So, a question.
This fall I will be returning to school after a long hiatus. My previous excursion into higher ed. didn’t produce much – lotsa failed classes and withdraws.
This time around, I’ll be returning at age 30, with a wife and two kids at home. I jumped into this last winter when a family member offered to help pay my tuition if I returned to school. My wife and I were and still are in a tough spot financially, so I feel there is no better time to go back and get a degree. I’ll be getting a two-year degree from a community college, then hopefully on to a university for a bachelors or masters.
Here’s my problem. My original plan was to get a degree in teaching and teach middle school or community college. The current economic shitstorm has made the idea of being a teacher less than ideal (a friend of mine, who is a teacher, had a t-shirt made that says “those who can, teach. Those who can’t, make laws to restrict teachers”. Wonderful).
So there is a couple of caveats: we live in a small (pop.25,000) town in Oregon that has a crumbling timber economy, and not a whole lot else. My wife, who has a large family here, does not want to leave. So I’m trying to find a career path that will allow me to stay here and be somewhat successful. Also, I have worked in healthcare since highschool as a caregiver, medication aide, and assisted living supervisor, and ill be dammned if I’m gonna stay in health care. Hate it.
So my plea to Dopers:
What do you do for a living?
Do you feel that you have job security?
Do you feel you need to be in a large city to do your job?
What do you feel are the economic bright spots on the horizon?
Opinions, please.
Higher education is the only insurance against poverty, I believe.
I’m a recent engineering graduate (mechanical) and unemployed, but that’s more due to my not even looking for a job than anything else. I’m deliberately taking the summer off, and expect to be re-hired in the fall where I had student jobs for the past 3 years. They are hiring, and I feel with this degree (and a previous one) that I shouldn’t generally have trouble finding work if things don’t work out at that company. My interest is in aviation, so I’m limited to certain regions for work, including Montreal, though not every job is located within the city/on the Island. I love city life, though, so I’d be living here regardless of my career plans. I think the industry will always have ups and downs - some rather severe - but isn’t going away any time soon.
Given the constraints on your situation, I don’t really think you’re looking at finding a career you want so much as one that you can be satisfied with given where you live. Small towns with failing industries aren’t going to provide you with lots of options; clearly you already know that. You may have to move - what’s the closest “big” city? Is it commutable? Would it be easy to return to visit friends/family on the weekend if you moved there?
Look around your town at the industries that are there, even the timber one. Is there construction? Is there any manufacturing? Perhaps something in an engineering vein might be a good direction for you; either a degree of a technology diploma (I don’t really know what’s offered in the States!). Based on my experience, engineering is one of those things where they teach you all kinds of stuff, which can help get your foot in the door in all kinds of places, and it’s really only once you start working that you learn how to do anything useful. I know mechanical engineers working in the obvious fields; aerospace, automobile industry, but also working in the film industry (designing camera mounts!), telecommunications (handling thermodynamic issues in server rooms), and pharmaceuticals (designing equipment/processes/manufacturing lines). Many go on to work in some level of management eventually. I know chemical engineers in petroleum, pharmaceuticals (obvious fields) but also in meat plants and one who actually works in aviation.
If you don’t know what you want, a degree like that which can be applied to pretty much anything might be a safe bet. It’s hard work to get it, and yes, there’s a lot of math, but it’s real-world applicable stuff and is very rewarding.
Good luck to you!
Hi, I started uni when I was 30, just finished degree now. So firstly I would just say my experience was pretty good. Never really felt that out of place, as I thought I might.
I’ve just started building a website TheUglyKoala.com: The Day in the Life Datbase, I’m trying to get at least 1 Day in the Life for every single job on the planet. To show people what jobs are REALLY like.
Anyway apart from spamming on about my site, what about something like doing teaching but look to get more into the private tutoring side. I have a day in the life of a maths tutor. Colin who wrote it is a tutor and has just published a maths for Dummies book. I think that wouldn’t be bad idea.
If you could set up a website (weebly is free and super easy if you have zero technical skill like me). Then use the site as a platform to get tutoring work and look to create and sell ebooks and the like on your teaching subject. Even if you were doing teaching full time, you could do this alongside for extra money.
One good thing about teaching is I don’t think you would be or feel so out of place starting at the bottom in your 30’s. It’s a lot more common than if you were applying for finance graduate programs etc.
Sorry haven’t really answered your questions, just went of on a tangent, Anyway good luck, hope something works out.
what should I be when I grow up