Hopefully will get a few good responses through the flames.

And no, the most I want from poker is vacation/spending money, not a career.


I'm 23, just under a year out of college. BA, Poli Sci with minor in Econ.

Currently doing advertising. I hate it, not making much money, etc.


Career I want (generalities): Interesting, good money, purpose (which I have a hard time getting out of anything that's purely "business).

What's going for me: Good leadership experience, some managment experience already, well-spoken, groomed, educated, etc.

What's holding me back: I also soccer referee seriously, and the area I live in is one of the best in the country to pursue that to its peak, which I'm not sure I want to pursue but it's definitely an option (it's like football refereeing, you can't go "pro", more of a weekend gig). Also:

9k car debt. 23k in school debt. 4k in cc debt.

Suggestions?

I've thought about teaching/becoming a principal seriously, pursuing a grad degree and professoring (but I have few options for references to get into grad school), pursing a second bachelor's on my company's dime to get a PR degree, or possibly TP/MM for while to knock down the debt. Also thought about becoming an officer in the military for a few years.

I've been in this area for 6 years, the longest stint of living in one place during my life, and have my closest friends here..but one has to not make life decisions based on that alone.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay off your topic, but.....

How was the Pittsburgh trip?

sounds like you want a well-paying job but don't really want to work an office job? Is that what you meant by not getting anything out of a "business" job?

That's probably not going to be easy, maybe sales could get you out of the office if you're good at that type of job.

You have a Political Science degree with a minor in Economics, you live in close (enough) proximity to Washington D.C, and you work in advertising? Why?

Go work for one of the hundreds of lobbyist firms on the Beltway or in DC, those people get paid crazy money. Do consulting work, those people get paid crazy money. Work at the Capitol Building as a page or something, they get paid shit but it's a start.

Unless you're completely disenfranchised with politics, in which case you'll have to use your degree for the only other thing it's really suited for. Teaching Political Science.

I agree: Taking it up the *** and sucking **** for a living is mobney in the bank.

FYP

The Army can be a great option, but it would be disastrous in his case.

I am in the same boat as you...I have been out of school for 2 years, I am 24 and work in an accounting firm, I hate it.

I decided not too long ago that it really isnt all about the money..except when it comes to poker...

so I am going back to school to get "qualified" to do what I love, which is make/record/produce music...

I suggest that if you really don't like it truely pursue what you love and are interested in...you only have so much time here, might as well make the best of it.

hmm there are alot of accountants here

Yeah, I feel you man.

How are you financing school? Are you going PT and working yourself through it?

Be all you can be, in the army.

Sunday evening, honestly ask yourself if you are feeling good about going into work in the morning.

If the answer is an insta-HELLLLLLNO!, then dude, you need to do something else with your life. And be realistic, but don;t go to your grave with regrets.

Lifes too short. Chase your dreams now, especiallly while your still young and not too much in debt yet.

Look at it this way (and trust me on this)...

THIS IS MOST LIKELY THE ONLY CHANCE IN YOUR LIFE TO CHASE IT!

It only gets more complicated from here on!

gl.

I am in the same boat. I have Pols degree and it is useless. If you want my advice get a trade.

I went to school late -graduated last year and I am now thirty. The only jobs my degree get me are junior office positions - the kind I could have gotten with a high school diploma and a little hustle.

My younger brother is 27 and he went of his electrical ticket when he was twenty. Now he has his own company and he's making over 150k a year.

I might have the book smarts but he had the common sence.

Four simple words:

Start your own business.

You would be best off to do so while you are still young so you don't have the pressures of a family to deal with. I have a great paying job...for my area of the country my salary is higher than the mean family income. I can understand wanting to make more money since my first job had me making a whopping $24,600 a year...I have a Civil Engineering degree with a minor in mathematics and surveying mind you, but money shouldn't be your only driving factor. I may make great money at my current job, but it does leave something to be desired. Just find something you really want to do and start your own business with it. Being your own boss can be very rewarding, and the benefits you will gain from being your own boss will far outweigh the hardships that you will go through when you start out.

If you are consisdering teaching as a profession, I recommend becomming a sub first. See if it is something you like. There is an extreme shortage of teachers, especially in booming areas like Florida and Nevada. But please make sure it is something you are passionate about. We need great teachers for our kids, not people who become teachers because they get the summers off, etc.

Take some personality tests. Seriously. Sometimes there will be something listed and you will go... wow, I could really see myself doing that and it was something you never considered.




I have been my own boos and let me tell you, it is much harder than working for someone else.

You work long hours and depending on the type of business, you may rarely have any down time. I remember one night at 3 AM, my phone rings, I pick it up and it is the alarm. I wake up my husband who runs down to the shop. Some kids smashed the glass door and broke in. He had to stay there until the glass guy came out. I could not fall back asleep. Not only did we have to deal with the theft and everything associated with it, we still had to run our business that day. Granted, this was not an every day thing, but I could tell you several stories where the business interfered with our lives. In fact, the business is what really caused the most damage to our marraige.

Owning your own business does have lots of advantages and there are some good things. But if you go that route, make sure you have a burning passion for being self employed.

I really don't want to be an asshole, but seriously.

I am one of those people. I'm 27, in no hurry to get married, and a passion to want more than what I already have. I'm not greedy, I just don't want to sell myself short like I seen so many of my family members and friends do. I have a terrific job, with outstanding benefits, and I have been there for 7 months now. However I am looking for something different already. Many people have made a career doing what I am doing now and making salaries in the six-figures while they're at it, but I want something more. I can't explain it...it's just the way I am.

You're a 23-year-old Republican, man! The GOP salivates over nits like you. Get in there and kiss some assing.

Turd, you do not "waste" your degree. First of all, I got my degree for free, and I got a good paying job RIGHT out of college. It was just an option for him. Some people do the army to buy them a few years to figure out what they want, then, do their 4 years and maybe even end up liking it. He may find something that interests him and end up doing it. It's called a suggestion.

Bump.

Heavily leaning toward the Army now.

Been talking with them, they put in writing I would make $36K while in training, $60K when out of OCS.

I just have to decide on what I want to start off doing while I'm in. If I do combat stuff I'll switch to Public Affairs after a while. I want to do something where if there's an invasion or something I'm in, but would prefer not to sit somewhere outside the US, participating in an occupation.

Bah. This is a big, big change...and of course I've gotten involved with a woman recently...

What other interests do you have? What makes you happy?

I mean if I was in my early 20's again with no wife or kids I'd find something that allowed me to travel. Havingsaid that many traveling jobs suck 3 a$$es!

Do you want a job with a lot of fleibility? How important is money?

I was kind of mean when I posted earlier, and I'm sorry about that, but in all seriousness, I think you could do well in Washington. You're passionate about your political leanings, and you're young. You could easily find a job in the GOP. Have you considered it?

But yeah, you should do whatever you can to dump the debt asap.

I was in the USAF for 6 years. It was the best thing I ever did. But you're already ahead of the game with your degree.

I would pick a job that you think will help you in the long run. If you like to travel and you will soon love to travel if you get married.

jk


Anyway, some jobs that travel suck because you go to your destination, get your crew rest, then head back home. So you get to see the whole world....or at least the all the worlds runways.

I had a good job in that regard. It wasn't much good for my future (I was in fuels) but I got to travel to places like Hawaii (3 years), Germany (3 days), Italy (6 months), Korea (3 weeks), Japan (3 weeks), Australia(1 month) and many other places.

MK, your comments were taken lightheartedly. I agree that DC would be a good option, but I don't like the nitty-gritty political stuff..I either want to be a candidate eventually or do local politics/local gov. administration. Besides, life SUCKS for people in political support, and if I'm going to be doing those kind of hours, I might as well go to law school so at least I get paid to put in the hours.

I might consider staying in my current job if I got paid a lot more, but i'm really being paid dck right now. I may get a raise during my annual review in June, and I would be staying to continue paying off debt and take advantage of the 75% tuition reimbursement.

I wouldn't go in until end of '06/beginning of '07...this is my first season getting to ref pro soccer games and I want to finish that out, and get a few free months with this girl if/when she moves down here at the end of the summer to start her teaching career.

I'm just so, so miserable doing what I am right now. I really, really need to feel like I'm doing something meaningful and good for my future. I would absolutely get my MPA or MA in the military, and get out before I'm 30. 30 seems so young to me now that I'm 23 and interact with people much older than that who are very vibrant...I feel that it may be the best way for me to go.

I have this complex where I feel I've been given some talent to really help people/the world out....so if I ever start sounding condescending on people who are super-happy doing civilian jobs right now, feel free to tell me to stfu. I wish I could be happy, really.

I totally know what you mean. But you can also help people in the military. I was in the Honor Guard (like the 21 gun salute at a funeral stuff), I did on base volunteer work at the skating rink, and volunteer work in Waikiki.

Makes you feel better about yourself when your face down in the toilet drunk.

phuck the army, the navy, the ymca, al of it. lets be honest, we shouldn't have military to begin with, (I'm not a hippy)

Go and sit down in the sun, with a case of beer, some tunes and bask!,

soak it up, and ask yourself, what makes you happy, how was your highschool life?,

did you live it the way you wanted too? If you're happy with the desicions you made even if they werent correct at the time, you should be happy with the ones you make now, and with that being said, if you dig deep enough, you'll find some true passions that you're searching for.

P.S. The grass is greener on the other side (but you can change that)

I am glad that I chose computer science. My job is very stable and it pays well. I have quite some spare times at work to visit forums, learn poker, trade funds, etc.

I know there are quite some people who have double majors in finance and computer science, and they all make over 6 figure income in finance software industry.

My point is, if your major doesn't make you money, try another one in your spare times. Just like poker, I got frustrated in nlh and turned into plo8 where I developed my skills, now I am comfortable in playing plo8, plo, nlh (again), and tournies.

If I were you I would just find a job that will pay for my another degree. I initially worked on my economy degree for 3 years but I didn't feel like I could find a decent job. I ended up working at MCI as a fcking customer service listening to customers' complaining days after days while switching and finishing my CS degree.

I don't know much about political science so I can't comment on that.

But about your low paying job, you can always find a new job and get your salary raised (I don't know about your career, but for me as a software developer, I started my first job with 48k, then I got another job with 60, then and then... you got the idea).

Anyway other good and simple alternatives could be pharmacist and nurse. If you don't mind, and I am serious, you can be a truck driver and make good money, especially after you've saved enough to have your own truck (or loan)and start your own business.

Take a look at today's hot jobs. http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/03/pf/hotjobs/ Just like poker, it's not about what you like to do, it's what you do that are +EV.

Your other alternatives, of course, includes but not limited to TP/MM.

FINALLY!!!!!

Jac, assuming your folks helped out on your first degree, did you feel excessively guilty for not using it?

Gambling lobbyist.

I just read some news recently. There was this guy who went to the army and had the army pay for his bachelor and master degrees. He's working for the army now and he's making about 50k per year as some kind of technician PLUS $1500/month housing allowances AND the housing allowances are tax-free. He only needs to work a few more years then he can retire and have the army pension which will be equal to half of his latest salary, and he can work in the commercial industry by then.

So yeah I think you can go to the army/navy whatever for a few years, get some more degrees and get an army job. With your political science and army back ground after you retire, you may be able to make some serious money. For exmple, you can work in the defense industry as a lobbyist or some sht like that.

Go army go!

Just don't die in Iraq.

Fck me.

tp/mm for a while if your good enough and hey, it might be good for a few years.

My standard advice is look if cu in 4years Dan has posted in your thread and do the opposite of whatever he said.

I have a crush on you, brv.

I have recently struggled with what I want to do, and I think I am going to go to tech school and get an HVAC certification.

money really isn't that important to me. I really want to be able to do something no matter where I live. And I hate office politics. Also here in Boston I can make some cash.

Economics degree has gotten me no where.

That's cool, there are always a ton of HVAC jobs around here. Wish I could do something with my econ background.

**** I hate this kid..

Let me tell you about how I stumbled upon my current job/career...I think it might be for you. A preface about where I was before I got to where I am (skip to last 2 paragraphs if you don't care - but OP I think you should see if you are in the same spotI was at):

Right out of college, I got an IT job with a small local Point of Sales company (Aloha - you will see it in restaurants if you pay attention). I started at 28K as a bench technician. Worked my way up to project manager at around 45K in under 2 years. Pretty good start, but you know what? I hated it. I hated having to fill in for morons on help desk, I hated being On Call overnight, I hated the moronic restaurant managers that practically want the Aloha system to run the place for them (doesn't work like that chief!). So I quit that job, with nothing else lined up. Plenty of savings, but absolutely no clue where to go from there. All I knew was, I hated the 9-5 office grind.

Fast forward a bit, Me and my fiance decide to move to a new place (Raleigh) and I begin my job search. Well I end up interviewing with a small business owner, for a Staffing firm. He was looking for an entrepreneur like guy to be an IT recruiter. Well I was sold on it right away, let me tell you about the life as a recruiter(headhunter) for me.

As a recruiter, I work 100% from home. They bought me a laptop and a cell phone, I do go to my bosses home office once a week for a meeting, but 100% of my work is done from MY LIVING ROOM COUCH. I am paid a meager 25K base salary - with most of my money expected to come from commission. I won't go into the extensive details of how the commissions work - but let me say it is a field in which you can make a lot of money if you put the time/effort in. The job is mostly e-mails and phone calls. Searching resume databases, websites etc. It isn't hard by any means.

I can tell you more about it if you have any questions, but if you are self motivated to do hard work towards your own success, this could be the job for you. Note: The bigger companies might not be down with the work at home stuff, but you are still on your own for the most part once you are trained. I highly recommend it.

(I think this was my longest post ever)