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Post by Incog Neato on Sept 20, 2008 12:47:52 GMT -5
So what did you want to be when you grew up? Are you working or studying in the profession you always wanted to be in?
For me, I had silly dreams like wanting to be a teacher (I'd have no patience) or a drummer (I've always liked percussion instruments. Oddly enough, the only drums I've really played with are the DrumMania ones. :P).
As I grew up, I knew neither one would work out and because I don't actually specialize in anything (in terms of skill/discipline), I'm in some random job right now.
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Post by Kimimi on Sept 20, 2008 20:22:04 GMT -5
I used to want to be either an astronaut, archaeologist or paleontologist when I was a kid. These days, my dream job would be ninja, pirate or Jedi
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Post by Varion on Sept 20, 2008 22:32:34 GMT -5
Oh wow, I wasn't the only one. That or a writer were my early two. Now... I don't actually know. I'm just kind of sailing along the sea of life not particularly heading anywhere.
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Post by rocket on Sept 20, 2008 23:05:54 GMT -5
umm. on the other end of the spectrum if you actually accomplished your childhood dreams. Ya better come up with new ones other wise ya wont have much to do with your life.
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Post by Musa-Revived on Sept 20, 2008 23:43:38 GMT -5
I actually wanted to be an astrophysicist when I was young. I loved reading books on the galaxy and the solar system and stuff like that. Hell, I actually thought of the word astrophysicist myself because it sounded cool until I realized much later that it really was a real job.
Somehow along the way I realized that the only place with any actual chance of being one was the US, you know, since there's NASA and stuff so I gave up before trying lol.
Anyways, I'm just a simple mechanical engineer now. Boring shit, but it pays for my Japanese hobby. Oh well, that's life.
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Post by Musa-Revived on Sept 20, 2008 23:52:09 GMT -5
Err, Japan, China and Russia aren't even on the list because of... certain reasons. Like my slight disdain of China, slight fear of the Russians and hell Japan will always be a holiday country for me *runs away before someone starts accusing racism.
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Post by Skeletore has a boner on Sept 21, 2008 1:47:54 GMT -5
I've always wanted to be a voice actor. I have the talent but am just not willing to move to the west coast.
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Post by macroidtoe on Sept 21, 2008 2:46:20 GMT -5
Sorry if I'm about to dump my excessively long life-story, but I'm at a bit of a crossroads and this exact topic has been on my mind lately. So buckle-in and get that tl;dr ready!!! Pretty much from the day I got that NES, I wanted to make games. Also, when I read the back where it said "Made in Japan," that also had quite a bit of an impact. Unfortunately, in school I was always steered away from anything that would have helped me move in that direction. I tried to sign up for programming courses in highschool, but was pretty much told "Oh, no, that would conflict with the honors English course, and we've just got to make sure you get into that." I again wanted to sneak in a basic programming course in my last semester of college, but they canceled it at the last minute. Since graduating, I've been bumbling through an excellent introductory Python book. I'm a hell of a long way from being to do anything even vaguely cool, but I'm just happy to gain some basic knowledge about the process. Likewise, living out in the Midwest, it can be kind of tough to find Japanese language courses... but I actually did get in a few semesters of Japanese in college. Well, more like one-and-a-half -- I took one semester at one university, and then there was a two or three year gap until I found another university that offered courses, so I retook the first semester again and then moved on to the second semester. I'm not trying to brag, but I was pretty much at the top of the class at both universities when I took it, so I felt confident that this was something I could really get good at... but then my professor died (she was an elderly Japanese woman who moved to the US after WWII, had something like five degrees in areas ranging from art to biology to philosophy to architecture... ). So I've been stuck with those fading basic courses, really wanting to continue, but not having a lot of options. I actually ended up with majors in History and Sociology/Criminal Justice (double the major, double the uselessness!), and minors in English and International Studies. What do you do with that combination? Graphic design, of course! Haha, what the hell!? Well, I've been volunteering/working for a new history museum in town since I got out of highschool, and through a lucky chain of events, I worked my way into the position where I was doing the research, writing, and graphic design of their exhibit signage... even though I'd really only ever played around with a bit of Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop as an amateur hobby. I really have to be grateful to them, because they dropped the money for Adobe CS2 and gave me the chance to see what I could do (although I was saving them a lot of money by doing the stuff in-house for my meager non-profit museum wage). I honestly probably learned at least as much from "learning as I go" as I would have from actual courses on the applications. But I still feel a bit uncomfortable with the weird disparity between my degrees and my work experience, and I kind of worry about how it will affect my job prospects as I look for more permanent, higher paying employement. Sometimes I wish I'd just majored in graphic design (but my university didn't really have much of a program in it anyway), but then I feel like I'd miss my historical/cultural/literary studies, which I often regard as "source material" for my creative work. I'm moving towards Plan B: Operation Flee the Country. I'm looking at saving up a bit of money, getting my TEFL certification, and then taking advantage of one of those "English Teaching Assistant" programs in Asia. I think this is more in line with my educational background, plus it will finally give me a way to continue my Japanese studies -- and maybe some Chinese and/or Korean while I'm at it, depending on how long I decide to do this. So when it's all over: background in history, sociology, and literature; some graphics-related work experience; hopefully some Japanese language competency; hopefully a bit of programming knowledge.... Hmm, I don't know, is it too late for me to get involved in the game industry, maybe in localization.... or at least fan translation?
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Post by Yakra on Sept 21, 2008 6:52:53 GMT -5
macroidtoe: I'm sure you could do anything as long as you really wanted to and put your mind to it? One of my friends actually majored in history (in a kind of similar situation to yours!) and now works in a game company. Soooo... anything is possible I'm sure! Anyways, when I was a kid I remember I always declared I would either be an artist or an umpire. My brother though would make great fun of my artist dreams and declared I would be one of those street artists or one who worked in a framer's shop. Making cheesy landscapes or something and living off a scrap of moldy bread and tea. X'D And I would get so SO offended (and then not want to be an artist!). And then later on, the dream of wanting to be a concept artist/character designer in a game company also cropped up. Naturally the dream of becoming an umpire never came true. XD Cricket be an all guys' game aaaand... umpiring be a hard job (aside from the fact that I'm totally blind!)! But still, how amazing it would be to be able to have a chance to stand at Lords and... umpire away! :'D The other dreams came true (sort of. I realized working in a game company is not all as exotic as it seemed and just... left that. :'D ). And I'm incredibly happy. I don't have to live off a scrap of moldy bread!
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Post by Incog Neato on Sept 21, 2008 7:42:09 GMT -5
Man, it's so interesting to see what some of you folks aspired to become!
Truthfully, I actually considered getting a degree in anthropology cuz I was always interested in people things like how they work, how they think, blah blah blah.
But there was a ponder of how practical it would be and what sort of jobs I would be able to land. :/ In the end, I did a bit of IT Management, a bit of art, and finally, just ended up getting a damn certificate in Web design. I'm not CIW certified though. :P
Woo hoo. 4+ years wasted between 1 university and 2 colleges. Go me. >:E
Even now, I have no real interest in any particular subject that I would want a degree in. >_> *does the flail of indecisiveness*
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Post by Skeletore has a boner on Sept 21, 2008 9:18:11 GMT -5
If it makes you feel better, a degree in graphic design is equally useless.
Same goes for any art/design degree. Employers care about your portfolio...your education is completely irrelivent. So if you can do the job without the degree, you're actually better off.
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Post by Nalacakes on Sept 21, 2008 9:50:55 GMT -5
I went through phases of wanting to be all sorts of things, as I'm sure many kids do when they're very little. ^_^; But I think my most enduring dream when I was younger was to probably to be a pianist. We never actually had a piano until I was about twelve, but our parents played us a lot of romantic era music when we were younger. And I was absolutely enchanted by the sound of the instrument, and especially by the music of Frederic Chopin. There were a few pieces of his in particular that I used to daydream about playing on stage most every day. ^_^;
By the time I actually started lessons, though, I was already coming into my teens. And we moved only a short while later into a house where we didn't have space for a piano, so... I never really ended up taking lessons for any great length of time until a couple of years ago, when I bought an electric piano and picked up the instrument again. In short, there's really...no chance of me fulfilling that dream now. Competition is frighteningly fierce, even between people who have been playing nearly their whole lives. To be a concert pianist, you don't just have to be good. A quick search on Youtube will show you that there's thousands of amateur pianists out there that can play classical music and make it sound 'good'. ^_^; You have to have something else, something that I think only really comes with continued play over a very long period. A kind of unity with your instrument, and a sensitivity to every subtlety of its sound. I can play many of the Chopin pieces that I loved as a child now, but learning to play them only made me aware of the gulf between playing them and really playing them. Of course they still sound pleasant in my hands, but... I don't think I realised as a child just how much of their beauty came from the pianists themselves; just how much came down to expression as much as a piece's general composition. Although I've made very quick progress in terms of technical ability, I get the feeling I could play for ten more years and my playing still wouldn't be suitable for exhibition. <_<;
As for what I'm doing now...hmm... Well I'm not working just yet. ^_^ I'm actually only just about to start university. I sort of...ah...completely broke down emotionally during high school. To the point where I ended up dropping out with nearly no grades at all. Coming back to education after a crash like that is...kind of tricky. ^_^ I certainly didn't make things easy for myself~! But although it's taken me longer than most people, I'm here now, and that's what matters. ^^; I'll probably be majoring in Japanese, but I'm still not sure what I want to do for a living. I picked Japanese because it's something that's interesting to me. I'd love to spend four years polishing and perfecting my skill with the language. But really most every course the university offers meets the criteria of 'being interesting'. ^_^ I like to learn, and a four year degree in most anything seems pretty fun to me. So being asked to pick one area to pursue in-depth for more or less the rest of my life is...really quite a problem for me. And while it wouldn't be so bad to do translation work or something of the sort, I can't say I've picked Japanese looking toward such things. ^_^;
As for a job, I suppose the closest thing I have right now is writing? While sitting high school equivalency courses last year, I met an extremely kind and enthusiastic English tutor. I hadn't shown my creative writing to anyone since I was about fourteen, and it had become kind of private, and something I was quite shy about. But she slowly helped me to open up to others, and encouraged me to show my writing to the wider world. Since then I've won prizes in a few small competitions, and have been published in an anthology, and in some local literary magazines. I'd like to say that I feel as if I've found my calling in life, but in truth the whole thing just felt - and feels - rather strange to me. The thought of one day writing for a living is just far too weird.
I've been writing for as long as I can remember, of course. But I never did it for any reason other than to amuse myself. I wrote silly little stories that were meant just for me, and I was frightfully embarrassed at the very thought of showing them to others. Being told that people would pay to read my writing is like being told that people would pay to watch me read, I guess? It's something that I enjoy, but it's such a selfish, internalised activity for me that the thought of it being a marketable skill is just weird. ^_^; I actually felt really awkward the first time I took money for my writing, and ended up trying to talk the editor of the magazine out of paying me. I'll probably continue writing for as long as I live, but I don't think I really have what it takes to write for a living. There's a big difference between writing for yourself and writing for others...
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Post by Skeletore has a boner on Sept 21, 2008 11:00:51 GMT -5
Pick another major, not as in, drop Japanese, but language majors are really LIGHT and are designed to be double majors.
Japanese+Business is pretty much a no brainer in terms of being useful. But a Japanese degree in and of itself is useless except for a very narrow range of translation jobs.
For my under-grad I was a Japanese+French+Linguistics triple major and graduated in 3yrs with all 3...and it still felt pretty easy.
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Post by Lumi on Sept 21, 2008 12:07:06 GMT -5
Let's see... I've run the gamut from wanting to be an archaeologist to a singer/theatre actor (I like musicals, so nyah. >=P). There's just one little problem-- this practical side of my nature kept squashing the will to pursue any of the dreams that seemed beyond my means.
So right now I'm in a boring ol' random job-- not to say I dislike it at all, it's just not a career while I attend college to get my basic junk out of the way and figure out what I truly want to do. I dearly want to be a writer, or do just about anything in relation to my myriad interests, but egh... I've gotten to the point where a degree is a degree is a damned degree and I'll figure out what to do with it later. :\
Though the JET thing was also always a little appealing to me too. I'd love the experience of going to Japan just once, even if I don't want to LIVE there.
Interestingly enough... while I do draw (wahoo, see siggy! XD) and I'm pretty good at it-- I've never wanted to make it a career. It just galls me to think of how I could wind up burning myself out on a hobby I love by being forced to meet deadlines and so on. I guess it's the Romantic in my nature that does it.
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Post by macroidtoe on Sept 21, 2008 16:20:26 GMT -5
macroidtoe: I majored in English literature and east Asian studies, and am now in American game development. You can get into the game design field no matter WHAT your degree is in... it just takes a bit of luck, a good interview, and connections if you've got 'em. Let me know if you ever seriously consider trying to break into the industry, and I can at least give you some pointers, if not also try to get you a job at the company where I work. I seriously can't tell you how much I appreciate that. I've still probably got a ways to go before I make that attempt, but I'll definitely keep that in mind. Also, you do realize that you don't necessarily need EFL certification *at all* - or even teaching certification - to teach English in Japan, right? The JET Programme only requires a college degree... that's it! You don't even have to know Japanese! Yeah, but I think I'd feel a little more comfortable if I went to that effort, and I likewise would feel that I might be able to do more for the students. I helped out a bit with my university's English program for foreign students (we had some kind of partnership with a university in Nepal), and I often found myself wanting a little extra training and direction so that I at least knew I wasn't just hopelessly confusing the poor guys. Plus, I've seen some universities which do look for a TEFL certificate. I visited a class at Xi'an International Studies University in China last summer (where I inadvertently acquired an all-female fan club who has been emailing me for the last year to "practice their English" )and they've got some pretty intense requirements -- although the difference is that you're actually the main teacher of the course, not just the assistant. I just figure it might open up more and/or better opportunities, and since I've still got some time before I plan on embarking on this adventure, I might as well prepare as much as I can.
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Post by Skeletore has a boner on Sept 21, 2008 20:34:06 GMT -5
You definetly need teacher certification and some kind of relevant degree to be the *head* instructor for a course.
Things like JET, CLEP, etc basically only give positions as TAs.
Course, if you do have a relevant degree, ESL certification(or degree), and some form of applied linguistics education...you can expect to earn triple or more then those kind of positions, schools will fight over you...where joeschmoe with a random degree is dime-a-dozen.
I'll be going to France soon making 54,000 Euros a *semester* with my Linguistics Master/ESl certification.
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Post by Kimimi on Sept 21, 2008 20:55:38 GMT -5
Also, you do realize that you don't necessarily need EFL certification *at all* - or even teaching certification - to teach English in Japan, right? The JET Programme only requires a college degree... that's it! You don't even have to know Japanese! As somebody who couldn't afford to go to college, I actually found that really upsetting. I would have loved to have gone on the JET programme and to find that they valued enthusiam, commitment or Japanese literacy of any kind below a random degree was terrible. JET people who aren't going to be reading this - there are hundreds of reasons why somebody might not have a degree, and most of them don't stem from the person in question lacking intelligence. </rant>
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Post by Skeletore has a boner on Sept 21, 2008 21:28:51 GMT -5
The US is pretty much the only first world country in the world where "can't afford college" is a reason to not go. It isn't really that arbitrary because for most the world, it's not that big a deal, requiring a degree just means they want a certain age/maturity level, and for *every country cept the US* a degree is a measure of that.
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Post by Kimimi on Sept 21, 2008 21:37:04 GMT -5
I can promise you it's also a massive problem here in the UK too, and I'd bet money there are more than those two countries as well.
The other problem is any language qualification worth taking requires a year living abroad - when I told the university that it's totally unrealistic for my husband, son and cat to up sticks and live in a grotty shared flat for a year the response was little more than "Well I guess you can't do a language degree then". I can appreciate the vast improvements that would come from it, but not everyone who wants to study is a single young person with no ties or bills to pay.
That was for for every university, and every language too (except "dead" ones like Latin).
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Post by Skeletore has a boner on Sept 21, 2008 21:49:12 GMT -5
U.K. has a lot more programs for helping citizens with school cost than the U.S. does. In the U.S. it's *normal* to aquire $100,000+ in debt to get a degree that lands you a job paying $25k/yr...it's absurd.
Also, no, "paying for college" is abnormal, in the vast majority of first world nations, it's just part of the education system and taxes pay for it like they do the rest of school.
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