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Originally Posted by NJSPEEDER
i woudl suggest worrying less about job stability or salary than what you think will make you happy.
i have a business/finance degree that i got because i thought it would be a great way to make money. once i got out in business career fields i realized it wasn't the place for me.
i am sure there are many careers i coudl have followed that would make me more money, but there is no way to promise that more money will make you happier. i get more gratification out of one day of physical labor than i got out of the entire 6 years i worked in offices doing the accounting/cost control work taht my degree set me up for.
the other unfortunate side effect of life decisions is that you don't know how they are goign to work out until after they are made. so don't try to pick one thing that you will absolutely do for the rest of your life, because life changes and you will always have to change with it.
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Yep. True in every respect.
FOr example...in HS I wanted to be a teacher, then I took a psychology course and wanted to be a child psychologist specializing in ADHD. I also wanted to do computer programming (I figured I could make good money programming while going back for my masters/PhD in psych, and then do that for the rest of my life). Comp Sci was difficult because of all of the math, so I dropped it. Figured I'd do psych all my life. Graduated with a BA in psych, minor in philosophy (something I had no interest in until taking a general requirement course) and did social work...couldn't stand it. So I got my current job as a teacher's aide for special ed working with kids with autism. Now I"m in grad school for school psych, but I'm thinking of stopping and doing teaching for a few years, then finish my school psych program. And now I want to specialize in autism.
In just 7 years, that's how many changes I've gone through. For some they know right away...for others, they don't have a clue until they are retired or near retirement.
Your best bet, honestly, is to go to college and take a lot of survey courses (sociology, psych, philosophy, buisness, computers etc etc) and see what interests you the most. Take a higher level course the next semester. By your second or third year you'll have finished most of your general education requirements with all the survey courses, you can focus on what interests you the most. It's really the best way to really figure out what you want to do.
And if, after your graduate and get a job and you find you don't really like it as a career, it is not all that difficult to get a graduate degree in something else despite not having the background from undergrad. I know of ppl in my school psych program who came from comp sci, law school, business and random other areas and are now in a school psych program. It may not be true for all areas (hard sciences often want a heavy undergrad background), but for many, you could do it.
There is no rush right now to figure out what you want to do. Hell, if you really want to research now tho, go see if you can take a night class at the local community college, and take some survey courses. Many HSs will give credit if you go that route as well.