Anyone chosen "an career with future" and now regret this?

[Kenjona]

No degree, Some college though paid for by myself. I have a 100K a year job, blue collar, with Cadillac benefits and a old school pension plan. Paid my wife's college loan about 5 years into our marriage.

Exactly why you should have done some kind of research of sorts like asking your seniors perhaps?

Sheesh nft?

But most seniors cannot predict exactly what is good or bad for a degree except in a general way.

A good example is computer degrees of any sort. They were barely a thing in the early 80's. Blew up, as in everyone wanted one and all colleges were putting together programs for them, if they did not already have one, up until the mid 90's and they became toilet paper mid to late 90's. Now some of them are worth something again, but due to the H1B visa scams not as much as they should be in the US.

Everyone said Cobol language was dead in the start of the 2000's and they stopped teaching it in many degree programs. But Cobol programing became a much needed skill in the mid 2010's due to losing to many programmers who knew it, because they went into retirement. To many Government and Financial systems are still programed in Cobol.

 

[LordJoyde]

If you need advice and don't know yet what you are passionate about, don't go to a university yet. University is hard, considering that they tell you to do things that you don't particularly want to do because of 'diversification'. They teach you stuff you don't need or want because they think that's what you will need, but you won't. Another reason is that they just want to bloat the course so that you have to pay them more and so they profit even if you don't benefit from it. If you are passionate about what you're learning, you can still soldier through the things you don't want to learn, but when you don't have the passion in the first place, you will just suffer years of hell that robs you of your happiness. Plus, you now have a sizable debt for something that is equal to a trophy on the wall.

If your parents are pushing you to go to university anyway while you don't know what your passion is, Ai-chan suggests going to a trade school. That is not a merchant school, but a school that teach you essential trade skills such as electrical, plumbing, hospitality or accounting. It is not glamourous and may even be yucky, but it's one of those dirty jobs that everyone is thankful for. Most people do not want to make plumbing their career, but most people will call a plumber to solve their problems. Even if you don't end up being a plumber or electrician, the knowledge and certification helps you in the long run. Plus, you learn only the things you need to learn to get the job done, not anything unrelated and you don't need to take a loan in most cases. You can even do part time jobs with your certification in the future while you take a degree in something you are truly passionate about.

Learning about accounting is actually quite fun. Ai-chan never thought it could be fun at all. Ai-chan studied beginner accounting in high school, but Ai-chan hated maths, so never chose that option. Turns out when Ai-chan went to university, Ai-chan had to study even harder math, three of them!

Math is the scourge of young, bright minds, ain't that right?

God, I hate math.

 

[InfantryTerminator]

Indeed. Ai-chan went for a Software Engineering and Games Design course. Ai-chan didn't realize that it sucked. It taught us mostly theories, forced us to complete 3 engineering calculus subjects, THREE! And only taught us programming in C, C++ and Flash. Even so, it only gave us pretty much introductory to C++ and we didn't really learn how to program with Flash, as in we didn't know how to code with Flash, the lecturer only gave us instructions and told us to make a game from those instructions.

The university's ideals for the course was for us to be a jack of all trades, to be the manager of such game development. Ai-chan was stupid back then and didn't realize the stupidity of such ideals. To be the project manager, you need to have experience making such games. How would anyone hire you to get experience when you can't even program the thing you're supposed to lead? Why would we even need 3 engineering calculus subjects? We don't use that at all in making games.

Out of about 80 people, only 22 people graduated, at least as far as Ai-chan can remember. Ai-chan didn't graduate, but still saddled with debts. Ai-chan couldn't pass the 3rd engineering calculus subject no matter what. Out of these 22 people, only 2-3 people worked in games development and their companies went bankrupt in just a few years.

It was such an expensive degree, but in the end everyone worked in customer service, insurance, farming and culinary. Completely unrelated to what we studied. It's not surprising since we didn't really learn anything useful. What would we use 3 engineering calculus for? We can't go into engineering because we didn't learn engineering. We couldn't work in the scientific field because we didn't learn anything scientific. The most significant things we learned in that course were how to persuade or motivate people, how to work in a team and how to do business. We didn't even learn programming properly.

To summarize, the Software Engineering and Games Design course was basically an overpriced engineering calculus social study group for future businessmen.

Don't even remind me of IT courses ever again.

I went to nursing course last years (lessons from 8-18 and friday even had a whooping 8-21 on top of needing to self-study), then transferred to IT course before Christmas. Breezed through the IT lessons like a breeze because I was an experienced Linux user, but guess what they decided to add on top of it?

Physic, chemistry, and electricity. Also, math teacher insisted that we need a weird calculus for programming. That dude straight up ignored me when I brought up that almost every programming language can divide and multiply without shenanigans.

Dropped out of it in July because I was too burned out after nursing course. It was so bad that I couldn't get out from the bed for a month, and now I'm still struggling to write anything that doesn't have a pineapple on it. Pure regret

 

[TheTrinary]

Why are you attacking me

 

[BearlyAlive]

I tried getting a job in administration. They fired me a day before my trial period was over...

Now I'm a nearly broke freelance translator & efitor and actually pretty happy if you ignore me being broke and WW3 most likely starting this decade if not year.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

If you need advice and don't know yet what you are passionate about, don't go to a university yet. University is hard, considering that they tell you to do things that you don't particularly want to do because of 'diversification'. They teach you stuff you don't need or want because they think that's what you will need, but you won't. Another reason is that they just want to bloat the course so that you have to pay them more and so they profit even if you don't benefit from it. If you are passionate about what you're learning, you can still soldier through the things you don't want to learn, but when you don't have the passion in the first place, you will just suffer years of hell that robs you of your happiness. Plus, you now have a sizable debt for something that is equal to a trophy on the wall.

If your parents are pushing you to go to university anyway while you don't know what your passion is, Ai-chan suggests going to a trade school. That is not a merchant school, but a school that teach you essential trade skills such as electrical, plumbing, hospitality or accounting. It is not glamourous and may even be yucky, but it's one of those dirty jobs that everyone is thankful for. Most people do not want to make plumbing their career, but most people will call a plumber to solve their problems. Even if you don't end up being a plumber or electrician, the knowledge and certification helps you in the long run. Plus, you learn only the things you need to learn to get the job done, not anything unrelated and you don't need to take a loan in most cases. You can even do part time jobs with your certification in the future while you take a degree in something you are truly passionate about.

Learning about accounting is actually quite fun. Ai-chan never thought it could be fun at all. Ai-chan studied beginner accounting in high school, but Ai-chan hated maths, so never chose that option. Turns out when Ai-chan went to university, Ai-chan had to study even harder math, three of them!

With less and less people going to trade school or doing things like apprenticeships, and more and more people going to college every year people like plumbers electricians and carpenters are making more money every year, at least here in the USA

 

[SakeVision]

Ye, but I dropped out after one semester so weeee

 

[SternenklarenRitter]

While I have a math degree, I never figured I'd be able to hold a job anyway. Interestingly I use it far more frequently than I expected, but only as a hobby. There in no degree in the universe that will make McDonalds want me as a dishwasher.

 

[Kenjona]

There are three things you need to get a job, baring extenuating circumstances. In order.

1. Ability to put yourself forward.
2. The ability to present a neat and ready appearance.
3. You have done research for the job and you know what it entails. Nothing like someone coming in for a mechanics job and have no knowledge of what sort of mechanics they want at all. Note that what they put down for "qualifications" for a job is usually negotiable to a degree, but there is a limit. Many places expect to train you but if it is for a more "senior" level job maybe not as much..

There are four things you need to hold a job, baring extenuating circumstances. In order.

1. Ability to show up for the job. This is being not on time, but early by at least 5 minutes and with your head ready to work, not just your body there.
2. At least the minimum in social skills to be able to interact well with others.
3. Ability to learn the work.
4. Willingness to actually do work.

Three Skills that will help you in most jobs (99% of them).

• Math.
• The ability to communicate well.
• The ability to shut the fuck up when needed and appropriate.

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

Basically a lot of degrees are a scam, because they are just let the Indians get to it, or it’s just shit. Anti racism degree thing, sexual history degree. Joe Biden ice cream degree

I stand with the Joe Biden ice cream degree!

There are three things you need to get a job, baring extenuating circumstances. In order.

1. Ability to put yourself forward.
2. The ability to present a neat and ready appearance.
3. You have done research for the job and you know what it entails. Nothing like someone coming in for a mechanics job and have no knowledge of what sort of mechanics they want at all. Note that what they put down for "qualifications" for a job is usually negotiable to a degree, but there is a limit. Many places expect to train you but if it is for a more "senior" level job maybe not as much..

There are four things you need to hold a job, baring extenuating circumstances. In order.

1. Ability to show up for the job. This is being not on time, but early by at least 5 minutes and with your head ready to work, not just your body there.
2. At least the minimum in social skills to be able to interact well with others.
3. Ability to learn the work.
4. Willingness to actually do work.

Three Skills that will help you in most jobs (99% of them).

• Math.
• The ability to communicate well.
• The ability to shut the fuck up when needed and appropriate.

Weirdly I have never done math in my life

 

[Kenjona]

I stand with the Joe Biden ice cream degree!

Weirdly I have never done math in my life

You have always done math in your life. Every single day you are conscious. You may not realize it, but you do. The better you can do it, the better you usually can do a job.
Math is not all fancy equations, it is a numerical question or answer, and it does not have to be exact or even real. It can be comparative in nature, "Is this more than this?" or "Will I get there on time? Maybe, maybe not." Can I afford this "Y/N?" is doing math.
Oh and to add, you do not always have to have the right answer or any answer when doing math for it to be math. You are still doing math. ;)


Oh FYI: College degrees are worth the process to get one, I encourage everyone to get one. As long as it is the right degree. But usually they are never worth near as much as what you paid for them. :)
What you will get from one at a minimum. How to write well, how to do slightly more complicated math than High School. College is a period that lets you be a kid a little longer, yea a kid. Work in the real world is brutal. It will also give you a leg up socially just by earning that piece of paper, what you do with it is all on you.