Sad... but true

So from my experiences all I can say is be patient and be positive, make friends and be courteous everywhere you go. Most of the time a great job depends on who you know, or you have to be in the right place at the right time. Education's worth squat if positions are filled, there's the line right over there. You need to be confident and have people remember you, these people need to need you. I started getting to know people at my present workplace from my old contractor job, and they decided to like me. They even created a work position just for me, so I'm saying anything's possible, man. We all start with our tallywackers in the dirt, yo. Just concentrate on that climb.

Thats basically the route I'm taking with my current job. Learning what I can, helping where I can see help is needed, making people laugh and thanking them for their help when the give it to me. I have already screwed up twice on this job and have been told by others that they have seen people fired for less, but I have not even been given a written yet. The managers seem to like me as I show up every day, on time, and wanting to work and get the job done. I hope this will pay off and get me some where.

Right, and this is so critical! After the military I was really obsessed with never being late. I had no idea how rare it was in the real world for employees to show up on time. I'm always there at least 20 minutes early. You need to give yourself extra time in case something comes up. People remember who shows up on time, it's a sign of who's reliable, trustworthy. It matters! Don't test this theory by being late, BTW.

I wont, luckily I am within walking distance of my job (probably 1 - 1.5 miles) I'm usually there 10 min early and clock in 5 min early (they allow and recommend you do so). The big problem with my job seems to be call outs. They've called me in once before and I told my managers and my HR when I called her back (I was in the middle of my wifes doctor visit and couldnt leave) that if they ever need a fill in to call me.

Indeed.

As someone who's found their major a bit late(that's right, I'm going to be a fifth year student! Woo hooo...), here's my advice:

Be completely honest with yourself about what you want, and what your major will be like. If you're only interested in a bigger paycheck, just go with whatever floats your boat. Hell, a community college vocational-type degree(like Engineering) would probably be the best bet: go through 2 years of learning, and hopefully get a decent job right away.

If you find a particular subject interesting and want to study it...go ahead. Just don't be surprised if it doesn't necessarily leave you bathing in $100 bills. More importantly, though, be honest about what that major is about, and if you're disliking the classes be honest about why.

The reason I'm going to be an undergrad for a while longer is because I was trying to pretend my English degree suited me. That it was just the teachers. It wasn't until I got out of community college that I realized...nope. I just frickin' HATE English as a major. I thought higher level courses would be more about how historical events or social atmospheres affected literature, that sort of stuff. Instead I found it was just more of the same. There was no magical reveal...it was just more classes focused even MORE on "close reading" of the text. Easy enough for me, but it never interested me or(frankly) made a bit of sense. Sounded like a bunch of people spouting BS.

That's when I looked at what I really found interesting, and wanted to study: I enjoy looking at the way society and culture affects not just literature, but language. I enjoy poems and stuff, but more because I find the language aspect amazing. The way that an author plays with syntax and semantics to create a sentence or pasage that it so beautiful. Finally, though I'm terrible at the "hard" sciences, I really like working with facts instead of just overanolyzing the significance of the word "gyre." I like feeling like I can compile a collection of data, and eke out some amazing fact from it. There's a tangibility there that was lacking in English.

Then I realized Linguistics was a thing. And I fell in love with it(especially Historical and Socio Linguistics, and Second Language Aquisition). It combined my love of language in general, with a tangable sense of learning and applying facts.

So yeah...really be sure to dig deep into what you truly enjoy.

Oh, and do be sure to take advantage of the variety of classes that are offered, if it doesn't put you out too much(it shouldn't, considering most school have an Electives requirement for general education).

As network admin, when they complain you just threaten to take away http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg

Exactly how I felt about Creative Writing.

The first I took was focused on fictional prose. I loved it. The professor was fantastic, and realistic. I wrote some really good stuff. I got into the second level the next semester (which was hard for a first year).

The second level was horrible. It was a joint poetry and prose course. Apparently that attracts all the artsy folk. The professor was a poetry writer and a sort of super-hippie. Almost everything I read for the course, either assigned or by other students, was drenched in pretension. It was all meaningless until the writer defined its meaning. The only other student I consistently liked wrote campy cliche horror and monster stories. He wasn't trying to hide behind layers of esoteric meaning.

That course svcked all the motivation out of me. I didn't write anything good. I haven't written much of anything fictional since. Just snippets here or there, lines of poems or dialogue I find evocative. They just sit unused in a text file.

That's why I only tentatively recommend it. Courses like this depend on the professor and the atmosphere in the classroom.

I missed this bit, and this is exactly what I'm afraid of. At least if I'm doing it for friends and family and not charging them a dime then they cant be mad I screw they're computer up. They get what they pay for . I also Have a friend that should have graduated as a IT specialist but his school screwed him out of his degree, and I go to him when I'm stumped and cant find a clear answer on Google, Tom's Hardware, or Youtube.

I'm now thinking about Philosophy and writing. I am taking a break from writing but I am always thinking of stories and concepts and it would be good to get back into it.

That svcks. The first course sounds like something I would love, the second one I think I could get by with, also I would see how much I could bs them

I'm glad I'm not the only one who had this dilemma.

I went to college because it just seemed like what you're *supposed* to do after highschool, but had no idea what to major in. I ended up completing my basics, changed my major three times, then ultimately dropped out due to anti-depressants.

And now I have loans to pay.

I'd suggest science/engineering, IT, or business (including things like finance)...even if you don't know exactly what you want to do yet. Most of the people I know that got art, writing/journalism, or literature degrees ended up doing the same types of jobs they would have done without a degree...except with student loans to pay off. Not trying to crush any dreams, but I'd say that even if you want to be a writer you're better off with a business degree (or something else with a straight-forward, practical application) if you want to make sure your degree is going to be a good return on the investment.

I guess it really depends on whether you'd like to get a degree for the sake of being educated or if you want it to give you a more reliable route to a steady income. To make a degree without a straight-forward application work for you you've got to be lucky, connected, or be a really strong self-starter (i.e., motivated to sell yourself and work to create networks that you can tap for an income). In other words, there's nothing wrong with a degree in creative writing...just don't expect to put your resume up on Monster.com and start getting bites right away. Your resume is going to end up being more important than your degree once you have a solid work history in a certain field, but at first it does help if your degree is relevant to the work...and that there is work available in that field.

Take it from me and a generally accepted facts of the higher education system and American job market:

We need more engineers. Engineering (along side R&D) literally drives progress in almost every facet. We are falling behind other countries all around the world in this field. Mainly because we actually have competition from both Europe and Asia (post WWII, most of our competition was rebuilding for years, if not decades, because their infrastructure was blown up...by us mostly). They've caught up, we've fallen behind. You can't get a job anymore for 30 years making refridgerators in this country so we need to drive progress to stay ahead.

I will warn you though, getting an engineering degree (bachelors and even associates) is among the hardest, if not the hardest, degrees to get. The amount of math you need to learn is staggering.

It is worth the challenge though, being an engineer you will always be in demand. You want something to pay the bills? There ya go.