Thursday, August 28, 2008

vacation already

I need a vacation already and it's only the second day of my semester!

What the hell good is anthropology gonna do me anyway?

What did you guys major in and where do you work now? Help out a 30-year-old sophmore : )
Zach

11 comments:

mw said...

i knew i wanted to be an architect since 8th grade drafting class.

Cornbread said...

Dietetics in undergrad. Thirty females and one male (me) in my class. I liked the ratio just fine.

Exercise Physiology in grad school.

Currently working in sponsored clinical research, but really don't need my degrees to do this job. Just stumbled into it.

I knew at a young age that I wanted my job to be far down the list of priorities in my life, but still be able to help people in my occupation. Mission accomplished.

so said...

major film
work in film
love film
don't really need a film degree
but glad i have it
college was a time to experiment with crap
experiment with film
experiment with other crap
100% of all my jobs in film can be traced back to college friends
now the college friends are a strong network of people
college is kind of a good time out
so that is my 2 cents

sockrider said...

I went to college for 6 years for art/graphic design and didn't graduate. I learned how to create websites by sitting in my living room, staying up late and nerding out on the computer. Now I work as a Web Developer for a Dean's office at UNL. I still learned tons in college. Someday I hope to complete my last 9 credit hours, but it's math and science...yuk.

Anthropology will explain a lot of social structure and make you understand why some things in society are the way they are. I had a lot of 'ah ha' moments in Anthropology...when I went. I actually really enjoyed Anthropology.

And yes, get to know your classmates, I've given jobs to old classmates and gotten jobs through old classmates.

sda said...

i wanted to be an architect and went to school for it almost 3 years with mw. then i realized i sucked at it and got a degree (ba)in environmental studies. mostly sociology classes but some anthro. as well. plus classes in about 35 other departments at unl.

graduate school was a pretty straightforward endeavor (2 years, no whammies) and i came out with a masters in urban and regional planning (murp) and a more polished and marketable skill set. best thing about all that is that somehow none of that varied education went to waste - i still use a bunch of the stuff from architecture school (mostly the graphic communication aspects, some design, and the physics and calculus allows me to communicate with engineers better), and the environmental studies (emphasis in sociology) comes into play every day in my line of work - which is now as a regional transportation planner working with 16 different jurisdictions with very different perspectives.

my hunch is you are on the right path and that will become apparent at sometime down the road.

oh, and my gf has an anthropology degree (bachelors and is close to completing her masters) and she has one of the coolest jobs in the world - a district archeologist for the medicine bow/routt natinoal forest!!

chicks in forest service outfits that have fire-training are hot, by the way.

mw said...

comments on the few comment site!

i wanna hear responses from kw and mg and mk!

len said...

bs in geology and a ms in hydrogeology. knew i wanted to be involved in the earth sciences since i was probably 7 playing in the mountains and rivers of new hampshire.

work as a consultant doing a lot of surface water stuff that i studied a little in school, but have mostly taught myself on the job.

there are a lot of jobs dealing with water and there will be a lot more to come. jobs will be there for the scientists, engineers, and the policy makers. the policy side of things is real cool and i'd probably focus there if i could do it over again.

good luck, network with the classmates, and man college sure is fun.

Anonymous said...

B.S in Ag Science.

I use my education everyday. (Espcially the wreading and writtting part.)

It's totally worth every paper and late night session and hopefully develops into a lifetime of learning about what is around you and how you fit into the whole dynamic of the cosmos.

[mk] said...

I have a management degree from UN-L. About all I managed to do was skip class and party.

I'm a self-taught web developer, working full-time for "the man" as well as doing a lot of freelance projects for some really cool small businesses.

MG said...

oh, man... where to start? the first thing i remember wanting to be as a young child, is a pilot. i've always wanted to fly. in high school, i gave pretty serious consideration to going into the military so that i could follow my dreams of becoming a pilot.

then, i wanted to be a farmer because my grandpa was my hero and tractors were my favorite things in the world... specifically, big, red International Harvester tractors. those were the best. ironically, i could have easily been a farmer, as my mom's side of the family owns a pretty decent sized farm in northern platte county, so i guess if i ever decide to give up on my current profession, i could always make the move, 'eh? perhaps???

by high school, i'd found motorcycles, so of course i wanted to be the next rick johnson. this is where i entered what i'll call my 'period of irrationality.' it was the period of my life where my wants in no way met up with anything i was doing in my life to prepare myself to achieve that end. and so that dream never happened.

I fell into marketing and PR basically out of the need to "figure out what I was going to do with my life." I can't honestly say that I'm particularly passionate about marketing or public relations, but I can say that I understand both disciplines, the difference between the two and I'm good at what I do. There's something to be said for that.

The freelance writing I've done has at times been a little more personally fulfilling, but in many ways, I hate to say it but my profession is one driven more by the need to earn a living than it is by passion for what I do, and trust me, that's a sore spot for me. I pine over it endlessly, because I know I have to find a way to do what I do with something I'm passionate about. The problem is, jobs like that are few and far between, and quite frankly, I haven't found the right opportunity yet.

So yeah, I wonder what I'll want to do when I grow up???

-kw said...

In high school, it was my dream to work at McDonald's. I dressed buns (heehee), flipped burgers, and deep fried dessert pies, French fries and Chicken Nuggets. I cleaned everything that got dirty. I ran the cash register out front and in the drive-thru. I also made well-shaped ice cream cones.
Everything I've done since then has been a bonus.