The what the **** am I going to do after high school thread!

[Kaination]

Quite frankly, I have absolutely no idea what I'd like to do after high school. and as I'm edging closer, it's starting to scare me at how bad I have no idea what to do. so, here's my story!

I tried forcing myself into 3d modeling but I just can't find the enjoyment I found when I used find when I did creative stuff, such as creating flash movies and such.

Personally, what I do enjoy is creating any kind of film, such as a flash movie or filming and editing stuff together. I can take really ****ty film taken and turn it into something awesome, it's a good creative skill I have.

Another thing I'm very good at is muscle memory / music. In my piano class, I was always the one finishing before everyone else by at least 5 days of practice. It takes me near no time to memorize a piano piece. It'll take me a second to learn it, but once I figure out which keys to press, it becomes easy for me.

And probably my best skill is my social skill. I can amazingly easy talk and meet people with sheer ease and pretty much anyone I do meet, I become friends or good friends with.

I'm also good with computers. blah blah etc.

Another thing is, I'm generally good at improvisation and acting, and speeches. Like, getting up in front of others speaking, or performing something.

Now, my question is:

1.) Does anyone see a fitting career?

2.) and how should I go about with college? I already know to not declare a major or anything, just go undecided or whatever, but what kind of college do I go to? A junior college and take a broad range of classes my first or second year to see what I like?

also, lol @ the tags. it WAS ****,high,school,thread. but i can't fix it lawl

 

[Chakra-X]

Film/animation! I think you'd enjoy that more. And since you are good with music, you can always create small sound tracks for your films.

I am at the University of the Arts for animation (but for art schools, usually the first year is 'foundation year', which is all the basic stuff. I don' get to start on my major, which is animation, until sophomore year.)

And film/animation is usually a group thing when it gets more complex. So when you are dealing with actors, musicians, artists, and writers who you may need to collaborate with, social skills help.

Oh, and if you go to an art college, or even just an art-based major, you may need to submit a portfolio.

As for career....It's still a little too early to say. Would you rather make live action films, hand drawn animation, computer animation (3D to be specific), or stop motion?

 

[Kaination]

Film/animation! I think you'd enjoy that more. And since you are good with music, you can always create small sound tracks for your films.

I am at the University of the Arts for animation (but for art schools, usually the first year is 'foundation year', which is all the basic stuff. I don' get to start on my major, which is animation, until sophomore year.)

And film/animation is usually a group thing when it gets more complex. So when you are dealing with actors, musicians, artists, and writers who you may need to collaborate with, social skills help.

Oh, and if you go to an art college, or even just an art-based major, you may need to submit a portfolio.

As for career....It's still a little too early to say. Would you rather make live action films, hand drawn animation, computer animation (3D to be specific), or stop motion?

Not sure, I've never developed art skills such as drawing. I have good sense of direction.

Also, if I go into film/animation, I'd feel waay too much like I'm following into my brother's footsteps, he's going into film making.

I'm also good at acting. It's how I get away with lies a lot, haha. Another thing is I'm really good at making up stuff on the spot and presenting stuff, such as presentations. You'd say I'm good at improve and being in front of a stage or others, that's something I also enjoy a lot. Like, I'd love to be an actor but that's such a stretch in reality, that I'd rather go for a more 'realistic' job.

I'll add it to my original post. It's just animation is something I did for fun but I'm not a very good artist. I'm just good at bringing clips together and editing them in a cool way or so.

Also, because I never pursued art THAT much, my portfolio, well, sucks. A lot.

I never indulged in music, until recently and I'm picking stuff up really fast, which makes me wish I went into music or my parents signed me up.

 

[MC]

The first thing you should do is find a job, if you don't already have one.

 

[Kaination]

The first thing you should do is find a job, if you don't already have one.

Currently employed at mcdonalds.

Which if something I don't want to be doing for very much longer.

 

[)v(ajin Vegetto]

Id say go to a junior college, cover a wide-range of classes and list to your self what you like best, what your good at, from then on there should be a whole heap of careers that you could take interest of, then again it'll only be your decision to take up on what you choose to do and a plan b will be visible if your first choice doesnt work out
Just telling you something youth counselor aid told me :S hope this helps a tad

 

[sub]

Dude, I'm in my second year of college and I still don't have any idea of what I want to do.

 

[)v(ajin Vegetto]

Then why dont you list down a bunch of notes about what classes you take; and what classes your good/bad at etc, maybe you'll get a bunch of ideas on what to improve on and heap of careers that could be advisable and of interest to you. note - you could also list down hobbies/goals and other self-based information that could help-out/link towards your future career or so.
This may all sound like bull**** and a waste of time but but in my opinion its not and im just telling you something i was told by a youth-aid conselor a few days ago

 

[Almighty_Gir]

my advice?

get laid kid.

 

[Mr.Lukyas]

my advice?

get laid kid.

You're wrong. That should be done while high-school.

 

[Tenzo]

What about after high-school?
C'mon dude, you can get laid whenever you want/can.

 

[Brosiris]

Go into the medical field. They always need people. No matter how bad the economy is, you'll have a job.

 

[sub]

This is true. My friend is a nurse. They're asking her to do overtime 24/7, they desperately need people. And she gets paid very well.

Someones got to take care of the baby boomers

 

[Skiwan]

**** medicine if you're in it for the money. Health care requires, well, caring about people, not caring about the salary. Well thats my belief anyway.

I'm a firm believer in doing something you're passionate about, after all you'll put the most effort into that without even realising you're doing it, and you wont hate the 9 to 5 lifestyle so much if you're doing something you enjoy.

I'd say you've got 2 options, go academic, or go with the arts, that's the choice you need to make. Academic is a much safer path, since people will always eat up a qualification in maths/science/english/economics etc, and it opens up quite a wide range of job opportunities, academic degree holders tend to have jobs which pay far above the average national income. The arts are more risky, it's usually more specialised and your prospects all depends on how good you are at your chosen subject, and it can be very competitive in certain fields. Thing is though, if you ever apply for office work your degree in art/drama etc just isnt going to help at all. Great thing about uni for arts is it brings you in touch with lots of different people, lots of different styles, and is probably the best way to grow as an artist, whether it may be acting, music, pottery, textiles or 3d modeling. They all help each other, and its important to be aware of them.

It's really that simple academic or arts, the actual subject isn't that important, one of my mates just graduated with a degree in law, only job he could get after 6 months of searching is a bar job atm. You've just gotta think about what you're most comfortable doing.

 

[Dokutayuu]

Currently employed at mcdonalds.

Which if something I don't want to be doing for very much longer.

You could try somewhere like Pizza Hut or KFC, it's a step up.

Try some sort of Careers Helpline, I'm sure they know more than us.

 

[Majin_You]

I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do by way of a career after high school, either.

However, I enrolled at a university, anyway, and started taking classes from departments that interested me back in high school (Chemistry, Physics/Astronomy, Computer Science, Biology, Anthropology, English, Psychology, Classics, etc.). If funding for your post-secondary education is not a big issue, then it is very helpful to try taking a course or two in a field that you're interested in to see if you are, in fact... interested in the more advanced components of that field.

Going into my first year at university, I thought Chemistry was the bee's knees. I took a full year of introductory Chemistry, and I hated every minute of it, so I crossed it off my list. I thought Astronomy would be awesome, too, but after a year of hearing "...we're not sure, so we'll just call it a nebula" and spending hours in an open field trying to sketch various constellations and night sky phenomena, I crossed Astronomy off of my list, as well.

On the other side of things, I hated Biological Science in high school (as soon as it became optional, I stopped taking it), but found it incredibly interesting in university, where I could focus on areas of Bio that I liked (I mostly ended up taking Microbiology and Zoology courses), eventually settling on the fact that I liked studying certain fields as they pertain to human beings. That, to me, naturally led me to apply for medical school, and here we are today. I have to admit, I very nearly abandoned that path in favor of Psychology. Man, that stuff is interesting.

I still don't know if I'm going to settle into the more research-heavy (ie: creative) side of the medical field, or if I'll end up being a practicing doctor for the rest of my life, but I figured out at least the basic career area I wanted to pursue just from trying out various subjects at the university level.

Now, I have no idea what a junior college is, as I don't think there are any where I live (we have 2 universities in Winnipeg, as well as a community college where most of the non-academic programs are run), so I can't recommend or caution against attending one. However, if it can give you the same experience of being able to focus broadly, if only briefly, then I'd say go for it. If you like the art of flim-making and that stuff, try Film Studies - my buddy was in much the same boat, and he ended up hating it two years in (around the time he had to write a screenplay for his term project ). If nothing else, getting to see and interact with professors who are experienced in the fields you're interested in will help.

...Lord knows, I hated every Chemistry professor I ever had. Even the charming, old, British one who taught Organic Chemistry

 

[Brosiris]

**** medicine if you're in it for the money. Health care requires, well, caring about people, not caring about the salary. Well thats my belief anyway.

I'm a firm believer in doing something you're passionate about, after all you'll put the most effort into that without even realising you're doing it, and you wont hate the 9 to 5 lifestyle so much if you're doing something you enjoy.

I'd say you've got 2 options, go academic, or go with the arts, that's the choice you need to make. Academic is a much safer path, since people will always eat up a qualification in maths/science/english/economics etc, and it opens up quite a wide range of job opportunities, academic degree holders tend to have jobs which pay far above the average national income. The arts are more risky, it's usually more specialised and your prospects all depends on how good you are at your chosen subject, and it can be very competitive in certain fields. Thing is though, if you ever apply for office work your degree in art/drama etc just isnt going to help at all. Great thing about uni for arts is it brings you in touch with lots of different people, lots of different styles, and is probably the best way to grow as an artist, whether it may be acting, music, pottery, textiles or 3d modeling. They all help each other, and its important to be aware of them.

It's really that simple academic or arts, the actual subject isn't that important, one of my mates just graduated with a degree in law, only job he could get after 6 months of searching is a bar job atm. You've just gotta think about what you're most comfortable doing.

You're totally right man, how could I have been so stupid to want a career that would house, feed and put clothes on my family.

 

[Skiwan]

I know, you know some people just have weird beliefs, like, caring about the job more than the pay, but they're just idiots, the money is where its at. Thats why I'm an upper class prostitute on the weekends, I may be a whore, but you should see my car D:

 

[Brosiris]

I know, you know some people just have weird beliefs, like, caring about the job more than the pay, but they're just idiots, the money is where its at. Thats why I'm an upper class prostitute on the weekends, I may be a whore, but you should see my car D:

Actually, I find most nurses and doctors to be rather smart, seeing as they save lives and all. But hey! What do I know?

 

[Skiwan]

I never said anything to the contrary did I? What I did say was if your hearts in the money, not the business of saving lives then there's better jobs out there. If you're hearts set on making a difference and improving peoples quality of life and helping them with their problems, that's great, that's the right job for you. I just think if you're going to be working 50+ years doing something, it better be something you're passionate about, because a pay packet only satisfies the soul so much.