A new start

Anything to do with the traditional world of get a degree, get a job as well as its alternatives
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stoneage
Posts: 132
Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2013 4:24 am

A new start

Post by stoneage »

Or should I say a few new starts ?

I love learning and have always dreamed about many career paths : electronic music instrument designer, architect, construction engineer (my current job), agriculture, restaurant...

Now that I realize life is too short to do all these things, I decided to follow as much paths as I can without losing track.
- I have started my own structural engineering business on january 2013.
- I am now designing my first hardware sequencer since sept 2013
- I plan to apply to an architecture degree (every other week end for 5 years) next year, and will work part time for an architect starting on november 2013
- I started gardening and do not plan on getting into agriculture (too lazy for it)
- I save restaurant for later.

What do you think about it ? Is it the best way to fail everything ? Do you know people like me or are you like me ?

EdithKeeler
Posts: 1099
Joined: Sun Sep 01, 2013 7:55 pm

Re: A new start

Post by EdithKeeler »

What do you think about it ? Is it the best way to fail everything ? Do you know people like me or are you like me ?


I'm a little bit like you. I once went to a career counselor when I was looking to change careers, and she gave me a test that was supposed to measure career interests. When the results were back, she said "I'm not sure I can help you. According to this, you scored equally high as being interested in being an astronomer, a clergyperson, a forest ranger, and medical doctor."

However, I've found that, for me, having multiple things going on at one time is a recipe for my starting to feel overwhelmed and dropping everything. These days I'm less interested in things that will be "jobs," and more interested in learning things just because I enjoy them.

For example, I love to cook, and I'm pretty good at it. I have a friend that says all the time I should have a restaurant. I know myself well enough to know that if I owned a restaurant, that would take all the joy out of cooking for me. It's too many hours, I'd have no time for anything else, and the things that I love about cooking (shopping for exactly the best ingredients, sharing a glass of wine in the kitchen with the friend with/for whom I'm cooking, talking about the cooking and eating experience, etc.) wouldn't be there if I had a restaurant.

stoneage
Posts: 132
Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2013 4:24 am

Re: A new start

Post by stoneage »

EdithKeeler wrote:However, I've found that, for me, having multiple things going on at one time is a recipe for my starting to feel overwhelmed and dropping everything. These days I'm less interested in things that will be "jobs," and more interested in learning things just because I enjoy them.
Having multiple things going on at the same time is quite a booster for me, even though I usually drop a few of them while finishing some. I tried to work one or two big projects at the time, and usually get bored. Variety is essential for me to get things going.

If I could work on things for free (passion vs job), I would do it now, but making money is a big issue for us right now, since my earnings are quite one the low side.

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