Hi. As a resident of a city where people go to follow their dreams, I feel compelled to state the following:
Your parents are right! You need Something To Fall Back On[sup]TM[/sup]!!
You don’t know how many people I’ve seen begging for airfare back to some square state that starts with a vowel because they came here hoping to find their big break but finding instead that the police kick you out of Tompkins Square Park these days.
OK. That said, here’s the good news. Something To Fall Back On[sup]TM[/sup] does not mean an accounting degree or an MCSE or something like that. If you intend to follow that big dream, learn to bartend. Or wait tables. Or get your typing skills up to snuff and temp – we got a bajillion but temp jobs here. Or even (ugh) retail sales – it’s more of a skill than you think, if you want to make any money by working someplace that pays commissions.
So pursue your dreams, by all means. But have a way to pay the bills, since dreams are not realized instantly, but over time. You really do need Something To Fall Back On[sup]TM[/sup].
No, I typically got the jobs that nobody ever knew existed. I spent a year working as a namer, and now do some part-time gigs as a rental minister and fake “man-on-the-street” interviewee.
This is easy although you may not recognize it yet. Do you write because you have to? I mean, are you going through a phase where you think it would be cool to be a writer and thus force yourself to sit down at the keyboard OR are you driven to sit there and put it on paper. I would suggest that when you know yourself well enough, and you may be there already, it will be obvious whether you are a writer or not.
I’ve published but have not “written” anything satisfying for quite a few years. I still write a lot but it is all business oriented stuff (or babble on this board). I take comfort in Bukowski’s view that you need many many years of life experiences.
Otherwise, for jobs that most people don’t think about. I am a proprietary trader of Chinese stocks. In Norcal, I didn’t know anyone that was a stock broker or went to wall street or even invested in stocks. But, international investment banking is what i’ve been doing for the past 10 years. Oh yea, before that, try guidebook writer to China, adventure tour guide to Tibet, professional photographer tour guide to minority areas of China, etc.
There’s a lot out there and keep writing while ya do it.
featherlou - There is no way you’ll ever become dictator of the world, I have been working on it longer than you have and it’s MY dream dammit! Get your own. Maybe you could be a minion when I implement my regime but dictator? Never.
Seriously, I worked for a brand consulting company where my job was to brainstorm page after page of names for new products and companies. My personal pride and joys are Sony Aibo and Lego Mindstorm.
Since China Guy mentioned China (something we both seem to do with alarming regularity :D), I’d like to recommend to you that you explore some foreign cultures. I’m talking about going to see something you have little or no preconceived ideas about, and letting the sheer amazement inspire you.
Coming to China has helped inspire my writings a great deal.
The thread title mislead me a little… I read it as jobs that were unbelieveable i.e. I don’t believe that anybody does that!
I had in mind Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s reference to the job of emptying Winston Churchill’s spitoon, daily. I guess somebody had to do it (urghhhhhhhh).
In the same vogue, the emptying on canine anal sacks was probably not high on the list of ‘must haves’ for prospective veterinatry surgeons and nurses but there it is; all in a days work.
Hate to divert attention from the real question here… but if your ambition is to be a writer, then would Winston Churchill’s spitoon be ‘something to fall bak upon’?
Fortunately, I was thick-headed enough to ignore almost everyone’s advice and DID follow my dream into an unlikely career in the entertainment business.
Our cleaning woman was the only person who thought I should go for it.
I’ll never forget it - I was explaining my dilemna to her as she worked. She leaned on her mop, and explained to me how, several years earlier, she had found herself in a strange town with no friends, $5 in one hand, and a baby in the other. She said that she had managed to extricate herself from that situation, and what mistakes could I possibly make that would end up putting me in worse shape? Go do it she said, because I’d regret it otherwise later on.
Decision made on the spot. I performed for a few years, saw the world, and had a great time. I’m in another career now (by choice), and am supremely thankful I took the good advice that was offered me that day. I don’t know what kind of person I’d be right now had I not done what I reallyw wanted to do.
As long as I can remember I have read. I vaguely remember thinking to myself “I want to write books like these”, but cannot recall ever acting on it. In the last few years I have decided I want to write for a living, and have started working on it. I, too, was always told to have something to “fall back on” and have decided I will write in code to pay the bills.
But then again, I would love to be a Psychologist, Neuro-biologist, and an Astronomer. (And I don’t have the IQ to do them all)
[QUOTE
**Go to college if you choose, but don’t do it with student loans! That way if you hate it (as I did), you’re only out whatever it was you spent on school, not stuck paying back the damn loans for the next 10 years (like I am).
**[/QUOTE]
Hey, I’m about to embark on the student loan journey. Is there a different way to do it? I thought schools were even more expensive in America than in Canada.
As for unlikely careers, my theory is that if I live in a world where people are paid to be “bird throwers”, then I can be whatever the hell I want.
I have always loved art. I knew it when I was 4 years old.
Of course I got the “Have something to fall back on” speech. So, I learned how to type. Big whoopee. But, I’m glad I did. It’s nice to be able to type! Look how fast I can bang out these posts on SDMB! No, really. Typing is certainly a great skill to have, and I’m glad I learned it way back in high school. I did a smart thing.
Anyway, so I went to art school. I learned A LOT. My artistic skills improved a great deal, because of the excellent education I recieved. And I have certainly made money on my art, (and also on my pottery.) I have been in art shows and galleries, blah blah blah. Do I do it as a living? No, not yet, maybe not ever. (Though I did have that photo retouching job, which is certainly art-related.)
But I am so glad that I went to art school. I am glad I did that when I was young. I have the foundation skills, and I keep on building on them. (Right now I’m learning how to create art in Photoshop! They didn’t have it when I was in art school! But no time like the present to learn, huh?) I am glad that I am not just now deciding (at my advanced age ) that I wanted to study art. Not that there is anything wrong with deciding part way through your life that you want to shift gears, and go in a different direction. But since I ALWAYS knew I loved art more than anything else, had I waited, it would have made me a very bitter, unfulfilled and unhappy person. So I’m glad I didn’t wait, and I’m glad I didn’t let anyone dissuade me from being an artist.
If you feel the same way about your writing - go for it. Write all you can, educate yourself as much as you can afford. DO IT NOW. If you know that it’s the right thing for you to do, no use in putting it off. And yeah, learn how to do something that will pay the bills, but still allows you time to write.
Many people love to give the “this career choice you have made sucks, go do something else” speech. Even people already doing exactly what you want to be doing.
What’s important is to do something that you enjoy doing. It’s the only thing that I actually learned from my Dad-- and that was only because I spent 2 summers in his office, and I was stunned at his transmogrification into Happy Man when I had only known him as an angry bastard.
If you really like your career path, and have a modicum of affinity for dealing with people, you will succeed. 'Nuff said.
) that I wanted to study art. Not that there is anything wrong with deciding part way through your life that you want to shift gears, and go in a different direction. But since I ALWAYS knew I loved art more than anything else, had I waited, it would have made me a very bitter, unfulfilled and unhappy person. So I’m glad I didn’t wait, and I’m glad I didn’t let anyone dissuade me from being an artist.