Career paths?

[Slowhand]

If this had been asked 2 or 3 years ago in Canada you'd have gotten a 3 page thread about the evils and worthlessness of college, college degrees, and the kind of people who have the audacity to attend college. There's some good advice in this thread, though.

It's actually not. I never said mechanic. If I would do anything with cars it would be the performance/engineering side. People have to design the next vortech supercharger. I like the idea of law and I have a guranteed 60k a year job right out of school working for my dad.

Law school isn't cheap or easy enough to only net you $60k coming out of school. It's not exactly rocket science, but it's a shitload of motherfucking work and a giant time commitment. It's good that you'd have somewhere to go, especially with the state of the job market for JDs, but there are also greener pastures to be had.

If you do go the law route, I'd avoid going pre-law and getting a BA; liberal arts degrees are becoming increasingly useless without an accompanying graduate degree. Without one you can get some decent work in contract and labor/employment law and make a decent living, but your career options are fairly limited.

Just know that law school is totally doable without a poli sci/history pre-law degree; you can really do any number of degree plans and go the law route if you take the necessary pre-law coursework.

All of that said, I wouldn't go into college with a preordained degree goal unless you're really, really sure that that's what you want to do for a long time; I've watched a lot of friends waste a lot of time and money before switching plans. In your first two years of school you'll have the opportunity to take a bazillion and a half courses and you'll probably find something that just clicks for you.

I'm of the opinion that, for the most part, the only people who haven't figured out where they're headed after their sophomore year are people who aren't taking school seriously or just don't belong in college for a variety of reasons; the third possibility is someone who had a goal set in stone when they got to college and got too deep into that degree plan before something happened that made it not work out for them. I think you're a lot more likely to waste time if you have your mind made up going in than if you go in with an open mind.

Cliff notes: have an open mind on college, from where you go to what you study and the shit you do. It'll be a lot more fun that way.

But I'm about to wrap up a BBA in accounting and begin working on a Masters degree in it, so I've clearly made a few hundred mistakes to this point in my collegiate career and I'm apparently content to keep making them; it's probably best to ignore what I say.

[Sean88gt]

I don't follow your logic. Granted, I'm not an attorney nor do I have a JD, but it seems to me that if you were an idiot you wouldn't have gotten into law school in the first place much less passed, but I could be wrong?

Kids that are pro's at test taking and making themselves look good can get into law school, go through it, graduate and are still seriously lacking in common sense and non-school related intelligence. They are educated idiots. Often times they won't specialize and graduate with a general law degree and are set loose into a heavily crowded market trying to find other general positions.

[Pro88LX]

I like the idea of law and I have a guranteed 60k a year job right out of school working for my dad.

sounds like a no brainer. He will need someone to take over when he retires as well

[Cobraman]

I think this speaks to his age and lack of experience. It's a pretty wide gap in options.

It's actually not. I never said mechanic. If I would do anything with cars it would be the performance/engineering side. People have to design the next vortech supercharger. I like the idea of law and I have a guranteed 60k a year job right out of school working for my dad.

[Ruffdaddy]

I don't totally disagree with you, but goals change. I dropped out of college at 20 to chase $. And by all accounts I succeeded. Then I changed directions.
To make a determination at 18 that will follow you the rest of your life without knowing firmly what you want to do will always leave questions. In this kid's case, if he goes law, he better damn well be certain that he has a love for law and his idea of justice over any conceptions of money, fame, jets, fast cars, etc. Can he make a better than average....

I agree with this. I have purposely maintained that I don't know which field of law I want to go into. I have time to decide and dabble in courses before I choose a direction.

My whole point isn't that he has to decide what he wants to do with the REST if his life now, but to at least focus on something. That's way better than lolligagging or getting a bull shut degree.

I can easily go a management route with the masters I'm getting. Or I can get a law degree and be highly valuable as an ip lawyer with engineeringexperience.

School doesn't teach you what you want to do...the real world does.

[Mike]

I used a fake resume to get my career going.

[The King]

Mechanical or Electrical Engineer

...or environmental engineer

....or choo-choo train engineer

[Rreemo]

Mechanical or Electrical Engineer

...or environmental engineer

[The King]

Choose a career as a bureaucrat or union rep.

[BERNIE MOSFET]

If math is a strength of yours and you have an affinity for technical things, an engineering degree is a solid choice that will open up many career avenues later on down the road. The degree itself doesn't mean you'll work in engineering for the rest of your life, but it's a great foundation to kick off from. As has been said, an undergraduate engineering degree can easily translate into law school, and is a good degree to bail out with if law isn't the direction you want to go later on.

You will probably change directions many times in your life, so don't be afraid to go down the "wrong" path. Pick something that interests you now, even if a only a little, and move in that direction. Knowledge and experience always carries over, especially when you put forth real effort into learning what you are doing - even if what you are doing is not learning, if that makes sense.

The only time wasted is time spent hoping to stumble upon the silver bullet for the rest of your life. You can't possibly guess what your future holds, so pick something definitive and see what comes of it.

[SlowLX]

I don't follow your logic. Granted, I'm not an attorney nor do I have a JD, but it seems to me that if you were an idiot you wouldn't have gotten into law school in the first place much less passed, but I could be wrong?

I did just ok on the LSAT in my eyes and had a decent GPA from a state school and I could have gotten into most any law school from about #20 on down and possibly into some of the teens. You don't have to be that smart to get into law school, just good at test taking and making your resume look like a polished turd.

[SlowLX]

It's getting pretty Muslim over there.

Nah you're thinking too far West. Something like 95% of the Muslim population of Oceania resides in Australia, NZ, and New Guinea. Out of a population of 200,000 or so in French Polynesia you'd be looking at a max of maybe 200-300 terrorists in the entire territory. Despite France being a bastion of surrender, it's overseas districts have always seemed pretty good at maintaining their own status quo.

[SVTNorthTexas]

It appears to me that a lot of idiots who go to law school graduate idiots with a JD.

I don't follow your logic. Granted, I'm not an attorney nor do I have a JD, but it seems to me that if you were an idiot you wouldn't have gotten into law school in the first place much less passed, but I could be wrong?

[Denny]

It's getting pretty Muslim over there.

[SlowLX]

Oh, I've got options in the South Pacific. I'm just waiting to see if this pans out. If it does, then I'll start exercising them.

Polynesia would be pretty choice if you don't mind learning French.