Jam

welp..

When I was in highschool I was in some computer animation classes (I wasnt good, though I was top in the class ) and I was in info tech classes.

I enjoyed the animation, the infotech classes were boring though it was fucked cause they taught the use of claris works for info tech, when i got to info tech 12 and they were teaching the same shit i dropped the class.

I also was taking cafeteria and cooks training classes. We had a cool chef for an instructor. I enjoyed it and had 4 blocks in there in my last year. I got a CASA (culinary arts specialists association scholarshop) but its only for 350 dollars so no big deal...

While I was at school I was working some warehouse job, i started out at 7.50 per hour.. and I worked there for a year after I graduated, by then I was driving the trucks and making 12 an hour with like 220 hours a month, I was unhappy because the boss was an asshole who made fun of me for whatever he could (were in canada, and he takes no break from insulting canada and all canadians) anyways, the job itself i didnt really mind, i could be there from 830am to 930pm with only one unpaid lunch break, and go home happy (as long as I could avoid the asshole boss), anyways i was going to a concert and i told him a week in advance that i needed to leave at 5 on monday, monday came, we had an argument when i tried to go home, later as i was leaving for the concert (say 30 mins) from my house he called and talked to my mom (im 19 living at home), he was swearing at her and yadda yadda and was going to fire me, anyways it ended up i was supposed to go in and talk to him the next morning (i was supposed to have been working the next day anyways), so i went in, gave him my company jacket back and told him i was done.

that job was an excellent source of money... I have a 2004 cavalier, and it would probably be paid off now if i hadnt quit, right now im guessing i owe around 4000 though.

now when i was in school and got the scholarship i was still going over in my head wether to go to school for game development, or 3danimation, or for cooking school to be a chef.. anyways i applied for cooking school, got accepted, decided to put it off for a year so that i could get the car..

well then i appplied again and i am scheduled to start in oct.

heres the thing, after i quit my last job i got a job 2 days later in a restaurnt, right now im a dish pig, but still, i make hardly any money, and presumeably this is how its going to be working in a restaurant..

now my parents are trying to tell me to get into computer stuff and not cooking stuff because i wont make any money

the reasons i am not doing computer stuff is lack of skills that i feel i need and lack of money for computer schools

so basicly now i am accepted for the second time to this cooking school and my parents are suggesting im not to go, and the fact that my new job isnt cutting it with the bills isnt helping me think things over

i would reallly like to get into game development but id need skills and one school requires good hand drawing skills to get in and the other requires a butt load of money and they will take anyone,

i am so confused


worried about money

money for school

money for transportation

money after school

what to do for school, i dont know how many times i can apply and then cancel ... eek

any thoughts on my ramble from people who have more life xp then me

mr sticky

It's time to stop right now and evaluate what you REALLY want to do. Money is why we work, but money won't make us enjoy our daily grind.

Questions: What do you enjoy doing? Picture yourself successful in both fields, which path do you seem happier?

You only have a car payment. Later in life you'll have a family, a mortgage, bigger car payments, etc. Now is the time to risk these things. Don't let the fear of failure hold you back. It's OK to fail. It sucks not to try!

Trust someone who took the safe path. It's littered with regret.

Good Luck!

__________________
The sad thing is... as you get older you come to realize that you don't so much pilot your life, as you just try to hold on, in a screaming, defiant ball of white-knuckle anxious fury

Nitrox

I agree, I also took the safe path and regret not having taken chances when I was younger. The crazy thing is that I still encountered failures along the way.

Take my brother-in-law for example. He just graduated from Notre Dame and couldn't find a job, so what's he do. He decides to be a sea kayak guide out in Washington for 6 months and then he'll rethink what he wants to do.

To me, that's a good choice of taking chances.

Jam

I really dont know what I want to do though :S

maleficent

What are your interests? Because the average person has about three different careers in their lifetime, what do you see yourself doing for the next 10 years?

What do you enjoy doing?
If cooking interests you, pursue that for a while, that can always branch into restaurant management, or even working in hotel management. From what I understand it's a brutally tough profession, long hours and all , but if it's what you enjoy, you don't mind so much.

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I was once told, that you should do what you love, and the money will follow, you might not get super rich, but you'll be able to live, and you'll be happy because you are doing what you love.

I'd look into taking some sort of aptitude test, where you can get your skills down, your likes and dislikes, and see how it applies to what you should consider studying.

__________________

rockzilla

Like maleficient said, anything in the cooking/hospitality industry has ridiculous hours, brutal working conditions, high stress and the money is considerably less than anything tech-related. Not to say that you'll be living in a cardboard box should you decide to become a chef, but you'll work a lot harder for a lot less money.
You shouldn't look at cooking as a career unless you're seriously passionate about cooking.

Now, for years and years I stayed away from cooking school because my family told me there wasn't enough money in the field, the hours were too difficult, the working conditions too harsh etc.... It took me four years of wasted tuition and meaningless jobs that made me financially sound, but deeply depressed until I decided to cook for a living against my family's wishes. It didn't take long for them to see how happy I was despite the 75% pay cut I took (although now I'm making almost as much as I did in my meaningless office job).
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is look at a career in cooking only if you can't see yourself being happy doing anything else. You spend about 1/3 of your life at work, if you don't love your job, you might as well throw yourself off a bridge.

isis

Be like me, work odd jobs and become a hippie until you discover what you want to do.

I swear, everyone I've ever told has laughed at me, but its true. I'm sort of cutting out the unnecessaries in my life. I own my own car too, make payments.. and I currently only make $7.00 as well. If you don't know what to do, don't do something you "THINK" you might want to do.

Personally, I think I have the rest of my life to be stuck in my career. I'm around the same age, and this is prime figuring out who you are and knowing what you want time. So work a stupid dead end job for awhile, it pays the bills, and THEN decide what you want.

kurty[B]

jam, I had a net admin job out of high school. Thought it was great, there was room for growth, and greater pay, and I could've cared less about school. Then, recession hit, and I realized I was simply a commodity of corporate america that no one wanted anymore. I started going back to school, initially for a Computer Science/Business/IT degree, cause that's what I know.

Then, I realized. I fucking hate computers! Yeah, they're great devices, and I love using them, but I hate spending all my time repairing them, or maintaining or setting them up. This might float other people's boats, and yeah, I know how to do it, and how to do it well, but I don't find joy in it.

Now, I had a film production class in high school. Was mainly just a dick-off course, but I enjoyed it, I was happy spending hours on end editing video, or coming up with ideas to intrique the whole student body, and what's funny is I picked up a school paper four years after having graduated, and my little production operation I had going is #3 on the things those students would like to see (I always find that funny, cause I always felt like an outcast at that school).

Well, My parents want me to finish school at my current college, and pursue my film production/3d animation career after I have some sort of bachelor's degree to fall back onto. Well, I was seriously thinking of doing this, but I don't like coming to work, and while I enjoy school, it's not the direction I want to be heading, my parents haven't supported me since I was 15, so not like there's any monetary reason for me to continue the way I'm going.

So, I did my homework, I'm flying to various film schools in august to check them out, and I'm going to apply at the ones I like the most and go. I don't have money, or any sort of savings, or really any plan aside from knowing that I want to go to the best film school I can go to. They're EXPENSIVE!! But, I don't care. I'll enjoy it, I don't aspire to be some magnificent director, that'd be fun, but I'd be happy just creating 3d models, or chopping up film and getting into the whole process. I just want to have a smile on my face when I go into work, and still have that smile, if not a bigger smile when I leave. I'm tired of going into a job with a smile, and leaving wishing I had called in sick EVERY day. Sure, I might get a decent pay, but I'm definitely not satisfied.

Now, it took me three years to make these decisions on what I really wanted to do with my life. Seriously, take a pause, and think about what will make you happy. Not what will make your parents happy, or your friends, or SO, but yourself happy.

Jam

bah I dont have a SO.

I really want to get into game development but its hard to do.. I think I'm going to quit my dish pig job and get a job as a carny

I really dont know what to do.


edit

I would make more money if I quit my job, cancelled my car insurance, went on ei, and stayed home and played gamecube all day... such a fucked up world

yakimushi

Just a note about the 3d animation / modeling career path...

Its hard as fuck to get through, hard as fuck to get a job in. I've got a BFA with a specialization in 3d modeling, animation, texturing, lighting, you name it and guess what? I'm unemployed in my field.

If you really want the animation thing, go for it by all means. Just be prepared to eat, sleep, breath, and shit modeling and animation for the rest of your life.

One of our favorite sayings back at school was that 3d isn't a job, its a fucking lifestyle.

Soooo... I'm not trying to discourage but just trying to inform. I really kind of regret the decisions I made in college.

Jam

Oh i Know, Im friends with a bunch of game developers...

but I dont know what Im going to do, I might apply at a video store or something.. thanks for the replies everyone