After college?

[YTNUKLR]

Well, college has been an amazing experience...and a quite challenging one. But, I have to figure out what to do next. I'm thinking:

Peace Corps, $$$ job, Entrepreneurship, Travel? Something else?

I don't care about grad school. From what I've heard and seen, grad school is for only when you really care about researching something, and willing to take low pay or continue to pay because you love the research. Law School-certainly not the next thing I will do; lack of requisite interest, fear of heavy debt load. Med school-probably out of the question. I don't think I want to work 100 hours per week. Not to mention it will be a long time before it really pays off. I feel I can still help people a lot through volunteering in a non-medical way.

My major is slightly obscure-Cognitive Neuroscience-but it is very broad. Minor in Computer Science. I have also tried to stay abreast of everything, and have done lots of Math and Physics (I was in engineering before), Bio, Brain Chem. & pharmacology, economics, finance, accounting, Philosophy, History, Political Science.

So what have you for ideas?

Trying to find a balanced lifestyle: make a little money, make some progress on my 911 project (something rather than nothing), go out once a week for drinks or just relax, minimal homework (or none), gain interesting experience (through traveling, interesting colleagues, volunteering, etc.). I think up to 60 hours per week is fine, I just don't want to have to "bring work home" and hopefully still get a few weeks of vacation in every year.

This assumes that I will actually be able to get a job. Thank you, economy.

I have posted similar things on this board; thanks for all your responses and allowing me to bounce my ideas around.

Scott

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by YTNUKLR

Med school-probably out of the question. I don't think I want to work 100 hours per week. Not to mention it will be a long time before it really pays off. I feel I can still help people a lot through volunteering in a non-medical way.

Well, you want to keep your options open, but in the end, maybe nursing is a better fit for you. It gives you the freedom to work in several different areas of medicine. Plus, you can focus on patient care, as opposed to being a doctor where you have to deal with the bureaucracy.

[Dueller]

Sell psychotropic drugs...docs are prescribing them like crazy.

[legion]

Get a job?

[YTNUKLR]

Originally Posted by legion

Get a job?

Yes...but which one? Just do anything and be happy about it? Be a bartender or a CEO, empty someone's garbage, start the next Google? My question is a lot more specific than "get a job".

[audiman08]

With a broad liberal arts degree, I'd advise you to go on to graduate school. I can speak from experience (having a B.A. in history), that there just aren't many jobs for broad degrees without specialized experience. I am working on my masters because I'm seeking a museum curator position, which requires either a.) a baccalaureate plus experience or b.) a masters degree. I think you will find this to be true in your field. A baccalaureate today isn't what it used to be. The percentage of high school graduates that are earning undergraduate degrees after high school is skyrocketing. This means the baccalaureate is not worth as much, and the masters will open many more doors for you.

[Dueller]

Scott...your obscure major made me do a search to find out what it was (sorta). Kept seeing neuroergonomics as an emerging field. You've told us what your academic pursuits have been....what yanks your chain; what are you interested in? If money were no object what would you spend your time doing? Gigolo is out

[AFC-911]

To the OP, I wish you luck. I just graduated last year with a major in TV Production. I was working until April of this year & haven't found anything since...Somehow, I think those who chose to stay in school made a good call.

But then again, things might turn out better once 2010 hits...

Originally Posted by McLovin

Well, you want to keep your options open, but in the end, maybe nursing is a better fit for you. It gives you the freedom to work in several different areas of medicine. Plus, you can focus on patient care, as opposed to being a doctor where you have to deal with the bureaucracy.

Meet the Parents quote?

[MT930]

I would do what ever you want to do. Jobs are highly overrated, you can always go get a job if plan A fails.

[Shuie]

Go to work for the Gov't.

[RWebb]

find a company in your field -- or a related one

or get a job in a lab - why not a computational neurosciences lab?

be a tech for a while & look around

[YTNUKLR]

Neuroergonomics is certainly a very interesting field of study. The biological basis of perception is quite interesting. Plus, it has engineering-related applications with cool things like cars and ships, planes and trains!

I am not ruling out going to graduate school-but I am all but ruling it out for now. I will probably come back to school later, but I have had enough 2 am homework and programming projects to tell me it's time for a bit of a break. There is a whole world of things happening around me, all around the planet, and I've been in school for 18 years straight.

If I do grad school, I want it to have an application. Theorizing just for the sake of it, to become a professor, or to do research in some journal that will be read by 10 people in the field, is not my idea of a worthwhile endeavor. Of course, there are worthy pursuits in grad school or in professional schools. Perhaps one will strike my fancy. Operations Research sounds like it could be a fit. I want to have a real, tangible impact.

In short, I have too many interests to make my decision easy. I can write, but I don't just write. I can do math and solve problems, but I don't just do math and solve problems. This is why I didn't just do engineering (too many obscure problems on beams and thermodynamics I will probably never see again), and this is why I didn't just do PoliSci (I feel it is inherently vague, lacks formalism, and some of the students lack work-ethic, or brains).

Interests:
-Well, for one, Porsches or machines in general. I worked for TRE, and have built a number of 911 engines and gearboxes. It's very interesting, but it lacks long-term sticking power. The market is limited, and generally, mechanics are not engineers. I love to tinker in the garage, weld, build, and wrench, but being covered in car gunk 40 hours a week, no thanks. I also like cruising around, but should cars be life?

-Computer Science. Programming and the ideas of complexity theory or numerical analysis of programs, run-times and data processing are inherently interesting. I do not care for "electronics engineering" or circuit design or whatever, although it's pretty cool that humans can do this really complex stuff.

-Economics. Loved my Econ classes. But, I don't want to just build math functions to research economic behavior (that is what Econ grad school looks like). Econ grad people generally study Math in college and not econ.

-Accounting. I could probably get a job doing some kind of entry-level thing, but visions of "Office Space" come to mind.

-Business is interesting, but I don't have experience working with a firm. Business seems to be something you "just know", not something you study in school. I think I have somewhat of a knack for it.

[dan88911]

Good luck kid. Sounds like you are smart enough to figure out whats going to work for you.

[Dueller]

Have you read Matthew Crawford's book (grew up in Berkley IIRC) "Shop Class as Soul Craft?"...a bit self righteous in parts but he has an intresting perspective. PhD from Chicago...left a political think tank job to start a BMW motorcycle restoration business.

Just curious.

[YTNUKLR]

Can you guys maybe chime in with what you did when you graduated? Or some of your interesting jobs from entry-level stuff?

btw, RWebb, I worked in a CS neuro lab here, maybe it was the program, but I found it to be both boring (majority of time spent just moving files around) and completely unpaid for 2 semesters. "Computational neuroscience" sounds so interesting; then whole *process* of research really isn't.....

[Wickd89]

Simple. Just get on with it.
I am sure your fellow graduates are looking for jobs.
Be flexible, take a job anywhere (in the world) and build your skills and value.
You have to add something to a company so that they want to pay you..Time to earn it..

Welcome to the real world. It is not so bad..

[cantdrv55]

You're a smart guy. Are you also outgoing or are you only a "brainy extrovert"? You know the old joke, "How do you know when you are talking with an extroverted scientist? He's looking at YOUR shoes". If you like talking with and meeting new people and feel you can transfer your enthusiam for a product or idea to a prospective customer, then go into medical sales and never look back.

If you have a strong entrepreneurial spirit and are personable, drop me a line. My employer is always on the look out for bright, outgoing, go getters. We do recruiting at several elite universities. The sales associates we've hired are very happy to land the job, most say their dream job!

[Dueller]

Undergrad degrees in Phiosophy/History 1975 (graduated 1 week shy of my 20th birthday). Originally was going to engineering school but jobs were scarce at that time. Plans of going to grad/law school but burnt out and didn't want to go into debt. Took 18 months off and was a beach lifeguard during day/bartender at night on a resort island. Lived in a beach shack with two other guys. Had a large time.

Sucumbed to constant grief from my parents and others about wasting my life and no "real" job. Like employers were banging down my door to hire a PBK liberal arts 21 y.o. On a whim took the Federal Gov't PACE exam, scored really high and got a job offer for a fast track bureaucratic management position. Moved all over country for 9 years but got an MPA along the way. Got fed up with the bureaucracy after sitting in a meeting with my professional peers all of whom were 20-30 years older than me and had not had an original thought in their life. Resigned on the spot, applied for law school and finished in 2 years instead of 3. Landed a job in law firm tied to then wife's family. Divorced after 9 year marriage and was booted out of the firm. Open a store front practice, hit a few licks, moved to larger city and haven't looked back.

[Rick Lee]

I had quite a college experience. I spent my junior year abroad in Germany and the summer before that working in a factory there for Bayer, made a ton of money too. I hitchiked to Kiev and all over in between, learned a lot about myself that way. When I came back, I finished up in my 4th year, going part time (thanks to AP credits), but my band was doing pretty well by then and I couldn't give it up to get a real job. So I vowed to stick it out one more year, do landscaping or other BS jobs by day to be a rock star by night, record a demo and see where it went. Well, it went nowhere. I even got to hand a demo tape to Geddy Lee personally.



So I then decided to move back to NJ and figure out what to do. A neighbor gave me a job monitoring air quality at asbestos abatement sites and I gave some guitar lessons at night. When the air qual. job disappeared (neighbor was later killed in the WTC, first plane hit his office window), I went down to DC to visit an American buddy I had gone to school with in Germany. He was working for his senator, Max Baucus. I ran into so many people I knew in DC that weekend, I knew I had to be there. I moved there two weeks later and pounded the pavement for SIX *****ING MONTHS until I got a real job offer, meanwhile doing BS jobs at night to cover rent and booze. One of the happiest moments of my life was calling my dad to tell him I finally had a job for $17.5k a year with health insurance. I thought I was rich. Competition in DC in like nowhere else is the country and I was near serious depression and self-doubt from that long job search and the poverty. But it turned out to be a great first step and I made a ton of friends and other business contacts I keep in touch with personally and professionally to this day.

Oh, and I was never once asked about my degree in a job interview. In fact, the only person who ever asked about college was my current boss who noticed a year's gap in my resume between graduation and when I got a real job. My first boss hired me because she was familiar with my prep school, driving by it all the time when she visited her daughter at Princeton.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by dan88911

Good luck kid. Sounds like you are smart enough to figure out whats going to work for you.

He's smarter than I am...that's why I can't come up with any suggestions.

Oh, wait! Bouncer for a nudie bar?