Career Choice Worries

[TriGGeR_HaPPy]

Once again, thanks everyone for the various posts and opinions! Great to hear what people think.

As far as I can tell, my current plan might still be the best for the short-term. Just a couple years working in the field, trying to see if I actually do like working as a programmer. Also, finding out what opportunities are really out there for not working in the city, possibly working from home, etc. Basically try to come up with a good decision after I've actually finished and used my current degree, because if it should pass that I find I simply don't like the job or the opportunities it offers, the money from these jobs will be useful for the transition period into finding a job related to Archery.

To everyone out there in a similar position to myself: just as I'm finding myself closer to a position where I can decide how to approach this whole problem, I hope that you guys can figure this out for yourselves as well.

In response to some more specific posts...

Why not try and combine the two? Work in programming/IT and have your own Archery website on the side or work for an existing archery site and try to develop it for them. You could review archery equipment and keep the website running at the same time, something that a company might find pretty useful. And if you have spare time do some work on the side to make a bit of extra cash. Since you could work from home over the internet then you can live whereever you need to to have your low cost living as long as there is a decent web connection.

Also good to see another archer on the site

Truthfully, I haven't done that much web programming, but what little I've done I picked up pretty quickly and didn't find it too hard... So that's actually quite a valid option. Will keep that in mind, too.
And yeah it is. XD

*snip*

Thanks for the vid, it did help actually. Will check out the other vids at some point too.

*snip*

whats my point? well im not sad i did that horrid job the money set me up, but knowing what its like to do something you love i couldn't go back now. money is no substitute for spending your days doing something that rewards your own drives and needs and you will be amazed at the places people find those things, so follow what you think you want to do and if it doesn't work , change it.

Thank you for this advice, it seems to be what I'm getting a lot of in this thread.
Fits my current short-term plan at the top of this post, I'd say...

*snip*

Having said that if you pursue it for a couple years and it works out well, then kids are fine.

I just....generally speaking there is more to your life than just you. That's all.

This is definitely one of the other big things I've been thinking of, and is a good point to raise...
Firstly, I've spent about all of 2010-2012 without a significant other, and am quite a big meditator. And after meditating one time I realised that if I could find happiness from my house and job, a significant other would be a huge plus of course, but I guess I wouldn't say it would be a necessecity... This aside for the moment, it's my current girlfriend who I've only been seeing for a few weeks who originally introduced me to the idea of cob haha.
Secondly, actually building the house from cob is sorta just the "ideal". Don't need to build my home from scratch, doesn't even need to be cob. The main things I want from my future long-term home is just that it's in the country, and preferably is self-sufficient in terms of electricity.
But yes, all this aside, it's worth repeating that the idea of needing enough money to provide for a future family is definitely another big issue about this contantly being raised in my mind...

 

[FulfilledDeer]

Also, not to be the harbinger of annoying things to think about, it's not just monetarily providing for your family, but in other ways too. Schools, for example, might be a bit lackluster compared to not rural areas. And friends. Opportunities.

Not that I'm suggesting you want, or will want kids or a significant other. You know, but if you do...

 

[keniakittykat]

Right now I'm working towards my illustrative arts degree. I left high school last year, so I'm studying on my own and only have to take exams.
Right now I work at the Ikea food court... Okay it's not a great sounding job, but I like what I do and it brings in money I need to live comfortably, and it's a 5 minute bike ride.

What I really want to do is become a full-time illustrator. And I'll get there, I just need a degree to come with my portfolio. because I'll never get hired without it.

 

[Trinab]

To the OP:

I would say your current course is correct. I would also go on to say that the fact that you know your passion is utterly wonderful. I myself did not figure out what mine was until very recently, and I was pretty much miserable until then.

Everything should be done to an acceptable level to you. Myself, I know that following my passion is my key to happiness. My current profession, living conditions, etcetera, are just things that I do to support it.

If you enjoy your current field of study, try out the job. Live it, with archery as your hobby. If you make enough, and save enough, you can quit programming to be that full-time archery specialist, making enough to live off of, while your money from programming sits tight and ensures a retirement.

Lots of posts here already about not knowing where life will lead you, so I will not re-iterate here. All I can say is 'know your passions, and experience them.'

 

[Guffe]

I've had a good idea for what I want to do for along time and after applying and getting in that feeling just got stronger.
There's no way you can do your programming thing, have a good salary and still keep the archery as a hobbie mayb eventually become something a bit more?

 

[Korolev]

Dude, I feel your worry. I always knew I wanted to get into science, but I never felt comfortable picking one field. I picked Biotech because that's what my sister picked, and because I was good at Biology in High School. I never really felt like it was the right decision - I initially wanted to become a physicist, but I wasn't too good at Physics - I got B+'s, but I got A+'s in Bio, so I went with Bio.

Biotech fell through. Still, got the degree. Went to get a Master's in Molecular Biology, because it incorporated protein biology, biochemistry, genetics and cellular biology. Got my Master's degree.... really felt like Lab work was not for me.

Now I'm in Medicine. I'm 26 this year, and I'm mid-way through yet another degree. I don't even know if I really want to be a doctor. I went into Medicine because I literally had no idea of what else I wanted to do.

 

[Hap2]

I know the feeling well. I started university initially as a BFA in Visual Art, but the work wasn't all that interesting. I love drawing, but I found myself clashing with some of the staff on the subject of what makes something art or not. Many of them were less interested in art for art's sake than they were assigning meaning to every line, colour, shape, etc., even in cases where there was little reason to do so or where there was a clear lack of evidence of meaning beyond a poorly constructed argument. I never disagreed with them that art must mean something, only that not every meaning required a lengthy and pretentious argument to explain why.

I moved on, took Japanese language, history, and culture classes out of personal interest, and even went to Japan on an exchange trip. I didn't find anything worth sticking with, career-wise. I never had any interest in teaching English.

I was burned out and didn't know what to do, so I took a year off to work a retail job in a big-box toy store. However, after seeing first hand some of the people who were stuck in retail for life and how hopeless, bitter, and unreasonable some of them were, I felt I needed to go back to university. If not for the sake of a career, at least, for the sake of my own growth as a person. I really didn't want to become some bitter self-important asshole like the ones I worked for who thought that because they were managers of a store, they knew-it-all and were all powerful, and thus were allowed to act like shithead dictators to all of their employees. I've done my best to avoid working in big-box retail outlets since then (I work currently part time at an independent vintage video game store, and as a soccer referee on most nights for a U19 rec league).

I went back to university, took Anthropology for awhile, thinking that it may have been culture I was interested in when I studied Japanese. It was interesting for awhile, but the writings were beginning to grate on my nerves. I read way too many wordy and overcomplicated ethnographies that tried to pretend they were much more complex than just a person simply observing and taking notes. The best ones were written like stories, both informative and lucid.

After getting fed up with Anthropology, I took a few Philosophy classes on a whim, looking for existential answers and possible story ideas. I loved it immediately. It was the first time I ever actually cared about writing essays; where an essay wasn't simply an obstacle to free time or something else. I ended up writing a 26 or so page essay on the subject "what is art?" to start with, along with a great deal of other papers on subjects I personally cared about later on. It was the first time I took something for my own sake rather than what was expected of me or might have paid well. I majored in it, and after a lot of hard work, I am graduating this Spring.

Career wise, a Philosophy degree will do nothing for me on its own. I am not naive, and I despise the commonly-held belief that universities are or should be nothing more than vocational factories. If a person goes to a university expecting a job to be handed out at the end, then they are simply wasting both their and their teacher's time. A person ought to be going for her/his own sake, but because of the continued cutting of public funding, the unnecessary increases in administrative salaries, and the subsequent increase in tuition rates, as a result, everyone's chances to do just that are being hurt.

I am already putting the skills and knowledge I earned to use. I care a lot about the world, life, and people. What I want to do is to bring critical thought back to the forefront. I want to strike back at those who would rather keep us ignorant and devoid of life. I want to help heal this world instead of contributing further to its degradation through inaction and apathy. A good philosopher, to me, is one who practices rather than merely thinks. I can't say I've done as much of the former as I've done of the latter, but whether it be through story, picture, essay, article, or speech, I'm going to at least do what I can.

I'm applying to the two-year Journalism program at the university. If I make it in, that's fine. If I don't, that's fine too. Wealth has never been an objective of mine (as long as I got enough to survive on and pick up the occasional novel or two, I'm content). One way or another, I'm going to do what I can.

 

[TriGGeR_HaPPy]

Sorry for the following late response to a couple of the later posts here. Over the past couple days I've been preparing for (and then enjoying) a bucks party haha.

I've had a good idea for what I want to do for along time and after applying and getting in that feeling just got stronger.
There's no way you can do your programming thing, have a good salary and still keep the archery as a hobbie mayb eventually become something a bit more?

I'd say that my current plan (mentioned at the top of a couple of my <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.406951-Career-Choice-Worries#16961683>previous <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.406951-Career-Choice-Worries?page=2#16967652>posts) lends itself quite well to this suggestion. Keeping archery just as a hobby for now, while simultaneously trying to get a job in programming which allows me time to devote to archery, and lends itself towards living in a way I would like. Here's hoping that I can figure out my possible paths to this end within the next couple of years.
Also, congrats on getting into your own field you're interested in.

*snip*

Thank you for the story. It's always good to hear that I'm not alone in this feeling, and that others have worked towards (and achieved) something they're genuinely interested in, even if it takes a little while to start getting there.
Good luck with your future endeavours.