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[Laevateinn]

I decided that I didn't want to get into academia and I never wanted to do defense contracting. That got rid of the two primary things people who graduated from my lab did so I went to career fairs and job searched and eventually landed where I'm at now.

 

[hogendaz85]

My GF got pregnant, and I was work at Walmart making $8 an hour, I decided if I was going to go back to school that was the time to do it. Got my associates and a cert in Computer Network Administration. I figured I should be able to make some decent money and computers and tech are fun so yeah!

It's cool, not the dream but keeps a roof over my family and puts food on the table.

Edit:...fuck I've become complacent..

 

[pirateluigi]

And Evilore swoops in with the best reply.

As for me, I didn't really choose my career... it's just how things ended up.

Spoiler

I didn't choose the thug life, the thug life chose me.

I had no idea what I wanted to do after college. Got a job at a call center of a pretty big company to pay the bills and my boss gave me a project to manage. I did well with it so I got more projects. Do enough to earn my PMP and end up running the PMO for the entire company. Now 10 years after college I make my living helping companies establish and run project management offices.

 

[MikeyB]

I wasn't a fan of my current graduate degree, so I finished that and got one that would lead directly to employment.

The longer story is that I only learned about the second program from a friend who was applying. It was a week before applications were due. I got in, he didn't. We are no longer friends.

 

[Lionheart1827]

Graduated with a CIS degree and was in an internship through the school that kinda had you try different roles. I had no idea what I really wanted to do. I hated tech support, I wasn't really good at software engineering, but QA I had a really good eye for. Ever since thats been my trade.

I am a little worried about the future of my job since its a job that is easily automated and off shored as well. However, I've been working in primarily automation in the past 2 years to keep myself up to date and marketable. I do enjoy my job and my company has awesome benefits. I'm just hoping I can hang with it for awhile. Been doing it for about 9 years now.

 

[MercuryLS3]

I have an English degree, went to school to be a teacher or journalist. Didn't want to do either as I was finishing up my degree. Got a sales job after school and enjoyed it, have continued on that path ever since. I'm a Pricing Manager now and I like the role. Everything worked out ok in the end.

 

[nicoga3000]

I liked math and physics. Both of those as professions were about number crunching for the sake of number crunching (obviously generalizing, but still). Engineering was practical application of those concepts.

I started as a Nuclear Engineer, but after taking the intro class and learning about how plants were designed and operated, I got board. I had to take a class in Statics and Mechanics of Materials (most/all engineers have to at Purdue), and found both of those to be super interesting.

Switched my major to Structural Engineering and here I am some 12 years later or so. Couldn't be happier with what I do.

 

[Saganator]

Salesforce Admin. It just kinda happened.

I worked retail for almost 10 years, I had a pretty good job with probably the best company to work in retail for, but just grew tired of retail. I had an opportunity via networking to join a small company in an office. Took a pay cut and starting doing customer service over the phone. In my interview they asked me if I knew Salesforce, I did not, but I said in a few months I'll be a Salesforce guru.

After a couple months doing customer service, a Sales Support role opened up and I managed to get it. While doing Sales Support I quickly realized how poorly the Sales team was utilizing Salesforce. I dove into Salesforce and learned the ins and outs, made a bunch of changes to how they were using and got them on the right track. After getting the Sales team to a good spot, I made some improvements to how the Customer Service team worked. And then the Project Management team. Then Accounting.

Eventually I approached the CEO/owner and basically said I've outgrown my Sales Support role and I'm doing a bunch of other stuff not in the Sales dept, so a position was created for me. Now I'm basically a Salesforce Admin/Database Admin/Operations manager.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

Graduated as a civil engineer, went to work in the oil industry straight out of college due to knowing somebody in the industry since it was THE industry to work in and I wanted to live in Houston.

Oil price went down the shitter, many companies started doing lay offs. I got laid off. Spent the next 2-3 months looking for work, a college acquaintance put my resume forth in the company he worked in and I got hired.

I've now been working for year and a half in a highway construction project and I'm loving it.

 

[Rocketz]

The program I was on was ending and I was basically handed it since I was kinda already doing it. Originally started at the company doing Social Media.

Data Analyst

 

[Necrovex]

The original plan was to enter graduate school for school psychology. But after I was declined from my three schools, I decided to become a government drone and utilized my NCE I acquired from Peace Corps. I start my official career later in the month.

Basically decided this route as federal work is stable, I get to be pedantic when it comes to policies and claims, the benefits are god-tier, I get to move a superior state (peace Florida), and I have a steady career ladder to get paid in the 70s before the four-year mark.

 

[excowboy]

Because I trained to do something else, then got a chronic illness and couldn't do that, but I had a laptop and I'm not a moron so now I do internet stuff. I wish I had more of a choice in things but its difficult to retrain due to time/money/health and my work/life balance is pretty great so...

 

[nicoga3000]

Graduated as a civil engineer, went to work in the oil industry straight out of college due to knowing somebody in the industry since it was THE industry to work in and I wanted to live in Houston.

Oil price went down the shitter, many companies started doing lay offs. I got laid off. Spent the next 2-3 months looking for work, a college acquaintance put my resume forth in the company he worked in and I got hired.

I've now been working for year and a half in a highway construction project and I'm loving it.

When did you graduate?

I had a job coming out of college with a company that designed coal gasification plants, but when the market broke in ~2008-2009, they had to pull my offer off the table. Probably for the better since I wanted to leave the state, but still. Curious if you got hit around the same time.

 

[Empyrean Heaven]

I applied, I interviewed, and they hired me. And I get paid way better than I did at Radio Shack.

 

[TankRizzo]

Graduated from high school in 2001 and "working in the computer field" was the hottest shit since sliced bread at the time. Took 1 CS class and that's all it took for me to say "fuck this" I already had enough math to go ahead and start my electrical engineering degree. No regrets at all. I make good money, I like what I do.

 

[The Albatross]

I'm a web application developer.

I've been building websites since the late 90s, started as a hobby. Continued to do it throughout college to make money, and as a hobby, did not study development in college (there really weren't courses in web development at the time, especially at the college I went to... I remember taking one course the summer going into my senior year to fulfill a requirement, and I was waaaay over-qualified for the course. It was a nice A to add to my GPA, but ultimately, a waste of $3200), was hired as a web developer after college, and have continued to do that for 12 or so years. I got my start,truthfully, building things around my hobbies... mostly around videogames. I created videogame websites in the early 2000s for Counter-Strike, Madden, and misc videogames, mostly online communities. My first portfolio of sites when I got hired to do web development was, honestly, almost all videogame sites. If you were into Madden in the early 2000s or went to sports gaming sites, you probably went to some of the sites that I either started, developed, or contributed to.

I still do freelance web development building client sites, but my primary career is web application / software development today. It pays well, I like my job, I'm well respected. Only thing that sucks for me is I've got about an hour commute each way and my company is not great with WFH.

Also, when I have a big freelance project it eats up a lot of my free time, so for instance, the last 2 weeks I've basically worked all day at work, only to go home, eat dinner with my wife, and then hit the computer from 730 - 1230, go to sleep, repeat. Project is going to be finished soon, and it's a lucrative one, but we're in major crunch and have a shit load to get finished for a launch at the end of the month (and then I go on vacation). But I only do pretty serious clients these days, including a site in conjuction with the Obama Administration, two for the state of New York, and fairly lucrative clients. So the projects are all usually high paying and too lucrative to turn down.

 

[McBryBry]

Invest in Lynda.com.

I'd look into a way of learning that costs, like Lynda, if I could figure out a path first. Web development sounds like it could be fun, but the next day so does getting into database dev which seems to require less creativity, which I can be really lacking in sometimes. And other days, catching up on sleep sounds wonderful.

 

[MugiwaraCole]

Halfway fell into it. Didn't know what I really wanted to do. Still don't. I'm only a few months removed from grad school, so who knows what my future actually ends up looking like?

 

[Regiruler]

I seem to be stuck going towards software development even though that's one of the less interesting pathways out of computer science. I really want to do low-end stuff or game programming, former needs a masters and is kind of a shrinking/niche market, the latter gets payed a mediocre amount. Neither have a substantial amount of work in this area and I want to stay at home for now.

Cut people open and get paid for it.

Spoiler

I'm studying medicine.

RULES OF NAToh

Practical joke

Wait, what do you actually do for a living?

 

[Admiral Woofington]

When did you graduate?

I had a job coming out of college with a company that designed coal gasification plants, but when the market broke in ~2008-2009, they had to pull my offer off the table. Probably for the better since I wanted to leave the state, but still. Curious if you got hit around the same time.

Graduate late 2014 (one year and a halfaway from my class year) due to changing majors fairly late in the game.

I got laid off late 2015. I got hit by the most recent issues that are still present as of today.

 

[AAK]

Did all my studies in Mechanical Engineering since I was most interested in Physics + Math through high school. Couldn't find a job that didn't involve me going to a remote area. After doing jobs with no career for about 5 years I decided to go back to school and do some comp-sci to eventually have a means to feed myself while remaining in the city.

Now in a cubible with stable income @ a bank as a technical analyst.

 

[LilZippa]

I wanted to know everything I could about computers. So electrical engineer with a math minor.

Now I want to understand AI programming and data analytics. Starting with some online courses, but I have so little time with work and kids.

 

[Samurai G0SU]

Went into college to pursue a something in video production (edit/shooting/etc) they didnt have a program specific to these arts so i settled on Radio/Tv Telecommunications. Learned that i needed to intern as a janitor, organizing closest at the local radio station cluster, then suck up to someone so maybe they consider hiring me. lol i peaced out.....

I work in Health Care now. REALLY happy i have landed this job and was able to move into a higher position within a year.

 

[Lombax]

Found something I was good at while completing an internship that was not at all related to my degree.

 

[Ichabod]

I graduated uni with a degree I sleptwalked through and fell into the unforgiving cycle of no one hires you because you don't have experience/you can't get experience because no one will hire you. Absolutely hated the 9 to 5, soulless, cubicle grind once I finally DID manage to land a job, so decided to go back to school in a field that had ludicrously high demand for new grads. Absolutely love nursing and the many opportunities it affords me. Wish I'd have done it sooner.

 

[RangerX]

I'm a very political person and find political science research endlessly fascinating.

 

[Pau]

Knew I couldn't cut it as a writer/artist and have always been good at math. So went to school for statistics, took a computer science minor for fun and another major (sociology) to ground me. Working as a data analyst now for education research team. Work so far is pretty easy. It's lighter on programming challenging things so I work on independent projects when I can.


Goal is to go back to school and become a statistician or data scientist.

 

[NH Apache]

Was going through the back of the sat book after the exam because you have to pick majors while filling it out (Or you did).

That sounds neat, said I. And then 4 years of academic hell

Former oil industry as well, got out 6 months before my local office closed thank the gawds

Edit: I guess I should say naval architect and in my new position I perform structural analysis for neat ships

 

[HylianTom]

I'm in medical imaging. If I were to draw a venn diagram, you'd find this field right in the overlapping area among "highly interesting to me" and "recession/outsourcing/automation-resistant" and "pays pretty decently."

 

[Nugg]

I randomly got an opportunity one day, completely outside of my field but it came with a decent pay, so I gave it a shot. I didn't suck at it and ten years later I'm still there.

 

[Fou-Lu]

Still haven't chosen as I am in grad school at the moment, but going to grad school has helped me realize I much less interested in Physics than I thought and much more interested in Comp Sci and programming than I knew. Also game dev, I have absolutely fallen in love with game developement. I hope that knowledge and passion will help me find the appropriate career after I get my master's but... We'll see.

I majored in physics in the first place because science was cool, most of the people I hung out with were going to major in it, and I didn't think I would be good enough at comp sci to major in it.

 

[carlsojo]

Nursing pays well and you can work anywhere doing a lot of different things.

 

[The Albatross]

Invest in Lynda.com.

I'd look into a way of learning that costs, like Lynda, if I could figure out a path first. Web development sounds like it could be fun, but the next day so does getting into database dev which seems to require less creativity, which I can be really lacking in sometimes. And other days, catching up on sleep sounds wonderful.

I think Lynda is overpriced for what you get especially if you're not going to use it all the time. I'd recommend going to Udemy and buying a bulk of courses whenever they go on sale, which is like almost every month. Udemy runs $10/course deals all the time, and you can go and buy like 5 courses for $50 which will have hundreds of hours of video.

Udemy courses do fluctuate more in quality than a Lynda course, but they also cover way more broad topics and get into way more depth. I've taken a number of courses on Udemy and all of mine have been good, but I'm careful to read the reviews and look at the curriculum

 

[NeonBlack]

Family: Neon's good with computers. Can he look at mine?

Mom:

Friends: Hey can you do this computer stuff for me?

Me:

Me: I'm already around PC's all day, I wonder how much a programmer makes?....I'm in

 

[hohoXD123]

Doctor. Tbh, initially it was about living up to parental expectations but eventually I started ignoring all of that and when reexamining what I wanted to go into, I found my own reasons for going into medicine, namely interest in learning more about the theory side of things in that area, opportunity to do research while helping others directly in the clinical setting, good teaching opportunities and personal experience with doctors in the past. Plus a wide range of different career paths to go into, not just in terms of specialities, but also practising in different countries or working for charities like the MSF. Having said that, the state of the NHS isn't too great at the moment and it doesn't look to be getting any better, many of my colleagues are considering leaving the UK or leaving medicine altogether.

 

[mr lurtle]

IT

I´m a fucking nerd and don´t have other skills that would make other people pay me money.

That's it.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

Doctor. Tbh, initially it was about living up to parental expectations but eventually I started ignoring all of that and when reexamining what I wanted to go into, I found my own reasons for going into medicine, namely interest in learning more about the theory side of things in that area, opportunity to do research while helping others directly in the clinical setting, good teaching opportunities and personal experience with doctors in the past. Plus a wide range of different career paths to go into, not just in terms of specialities, but also practising in different countries or working for charities like the MSF. Having said that, the state of the NHS isn't too great at the moment and it doesn't look to be getting any better, many of my colleagues are considering leaving the UK or leaving medicine altogether.

What are you specializing in?

 

[gaiages]

My original plans weren't going to work out so I picked a career I was both decent at and made a decent salary

It was a good choice.

 

[Mupod]

I originally wanted to get into programming and eventually the games industry but that whole path kinda fell through. Lack of confidence caused by bad math class grades in my last year of high school maybe. Oh and the little speed bump of 3 years where I couldn't afford college or get a student loan for various reasons. After a few years working my ass off as a janitor I was 300% ready for a less physical job.

When I finally started college I shifted my focus to networking/sysadmin as I'd already had experience with that taking the CCNA stuff during high school. I've also demonstrated aptitude for troubleshooting in general and I find this line of work fun and rewarding. Only problem is the 3 years of extremely difficult networking classes haven't been that useful, as none of the places I've worked required knowledge anywhere near the degree I was trained for.

 

[Mookie1515]

Currently work in the fringes of real estate. I studied creative writing. These things just kind of happen.

 

[entremet]

Total fluke.

I started in customer support out of college. Got promotions and such. Eventually became a Customer Success Manager, then transitioned into Technical Sales. No plan. Just went where my skills, interests, and network took me.

What's cool is that you develop a quiver of skills and then combine them. Right now I'm learning how to code to compliment my sales skills.

 

[noomi]

Through job placement after completing studies.

I only have an associates degree in network administration, so I'm happy I landed this gig. Been here 10 years, and sometimes I really fucking hate it.... but I'm too afraid to leave because of todays competition.

 

[soundscream]

 

[hohoXD123]

What are you specializing in?

Haven't decided yet, still doing rotations in different departments. Most likely one of the medical specialities, maybe cardiology, though that can easily change as I get more experience of different specialities.

 

[Coxy100]

They were the only ones who hired me.

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

Comp Sci degree with English minor focusing on genre literature (although I did a ton of classics courses). Wanted to get into videogames, but just started working at engineering companies and making money and just never really went down that road. I still wish I had. Two friends did and are currently doing well with it, and here I am, a good coder team lead who isn't interested in anything he's doing, wishing he was writing and working on something creative.

Yes, I know coding is creative, and the problem solving/architecture is rewarding, but what I'm working on IS boring. Family now makes doing anything on the side difficult, but who knows?

 

[ZZMitch]

In a way all of humanity helped me get my current job...

Spoiler

Climate change scientist

 

[Linkura]

I'm not even really sure other than it's what my dad majored in and he was successful. I was also originally thinking of going to law school so my undergrad major wasn't hugely important. Decided early on to not go for law. And so I continued with my accounting degree and it turned out I could at least tolerate it and I was very good at it. Graduated 8 years ago.

 

[SomTervo]

Family: Neon's good with computers. Can he look at mine?

Mom:

Friends: Hey can you do this computer stuff for me?

Me:

Me: I'm already around PC's all day, I wonder how much a programmer makes?....I'm in

Your mum pimped you out for tech skills? Damn.

 

[One Eyed Willy]

I have a passion for it, and always being challenged.