College Majors

[Veni Vidi Pimpi]

I agree with what many have said. Succinctly,

1) You need a foreign language. Even Spanish. Between Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese, and Russian I don't see you going wrong. But remember as my college adviser, told me: learning a language is like being pregnant, it has to be all or nothing. So put your heart into it. Also, many languages have proficiency tests you can pass and put on your resume like the HSK (Mandarin Chinese), DELE (Spanish), CELPE (Brazilian Portuguese).

I would say learn one well rather than two half assed. Languages take time. Learning one involves doing coursework, getting a language partner at school (do this), watching TV shows and reading newspapers from the country.

And if you do Chinese or Arabic please learn to read/write. Otherwise you don't really 'know' it.

2) I would say you need to involve business in your major. If you have a pet interest you can double major or minor. I did business major and physics double major and the business assured I had a job. What you need to do is see what is PRACTICAL out there.

3) If you decide on a field, join the industry association and begin subscribing to trade magazines, writing professionals for advice etc. This is how you get to the know in a field rather than just saying 'I want to be X'.

4) Trade school and college ARE NOT mutually exclusive. I took a machine shop class in college which was one of the best decisions I ever made. If there is a local community college you can perhaps take one night class a semester. Especially if you are looking at industry, understanding machining or manufacturing planning will be essential.

5) gmanifesto is right: long term owning your own thing is the way to go but there is nothing wrong with getting experience before you make the leap. You may get some good ideas too.

 

[Veni Vidi Pimpi]

Oh yeah, industry certifications (if available) give you a leg up in the market too as long as they don't require work experience.

 

[Vicious]

earn practical knowledge is more beneficial than certifications.

In practise, yes! I'm with you there, but unfortunately recruiters (especially in the US) tend to look for those certs and degrees.

If you work your own business however all that matters is merits, references and network. Titles don't mean nearly as much as a contractor.

 

[zoom]

I have a major (Master's degree) in Economics, with specialization in Information Management. While initially I had expected it to be a mediocre choice and full of boring cubicle work, so far the jobs I got from it are done from my laptop, highly creative and online. I am pleasantly surprised.

If I gather enough of those projects around, I might even manage to pull off a perma-travelling lifestyle, something of which I had never dared to dream.

Impressive. How did you manage to get the online work?

 

[boxer3]

Wow awesome thread!

What does everyone think about majoring in chemistry?

also is it possible to major in mech engineering and chem minor?

 

[Parlay44]

I like this thread; I am having qualms about my decision to double major in psychology and philosophy with a minor in economics. It's what I like to do but I've had some pretty big internal changes that steer me away from that direction, but I'm entering junior year, already. I wish I had cultivated my Chinese skill-set more, and I may have done business on the second go around. I'll have to work on connections.

Psychology at my school is a joke. My school is actually a laughing stock in and of itself.

If you want to do anything noteworthy with psychology you'll have to take it to the PHD level or double up with something that compliments it like law school.

Be careful choosing a lifelong career. A lot of work is market specific. meaning you may have to relocate in order to do what you went to school for.

The few jobs that allow you to live and work anywhere are Doctor, Lawyer, Teacher, Dentist ...etc. There's one of those in every town large or small.

If you're going to do something like Computer Science or Engineering you'll be limited to a few major cities or small industrial parks scattered around the shittiest(low-income) areas of the country.

Best advice is start your own business. It's the most flexible in terms of growth, money, free time. If you work it right you can have someone run it for you and you just collect your money.

Even more so you can them expand and start another business and hand that off too. Just sit back and collect and travel.

 

[Dash Global]

IT / Computer Science

Engineering

Finance

Health Field

 

[Menace]

Wow awesome thread!

What does everyone think about majoring in chemistry?

also is it possible to major in mech engineering and chem minor?

Don't do it. Pharma industry is shedding R&D scientists like snake skin. If you want to do chem + law, firms will not hire you unless you have a PhD. I'd do some kind of engineering maybe if you're actually interested in chemistry.

 

[Vicious]

I'm a mech engineer, the broadest of all engineering degrees. Loads of job opportunities, bunch of business related travel, good pay (though I have speciality niche certs that propel me). Best decision of my life.

 

[pitt]

Vicious so you also work offshore for the oil industry? It would have been nice if you also contributed on that oil industry topic and just give tips for new comers or people already in the industry.

 

[boxer3]

I'm a mech engineer, the broadest of all engineering degrees. Loads of job opportunities, bunch of business related travel, good pay (though I have speciality niche certs that propel me). Best decision of my life.

@ menace Thanks man,going to look into that.

@ Vicious That's good to know,what do you think about specializing in mechatronics or robotics? also if you don't mind can you explain the difference.Ive searched but people just keep rambling,and the question never gets answered.

Thanks man.

 

[Vicious]

Vicious so you also work offshore for the oil industry? It would have been nice if you also contributed on that oil industry topic and just give tips for new comers or people already in the industry.

I'm in the oil/gas industry yes, but not offshore so I'm afraid I can't contribute anything in that particular thread.


boxer3:

mechatronics = the seam between EE and Mech
robotics = automation

If you ask me, robotics is way too narrow. In engineering it's always best to go for the broadest topic within your given field. You'll have to adapt on-the-job anyhow. Tech that companies puts out in this day and age is way to niched to be taught in school.

 

[Parlay44]

If you want to do Engineering and travel try to look for field service positions. I've been all over the world fixing shit.

Past 5 years I've been to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Brazil and all over the US.

Get friendly with a recruiter/headhunter and they'll send you good job leads. They usually find you from Monster.com Careerbuilder.com ...etc.

 

[boxer3]

Vicious so you also work offshore for the oil industry? It would have been nice if you also contributed on that oil industry topic and just give tips for new comers or people already in the industry.

I'm in the oil/gas industry yes, but not offshore so I'm afraid I can't contribute anything in that particular thread.


boxer3:

mechatronics = the seam between EE and Mech
robotics = automation

If you ask me, robotics is way too narrow. In engineering it's always best to go for the broadest topic within your given field. You'll have to adapt on-the-job anyhow. Tech that companies puts out in this day and age is way to niched to be taught in school.

Clear and straight to the point,thanks again vicious.

think I'm going to go with mechatronics, wanted to minor in physics or finance just because I'm interested but dont want to use up more of my time when i might not benefit from it.

 

[velkrum]

pretty cool to see how you guys plan out your futures. I would love to open up a business over seas. I agree with everyone else that math or anything involving math won't ever go out of style.

 

[DeusLuxMeaEst]

Wow awesome thread!

What does everyone think about majoring in chemistry?

also is it possible to major in mech engineering and chem minor?

Don't do it. Pharma industry is shedding R&D scientists like snake skin. If you want to do chem + law, firms will not hire you unless you have a PhD. I'd do some kind of engineering maybe if you're actually interested in chemistry.

I think engineering is more safe, I did civil E.

 

[Screwston]

If you want to do Engineering and travel try to look for field service positions. I've been all over the world fixing shit.

Past 5 years I've been to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Brazil and all over the US.

Get friendly with a recruiter/headhunter and they'll send you good job leads. They usually find you from Monster.com Careerbuilder.com ...etc.

Parlay44 - can you break down your job a little bit more? That's great if you can travel like that.

 

[Parlay44]

If you want to do Engineering and travel try to look for field service positions. I've been all over the world fixing shit.

Past 5 years I've been to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Brazil and all over the US.

Get friendly with a recruiter/headhunter and they'll send you good job leads. They usually find you from Monster.com Careerbuilder.com ...etc.

Parlay44 - can you break down your job a little bit more? That's great if you can travel like that.

Sure man. Anything to help out.

My degree is a Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering Technology. I went to Devry. It's an accredited school. So it's an actual college degree not something you get from a basic "technical school".

I had 2 different jobs working with lasers.

First one was for a company that made 2 million dollar tools for the semiconductor industry. It was basically lasers and laser optics. The tools we built took about 4 months to complete from beginning to end. We had an optical alignment manual about as thick as a phone book.
The tools basically measured the thickness of the metal layers of semiconductors using an ultra-fast pulsed laser. So you needed to know about lasers, optics, electronics, circuit boards, loading firmware, using a voltmeter, oscilloscope and various other optical tools you've probably never heard of. It took me about 2 years to get fluent enough to be able to do one whole tool by myself without looking at the alignment manual. Very technical stuff. But fun if you're into stuff like that.

Every once in a while we'd get a report back from a company using one of our tools about a problem they couldn't understand. Now we had loac technicians in every county to try and maintain these tools. But sometimes someone from the factory(me) had to fly out and take a look.

So usually with 3 days notice I had to be on a plane to South Korea, japan or Taiwan.

If I couldn't get it working myself since I built that specific tool, I'd call home and work with one of the system scientists that designed it and we'd gather some data and logs from the computer on the tool and send them back to analyze.

My second job with lasers was for a small company of 20 people. it was a family owned business. They made lasers for laser welding and cutting metal and the smaller power ones were basically laser engravers for marking serial numbers into metal objects.

Much more basic than my first job so they hired me right away. I had that job figured out in a month. It was cake.

First week I was there they asked me if I would go do a field service call to Brazil. I said no problem. Flew out to a small factory just outside of Recife, Brazil. Campina Grande.

Basically I powered up the laser and aligned two mirrors. Measured the laser power output with a meter I had. Adjusted the focus of one lens. Calibrated the laser engraving software to align with the laser beam. Changed a water filter and I was out. 3 day job.

If you plan it right and you have some vacation time saved up, you can take a few extra days off while you're there and travel or hang out. The company paid for the flight both ways so you save a few thousand there. Not a bad way to see the world.

I almost got to go to Hawaii one time for a field service call. I was so pissed when they fixed it over the phone. LOL

 

[UrbanNerd]

I'm a mech engineer, the broadest of all engineering degrees. Loads of job opportunities, bunch of business related travel, good pay (though I have speciality niche certs that propel me). Best decision of my life.

That was my mode of thinking as far as the majors I selected (applied math for undergrad, systems/industrial engineering for grad school)...be broad. Although I primarily work in software engineering, I have worked in other engineering areas (non-software) at least 3 other times in my career. Each time I was told that "if you can do math, you can do this".

 

[Screwston]

Thanks for the great info parlay and vicious. I had a talk with a career advisor at my school the other day and explained to him my career has to focus around traveling the world. He advised to look into Engineering.