(When I grow up) I want to go in to...

[PinkFloydYoshi]

Brackets indicating optional as you're possibly already doing it, and if so, congratulations!

Right, being a career minded individual with big ambitions, it's only right to ask others what career they want to go in to, or even, what career they want to go in to, as well as a hobby along side it. Most of the human race has an idea of what career they want to go in to before they finish school and while some don't, they usually have a hobby or an interest in a hobby which is too expensive or demands years and years of training in order to get there which they're probably not too keen on.

What I want to know (And a few others here, no doubt) is do you have a career lined up at all? Want to enter the games industry as a developer and want to put right what xyz games developer has repeatedly made wrong for years? Or even a rocket scientist?


I've got a long story as I've suceeded in getting where I want, so:

From the moment I entered high school I wanted to oddly enough be an electrician, and by "electrician" I mean building electrics, plugs, sockets, switches, intruder alarms, fire alarms, lighting, etc etc. That changed after a while to wanting to go in to computers in some capacity. I found an interest in programming back in primary school when I had an old Amstrad CPC464, on which I taught myself BASIC. I must have been 9 or 10 by that time but didn't really consider computer hardware as back then hardware wasn't really anywhere near as standardised as it is today. After finishing school I went to college to complete a years worth of BTEC computing and programming, and also did another course at the same time to get my City & Guilds Electronics stage 1 certification. After that year, I had a yearning for more and enrolled for a two year course to complete A-Level computer programming and networking, which I also completed. After those two years I decided that it's time to get a job. After 4 years in and out of random jobs (Document scanning, sinage, production operative, carpet fitting and office fitting) I entered the industry I set out to enter, the IT industry, as an ICT Technician for a UK Specialist school (Also known as a "City Academy" school, seperate from the LEA, privately funded to aid teaching in areas where failing schools have disappointed the neighbourhood). If I'm honest, I'm in my element. This is the only position I've been in where I've actively become dedicated to my job. It's fast paced and as it's only the three of us I share network management responsibilities and I'm not fixed to doing just one job. Not only this, it's also very highly paid! Nothing better than being paid for something you enjoy doing!

Now where do I go seeing as I've already reached my job ambition? Something else I've had an interest in is macro photography and professional photography in general, as well as video recording too. Now, professional photography is damn expensive, but video recording is even more silly when you're looking at purchasing a high end camera (The one I want is £2000+, and I want two, as well as an Avid editing workstation, now you're talking silly money). While I'm on £20,000 a year professional photography is my first choice as the gear isn't quite so expensive (Although, £500+ for some of the lenses out there is barmy, I've spent around that on a DSLR and 18-70mm lens already). I don't want to go in to a career in photography, but would like to, during my holidays, go abroad to take some interesting photos or stick a large macro lens on and take a photo of a rare spiders eyes. Where the Video editing bit is concerned, I'm not sure where I want to go with that just yet, but this isn't a particularly cheap hobby either but attainable, it'll just take a while. :S

So, what about you? Where do you see yourself in a few years time?

[emvee]

Growing up I was fascinated with computers, wondering how they would know what was input and knew what to do from said input, and eventually I found out what made that possible. Programming. Being the naive little tyke I was, I told myself "You're gonna be the best damn programmer out there!"

College happened, and I officially began taking courses on the ideas of programming, various languages, object-oriented vs non-object-oriented, web design -- things seemed fine. Then life happened. After coming to terms with a lot of things, I eventually dropped out of college, and since that day have no idea what I'd like to do with my life.

Various interests pop into my head, such as Journalism, Analyst, other various things, but nothing I can honestly see myself doing professionally. I've told myself I won't go back to college until I can figure it out, but I'm honestly fairly certain that day will never come.

In a realistic sense, I see myself working in a coffee shop, making coffee with names I've never heard of, that relate nothing to the coffee itself, and listening to people talk on their bluetooth cellphone headsets while I try to deduce what part of that conversation was their order.

[Twi]

I think my fascination with electrical and engineering work started at a young age. As a wee lad I was always curious and it usually landed me with a few accidents (see scar on forehead). As I grew I found old, discarded electrical stuffs to tear apart by any means to look inside. Calculators, CD players, whatever. As I grew more into liking computers and seeing inside one for the first time when my dad was building one, I got more and more interested. My work experience had me work for a week at a small computer repair firm in my town, and that gave me more hands on experience and I gained more interest.

I've also loved computer games for as long as I remember. I was 2 when I played my first computer game "Superfrog" for the Amiga back in 1993. I loved the hell out of it, and my growing love of games has continued since. Link this and my fascination of wanting to know how things work and the idea of wanting to program things came about.

I also have an imagination that I just can't express in any way. My sub par drawing abilities and writing abilities means I can't portray things how I want. I suppose being a programmer or engineer I can work with a team to get my thoughts out there and working.

So basically I want to work with computers or something.

[Enrique]

As probably a good number of people around know, I want to become a meteorologist. Why? I honestly have no clue. The weather always seemed interesting to me. I remember when I was a little kid standing in front of the TV that had the Weather Channel going and pointing at it like I was actually on TV giving the forecast. I also remember being at my aunt's house watching said Weather Channel for six straight hours, not once becoming bored. Somehow, I decided that this was cool. I also had/have a fascination with hurricanes for some odd reason. I joke that this is because Hurricane Hugo, one of the most destructive storms ever in the Atlantic Basin, was killing Charleston, SC right when I was born. Ironically, a stationary hurricane aborted a cruise I was supposed to go on when I was little.

For the record, Carnival gave us a discount or something on a cruise in the future as a result of that hurricane (Hurricane Dennis 1999, by the way). That cruise (in 2001), which embarked at a period of time not during the hurricane season. We went to the Cayman Islands where we went on a submarine tour of the bottom of the ocean. And that's where my love for stingrays originated. But I digress.

About the time I was in middle school, I became more interested in computers than the weather. I thought about being a computer programmer for a while. Then the sophomore year of high school happened. I started taking a class called Advanced Science Research. During the summer of that year, we had to start brainstorming on what we wanted to research. I quickly went for the earth science stuff and some things on global warming. Then Hurricane Katrina happened. On the Weather Channel that day, the climate expert was talking about an oceanic phenomenon called the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. Bam, meteorology interest was rekindled. I had to do a job shadowing for another class that year, so, naturally, I shadowed a TV weatherman. After that experience, I knew that meteorology was the career I wanted to get into.

However, I'm thinking of becoming more of a National Weather Service meteorologist as opposed to one on TV. The meteorologist that I shadowed uses maps that the NWS makes to base his forecast on. I want to be the guy that makes those maps.

But before that can happen, I travel to Albany to major in atmospheric science. I'm getting a Master's Degree too.

[tyler4231]

i dont know about me, im not very realistic, id like to go to yoshis island.

[Sanjo]

At first, I thought I was going to be a programer just like my father is. He is one of the head executives at a business that creates programs and software for NASA and such, which is pretty sweet. I tried to get into a little bit, too, watching my dad work, but it was all so complex, so I had doubts about it. I also looked into video game programing when I was in middle school, but it never caught on. I enjoyed playing them, not creating them .

However, there is one thing that has always stuck with me, and that's music. I have been singing in numerous choirs, both for fun and for honors, since I was 11 or so, and I have been improving every day I sing. I even think I may be on the brink of perfect pitch (the ability to pick out a note and hum or sing on a "la" and have that requested note be right on pitch), but I doubt I will get it down. There's only one person I know who has it, but she graduated last year, so it's not like she can teach me anymore .

So, with college coming around, I am more determined than ever to major in music. More than likely, I will want to become a music teacher, like a conductor of a high school or college choir. Either that, or I will go into performance or begin to compose and write my own songs at a professional level. I know it won't earn me a lot of money in the future, but it's doing something I love, so I'll get by.

[Shoe]

I've my mind set--no, locked on what I want to do, and I'm already working on it. That is, I wish to become a professional novelist. As of right now, I have an entire series worked out that I've been fiddling with for the past many years. If you may recall my fan fictions of Toshi (for the last time, my Toshi, not the one everyone knows and loves), it's a revised story of that one, just with original characters and all that noise.

My reasons for becoming a novelist is because...

I like to write of course.
I love fantastic worlds (especially with a history behind it) created by others and I want to create my own.
I want to inspire others with my works.
I want to share a specific message and experiment with fantastical phenomena (necromancy, an original type of magic, etc.)

If I garnered enough money with my novels, I'd love to become a video game producer and convert my stories into games so that readers will be able to explore my worlds for themselves and see the struggles of the characters first-hand. That is my biggest goal in life, but if I cannot achieve that goal, it will be quite all right. I really would just like to express my ideas in these books and hope that they inspire others.

...

Oh yeah, I'd also like to save the world. That would be pretty boss. ;D

[Toshi]

Aug 15, 2008 19:01:31 GMT -5 tyler4231 said:

i dont know about me, im not very realistic, id like to go to yoshis island.

/facepalm

Anyway, when I was growing up, I was really into cars and how they worked, at one point I wanted to go into mechanical engineering, and I did want to be a mechanic, but as I grew up, my love for them became weak and I was no longer interested in them.

I never really gave it anymore thought in terms of career goals until I hit midway through Secondary School, about year 9 or 10, in which I wanted to become an ICT Technician (hardware or software, I didn't mind, I wanted to work with computers), so I tried my best in my ICT class at school in which I came out with a C grade in GCSEs, before going forth to take an ICT course in college, but after I passed the exams with two distinctions, a few merits, the rest passed and one fail, it hit me that I didn't really want to work with them at all, but I had the skills to do so.

I would have gone to University despite this, but since I had no idea of what to do with my career, I couldn't, and the reason why being because I had a taste of money coming in, since during college, I worked in a local store. I didn't want to stop working at all, but I didn't want all my time taken from me either studying, going to Uni, or being at work, so I went for what I thought was best, and stopped going into further education.

Of course, 3 years I'd been working in retail before I quit the job, but luckily I had another job to go into, which is my current one right now, a Postal Worker for Royal Mail, simply delivering letters to peoples doors. I've been working there for nearly half a year now, and I'm looking forward to my pay rise for it. I love the job so much that I don't think I'll ever want to quit the job, as much as I hate working in the rain or when it is a heavy work load.

What does it have to do with career goals? Well simple, even though I never exactly wanted to become a Postman, I do want to stick in with the job, and when it becomes available, go for full time work with them, or even apply for a position as a manager, who knows? That is possible.

So I suppose my current career goal is to go into Management for Royal Mail.

[red.yoshi]

I'm going to try and make this short and sweet.

Mathematics is one of my stronger points. I actually love doing algebra, setting up long equations, and solving them. If I could marry "If Then" statements, i would.

This next upcoming year I'll be a freshman in college. I aspire to be a computer programmer and master in Computer Sciences. Maybe I'll get a job with Microsoft or something.

[Lord of the Dance]

I've never really been quite sure, hah. I must've considered everything from an archeologist to an accountant by now. Now my parents are starting to pressure me and I'm even more unsure than ever.
Perhaps sometime I'd like to be able to edit books. Not actually write them myself, since most of my ideas are crap, but I do like picking out all the details and stuff in stories and trying to improve them. Or maybe illustrate.
Or maybe I could go into rocket science and be some kind of engineer. I like things that explode, but I'm not sure I'm smart enough to actually make a discovery or invent the next lightbulb, haha.
I'd write out everything else I've thought about but I'm sure you don't want to read a novel on things I probably won't end up doing, haha.

[Yoshi]

There are a few things I'd be able to do with a degree in political science, but I'm really interested in either trying to get into law school or to get that Masters and work for the Department of Defense or the State Department.

[Shez]

Something in IT. Preferably related to creating programs, but it's generally open to anything within IT atm.

Still have sixth form to go through an' all though, so it might change a bit.

[DanteEX]

Kinda girlish, but Marine Biology.

[Rackinac]

I wanted to be a ghost, but my mommy said no, I'm going to be a doctor.

Anyway, I started with a love of dinosaurs. This was back in preschool. While everyone wanted to be T-Rexes, Triceratops and Longnecks I wanted to be a Acrocanthosaurus. I would only play dinosaurs with this one kid using a playhouse. Fun times.

In second grade my love for dinosaurs turned into a love of drawing dinosaurs. People would pay me $2 per picture, and that's when I thought I could do something with my art as a living. Of course, reality kicked in in fifth grade that artists are not rich... until they are dead.

I'm looking into something that has to do with art- most likely a graphic artists although a children's book artist would be a fun job...

[Yoshi]

Man. It would be awesome to be a Supreme Court Justice. I wanna be that.

I'm changing my vote to Supreme Court Justice. Anyone who sees me approach will have to shout "here come da judge!"

[Garr]

I'm already in the process of creating an independant game company.