Career choices

[AestheticDeath]

Reading Edaarins thread about career choices made me think some more about what I want to do to get out of my current job. One of my main problems though, is not knowing what jobs are out there, and more importantly what those jobs entail.

So if anyone wants to chime in with what they do, what they had to get as far as schooling, and previous experience to get there, what the average pay is for such a job. And possibly most important, what work actually goes on with that job.

As an example, even though its a bad one as I heard this along time ago and don't remember everything. I was over at a friends house, when he got called to work(he drives a wrecker for his fathers towing/mechanic business) and I went along for the ride as I sometimes do.

The guy we picked up turned out to be very talkative. Throughout a half hour ride, he told us alot about his car - which was totally wrong as he knows nothing about automobiles, and alot about his career after I asked.

He said he was a pharmacist. He took alot of schooling to get there, and has a continuing education to keep up with the field, if I recall correctly. At one point I thought of a pharmacist as just counting pills and putting them in a bottle. Even knowing I was simplifying it a bit, I was surprised at how much he actually does.

From having to know exactly what is in each drug/pill.
What each of the ingrediants is and what it does to the human body
How they all react with each other, ingrediants of one pill, or more than one prescribed pill.
Obviously knowing the correct doses.
There were a few more things about the job I cant remember, but he went on to say he also goes to a retirement home, or something along those lines and administers medicine to the patients in that place.
He also basically runs the pharmacy he works in, even though its within another store. So he takes care of the other employees, and all that stuff.
Oh and he teaches seminars, and of course all the upcoming pharmacists he hires to help him out.

Now I am not sure what he does is the typical job description for a pharmacist, but it seemed to me, he was more of a doctor and business manager. And I dont recall specifics, but when I looked it up back then, it was paying something like 90k, and required more than 4 years of college, for some reason i have like 7-10 years stuck in my head.

[StrayRogue]

Well, in my experience and in my field(s), I have found out the hard way that experience trumps higher education. While I could never say that specific degrees or qualifications are NOT required for specific careers (buisness, law, medicine etc), and that education/university isn't the funnest time you'll probably ever have, I'd also never say it is a necessity.

[Sean]

Currently I'm a Project Manager for an Architectural firm while I do my IDP to get my license. Because of the licensing requirements I did 5 years at school to get my BArch, although in some states like NY you can get your license with a BS or a High School degree it just takes significantly longer. I'm not sure I'll ever actually get my license because I'm not really that motivated to open my own firm but I'll atleast do the work towards it because you never know when you might change your mind and I'd like something to fall back on. Right now for the most part I work on commercial/industrial projects because thats what my firm specializes in but we do some residential work sometimes too.

Eventually I want to end up in NYC(or some other major Metropolitan area like DC, Philly, Boston.. something east coast) which means i'll have to adjust to doing more interior based projects than complete builds so I don't see myself here forever and eventually I'll have to learn another approach to Architecture.

A lot of my friends chose to work at larger mega firms because they like competition work and doing museum gallery spaces. I however took the 15-20k paycut from that to work at a small/medium firm and do work that I enjoy more (things that will actually be built sometime this decade) and where the learning experience is better and I've never regret it.

[ElanthianSiren]

I'm going for a master's in biotechnology and genetic research. Originally, I was a biology major, so it took me a little time to figure what I wanted and time for the field to grow enough to specialize in it.

It encompasses quite a bit, but my focus is curing autoimmune disorders (I have juvenile diabetes) hopefully. I want to specialize in stem cell research, so I'm looking for auxillary courses to take to sell myself on that. There are some places where you can get a master's degree in this field in 5 years. PSU is one (Portland State University), and JHU (Johns Hopkins).

I think the pay starts over 100g a year, but I can't say I've looked extensively. I'm sure it depends where you are and who you're working for too.

-M
currently, I'm pretty lucrative trading stocks (80% hit each month -- 1.00 min per play).

[Jahira]

I am a 4th pharmacy major now. Phamarcy schools now recquire you get a Doctorate of Pharmacy which is a 6 year program. 5 years of schooling and 1 year of rotations(sorta like a residency).

There are tons of things you can do with the degree. You can work at a retail chain (and make about 90-100gs). You can work at a hospital (50-70gs I think but you get to use your knowledge more clinically and don't have to deal with the public), you can work for drug companies, you can go into academia.....etc.

Find something you like, find something that interests you. I love pharmacy so 6 years doesn't bother me one bit.