Axion004
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: Jan 27, 2010
Posts: 28
|
 Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 10:22 pm Post subject: Does just about everyone work in a cubicle after college? |
 |
|
The general process seems to be:
Go to school.
Take out loans, go to college.
Apply to jobs, pass interview, and then make money by working in cubicle.
Make more money while working in an office.
Buy a house
Have kids
Grow old
Die.
Pretty bland and depressing from my point of view. It seems that where you went to school and want your gpa is doesn't really matter very much after you get out of the academic world(All employers care about is that your skills match the specific position). I want to go to graduate school but I am somewhat scared($35,000 in loans currently), and I think that after I get my graduate degree the reality is that I will just be placed inside some office slaving away to some boring desk work. I wish I could do more than this in life. |
|
| Back to top |
|
CockneyRebel
Mick Avory, Sensitive brown-eyed Sweet Pea
Joined: Jul 18, 2004
Age: 38
Posts: 87202
Location: In a quiet and peaceful garden, where gentle Mick Avory-like Sweet Peas grow.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
Fnord
Enigmatic Threadkilling Metasyntactic Variable
Joined: May 07, 2008
Posts: 17886
Location: Stendec
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 11:30 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I have an office ... and a shop to supervise. Unless there is an important meeting, email, or phone call to handle, I can usually be found out on the shop floor, getting my hands dirty and complaining about the coffee.
_________________
* Believing in myths allows the comfort of having an opinion without the discomfort of having to think.
* Believing that you're worthless allows the comfort of having something to complain about without the discomfort of having to change. |
|
| Back to top |
|
sacrip
Phoenix
Joined: Oct 18, 2008
Age: 39
Posts: 667
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 11:34 pm Post subject: |
|
|
So, this is the part where you tell us what you'd rather do. Or are you looking for ideas? Well, here goes:
Join a military branch as an officer
Join the Peace Corps
Teach English in a foreign country
Do freelance work while you write a novel
Do missionary work for your church
None of those options are 'safe' or particularly well paying, but your degree won't go to waste and your cubicle time is very limited.
_________________
Everything would be better if you were in charge. |
|
| Back to top |
|
bdubs
Pileated woodpecker
Joined: Jun 19, 2009
Age: 26
Posts: 178
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 11:35 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| So far it looks like I'm on that path. I'm two year out of college still paying off loans and all day I stare at a computer screen in my cubicle. I really need a vacation. My advice to you enjoy college, and try to do something you are passionate about. I think I finally found an area I'm have a deep passion for. So as soon I pay off my current loans and save up money, I'm going back to school to get my masters. |
|
| Back to top |
|
LostInEmulation
Penguin
Joined: Feb 11, 2008
Posts: 2219
Location: Ireland, dreaming of Germany
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 6:00 am Post subject: |
|
|
Cubicles are not bad. One big open plan office for ~100 people can be. But then. I like my job despite that. 
_________________
I am not a native speaker. Please contact me if I made grammatical mistakes in the posting above.
Tekneluru mi'aru mi aji, il'sidekhir'ra min kia. Mi'ki'vasu kynha'het kirki. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Axion004
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: Jan 27, 2010
Posts: 28
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:52 am Post subject: |
|
|
| bdubs wrote: | | So far it looks like I'm on that path. I'm two year out of college still paying off loans and all day I stare at a computer screen in my cubicle. I really need a vacation. My advice to you enjoy college, and try to do something you are passionate about. I think I finally found an area I'm have a deep passion for. So as soon I pay off my current loans and save up money, I'm going back to school to get my masters. |
That is depressing- I was extremely serious in school and got mostly A's on my report card. My A's don't help me at all in the office- Only for further schooling. If I knew I was just going to work in an office doing repetitive boring work for the next five years I probably wouldn't have studied so much in school. I should really try for academia. I am applying in 2012.
| sacrip wrote: | So, this is the part where you tell us what you'd rather do. Or are you looking for ideas? Well, here goes:
Join a military branch as an officer
Join the Peace Corps
Teach English in a foreign country
Do freelance work while you write a novel
Do missionary work for your church
None of those options are 'safe' or particularly well paying, but your degree won't go to waste and your cubicle time is very limited. |
No desire to join the military at all.
Nor the Peace Corps(I studied abroad in school).
Teach English abroad looks like a good short term option, although I need to pay off loans.
I'm not a writer
I'm an atheist.
I really just need better ideas to make an income for a living. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Simonono
Bug
Joined: Oct 26, 2010
Age: 20
Posts: 3299
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 10:00 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Nah, I'm doing nothing now that I have finished college. But I'm trying to think of ways to cheat through life so I don't have to work in a cubicle. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Subotai
Phoenix
Joined: Sep 25, 2010
Posts: 1036
Location: 日本
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 1:19 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Axion004 wrote: | | bdubs wrote: | | So far it looks like I'm on that path. I'm two year out of college still paying off loans and all day I stare at a computer screen in my cubicle. I really need a vacation. My advice to you enjoy college, and try to do something you are passionate about. I think I finally found an area I'm have a deep passion for. So as soon I pay off my current loans and save up money, I'm going back to school to get my masters. |
That is depressing- I was extremely serious in school and got mostly A's on my report card. My A's don't help me at all in the office- Only for further schooling. If I knew I was just going to work in an office doing repetitive boring work for the next five years I probably wouldn't have studied so much in school. I should really try for academia. I am applying in 2012.
| sacrip wrote: | So, this is the part where you tell us what you'd rather do. Or are you looking for ideas? Well, here goes:
Join a military branch as an officer
Join the Peace Corps
Teach English in a foreign country
Do freelance work while you write a novel
Do missionary work for your church
None of those options are 'safe' or particularly well paying, but your degree won't go to waste and your cubicle time is very limited. |
No desire to join the military at all.
Nor the Peace Corps(I studied abroad in school).
Teach English abroad looks like a good short term option, although I need to pay off loans.
I'm not a writer
I'm an atheist.
I really just need better ideas to make an income for a living. |
What did you study? |
|
| Back to top |
|
Moog
Pussycat
Joined: Feb 26, 2010
Age: 34
Posts: 17642
Location: Untied Kingdom
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 1:22 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Nope, some of us are unemployed instead 
_________________
Not currently a moderator |
|
| Back to top |
|
ViewUpHere
Snowy Owl
Joined: Apr 22, 2011
Posts: 129
Location: About 100m above the ground
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 2:51 pm Post subject: Re: Does just about everyone work in a cubicle after college |
|
|
| Axion004 wrote: | The general process seems to be:
Go to school.
Take out loans, go to college. |
I went to school, enrolled in college, took on two jobs, and did both jobs while going to college. The jobs seemed to rotate, but I don't think I ever worked more or less than two concurrently. No loans.
These jobs included shelving books in a library (no cubicle), being an editor at a newspaper (no cubicle, and I spent more time in a courthouse than I did in the office), and being a one-person IT shop at two different places. Oddly, this also involved more time away from my desk than at it. Again, no cubicles.
| Axion004 wrote: | Apply to jobs, pass interview, and then make money by working in cubicle.
Make more money while working in an office. |
Sort of... I spent a year in a cubicle as a software developer, then got a job as a chemistry lab rat, then got back into IT, got into management, got back out of management (whew!) THEN got an IT job in a cubicle.
| Axion004 wrote: | Buy a house
Have kids |
Ok, this part I did. Then I sold the house and moved to an island in the middle of the Pacific. The move involved a job change that got me back out of the cubicle, hopefully for good. I get to do machining, drive a fork lift (this is WAY more fun than it sounds) operate a crane (ditto), do photography, all manner of fun stuff.
Still working on this part. Meanwhile I try not to let it slow me down too much. It takes longer to heal now, though.
Don't have to work at this part. It happens all on its own.
| Axion004 wrote: | | Pretty bland and depressing from my point of view. It seems that where you went to school and want your gpa is doesn't really matter very much after you get out of the academic world(All employers care about is that your skills match the specific position). I want to go to graduate school but I am somewhat scared($35,000 in loans currently), and I think that after I get my graduate degree the reality is that I will just be placed inside some office slaving away to some boring desk work. I wish I could do more than this in life. |
Then do more than this in life. The choice is yours.
Rather than list a bunch of stuff you could do and have you shoot them down, why not share what you're interested in doing? This matters. A lot. No one places you inside some office. You place yourself by applying to and accepting jobs that do this. If you look hard enough and are willing to give up some stuff along the way, there are any number of jobs out there that need doing where cubicles and boring desk work just don't apply.
What do YOU like to do? What are you studying? Do you like it enough to go to graduate school? Will the graduate degree fill a need inside you that you can't otherwise fill? Once you're out would you want to continue in the same field of study, or are you already getting burned out on it? Are there any related interests that would be more in line with what you like to do? Which is more important, the work or the setting? What setting is ideal for you? What kinds of people do you like to work with? Do you like to work with your hands? Do you like jobs where you almost never get the chance to sit down? Help us out here. |
|
| Back to top |
|
SadAspy
Phoenix
Joined: Oct 14, 2010
Posts: 695
Location: U.S.A.
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 3:01 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Not really. I've graduated college twice and am still not good enough for office work. |
|
| Back to top |
|
kezzieb
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: May 24, 2011
Age: 21
Posts: 51
Location: Southampton, UK
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 4:43 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| It's not what I plan to do once I finish university, but there's no telling what might happen. I really want to continue to study and then work in academia. I'm thinking of maybe being a lecturer, researcher, or archivist. |
|
| Back to top |
|
FinnD
Butterfly
Joined: Jun 22, 2011
Posts: 14
Location: Northern Europe
|
| Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 4:39 am Post subject: |
|
|
I feel most comfortabel studying in a university, a safe environment with little pressure/competition, as university isn't that hard for me.
Im afraid of what will happen next, post-grad, if im able to deal with this competitive world of scientific research. May be ending up i a cubicle after all.
Still working on planB, which would be some kind of practical, low education work. That's what I love to do most, just focussing on something stupid for a whole day and still enjoy it after 6 years. |
|
| Back to top |
|
devark
Deinonychus
Joined: Feb 09, 2010
Age: 31
Posts: 337
Location: Here, now.
|
| Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 2:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
In a welding program at my community college at the moment. I plan to go into auto body / resto / fab (building myself an english wheel atm xD ), or at least for now. I like hard physical work, hell I might even try and get into pipeline welding or maybe an apprenticeship in the boilermakers union. We'll see I guess. I have a lot of options open to me at the moment so It's really just speculation at this point, I may end up just staying and running through the schools eng sci program, and then the mfg tech program. Whatever I end up doing, I want to love it so, I'm just taking it one step at a time.
As far as I'm concerned, my work will be just as much a part of my life as my time spent away from work so It's going to need to fit seamlessly. I like reading everything, I like patterns, counting, mathematics, physics, psychology, competitive sports. I love taking my ideas and putting them on paper, I love to just sit and conjure up ideas, I like to try and view everything from every possible perspective I can, and I love fixing things. I've played music my whole life, welding feels rhythmic like playing drums or piano. Its muscle memory, like learning a new sport, or excelling at an already known one. Work for me is just going to need to be something I can completely engross myself in, and excel at, plain and simple.
Find what you love and do it, carve it out of stone if you have to!
_________________
"To the end, my dear." ~ Stravinsky |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
