[Discussion] Tell about your studies/profession

[Legitbeans]

1. What are you studying/working as?
Studying Musical Performance, switching to Bio (cell development aka micro biology). Working as part time intern at a bio research lab and beginning a kick-starter like everyone else in this damn university is.

2. Do you enjoy the subject/job?
Mhm. Very much so. Busy as all hell, but enjoyable.

3. Would you recommend another person in taking it up?
That is if you can handle it.

5. Anything extra.
Studying in Stanford University! Woot woot.

 

[Uzumaki Naruta]

1. What are you studying/working as?
Studying in college majoring in Civil Engineering. And as part-time job I´m a teacher.
2. Do you enjoy the subject/job?
I enjoy both college and job as long as I have time to then spend with my boyfriend and my parents don´t push me too much on studies.
3. Would you recommend another person in taking it up?
I would as long as the person is interested in the subject
4. If you don't enjoy it what would you have chosen instead?
If I didn´t enjoy it I´d choose Bioengineering.
5. Anything extra.
A piece of advice to all those who are about to start college: Remember that the subject you choose must be of one that you like a lot, since you´ll probably end up working around the subject you choose for the rest of your life. If you´re good at something (being lazy doesn´t count xD), go for it. Don´t let other people disencourage that from you

 

[Aim64C]

Tell us about what you're studying (major, university, etc.) or what your profession is or hopes to be
Here are the questions! Answer all of one, doesn't matter

1. What are you studying/working as?

Generally, my background is in component level electrical troubleshooting/repair (to include digital circuits).

I've been an avionics technician for the Navy - but I was also trained and deployed for 'expeditionary' security operations and joint operations with the Riverines.

Currently, I work maintaining dialysis equipment and water treatment systems thereof. That also translates to general handyman. From loose hinges to lightbulbs and the occasional construction/demolition job.

What is sad is how many times I run across 'professional' work that has to be redone by 'amateurs' with a sense of pride in their work - or just common sense. It's made me reject the notion of licensing/certification by government entities.

As far as studies - I study many different things (even when I was in college my interests were varied). Physics and chemistry are one in the same subject for me - and I've begun rolling in biology and virology into that as well. Studying infectious diseases and how they behave within living populations is a very interesting counterpart to the 'hard' sciences of physics.

I also studied psychology and have found myself engrossed in a lot of history, lately.

Basically, there was a show that used to air when I was younger, called "The Pretender." It was about a guy who was a genius trained by some organization to be even more ridiculously smart. Like all projects smarter than those working on them - the guy escapes and simply goes around hopping from profession to profession in each show. He's got such mastery of knowledge and variation of skill that he can just walk into a hospital and convince people that he really is a doctor and that he belongs there. Then he's piloting an F-16 in the next episode and, following a crash, rigging one of the microprocessors into a home made test circuit involving a television remote to test for program execution failures (a bit of a hollywood stretch).

Today's kids have bieber and cyrus for role models.

2. Do you enjoy the subject/job?

I always love subjects.

Jobs are a bit of a mixed bag. I enjoy the process of encountering new problems and figuring out what is causing them (this is especially gratifying when I solve a problem before multi-billion dollar medical corporations can solve problems affecting their own equipment). I also enjoy improving things and making things work 'better' or more efficiently.

On the other hand - the machines in particular that I work on are poorly designed (back in the 60s when the key parts were designed, someone asked how much rubber you could sandwich between plastic (or probably stainless steel at the time) using as many bolts as possible; 50 years later, they still have not seen fit to re-think that design philosophy) and a pain in the ass to get to the parts that you need to service. The people many of us were hired to replace spent years neglecting machines, so there is almost always something broken that should never be broken if the maintenance is done properly. Since we've been on the job for roughly a year - most of those problems should be worked out... but you never know.

There is also a political atmosphere to the job. Since we have had numerous problems with this particular company - we've decided to replace our machines (which have largely run their course) with those of another company. Initially - there was really only one company we were looking at. They have a solid maintenance track record and have a lot of beneficial features coupled with their machines. They come highly recommended from technical staff around the world and offer some of the lowest operating costs available on the market today.

Then another company submitted a bid for their machine that undercut the price by about $1,000 per machine.

Bluntly - Our nurse manager wants those machines because she's familiar with them and has used them before. As much as I like her - that's ultimately what this decision boiled down to.

These machines do offer some lower costs on the clinical side of things (since they were the original providers of the bicarbonate cartridges and can offer a somewhat wider selection and lower pricing compared to the other company which split off their own supply line a couple years ago). But from a technical standpoint - they are a nightmare. Some of what other techs were saying they spend per machine per year on these machines, average, will flat out sink our hemodialysis finances into the abyss (PD will keep the whole operation afloat - but they abuse the 'non profit' logic to the point of having absolutely no sense for what it means to run a business). One guy was spending $1,500 per machine per year in maintenance parts alone.

Which means he's probably spending $3,000 per machine per year in labor for maintenance, as well. Unless their technical staff are on salary (as they should be - technical are your on-call support, they should be staffed based on the potential for trouble calls not the demand for routine maintenance or the average of trouble calls... that's another business sense that seems to evade most corporations).

Either way - you're looking at absolutely insane maintenance costs that consume up to $5 per treatment. Which, since we are a non profit and most of our patients are on medicare - that's the difference between being in the red and being in the black. "The Affordable Care Act" pretty much ensured that only the companies willing to lose stupid amounts of money would receive medicare patients. Most of the for-profit companies simply won't take medicare patients because it's hard to break even (I'm paid about 75% of what the industry standard is for someone in my position and that is relatively normal for this company) - especially when those for-profit companies lead the way in terms of patient amenities - TVs built into chairs, integraded patient data systems, etc. Granted - I've heard that their patient care staff in some locations can be mean spirited - but money doesn't buy happy employees who care about their job. Only concerned managers do.

3. Would you recommend another person in taking it up?

My general recommendation when it comes to "should I learn?" or "Should I try working?" is that if you are considering it - it's better to learn or to try than it is to not learn or not try.

If you start working somewhere and you don't like it - you can always go try working as something else. People are way too deluded into believing that you need to go to college, get a degree in something, and stay in that field. You don't even need the degree - just pick up some trades and have at it in the work place - or go perform those trades for direct exchanges (just watch out for the unions - they'll break your legs for undercutting their prices ... the more civilized ones will simply charge you for violating prevailing wage laws - but I believe that classifying yourself as a sole proprietorship of a home business can exempt you from those... right up until the union burns your house down and sells your daughters into prostitution).

4. If you don't enjoy it what would you have chosen instead?

I've always wanted to have my own 'prototyping' business. Basically - make new fancy magical technological doo-dads and run small productions of them to sell off to high bidders and then sell the rights to manufacture a few of them until I can purchase my own manufacturing plant and run my later designs off in mass production as my own company.

There's a whole lot of stuff I'd like to do. About a hundred lifetime's worth of stuff. So if what I'm doing right now pisses me off too much - I'll just figure out something else to do. Maybe I'll go run around on all fours and bark at people like a dog. May not be much money in that - but it was funny as hell when I was a kid.

5. Anything extra.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is what makes a person hireable is also what makes a person able to market his/her services on their own.

If you own a lawn mowing business - are you going to hire someone who doesn't know how to operate a lawnmower (or who you believe would not be worthwhile to train?)...... but by that same token - if someone could hire you to mow lawns for their company - couldn't you also go door-to-door asking to mow lawns?

The reason you seek employment within a company is to organize and distribute the demand for a particular good/service/trade so that one can work more consistently.

If you know how to weld - you can throw a welder into the back of your truck and go out to Farmer Bob's to repair his equipment or make a lot of different things out of your garage to sell to the locals. But by signing on with a local company that needs a welder - you can apply your welding skills to requests that company gets for products and services that require welding.

No one worth working for is going to care what school you went to, what your degree was in, or what grades you got.

What they are going to care about is what you can do. What value can you add to the company? Or, if you are independently marketing your skills - why should I let you into my home to do repair work - or why should I trust you with not mowing down my garden?

Don't sell yourself short - but remember what is important. Certifications and degrees really only help to reinforce the claims of "I can do this, that, and the other." They are not proof, in and of themselves, that you are going to be a valuable addition to the team. Nor are they going to go very far in swaying the average joe to hand over a few twenties in their wallet for whatever it is you are claiming to be able to do for them.

 

[Conspirator.]

1. Actuarial Science
2. Yeah I enjoy it. All the math/economics is to my liking.
3. If you are good at maths, then yeah.
4. Don't know. Maybe accounting, or engineering.
5.No

 

[Scooby Doo]

1. Studying law

2. Not always.

3. Only if you don't have a problem memorizing hundreds (sometimes thousands) of pages

4. I wish I could have become a pianist but it's too late now T_T

5. They say always choose what you are interested in and what you are good at. Some say choose a field where you can potentially earn a lot. Originally I was in a physics/math class at highschool- I could have majored in something related to that, but I didn't like the teacher and I started to be interested in history/literature (in my country university admittance depends on the results of highschool graduation exams and the performance through highschool; you can get extra points for certain activities- for example an advanced level exam from a subject: that was history for me, as it's required for law). I could have also chosen something related to history/literature... But I thought that law will be more paying off in the long run. That's true, however, unlike in some rich countries, here not even lawyers earn that much. The minimum wage being ~600$ /month (net) for starters if you have a degree (+premium benefits depending on the employer)- well that's not much, but considering that the average income is ~700$, it's enough to make a living. And you can always work your way up.

I'm having a summer job at the tax authority- full time (8hrs), and as a student I earn 400$- and my job is pretty easy. No responsibility- I'm just helping out with paperwork. The administrators- who do the real work-, government officers earn the avergae 700$ without a degree. It also depends on the time spent in state administration- there is a fix wage board where every 3-5 yrs your wage will be increased with a certain percentage. And of course in leader position you can earn more. My mother with a degree, has been working in the tax authority for 25 yrs, earning 900$. I guess this is a ridiculous money for Western-European or American people where a baby-sitter earns more than that. However, that's just state administration. In the private sector, you can earn more- or less. In some law firms, they actually pay less for starters, saying that the experience is priceless xD (no joke). You need to serve 3 yrs to become an advocate so yeah. In the most prestigious law firms it's even you who pays for them to employ you- weird, isn't it? Not to mention that they overload candidates, they work all day and night, even at weekends. Yes there are firms where the requirements are not that harsh- but competition is tough: someone with good connections and/or a better degree has better chances. There may be further requirements (knowing foreign languages, doing PhD, etc. Sometimes even your university matters.) So, thanks, but I'd still prefer state administration. Sure, the job must get done in time in state administration as well- but you won't lose clients and money if you don't do 200% performance. As for judges/attorneys: you also need several years to qualify and it's hard to get admitted in the system. You can also try working for companies, but civil law is not really my thing anyway.

You can go abroad- but law is quite a particular thing: I mostly learn the laws of my country (and some EU and international law), so most probably I couldn't work as a lawyer abroad- unless I do some supplementary education- but that's expensive. I'm on state scholarship here.

Well that's just my country- the mentality here is study languages so you can go abroad- there you can earn more even without a degree. xD

 

[Lightbringer]

1. Majoring in Animation

2. Yes, but at the same time no

3. Not unless you have a passion for drawing since birth and motivated to learn on your own.

4. Surgeon, Actor, Mafia Hitman, Concept Artist, Senator, Prosecutor, Air Force

5. Make sure you find a good school. My school sucks and was a waste of money. I did not learn enough to be confident in my abilities which is why I hate the subject currently.

 

[~Lumos~]

1. Doing Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering.
2. Yes, I do ..Actually I want to go in the field of Aviation afterwards (MS Aerospace) because PLANES are always been my passion!

5. After completing my degree My plan is to take Mix Martial arts classes =D

 

[Konohamaru of Akatsuki]

I'm a stripper.

 

[Wildtangent]

Tell us about what you're studying (major, university, etc.) or what your profession is or hopes to be
Here are the questions! Answer all of one, doesn't matter

1. What are you studying/working as?
2. Do you enjoy the subject/job?
3. Would you recommend another person in taking it up?
4. If you don't enjoy it what would you have chosen instead?
5. Anything extra.

1. I am an orthopedic nurse
2. I love it!
3. Nursing in general isn't for everyone but if you are caring and good with working with sick people and bodily fluids I would say go for it. The schooling is also pretty tough.
4. I love nursing but if it didn't work out I would want to be a teacher
5. I am soon going to work on my masters in nursing and become a Doctor of Nursing.

 

[Vega]

1. What are you studying/working as?
Studying Musical Performance, switching to Bio (cell development aka micro biology). Working as part time intern at a bio research lab and beginning a kick-starter like everyone else in this damn university is.

2. Do you enjoy the subject/job?
Mhm. Very much so. Busy as all hell, but enjoyable.

3. Would you recommend another person in taking it up?
That is if you can handle it.

5. Anything extra.
Studying in Stanford University! Woot woot.

Ah Nice! Stanford with bio, should be fine I hope

1. What are you studying/working as?
Studying in college majoring in Civil Engineering. And as part-time job I´m a teacher.
2. Do you enjoy the subject/job?
I enjoy both college and job as long as I have time to then spend with my boyfriend and my parents don´t push me too much on studies.
3. Would you recommend another person in taking it up?
I would as long as the person is interested in the subject
4. If you don't enjoy it what would you have chosen instead?
If I didn´t enjoy it I´d choose Bioengineering.
5. Anything extra.
A piece of advice to all those who are about to start college: Remember that the subject you choose must be of one that you like a lot, since you´ll probably end up working around the subject you choose for the rest of your life. If you´re good at something (being lazy doesn´t count xD), go for it. Don´t let other people disencourage that from you

That's some good advice, good point

Spoiler

Generally, my background is in component level electrical troubleshooting/repair (to include digital circuits).

I've been an avionics technician for the Navy - but I was also trained and deployed for 'expeditionary' security operations and joint operations with the Riverines.

Currently, I work maintaining dialysis equipment and water treatment systems thereof. That also translates to general handyman. From loose hinges to lightbulbs and the occasional construction/demolition job.

What is sad is how many times I run across 'professional' work that has to be redone by 'amateurs' with a sense of pride in their work - or just common sense. It's made me reject the notion of licensing/certification by government entities.

As far as studies - I study many different things (even when I was in college my interests were varied). Physics and chemistry are one in the same subject for me - and I've begun rolling in biology and virology into that as well. Studying infectious diseases and how they behave within living populations is a very interesting counterpart to the 'hard' sciences of physics.

I also studied psychology and have found myself engrossed in a lot of history, lately.

Basically, there was a show that used to air when I was younger, called "The Pretender." It was about a guy who was a genius trained by some organization to be even more ridiculously smart. Like all projects smarter than those working on them - the guy escapes and simply goes around hopping from profession to profession in each show. He's got such mastery of knowledge and variation of skill that he can just walk into a hospital and convince people that he really is a doctor and that he belongs there. Then he's piloting an F-16 in the next episode and, following a crash, rigging one of the microprocessors into a home made test circuit involving a television remote to test for program execution failures (a bit of a hollywood stretch).

Today's kids have bieber and cyrus for role models.



I always love subjects.

Jobs are a bit of a mixed bag. I enjoy the process of encountering new problems and figuring out what is causing them (this is especially gratifying when I solve a problem before multi-billion dollar medical corporations can solve problems affecting their own equipment). I also enjoy improving things and making things work 'better' or more efficiently.

On the other hand - the machines in particular that I work on are poorly designed (back in the 60s when the key parts were designed, someone asked how much rubber you could sandwich between plastic (or probably stainless steel at the time) using as many bolts as possible; 50 years later, they still have not seen fit to re-think that design philosophy) and a pain in the ass to get to the parts that you need to service. The people many of us were hired to replace spent years neglecting machines, so there is almost always something broken that should never be broken if the maintenance is done properly. Since we've been on the job for roughly a year - most of those problems should be worked out... but you never know.

There is also a political atmosphere to the job. Since we have had numerous problems with this particular company - we've decided to replace our machines (which have largely run their course) with those of another company. Initially - there was really only one company we were looking at. They have a solid maintenance track record and have a lot of beneficial features coupled with their machines. They come highly recommended from technical staff around the world and offer some of the lowest operating costs available on the market today.

Then another company submitted a bid for their machine that undercut the price by about $1,000 per machine.

Bluntly - Our nurse manager wants those machines because she's familiar with them and has used them before. As much as I like her - that's ultimately what this decision boiled down to.

These machines do offer some lower costs on the clinical side of things (since they were the original providers of the bicarbonate cartridges and can offer a somewhat wider selection and lower pricing compared to the other company which split off their own supply line a couple years ago). But from a technical standpoint - they are a nightmare. Some of what other techs were saying they spend per machine per year on these machines, average, will flat out sink our hemodialysis finances into the abyss (PD will keep the whole operation afloat - but they abuse the 'non profit' logic to the point of having absolutely no sense for what it means to run a business). One guy was spending $1,500 per machine per year in maintenance parts alone.

Which means he's probably spending $3,000 per machine per year in labor for maintenance, as well. Unless their technical staff are on salary (as they should be - technical are your on-call support, they should be staffed based on the potential for trouble calls not the demand for routine maintenance or the average of trouble calls... that's another business sense that seems to evade most corporations).

Either way - you're looking at absolutely insane maintenance costs that consume up to $5 per treatment. Which, since we are a non profit and most of our patients are on medicare - that's the difference between being in the red and being in the black. "The Affordable Care Act" pretty much ensured that only the companies willing to lose stupid amounts of money would receive medicare patients. Most of the for-profit companies simply won't take medicare patients because it's hard to break even (I'm paid about 75% of what the industry standard is for someone in my position and that is relatively normal for this company) - especially when those for-profit companies lead the way in terms of patient amenities - TVs built into chairs, integraded patient data systems, etc. Granted - I've heard that their patient care staff in some locations can be mean spirited - but money doesn't buy happy employees who care about their job. Only concerned managers do.



My general recommendation when it comes to "should I learn?" or "Should I try working?" is that if you are considering it - it's better to learn or to try than it is to not learn or not try.

If you start working somewhere and you don't like it - you can always go try working as something else. People are way too deluded into believing that you need to go to college, get a degree in something, and stay in that field. You don't even need the degree - just pick up some trades and have at it in the work place - or go perform those trades for direct exchanges (just watch out for the unions - they'll break your legs for undercutting their prices ... the more civilized ones will simply charge you for violating prevailing wage laws - but I believe that classifying yourself as a sole proprietorship of a home business can exempt you from those... right up until the union burns your house down and sells your daughters into prostitution).



I've always wanted to have my own 'prototyping' business. Basically - make new fancy magical technological doo-dads and run small productions of them to sell off to high bidders and then sell the rights to manufacture a few of them until I can purchase my own manufacturing plant and run my later designs off in mass production as my own company.

There's a whole lot of stuff I'd like to do. About a hundred lifetime's worth of stuff. So if what I'm doing right now pisses me off too much - I'll just figure out something else to do. Maybe I'll go run around on all fours and bark at people like a dog. May not be much money in that - but it was funny as hell when I was a kid.



The biggest thing to keep in mind is what makes a person hireable is also what makes a person able to market his/her services on their own.

If you own a lawn mowing business - are you going to hire someone who doesn't know how to operate a lawnmower (or who you believe would not be worthwhile to train?)...... but by that same token - if someone could hire you to mow lawns for their company - couldn't you also go door-to-door asking to mow lawns?

The reason you seek employment within a company is to organize and distribute the demand for a particular good/service/trade so that one can work more consistently.

If you know how to weld - you can throw a welder into the back of your truck and go out to Farmer Bob's to repair his equipment or make a lot of different things out of your garage to sell to the locals. But by signing on with a local company that needs a welder - you can apply your welding skills to requests that company gets for products and services that require welding.

No one worth working for is going to care what school you went to, what your degree was in, or what grades you got.

What they are going to care about is what you can do. What value can you add to the company? Or, if you are independently marketing your skills - why should I let you into my home to do repair work - or why should I trust you with not mowing down my garden?

Don't sell yourself short - but remember what is important. Certifications and degrees really only help to reinforce the claims of "I can do this, that, and the other." They are not proof, in and of themselves, that you are going to be a valuable addition to the team. Nor are they going to go very far in swaying the average joe to hand over a few twenties in their wallet for whatever it is you are claiming to be able to do for them.

Read it all lol, you made some really great points overall. I can tell you are an all-rounder in the knowledge dept.

1. Actuarial Science
2. Yeah I enjoy it. All the math/economics is to my liking.
3. If you are good at maths, then yeah.
4. Don't know. Maybe accounting, or engineering.
5.No

It's all about them maths

Spoiler

1. Studying law

2. Not always.

3. Only if you don't have a problem memorizing hundreds (sometimes thousands) of pages

4. I wish I could have become a pianist but it's too late now T_T

5. They say always choose what you are interested in and what you are good at. Some say choose a field where you can potentially earn a lot. Originally I was in a physics/math class at highschool- I could have majored in something related to that, but I didn't like the teacher and I started to be interested in history/literature (in my country university admittance depends on the results of highschool graduation exams and the performance through highschool; you can get extra points for certain activities- for example an advanced level exam from a subject: that was history for me, as it's required for law). I could have also chosen something related to history/literature... But I thought that law will be more paying off in the long run. That's true, however, unlike in some rich countries, here not even lawyers earn that much. The minimum wage being ~600$ /month (net) for starters if you have a degree (+premium benefits depending on the employer)- well that's not much, but considering that the average income is ~700$, it's enough to make a living. And you can always work your way up.

I'm having a summer job at the tax authority- full time (8hrs), and as a student I earn 400$- and my job is pretty easy. No responsibility- I'm just helping out with paperwork. The administrators- who do the real work-, government officers earn the avergae 700$ without a degree. It also depends on the time spent in state administration- there is a fix wage board where every 3-5 yrs your wage will be increased with a certain percentage. And of course in leader position you can earn more. My mother with a degree, has been working in the tax authority for 25 yrs, earning 900$. I guess this is a ridiculous money for Western-European or American people where a baby-sitter earns more than that. However, that's just state administration. In the private sector, you can earn more- or less. In some law firms, they actually pay less for starters, saying that the experience is priceless xD (no joke). You need to serve 3 yrs to become an advocate so yeah. In the most prestigious law firms it's even you who pays for them to employ you- weird, isn't it? Not to mention that they overload candidates, they work all day and night, even at weekends. Yes there are firms where the requirements are not that harsh- but competition is tough: someone with good connections and/or a better degree has better chances. There may be further requirements (knowing foreign languages, doing PhD, etc. Sometimes even your university matters.) So, thanks, but I'd still prefer state administration. Sure, the job must get done in time in state administration as well- but you won't lose clients and money if you don't do 200% performance. As for judges/attorneys: you also need several years to qualify and it's hard to get admitted in the system. You can also try working for companies, but civil law is not really my thing anyway.

You can go abroad- but law is quite a particular thing: I mostly learn the laws of my country (and some EU and international law), so most probably I couldn't work as a lawyer abroad- unless I do some supplementary education- but that's expensive. I'm on state scholarship here.

Well that's just my country- the mentality here is study languages so you can go abroad- there you can earn more even without a degree. xD

Wow. What country is this lol? I hope it works out well

1. Majoring in Animation

2. Yes, but at the same time no

3. Not unless you have a passion for drawing since birth and motivated to learn on your own.

4. Surgeon, Actor, Mafia Hitman, Concept Artist, Senator, Prosecutor, Air Force

5. Make sure you find a good school. My school sucks and was a waste of money. I did not learn enough to be confident in my abilities which is why I hate the subject currently.

Ah animation sounds fun, and lol @ Mafia Hitman.

1. Doing Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering.
2. Yes, I do ..Actually I want to go in the field of Aviation afterwards (MS Aerospace) because PLANES are always been my passion!

5. After completing my degree My plan is to take Mix Martial arts classes =D

Nice! I hope you are successful in your endeavors

I'm a stripper.

lol.

1. I am an orthopedic nurse
2. I love it!
3. Nursing in general isn't for everyone but if you are caring and good with working with sick people and bodily fluids I would say go for it. The schooling is also pretty tough.
4. I love nursing but if it didn't work out I would want to be a teacher
5. I am soon going to work on my masters in nursing and become a Doctor of Nursing.

Nice! I know someone who's becoming a nurse, personally I'm rather prone to illness so I imagined I'd end up getting sick treating patients lol.