Dear Dr. Babooner,
Just this week I finally graduated from college. Yay for me!
I’ll never forget my feelings six years ago when I arrived on campus here at St. Capricious (Go Windsocks)!
I was all excited about becoming an English major and learning to write like F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was my goal to create books so complete and intricate and memorable, no one would ever be satisfied with a movie made from one of them. I thought I was doing all right until my finance professor pointed out that if movies could not be made from my books, I would be a starving unknown, forever.
So I switched to Finance with the goal of landing a job on Wall Street. My professor told me if I played my cards right, I could retire by forty. But then the recession hit and what with the investment bank bailout my dream of a career in Finance suddenly didn’t seem so noble.
So I switched to Social Work. Social workers are extremely decent people who work harder than corporate CEO’s for NO money at all, or close to it. They’re probably as close as you’ll get to Ghandi in the USA in 2013. I wanted to be just like them, and I felt great about it until I met some social workers who had become jaded. That was kind of disappointing, because there’s nothing sadder than an idealist who has lost her ideals. She’s got nothing left but an untethered IST. I didn’t want to be like that.
So decided to become a chemical engineer. In the process I found out that I love chemicals but I don’t care so much for math.
So I finally settled on communications, because no matter how bad everything gets, we’ll still need to talk to each other, right? I specialized in journalism, so for a class project I wrote an article about how experienced reporters are losing their jobs and having to work for half their previous salary, or for free.
So I switched to biology. Which was really interesting until I discovered how much it had to do with handling dead things. Ugh.
Anyway, by this time all the friends I’d made as a freshman had graduated and I was still not done.
I sat down with my academic counselor Jeremy, and we looked at all the degree-parts I had completed, and we decided with just another semester’s work I could design my own degree in Communobiological Chemfinancial Emotivity.
So that’s what I did, resisting the temptation to go into counseling because Jeremy is SO AWESOME.
Anyway, we just had our graduation and just before they gave me my diploma there was this commencement speaker – a really well-known singer songwriter. He was so cool and so … with it … I realized during his speech that I had wasted all those years. What I really wanted to do with my life was to write songs and play the guitar!
Dr. Babooner, I’m fresh out of college and depressed. I’ve just thrown away a ton of time and even more money to wind up at a place I really don’t want to be. I wish they had let me listen to my commencement speaker when I was a Freshman. It would have spared me a lot of grief.
Sincerely,
Robert Zimmerman (no, not that one). (at least I don’t THINK so).
I told Robert that it didn’t seem to me there was any actual profession that could spare him grief. His commitments are so tenuous, the only job description that would truly fit him is “rolling stone”. But that’s just one opinion.
What do YOU think, Dr. Babooner?
Trail Baboon 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSk5K3wfHlg
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Good morning. Robert, I am probably among the last people you should ask about deciding on a career choice. I bounced all over the place and really never found any good career path. My final conclusion was that I should have trained in an area that I liked where there were plenty of jobs. I am no good at landing a job when the job market isn’t good and also not good at starting my own business.
I did have a part time job that I held on to for a long time, substitute teaching. I found out that I do like working as a teacher. With my luck at finding jobs, I would probably have even had some trouble landing a teaching job. However, I noticed that there are always openings for special education teachers and I did enjoy the work that I did as a substitute special ed teacher. Special ed teacher is the career I should have picked out.
Well, now I know what I think I should have done. I don’t know if that is of any help to you, Robert.
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Some how my entry appears in bold type on my screen. That is not what I intended. I’m not that bold.
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so hey jim in clarks grove when will you become jim in minneapolis? this fall? how are you doing at sifting through your lifes accumulartions? theres a career for you for this summer. consoladate and shift.
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And downsize. That was one of my careers.
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how many days at jims would it take to have him whacked into shape bir?
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I keep trying to get everything sorted out and put in order. It is a slow process that will only be partly completed before we move. I will just have to be satisfied with getting as much done as I can and taking some stuff to the new place that really should not come with us. Also, I’m sure there will some things I would like to do to get the house ready to sell that will not get completely done.
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Bold Jim would be just fine…. but be comforted that your type isn’t appearing bold on my screen!
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Glad to know that.
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My sister-in-law is a Special Ed teacher. She loves it 🙂
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special ed teachers are special people
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i am smiling this morning because i have 3 college kids to reference here.my first wanted to be a singer and he is off in california trying to find his way in the singing world of hollywood with the stars as his guides both celestial and graumans chinese theater my daughter had the bubby syndrome where she wanted the degree and along the way she jockied, shifted and ended up with a degree in something which is not helping all that much at the gap where she folds sweaters until her true calling finds its way to her door
son number two is halfway through and is studying business, specializing in entrepreneurial wizardry and taking his next class in family business. sound like it could be trouble. pushing my butt out the door.
degrees are interesting and hopefully you learn how to learn while you are getting your degree. it really doesnt matter how you get to where you are as long as you are where you want to be or on track to working it out. sometimes finding out what you dont want to do is important but if you are not willing to get outside the comfort zone to go forward you may as well sit and watch tv and eat peanut butter sandwiches for a lifes mission. lets call it a degree in coexisting. it is a very universal degree that many could embrace but when youve got it what have you got. good luck go bless have a nice life and if that diploma helps you get to where you want to be ok, my experience is you get you to where you want to be and the diploma gives you the ability to do some collecting of tools for the tool box you are going to head down the road with,pick em up now pick up later and figure out how to use them.
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OMG, this is just a bit too close to home! I can really feel for you, RZ. You’ll do fine after you get past this little slump. Life is going to bounce you around like a pin ball machine (Google it or something). It really doesn’t matter what you majored in – a lot of us didn’t end up doing that for long anyway. One thing leads you to another, so just do some networking and you’ll find your first career. You seem to shift gears fairly easily, and you’re interested in a lot of things. You might want to work on your “stick-to-it-ivness”, but you’ll find your first career and have that one for however long it lasts, and then the next one will come along…
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Bingo, BiR.
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Morning all. I’m stuck inside this morning (9 hours of yard work yesterday, a couple of hours of it in the rain). Probably just as well, since EVERY part of my body hurts right now.
When I was in high school, I wanted to be an interpreter. Unfortunately in my junior year I saw the movie “Charade” in which Audrey Hepburn plays a simultaneous interpreter at the UN (or some such organization). I took one look at that little beige cube that she had to sit in and listed to the kind of stuff she was translating. Ick. Now that I’m older, I know there are lots more ways to be an interpreter, but at the time, it was a career-sourer.
But when I went off to college, I didn’t really make a good connection between an education and what I could do with it after college. My plan was sociology/anthropology, but in my sophomore year I discovered that the department’s best prof would be on sabbatical for two years and my second favorite prof would be gone my senior year. Changed to English. My oh my… what does ANYONE with an English major from Carleton do, except go to graduate school?
Of course, all turned out to be moot, since I couldn’t stand Carleton and didn’t graduate from college until a good 15 years+ later. Equally useless degree from Metro State (BA in Liberal Studies w/ a minor in Asian History) but I already had a job that I loved by then!
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Oh, and happy birthday (next week) Robert Z!
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24th isnt it?
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When Dale creates characters writing to Dr. Babooner, he has a gift for creating immature jerks who instantly lose my sympathy. This time is more complicated. He has created an immature jerk who is exactly like me. I’m the last person to offer wisdom on this topic. All I know for sure is that “going with the flow” on a career is a p*** poor strategy, and boy do I have proof!
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I know you don’t think so, but I’m amazed at what you’ve done in your life. And I have a copy of one of your books to prove it!
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Awww, you’re sweet. I’d like to give you a book in thanks, but you don’t need two wolf books. Hell, you didn’t need one!
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i think dale just answers his mail bag. the fact thats he attract immature jerks is getting a little personal there steve. i have other items of proof that we all have a way to go but usually it is just personal quirkiness not immaturity. its interesting to be at this point in our lives. we dont get many pups here, we have some good perspectives on what to and what not to do in the great journey we all begin just a little bit before our teeth. to realize what you have to do with the remaining is a more interesting question to me than how did i mess it up. if my wrong decisions were to disappear form the face of the earth without ever being brought up again that would be ok but it usually is a great model on how not to live for all to see.
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Rise and Grab an Umbrella Baboons!
Wow–2 inches of rain since I crawled out of bed an hour and a half ago. I think I will be a meteorologist when I grow up.
Meanwhile, RZ, I thought until several years ago, that perhaps working for Public Radio might provide the Perfect Career Path, without money, expectations, or stress. Then PR became the establishment and all those expectations and problems became evident. My son, who was always bright and college bound, got bored with the entire college thing, therefore became the permanent U of M senior with no degree but so many job skills on a computer that it does not matter.
So, nearly 40 years after getting my B.S., I can’t help you with your selection of the Perfect Career Path, nor the preparation for it. Sherilee’s Carleton English Degree might just give you all you need. And RZDylan appears to have done quite well, becoming a non-degreed cultural icon and all that.
Best Wishes as you travel the eternal path to where ever you are.
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Dale, today’s post is priceless. Son just graduated with a MS in Counseling and student affairs, much like “awesome Jeremy” named above, and is now trying to figure out where he wants to work and apply for positions. I woke up this morning to hear husband and son discussing educational philosophy. I love the St. Capricious Windsocks. Husband and son were delighted when I read the post to them.
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“I could design my own degree in Communobiological Chemfinancial Emotivity.”…………..This has to be about my favorite laugh line of all time, Dale!! My two sons both got double-majors at the U of M and have gone on to the 1% club; one is a capitalist piglet (not my fault!), the other an entrepreneur in whole-house renovations. I’ve always thought that the fact that I reared them in near-poverty conditions inspired extreme industriousness. My firstborn got his law degree, joined a law firm, then went on to work for the wealthiest CEO in the state, Bill McGuire of United Heath Group. Being a clinical social worker myself, our values simply couldn’t be more opposite!
My now 46-year old daughter has struggled. She was married to a man who made a lot of money, but five kids and a divorce ten years ago left her in an untenable financial position. She owns and runs a 93-horse boarding ranch near Medina and arises every morning at 3AM to clean stalls, fill water buckets, and bail hay. This kind of business lurches from one crisis to another weekly and barely covers her overhead. Amazingly, she has now begun taking pre-nursing courses and hopes to become a nurse by her mid-fifties. She had taken 70 college credits over the years, but only 9 were recent enough to transfer into the University. The whole family is rooting for her determination and courage to secure a profession at this age.
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Well described!
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Morning all. I was thinking about this topic some more while I was working in the yard yesterday (after the rain stopped). Teenager is graduating in just 2 weeks — wow, where did that time go? Anyway, unlike her mother, Teenager is interested in studying a field that will lead to jobs that already exist; she won’t have to come up with a job to match her degree – nursing. Woot!
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Well, duh…. took me long enough….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7WTW-8RhR4
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It was worth the wait!!
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I sometimes feel like the poster child for where a weird liberal arts degree can take you. I was a double-major in theater and cultural anthropology (with lots of studio art, but not the right distribution for a minor). The anthropology came about after realizing I didn’t want the Russian major I had planned on when I selected my college. Where has this taken me? From a student loan claims department, through an educational non-profit, into technical writing and web content and now into the wild and wooly arena of site search. The analysis I find myself doing now is not unlike ethnographic interviewing – it’s just that I have to ask the questions of a bunch of data and not live human beings. Like in anthropology, I don’t know where those questions will lead, I just have to listen an pay attention to patterns and clues to know what to ask next. If I do my job well, all that really comes of it is that our customers find what they are looking for more easily when they use that little “search” box at the top of the web page…pretty invisible, but darn cool when you get under the hood.
So RZ – a degree in many things can prepare you for lots of skipping around. By my count, I am on career #4 or #5, depending on how you tally it up – well on my way to the current average (if memory serves) of 7 careers before retirement that is common in my generation. I think it used to be five and they bumped that number up a couple years ago. Mind you, that’s careers – not just job changes in the same field. When folks ask you about the degree, just tell them you had fun learning and now you are prepared for a job in a variety of fields without having to go back to school to re-train.
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