If you could do college all over, what would you study?

Post by **Sabo** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:31 pm

Thanks to vandwagon for the thread idea, which was in the spring thaw reading thread.

So, if you could go back in time and choose your college major again, what would you study?

I'd probably pick something that would allow me to work outdoors, such as biology, forestry or ornithology. I also would strongly consider enlisting in the military before I went to school, in part for the so-called adventure of being a soldier and another part for building discipline.

I studied journalism, and was a reporter for five years before moving into technology. Journalism isn't a bad degree to have because it exposes you to so many disciplines, and (theoretically) gives you the ability to write and speak in a clear manner. Both are very useful in whatever occupation you eventually have, even if it doesn't involve writing news stories every day. It also made me very distrustful of language, because you have to consider what words really mean instead of just accepting the jargon spewed by so politicians, managers or whomever.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:34 pm

Probably biology.

And I'd fuck more women.

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:35 pm

I'll bet everybody here says law.

testy boxcar · Post by **testy boxcar** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:36 pm

I tried journalism and history... I'd probably drop out, which I did the first two times I tried. Everything worked out okay!

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:44 pm

But to answer...the only thing I wish I had studied more is economics. Even there, it's not a huge regret because the economics classes I did take were taught by grad students and were boring as hell. I tended to choose classes for the teacher more than the subject matter, and if I were advising a college student today who was not interested in a career in the hard sciences or math, I'd advise them to do the same.

Johnny Hotcakes · Post by **Johnny Hotcakes** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:57 pm

I did a BCom in Finance/Accounting, and I actually don't think I would change that in hindsight. Maybe for Engineering, but that's about it.

As an aside, a lot of my friends who did trades actually ended up doing better than those who went to University and got a degree that turned out to be useless. Though those who went to University ended up getting more vagina. Apparently, the pickings are slim in carpentry class.

vandwagon · Post by **vandwagon** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:00 pm

I mentioned doing it all over in the reading thread because my wife and I had that conversation during a long drive a few weeks ago. It's crazy to expect that most college kids can pick something that they'll be tied to for the rest of their lives (for the most part) at age 18 and be satisfied.

At one of my last jobs, which I hated, I spent the better part of a day on the Towson University website looking at the undergrad majors there and settled on Environmental Chemistry or Biology. Get out and hug some trees.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:04 pm

Not sure that I would change, but if there was part if it that I could, it would be that there'd be much more transparency in the "oh yeah, beware of the pratfalls of this industry in the 'changing media landscape'" so that I would have more reasoned and logical expectations coming out of college.

Post by **brian** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:08 pm

I would have totally studied economics/business and then stayed for grad school and gotten an MBA.

Square Rob · Post by **Square Rob** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:12 pm

I still don't know what I want to be. Last three months I've grown to hate my job. Not sure if that's because of the job in general or this specific job. And I have a great boss, just sick of our company culture. But I get the feeling that most people feel that way.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:22 pm

My father gave me some good advice I should have listened to. Should have become a pharmacist. Decent pay, abundant jobs, easy work and jobs not going anywhere. They need you for the degree and to answer some people's questions. I am somewhat interested in pharmacology and drug interactions, but standing behind the counter 40 hours a week at CVS seems really boring. At least they usually seem to have some cute girls to talk to. And Shrew, of course.

Sometimes I wish I went the psychology route instead of law. Not sure how long I could have lasted as a psychologist, though. I would think that would wear on you being a therapist, and I don't know if I would have gone the lab route. Social psych and personality studies are interesting, and animal studies are cool, too.My animal cognition prof ran some awesome studies with teaching chimps on video games. I could have done that, I think, but I probably would have gone the psycho-therapy route and ended up eventually hanging myself.

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:26 pm

Jerloma wrote:Probably biology.

And I'd fuck more women.

I don't know if I would take anything different.

And I can't even say I'd fuck more women. I don't have any more game now than I did back then, and my lack of fucking women in college wasn't from lack of effort.

Post by **Shirley** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:33 pm

I did a double major in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. While I actually really enjoyed that, in hindsight, I'd drop the EE part. It never really helped much.

Instead, I should have still majored in CS, but taken a lot of business and/or economics classes. Maybe even a double-major or a minor, if that's possible.

I realized way too late in my career that I really wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Like Brian, proper planning would also have sent me to biz school to get my MBA a few years out of college. With 2-3 years of programming under my belt, an MBA while still young would have been great.

Oh well.

howard · Post by **howard** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:41 pm

My most specific educational regret is later than undergrad. I should've done my one year clinical fellowship in cardiac anesthesia, instead of six months specializing in pediatrics, and six months as a chief resident at the second-tier city hospital.

Even though I had zero intention of specializing in cardiac anesthesia, and even though I gained tremendous experience in the path I took, the cardiac program in my program was the best educational experience available. One of the uniquely best in the nation. It meant working significantly harder (getting up an hour and a half earlier, more overnight shifts, much longer days). But the intellectual reward would've been worth it, even if I never practiced in the specialty.

There is a point to this digression (unlike most of my digressions). The reasons that steered me in that instance more generally steered me in my undergrad choices. Practicality, focusing on the short and intermediate term ambitions, and keeping the workload relatively low. (My mom and my racist friends would say shiftlessness and laziness, but wtfever.)

The first two years plus one football season of undergrad was focused on a minimal academic workload, so I could maximize my work as a student trainer. Practical experience plus earning money for school took priority over the actual school.

The next two years (at Santa Barbara), I didn't work as a trainer, (or as anything else), and loaded up on the science classes. Got straight A's (as opposed to struggling to a B-average at Davis). This college thing was only difficult when working 40 hrs a week (60 during the peak of football season).

The coursework at SB was very directed at getting into a graduate program in Physical Therapy. Only a few general electives which I loved (history and mass communications classes). But those were a sideshow. Got into every place I applied (the only time out of five or six that bitch-assed UC San Francisco ever accepted me. Fuck those MFers; just because they are the best anesthesia program in the world; they ain't the best cardiac anesthesia program, which reflects back to the above digression.

I decided to try for med school about six months before I graduated. Shelved physical therapy for the time being, try for the brass ring. Had to take a little more science, but I did another year full time. And I had plenty of room for electives, whatever I wanted.

That was the only for me that college approached that intellectual ideal. History, philosophy, a film class (oh wait, I just went in there twice a week to watch movies and discuss; I never actually enrolled or wrote a paper) mixed in with organic chem and physics. (Stupid NCAA wouldn't give me an extra redshirt year; I was looking to walk-on successfully that year; stupid undeveloped ethics part of my brain thought banging freshman girls at that advanced age was a 'bad thing'; so, it wasn't all around perfect, but a good year anyway.)

One other factor; those years, the last half of the seventies, was the height of the last period of economic stagnation and high unemployment. I didn't know shit about economics, but I knew how tough it was to find a good job (it is much much tougher today, up and down the socioeconomic tiers). I am not whining a bit; this reality shaped my academic choices and that is just fine.

With a stronger sense of faith and of security for the future, a different course for those five years would've been cool. One of my buds from Santa Barbara days knew from day one of college he wanted to be a doctor, and he is today one of the best I know. He majored in philosophy, while knocking off the science prereques. Got in to (stupid) UCSF for med school. Majoring in a humanities discipline, while studying enough science to get me to a grad program; or majoring in a general science field (biology, physiology) while targeting med school would've been cool.

As much as I have studied economics in the past five years, I am grateful I never studied it in college. Even back then, it was completely corrupted by dogma and myth, with precious little insight into what was going on at the time on the macro.

As I have quoted before here:

"The purpose of studying economics is to avoid being fooled by economists"

and me as a 18yo undergrad, I would likely been yet another of the fooled flock. Accounting, otoh, is/would've been an awesome choice. Arithmetic don't lie. That's for economists, and their formulas with made-up variables.

ETA: Second on the importance of the teacher for the humanities courses. This is how I chose, and I had leeway since they were not major classes. For sciences, since they dealt with objective truth (well, our Western formulation, which still works for me), the prof didn't matter nearly as much (but it helped). I did shop for teaching assistants for lab sections, though. Many times, fellow gym rats.

The problem with the 'great' economics profs and departments--even when they reject the prevailing orthodox dogma, too often they substitute it with a new or different set of myths. UMKC is a great current example. While historians will disagree on causes and interpretations of past events, at least they agree on the facts; and, will accept new evidence that adjusts the facts (if a Robert E. Lee diary popped up, and was properly authenticated, the entire field would accept what it contained and adjust accordingly). Economists cannot even agree on the specific facts of the recent past (i.e. the extensive interventions in the economy undertaken by President Hoover--yet 'everybody knows' he was a devout adherent to the Laissze Faire approach).

ETAA: I strongly considered an MBA a decade ago. Those degree programs have their own problems, which is why I declined. I did finance; I considered programs where I could focus on that. The accounting, hard numbers part. All the marketing stuff is fine, but not my thing; the management theory and application, same personal objection; and I don't know shit about those fields, so that is a part of my discomfort, I admit. And, of course, the macro econ aspect.

Instead I started working toward a CFA certification. All the numbers, none of the other stuff (a tiny bit of macro). I dropped it for personal circumstances (Mom got sick, then I decided to get back to a serious medical career. But this is still an interesting choice. Chartered Financial Analyst.

As you can tell, I like this topic.

Scottie · Post by **Scottie** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:42 pm

Square Rob wrote:I still don't know what I want to be. Last three months I've grown to hate my job. Not sure if that's because of the job in general or this specific job. And I have a great boss, just sick of our company culture. But I get the feeling that most people feel that way.

Yup. Exactly.

I'm happy with my degrees but if I could do it all over again? Astronomy (Physics, Advanced Mathematics).

Although, truth be told, I wouldn't have gone to college in the first place. I'd have taken a trade like carpentry or welding; good money, physical work, and never a lack of jobs. The book learnin' can be done on one's own.

Gunpowder · Post by **Gunpowder** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:45 pm

brian wrote:I would have totally studied economics/business and then stayed for grad school and gotten an MBA.

This. There's no money in engineering and I've been steered toward the business aspects of what we do. It's been strongly suggested that I get an MBA but I'm not sure if I'll be living down here at the end of 2013.

EDIT: Used stupid words in original sentence

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:46 pm

Steve of phpBB wrote:
Jerloma wrote:Probably biology.

And I'd fuck more women.
I don't know if I would take anything different.

And I can't even say I'd fuck more women. I don't have any more game now than I did back then, and my lack of fucking women in college wasn't from lack of effort.

Yeah see...mine was totally from a lack of effort.

Gunpowder · Post by **Gunpowder** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:47 pm

The Sybian wrote:Sometimes I wish I went the psychology route instead of law. Not sure how long I could have lasted as a psychologist, though. I would think that would wear on you being a therapist, and I don't know if I would have gone the lab route. Social psych and personality studies are interesting, and animal studies are cool, too.My animal cognition prof ran some awesome studies with teaching chimps on video games. I could have done that, I think, but I probably would have gone the psycho-therapy route and ended up eventually hanging myself.

You'd also be poor as shit

Gunpowder · Post by **Gunpowder** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:47 pm

Jerloma wrote:
Steve of phpBB wrote:
Jerloma wrote:Probably biology.

And I'd fuck more women.
I don't know if I would take anything different.

And I can't even say I'd fuck more women. I don't have any more game now than I did back then, and my lack of fucking women in college wasn't from lack of effort.
Yeah see...mine was totally from a lack of effort.

We know...if you and a few other studs weren't so concerned with being gentlemen, yinz would have cleaned up!

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:56 pm

I think I'd just try harder in the first place. It took me 11 years to finish my undergrad bachelors (but with two associates thrown in as well, woohoo). Granted, more than half that time was spent part-time taking 2-3 classes a semester, but still, had I applied myself more to begin with things might have been easier.

I think I'd have taken a bunch of different electives than I did as well. As it stands, I took pretty much the standard classes to meet the electives instead of really digging into the coursebook to find more interesting classes that would have met those electives as well. Probably would have taken a foreign language for a few semesters, looked at more/better english/literature courses.

It's hard to say I'd change much because by starting in Engineering, I ended up landing a job at the company I am still with, albeit not as an engineer. Seventeen years this May. In two years I will have worked here longer than I have not worked here, god-willing. but engineering was never for me. You'd think I would have figured this our by struggling with calculus as much as I did.

I'd probably lean towards accounting instead of Finance like I did when I went back to finish. Like howard said, numbers don't lie. As long as they're numbers and not stupid equations where the answers have more letters (greek and otherwise) than numbers.

I'd have loved to do something with journalism, but bless my mother she told me early on that it wasn't a good long-term option. Sounds great to an 18-year-old who wants to be a newspaper sports columnist I guess, but she dissuaded me gently from such a path with so few jobs available in the grand scheme. Granted, she did bite her tongue when I told her I was doing engineering and she later told me that she never thought it was right for me but was willing to let me make that particular mistake on my own.

I dunno. I got it pretty good now, so what-ifs are hard.

Gunpowder · Post by **Gunpowder** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 2:01 pm

I think I'd hate accounting. I don't know if I could say I'd try harder (although of course I should have), I didn't really care about learning things until I was about 25 or so.

If I were to do engineering again, I think I'd go to Penn State or some big school and get an engineering degree instead of physics at the small school where I could jump further into sand than the rest of you queers.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 2:02 pm

The Sybian wrote:My father gave me some good advice I should have listened to. Should have become a pharmacist. Decent pay, abundant jobs, easy work and jobs not going anywhere.

My late brother was a pharmacist. He liked it but said that the drawback was that there was an oversupply of pharmacists relative to the number of jobs - in the desirable places to live. Lots of openings if you want live in Bakersfield or Lubbock or such.

As for me, I was an accounting major, got a BS and got an MBA several years later. I was a mediocre student in undergrad - focused much more on girls and partying at that stage in life. Accounting bored me, but I wouldn't change a thing, because accounting first, and then the MBA really opened doors. For some reason (at least in my experience), professional people respect an accounting degree and move you ahead of a lot of people with other degrees, despite the fact that it isn't about brainpower - it's about working through a pile of mundane crap.

I have been extremely lucky in my professional (and personal) life and readily admit that many smarter people than me haven't gotten the breaks I got, and thus, I have a job I love, don't lack for funds, I'm working for people who are reasonably decent, in a location I love. It could all fall to shit tomorrow, but so far so good. And, I do credit the Accounting BS and the MBA for a good chunk of my good fortune.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 2:07 pm

sancarlos wrote:
The Sybian wrote:My father gave me some good advice I should have listened to. Should have become a pharmacist. Decent pay, abundant jobs, easy work and jobs not going anywhere.
My late brother was a pharmacist. He liked it but said that the drawback was that there was an oversupply of pharmacists relative to the number of jobs - in the desirable places to live. Lots of openings if you want live in Bakersfield or Lubbock or such.

As for me, I was an accounting major, got a BS and got an MBA several years later. I was a mediocre student in undergrad - focused much more on girls and partying at that stage in life. Accounting bored me, but I wouldn't change a thing, because accounting first, and then the MBA really opened doors. For some reason (at least in my experience), professional people respect an accounting degree and move you ahead of a lot of people with other degrees, despite the fact that it isn't about brainpower - it's about working through a pile of mundane crap.

I have been extremely lucky in my professional (and personal) life and readily admit that many smarter people than me haven't gotten the breaks I got, and thus, I have a job I love, don't lack for funds, I'm working for people who are reasonably decent, in a location I love. It could all fall to shit tomorrow, but so far so good. And, I do credit the Accounting BS and the MBA for a good chunk of my good fortune.

Eh, fuck off.

howard · Post by **howard** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 2:12 pm

My uncle was a pharmacist. Small businessman too. I might have considered that route. Except for one little thing.

He built his store up from nothing. Was ready to open his second store. Then, in April 1968, homies burned the shit to the ground, along with most of the 7th Street NE corridor, in the wake of Dr. King's murder. Soured me on the idea of being a pharmacist. And living in working-class neighborhoods.

ZMan · Post by **ZMan** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 2:17 pm

I think I would stick with engineering, because of strengths in math & science. But I would probably go either Aerospace, or Electrical, given the shit we sell here.

Then again, knowing what I know now, going for computer programming would be far more lucrative. However, I never had a good head for code, so I think even with the benefit of hindsight, I'd be trying to stuff a square peg into a round hole.

Alternatively, I might use my degree in economics to get more into finance. Though, similar to coding, I know the stock brokers life probably wasn't the best fit for me. I'd have been sick of the hours within 6 mos.

Gunpowder · Post by **Gunpowder** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 2:18 pm

howard wrote:My uncle was a pharmacist. Small businessman too. I might have considered that route. Except for one little thing.

He built his store up from nothing. Was ready to open his second store. Then, in April 1968, homies burned the shit to the ground, along with most of the 7th Street NE corridor, in the wake of Dr. King's murder. Soured me on the idea of being a pharmacist. And living in working-class neighborhoods.

Yeah, your shop probably would have been burned down after 2Pac got shot.

Post by **Shirley** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 3:32 pm

I was surprised by how interesting I found my Accounting class at Fuqua. For me though, having worked as a programmer at small companies my whole career, accounting provided great insight into how "real" companies were run and how they made money.

That said, I would never want to be an accountant. It's NOT a math job. Sure, you have to do a lot of adding and subtracting, but come on. What accounting really is knowing and following rules upon rules. Rules, rules, rules. You have to be a diligent and anal fuck to be good at it. Well, unless you want to work at Enron or Goldman Sachs, then you want to also be really good at lying and writing fictional financial statements.

But yeah, it's good shit to know.

bfj · Post by **bfj** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 3:35 pm

I'd probably have become a teacher. Good union, not terrible pay here in MD, good benefits, can find work in most other states, summers off (or work half days in the summer for good pay). Ultimately, I wouldn't mind teaching others to teach so I can make sure the shitty teachers my Max has run into go the way of the Dodo.

howard · Post by **howard** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 3:42 pm

Shirley wrote:What accounting really is knowing and following rules upon rules.

Spot-fucking-on.

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 3:54 pm

Why not an online MBA?

Icepenis wrote:]

This. There's no money in engineering and I've been steered toward the business aspects of what we do. It's been strongly suggested that I get an MBA but I'm not sure if I'll be living down here at the end of 2013.
\

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 3:57 pm

If I was starting over with the same interests I'd like to have a CS degree or if really changing things up gone to culinary school or perhaps a degree in Fermentation Science.

..also I shouldn't have "wasted" time teaching. I enjoyed it but at least were I was it was stressful as fuck and paid shit.

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 4:02 pm

Good friend of mine here has his engineering degree from PSU and works for the company that makes these

He makes the $$ (owns two houses in Boulder,) works at home, and he sucks.

(though he said he could make about 2/3 of the signs in the US look like the one above in about 4 minutes which is quite cool.)

Icepenis wrote: If I were to do engineering again, I think I'd go to Penn State or some big school and get an engineering degree instead of physics at the small school where I could jump further into sand than the rest of you queers.

P.D.X. · Post by **P.D.X.** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 4:37 pm

Photography.

(I guess I hate money.)

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 7:38 pm

Sabo wrote:I also would strongly consider enlisting in the military before I went to school, in part for the so-called adventure of being a soldier and another part for building discipline.

Meh. Enlisting, while all fine and dandy, isn't the "going to college, get commissioned, start getting paid well immediately" route that being an officer is. It irritated the shit out of me when I learned that a brand new butter bar lieutenant was getting paid more than me as a SSgt at 8 years.

As for the travel, depending upon the job you selected and the unit you are assigned to this varies wildly. As a B-52 mechanic I went to 3 different places (Guam, Diego Garcia, & Las Vegas) while being stationed at 1 (Shreveport) in nearly 5 and a half years. And everyone here knows the job sucked. If I were say, Intel at a SpecOps/Rescue unit, I'd be gone more often and to the desert for most of that. It's all relative.

The Sybian wrote:My father gave me some good advice I should have listened to. Should have become a pharmacist. Decent pay, abundant jobs, easy work and jobs not going anywhere.

When I worked at Staples a friend of one of my bosses was a Boston U. grad and pharmacist making 80K. He'd come in every so often to say hello and get copies made. I asked him about college, since I was a junior in high school at the time, and he encouraged me to go pharmacist. He said he'd even write a letter of recommendation for me too. I probably would have jumped at it, but being a pharmacist didn't appeal to me.

I'm not sure how I could do it all over again. I'm 2 classes from a bachelor's in Transportation & Logisitics Mgmt. The degree has been free and it is a good pre-req for a job. And since I already have a logistics job, I'm gaining the required experience necessary to go with a degree. The thing I'd give up if I went to college out of high school would be the absolute certainty I'd still be in Boston around my crazy mother living near friends that didn't do anything. So I'd hope that someone somewhere would have said "Go to college on the west coast. Trust me. Just do it."

But what would I have studied? I have no idea. I still don't know what I want to do. What I do know is that I'm eternally jealous of people that are multi-lingual. So I would probably study a foreign language in college and travel abroad a semester or 2 to learn it better. I'd then probably apply for commissioning in the Air Force and do something foreign language related while in. Hopefully it would be some sort of Intel position with a TS-SCI clearance and go from there. And if that job allowed me to be jump qualified or something cool like that, even better.

Square Rob · Post by **Square Rob** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:14 am

If you are interested in money Johnnie, you could do a lot worse than that logistics degree. The gf manages our companies logistics, and regularly gets offered jobs with big carriers for big dollars. And if you work in management for a big carrier the job is awesome. You manage the accounts in your area which means lots of wining and dining with customers, golf, sporting events etc. there is big big big money in trucking/shipping.

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 6:24 am

Oh yea, I'm not really worried too much about money. Friends who work at Raytheon, BAE, Lockheed..etc all tell me that my military experience alone will get me in the door. So, ultimately, I lucked out quite well with being in logistics too. People want stuff. Stuff doesn't exist where they are, hence they pay a company to move it for them. Then, not to mention, my electronic warfare experience. I work with BAE dudes that make 6 figures, seemingly, just because. So if I were getting paid to mix the 2? It's over. I'm set.

I guess it's kind of the conjecture of "Hmmm. What would I have done had I known then what I know now." I'm liking the ability to order aircraft and getting people to and from the theater, so the job isn't bad. I guess I've just gotten a bit more adventurous over the last couple years (working in a Rescue unit does that) and I'd like to diversify. Once this degree is over, it's time to learn a new language and then maybe culinary school. We'll see.

Hodor · Post by **Hodor** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 7:06 am

Hodor

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 7:16 am

I don't know if I could have done the pharmacy thing...I worked at a drug store my senior year of high school, and it always seemed to me like the pharmacists mostly counted pills and typed up labels for pill bottles.

I always joke when I go to my kid's orthodontic appointments that I wish I had studied harder in college and gone that route. The guy is always in a great mood...has a big practice...and drives a big black Mercedes sedan.

But truthfully, I probably would have done the same thing I'm doing now, but I wish I had taken the opportunity to go do grad school and get a PHd. I had a big name in the particle physics game ready to write me a recommendation, and that would have opened a lot of doors. But I was sick of going to school, and being poor, so I had him write me a recommendation to get a job instead.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 7:18 am

AussieDave wrote:I don't know if I could have done the pharmacy thing...I worked at a drug store my senior year of high school, and it always seemed to me like the pharmacists mostly counted pills and typed up labels for pill bottles.

I always joke when I go to my kid's orthodontic appointments that I wish I had studied harder in college and gone that route. The guy is always in a great mood...has a big practice...and drives a big black Mercedes sedan.

But truthfully, I probably would have done the same thing I'm doing now, but I wish I had taken the opportunity to go do grad school and get a PHd. I had a big name in the particle physics game ready to write me a recommendation, and that would have opened a lot of doors. But I was sick of going to school, and being poor, so I had him write me a recommendation to get a job instead.

Yeah, Orthodontists always seem to be doing pretty good. When the only people that walk through your door know that they're gonna be paying for it mostly out of pocket anyway, and you don't have to deal as much with insurance companies that's pretty good. Typically, only people that can pay for it get orthodontic work.

I'll be thrilled to death when my girls are past the braces stage.

FredRomero · Post by **FredRomero** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 8:05 am

bfj wrote:I'd probably have become a teacher. Good union, not terrible pay here in MD, good benefits, can find work in most other states, summers off (or work half days in the summer for good pay). Ultimately, I wouldn't mind teaching others to teach so I can make sure the shitty teachers my Max has run into go the way of the Dodo.

Sounds good, except for the teaching part..

I regret all the minor stuff I missed -- I could have taken a class on how to play pool and a bunch other fun things, I had a friend offering to teach anyone html, all those clubs which would have been great for networking and getting laid. I was just too happy sticking to drinking and playing video games.