Choosing a Career

[Perry17]

So I am at that fun age in life where the decisions I make now, will effect me forever...no pressure lol. So this is going to be a long one, call it my life story haha. I just really need some advice.

I graduated highschool in 2016 with my CNA, and plans to go into nursing- sounded great at the time, would be able to make a good living and have time and money to have my farm, and loved bio and anatomy.

I went to my dream school (happened to be an ag school that had nursing, so best of both worlds). I went there for my first year and loved the school, loved the classes and people. But the thought of clinicals aproaching (what would have been this fall 2017) scared me into changing my mind.

So in fear that I might get into the nursing program, spend all that money, then drop it in a month because I might hate it...instead I moved back home after the spring semester of my first year. I planned to pick up a few classes from the tech school back home, and get phlebotomy certified. If I liked the phlebotomy enough that I wanted to further the med field, I would work as a phlebotomist until the next fall 2018 and finish my second year of Nursing and graduate spring 2019 with my ASN, then a one year fast track to BSN.

One thing led to the next, and my wonderful advisors messed up my class registration two semesters in a row. So I couldn't be signed up for phlebotomy fall 2017 as planned, then this semester they did the same thing and I can't be enrolled for the spring 2018 program either. I have all my prereqs already, just needed the one clinical class that is already filled.

Thing is, even without taking the phlebotomy, this semester off with me working and volunteering made me realize nursing just isn't for me. The question is, where do I go from here? I thought if all else fails and I don't like nursing, at least I will have my phlebotomy cert until I figure out what to do next. But now I don't even have that.

 

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

I graduated 2017 and I still don't have the foggiest of what I wanna do. My mother says she still doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up. I dunno. You seem to like AG, too. Why not check out being a vet? Seems to be the happy medium, plus, everyone on BYC knows we need more avian/chicken vets.

 

[Kusanar]

I second the possibility of being a vet. Avian vets are hard to come by, so you would be doing the industry a service if you went that way. Small animal vets have to deal with pet owners that act like pet parents, but they have set office hours and are off on weekends. Large animal, you get more down to earth people that are a little more practical to deal with, but unless you partner up with someone else, every night has a chance of a 3am colic, foaling, stuck calf, you name it.

Honestly, I'm in the engineering field and like the field in general but hate my particular job, so, even if you find a field you like, you also need to find a job within that field that you like. I'm 29 btw if that helps any

 

[Perry17]

I thought maybe vet tech, (I was an honor student but I hate school, so 8+ years of vet school at a huge university in a big city was never an option) this semester I have been able to assist my main vet with some surgerys and I loved it. Only problem is, everyone I have seen on google as vet tech says it's awful, and they don't get paid enough, and are over worked. So it's hard to make a jump in that direction after hearing all the negatives.

I am in love with the whole homesteader/self sufficient type of living. I don't want to spend all my time working to have money to waste, and no time to spend at home. I love raising, selling, and butchering livestock, or growing plants. And just want to be able to support myself. Just don't know the happy medium or how much it cost to live lol. If that makes sense. I feel like a class on life in general would have been more helpful than the ones I have already had haha.

I thought some sort of teacher, lower grades like kindergarten, my mom and many family members are teachers. It's decent pay being that they get all holidays, weekends, and summers off. Would leave me plenty of time to do my farming. But I don't know if it is something that I would just love doing.

I guess I can tough it up and go through the last few years of nursing. Maybe can find a small office or school to work. That isn't so rushed and intense like a hospital setting.

I can always go back to the ag school and do something in that field I guess. I know I would love it if I found the right area to go into. There's just so many options there to choose from.

 

[Kusanar]

I thought maybe vet tech, (I was an honor student but I hate school, so 8+ years of vet school at a huge university in a big city was never an option) this semester I have been able to assist my main vet with some surgerys and I loved it. Only problem is, everyone I have seen on google as vet tech says it's awful, and they don't get paid enough, and are over worked. So it's hard to make a jump in that direction after hearing all the negatives.

I am in love with the whole homesteader/self sufficient type of living. I don't want to spend all my time working to have money to waste, and no time to spend at home. I love raising, selling, and butchering livestock, or growing plants. And just want to be able to support myself. Just don't know the happy medium or how much it cost to live lol. If that makes sense. I feel like a class on life in general would have been more helpful than the ones I have already had haha.

I thought some sort of teacher, lower grades like kindergarten, my mom and many family members are teachers. It's decent pay being that they get all holidays, weekends, and summers off. Would leave me plenty of time to do my farming. But I don't know if it is something that I would just love doing.

I guess I can tough it up and go through the last few years of nursing. Maybe can find a small office or school to work. That isn't so rushed and intense like a hospital setting.

I can always go back to the ag school and do something in that field I guess. I know I would love it if I found the right area to go into. There's just so many options there to choose from.

Are you at all mechanically inclined? If so, doing some electrical and even some green energy classes would be a good idea if you want to homestead. Then you can design your own solar (etc.) stuff to get off the grid at least partly.

I am currently designing a bird coup (pigeons) that will be solar for a small water heater to keep the water from freezing in winter, lighting, and an automated feeding station. There will also be efficiency built in mechanically such as with the water heater, it will be well insulated and designed to trap heat as much as possible. Knowing how to do things like that are essential for homesteading in my opinion.

 

[Harmony Fowl]

I am 36 and despite having gone to college and been aimed at a career (mine was psychology), I never actually got that or any career. Now I just want a farm. Well, I have the farm, now we need to reduce the debt it took to get it before we go whole hog on the place.

At any rate, if no career appeals to you, don’t insist on having one. You got it 100% correct as far as I’m concerned: why spend your life to earn what you won’t have time to enjoy? I would set goals in non-career terms. What kind of home do you want? What kinds of hobbies or lifestyle do you want? What will get you there that you wouldn’t mind doing?

Oops, I hit Post too soon. There are lots of paths to get there, not just one right one. Maybe take a look at state jobs, too. Ours has lots of agricultural listings last I looked, the sort of stuff that would help you support yourself while you also gain experience to take with you in the rather likely event that you don’t stay at the same job forever. It can also help you figure out what you like doing enough to do as a job and what is going to be intolerable.

 

[Perry17]

Slightly haha. Looking back now I wished I would have taken the welding and electric ag classes in highschool. Instead I took the animal science, forestry, and horticulture classes. But I live in a small, country, close nit town. So all building or mechanical work that I can't figure out is just a phone call away. Which is awesome.

 

[PirateGirl]

I graduated 2017 and I still don't have the foggiest of what I wanna do. My mother says she still doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up. I dunno. You seem to like AG, too. Why not check out being a vet? Seems to be the happy medium, plus, everyone on BYC knows we need more avian/chicken vets.

haha, I graduated in 2003 and still don't have a clue what I want to do!

I would say if you can accept that the point of your job (any job) is to put a roof on your head and food on your table that you can be relatively happy doing most anything. It's a bit of a shift in thinking for many people.

 

[Kusanar]

Lol, you messed up my computer, I have an add on the side of my screen for phlebotomy programs. I am sure I have never searched for that, it HAD to have come from this thread! lol

 

[PirateGirl]

I am 36 and despite having gone to college and been aimed at a career (mine was psychology), I never actually got that or any career. Now I just want a farm. Well, I have the farm, now we need to reduce the debt it took to get it before we go whole hog on the place.

At any rate, if no career appeals to you, don’t insist on having one. You got it 100% correct as far as I’m concerned: why spend your life to earn what you won’t have time to enjoy? I would set goals in non-career terms. What kind of home do you want? What kinds of hobbies or lifestyle do you want? What will get you there that you wouldn’t mind doing?

YES. My goals in life don't have many ties to my "profession" in life. I want to travel, so I have a job where I get paid vacation days. I wanted to buy a house, so I stayed at the same job for at least 3 years with a steady income because that's what the mortgage companies want to see. Your job is a tool you can use to help you accomplish other goals in life. I decided I wanted to live in the mountains, so I found a job in a mountain town. Most of the work here is seasonal, so if I really wanted to live here and stay here I had to find a new job that would be a year round job. Notice that none of my requirements for my job in any of these scenarios have anything to do with the field I'm working in or the type of work I'm doing. I'm learning to use my job to get me what I really want in life. I have a schedule that allows me to ski or hike. I can bring my dog to work if I need to. I can randomly take off early or switch my days off if I need to. I have health insurance so I can go to the doctor if I need to. I like the people I work with and don't mind the work I do.