Military Nesties
meltoine
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Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
s/o Careers: How'd You Choose Yours?
What made you decide on your career? If you could be 18 again, would you choose something different to major in/start out as?
Re: s/o Careers: How'd You Choose Yours?
I fell into mine. I started as a receptionist at a real estate office after school my senior year of high school and it led to another job.
I'm really good at what I do but I don't love it. Honestly if I was 18 again and know what I know now I still don't know what I would do. I may have choosen to major in marketing or PR with a minor in some kind of writing focus.
Let's see, I'm about to start the 3rd. The 1st one never took off.
First one was my biology degree. I wouldn't change it. It's what I loved, and I would have been happy to have a research career. It just didn't happen.
2nd one was tech trainer. It was never going to be my long term career, but I'm glad I experienced it.
Then, marriage to the AF, derailing any chance of those careers. So, the 3rd was pragmatic, nursing. I like it, and I'm glad it will work with H's life. I don't dwell on the fact that I never would have chosen it without the life I'm in. It's my life now, I make the best of it, and that's all that matters.
:small voice: I still kind of regret missing out on a research career. I really regret that I almost had a job in marine research in Guam until that whole thing fell through. But, c'est la vie.
The most beautiful place on earth to me: Glacier NP
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At 18 I knew what I was going to do. Live in New York and work in Acting. Then my mom got sick and I had to derail my plans to stay close to her. I kind of lost my way during that time. I thought I should be doing other things, I tried sales, marketing, retail, banking, teaching... you name it.
Fast forward almost 10 years...
I am back into Theatre. It was my first love and I can't give it up. However, I am an English major in school. I found that I also love to read and write. Hopefully working in publishing can be something that I can turn into a stable freelance career. I can use my flair for the dramatic in creative writing and article writing.
Really, I feel like I've finally found my niche.
I would probably do the same general thing, but I think I would take a different route to get there. I would have maybe gone to medical school and been a psychiatrist as well as counseling or or maybe gotten a masters in nursing plus doc in counseling psyc. Probably gone to med school though. Turns out its actually less competitive than a doc in clinical psyc lol.
ETA I didn't really write how I chose my career. I was pre-med in undergrad because I "wanted to help people" but then I took a psyc class and really gravitated toward that, I had a bunch of anti-psychiatry/med school psyc people in my world that encouraged just doing pscy and becoming a master's or dr level clinician, but if I knew then what I know now I would have stuck with pre-med and added psyc, like I said above.
I changed my name
Well... Teaching sure beats the garbage man I proclaimed I wanted to be when I was three.
I would definitely do it over again, but I'd start out with more study in the severe/profound side of special ed where I have ended up so I wouldn't feel like I'm making up ground now.
When I was 18, I started out pre-med, and I kick myself in the butt every day now for not following through. I switched to secondary education/foreign languages after 2 years because I thought I really, really wanted to be a teacher.
Fast Forward to 10 years later and I wish I would have stuck out pre-med. Especially since DH wound up being stationed where I did most of my college for almost 6 years- would have been perfect for the education portion-
I wouldn't have changed my undergraduate major (straight English Lit) in order to move immediately into teaching after graduation. I needed a few years out in the non-academic world to make sure that education was my true passion. The only thing I'd do differently would have been to start my MA in Literature sooner. Teaching plus classes plus two young kids is really exhausting.
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LittleL 8/10/07
Baby E 11/27/10
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I got my degree in psychology and absolutely loved it. Then I graduated and realized a BA in psych was a joke as far as finding a decent job. So I fell back on being a full-time nanny and did that for 5 years. My most recent nanny job was so bad that I couldn't take being in that "field" anymore, applied to jobs that sounded interesting and I find myself now as an ABA therapist, working with kids with developmental disabilities. It's ok. I don't particularly enjoy some of the people I work with, and I'm exhausted by the end of the day, but it'll do for now.
Sometimes I think I'll never find my niche in life as far as jobs/career. And that makes me really sad.
Love the career field I started in and like where I am now. If I could combine the two (which is possible, just not out here) I would do it.
If I could choose to go back I would probably pick the same track BUT I really have a fascination with archaeology. It started with a class I took in college and now that I'm traveling, I have these moments of "wouldn't that be freaking cool to work on?" I really wish I could just go to a dig and help uncover some mystery or buried town. One day.
Fancy Face was an archaeology major I think!
I loved my major, Political Science with a minor in IR, and my school was extra cool because it has a grad program for National Security Studies (more like Intel than Homeland Security stuff), so I was able to tailor my major with a lot of those types of classes. I would do things differently if it weren't for my relationship. I would have gone straight to my university instead of being an 18 year old snob about its location. I didn't understand how important specific departments/programs could be to the quality of the degree, and I didn't realize industries/agencies look at and rely on quality of programs as much as they do. While my undergrad program isn't particularly well known in the world I'd like to end up in (gov't service), the grad program is, and I would like to think I would have continued there. I still may, all things depending.
Buuuuut, had I done things 'right', I wouldn't be married to H, and I sure do dig him, so c'est la vie.
I've always loved animation, especially Disney animation. The light bulb to become an animator didn't go off until I watched Beauty and the Beast waltz across the silver screen and that was it. I graduated from college with a BFA in animation and video editing. And couldn't find a job in that field without picking up and moving to CA and/or FL without a job lined up. And I was too chicken *** to do that.
I worked as a caricature artist at Kings Dominion during the summer and as a substitute teacher the school year following my graduation. And, let me tell you, a substitute teacher in the inner city was NOT the career for me.
A friend put in a good word for me and I interviewed and landed a job working as a graphic artist at a small newspaper. Thankfully I had taken some classes in college that taught me the basics of design software. And so began my career as a graphic artist (which, sad to say, is what my mom tried to steer me towards rather than animation.)
Now, I kind of wish I had listened to my mom instead of being so stubborn and gotten my BFA in Graphic Design and also listened to my heart and gotten that associates in Photography. Getting a degree in GD would be pointless at this point in my career (almost 10 years in), but I still continue to take courses to bring me up to speed on the latest in Adobe. I am still contemplating whether or not to take classes in web design but I've recently made a friend who teaches web and she thinks that I can pretty much self-teach myself what I need to know and she'll help me out with the rough edges.
So I plan on studying HTML, etc. while I'm out on maternity. Kind of excited.
My degree is in Antiquities (Archaeology basically) with minors in anthro, religious studies, native american studies and almost a minor in near eastern arch.
I have worked in accounting since a month after I graduated college.
This sounds incredibly interesting and BA. I did not know this about you, girl!
I kinda fell into engineering. I applied for a scholarship that paid for half a year's tuition in my first year that required I enter as an engineering student. Because I wasn't sure if I wanted to go engineering or pure math, I figured I'd take the scholarship, and most of the first year engineering courses would transfer to a math degree if I decided to change majors.
Except, I really enjoyed engineering. And, I really enjoyed the programming course we had that first year, so I applied for computer engineering. And that led into some specialized studies in a particular application of computer engineering that led to my first post-college job. Which I then got laid off from... My roommate at the time was working for a small company in town that needed someone with a similar background to mine, and I applied, and the rest is history.
My job is pretty awesome, in that it lets me telecommute, so I have been able to keep it in the >6 years since I married a soldier, and thru four household moves. The only real problem with it is that it has a substantial travel component, and I have no clue how we'll manage to have kids with my schedule and my husband's schedule...
I got my undergrad degree in education and after student teaching realized I didn't like it as much. I went back to school and got a masters in mental health and school counseling. I love what I do. I'm not a big fan of my job now, but that's due to the organization, not the counseling.
I do want to go back and get my ph.d but when and where will depend on several factors, including if my husband stays in the military.
I joined the Air Force when I was 17 with the intention of doing only 4 years, but ended up doing 9. I was offered a contracting job in the same position as when I was AD (administrative) afterwards. I worked with that company for 2 years, but quit a few months ago to SAH with my 18 month old DD and finish my MBA. My undergrad is in HR.
I have no clue what I want to do now. Jobs are scarce around here so I plan to SAH with DD until either she starts school or we PCS.
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Well, I turned 19 not too long ago, so this could change, but I'm going to school to be a nurse. I decided that after I realized I couldn't be a doctor or a veterinarian b/c cutting something living open freaks me out. Watching is fine, but doing it myself is just bleh. I like people, and I'm great with people so I figured this would also be a well paying, practical career.
I'm currently working at Victoria's Secret to keep me busy, and to earn some extra money, and it's made me realize that retail is definitely not for me.