.When I graduated from High School last March, I didn't know what program I should choose. I was looking for an academic program in which:

1) I will enjoy the most.
2) I know will give me a good opportunity in the future.
3) Something challenging
4) Anything within the bounds of Humanities or Social Science (except Political Science)
5) Less complex math and science (although I did well in Calculus and Biology in HS).

I told all of these to my guidance counselor and I was given some sort of test which took me two hours to accomplish. After a day, the GC told me that I might fit in the ff. programs: (1) Philosophy (2) Literature (3)Sociology (4) History and (5) English Language Studies. I took up English Language Studies (a course inclined towards Applied Linguistics, some English Literature, Reading Development, Rhetoric and Composition) and as of now, I'm enjoying it.

Try to ask for a copy of the prospectus of the academic programs in your college. The program prospectus will give you some idea about what to expect throughout your study as an undergraduate.

It's not always too late to shift majors, though it will be difficult. There may be some subjects that will not be credited during the shifting. Don't let terror professors/lame professors/too-much-work-giving professors/tenured professors become the reason why you would like to shift. If you think you love something, you will go for it.

Here's an example of a course prospectus. My university has two kinds. This is the one that I have at the moment.




A little note on tenured professors: My cousin, 26 y/o, is already a tenured associate professor in the Social Sciences (and he's a candidate to be promoted to a full one). Since they have much academic freedom in the university, trying to cope up with them could be difficult, but not impossible. Not all tenured professors are like this, though. Some are cool...

my view has already changed so much from all this advice, i want to thank you all.


going by what Haneul said, my second most favourite thing would be biology, wonder what i could do with that, i'm certain its a much more stable career than art.

Well... According to the Google, some jobs you can get with a biology degree are:
Medical/Clinical Laboratory Technician; Medical Assistant; Microbiologist; Pharmacy Tech; Project Manager, Environmental; Quality Control Specialist; Teacher; Veterinary Tech.

So, there seems to be quite a bit of leeway with a biology degree.

yay, more options!

how about bio-technology, it sounds interesting

Hmm,
I think nurses don't get paid very well, at least not in my country and I think not in other countries as well.
The start pay might be relatively good, but they don't get too many raises as other professions. That is what I read.
Also, I can't tell you which proffession is more stable and more in demand, because it depends on the country.
However, on that regard, I suggest looking or even registering to a website that gives job offers for jobs in your country.
You can browse which jobs are most common in your country, and see real job requests and what they demand.
For salary you might have a salary calculator website for your country, and see which job pay what.
You might also have some Gov websites that have data and info on jobs and salary.
What I can definitely not tell you, is what kind of profession you would enjoy. That is probably the hardest part. But just remember that even if you find a proffession that you enjoy, there is a big difference working in this profession as:
1) Part of university 2) Part of a real job 3) As a hobby.
You might like your profession, but if the work place is hard and demanding, and the people are not nice, you won't enjoy it anyway.

If you want to do architecture, as you mentioned, architectural and civil engineering (with a focus in architecture) both have quite decent pay. However by the time you finish post-secondary school you'll be thinking of calculus as basic math as with most science based fields. (though not necessarily when you're actually working b/c computers/interns can do the work there.)

In the end though, just pick a field and type of job you'll enjoy since you'll work better (thus making hard work seem easier) and have an easier time getting raises.

When I went to college, the lady said "fewer than 40% of the people who graduate here will actually get the job they want or even have a use for their degree. The rest end up working at car dealerships." Guess where I ended up? -_-

@LikaLaruku
True, I'm one of those people.

@-Moon Reader -
I once considered biotechnology as an option but later decide against it in favor of Psychology. I like people and studying about how they interact with life itself

As for being someone who studied a certain degree and worked as something else...I'm a psychology grad that had worked in Corporate Affairs (mix of admin, corporate and public relations) and now Human Resource and Admin. During my transition from student life to working life, I had worked as a teacher (casual staff) at Kumon and worked as an intern during my uni term break in an NGO (National Cancer Society) and in Environment, Safety and Health department of a hard drive maker. I also volunteered as a mentor for a mentoring project that was organised by my uni.

I've been told by some that my work history has seemingly not very much "connection" to one another since it's like a collage, a little experience from here and there...But it was an experience for me and it helped me see what I liked and didn't like to have in a career so it guided me along.

IMO, a degree or any other certification is one of those many steps you take towards your future career. There is so much more to deciding which career is best for you than just what level of education you have. Do find out where your interests lie, what are your strength and weaknesses (abilities, skills and personality).

All in all, whatever anyone tries to tell you what is "Good" and "Bad" about a certain career path, you are ultimately the one who will decide if the path you had chosen works for you or otherwise.

You can in following situation:
1) Love your job despite the miserable pay it gives you.
2) Loathe your job but love the $$$ that it rolls in.
3) Loathe your miserable job and the miserable money it makes
4) Love your job and love the pay that it comes with (best of both world)

At the end of the day, job satisfaction or whatever ways you want to measure your career success with is determined by how you want to see yourself to be.

As for stable prospective careers, at least from where I can see, accountants are in high demand anywhere in the world (as long as the corporate and finance world still stand strong). I personally can't do accounts cause I just don't quite grasp the idea of it. I only came to understand it a little more during my work in Corporate Affairs.

Reading all this I'm more than happy that our education in Finland is free. We don't have to pay to study and that's one thing that gives us a little more freedom to choose something like art because it's always possible to study something else for free. Only thing we must pay for school and universities are the books and food.
But here it's quite important to study something you really enjoy and get a job you really like. After all, Finns are pretty depressed in general and Finland is (or at least was a little while ago) the second most suicidal country in the world after Japan. And yes, it's about people not feeling too well.

I myself am very happy as a physiotherapist. I'm only a bachelor, but it's possible to do the masters degree in some area of physiotherapy or health care or health education. If I'd have the energy and motivation to do so. And I think I'm not doing it in Finland anyway, because right now my life is slowly moving to California..

Of course, my dream is to get into a med school but that might just be a dream that will never come true..

Go for job in an area of desire you like.

@theone - this comes from a little far back in the thread but you questioned how if you dislike studying engineering how can you like the job...I just have to say that often times jobs can be totally different than university classes. I'm a marketer and my hubby's an engineer...both of us are working in our fields and the actual application is completely different from trying to study the disciplines. Unless you do co-op, or are doing practicals (like parts of teachers college, nursing etc.) school tends to be a lot different than the actual job.