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1) BA in Psyc, with a certificate in personnel and industrial relations:
I started college with no major and no idea what to do. My choice of college was based on my interest in photography, though I knew I was not going to major in the art because it was no way to make a living (I worked in a photo-lab and met too many photographers to think you could make a living at it). I was intimidated by all the people around me who seemed to know what they wanted to do, so I followed good advice from old people that does not apply to children: study what you love/are interested in and let a career follow. That's great if you have a life savings to lean on or marketable job skills - moronic if you're 20 and poor. I chose psychology because I was in a psyc 101 class and found it interesting.
My family and related financial support fell apart in college. This made money and survival important to me, so I met with a guidance counselor, still lacking direction and being too lazy to make a direction. When I told her I wanted to make 50k or more with my BA she tried really hard not to laugh; she suggested the closest I might come was by focusing on marketable skills - hence the certificate in personnel which potentially made me marketable. She was right - I took classes in interviewing techniques, accounting, business, and economics that were valuable by comparison to psyc. More valuable would have been an actual degree in acct, econ...
2) MA in I/O Psyc: I tried to get a job and failed, took work in the company my dad worked for - a print factory. I thought my degree wasn't enough to land a good job (without learning how to really search for one) so I looked into grad school GMU was nearby and had a PhD program in Industrial & Organizational Psyc...I failed to get into the PhD program, but got into the MA program which was really more of a probation for the PhD (they were phasing it out). I worked hard on classes, but half-assed everything to do with research. I didn't connect socially and became kind of bitter...I call my MA degree "dropping out of a PhD program."
From my MA I was lucky to get hired in Dept. of Labor by a racist guy who thought I was more Latino. That was 1995 and I never left gummint.
3) AA in IT: I thought with computers I could be a contractor and secure in employment as a MA degree gets a higher billing and markup rate from contractors, plus my blue-haired friends were making bank in IT. The prereqs for the IT MA were the same as the AA, so I grabbed the paper.
4) JD: when the tech sector dropped out and my blue haired friends were taking lower jobs and losing their houses, I was having an awful time working for a lazy woman who saw me as a threat and was trying to get rid of me...I was taking the LSAT without a prep course, and looking for a job like mad. I landed both my USDA job and got into GMU Law at the same time. My plan was to quit whichever was harder, but I was too greedy and hoarded my leave in case I needed it and ... I failed at quitting. I also failed, for the first time, to graduate with honors (was close, but working and school was just too much).
So the sum is I was drifting around, willing to work on things in front of me, but too lazy to properly research anything so many of my efforts were wasted. I drifted around directionless and only had some mild achievements through sheer tenacity and failing to quit, when I could have made far more with 10% of my efforts in making sure what I was working on was a good idea.
I started college with no major and no idea what to do. My choice of college was based on my interest in photography, though I knew I was not going to major in the art because it was no way to make a living (I worked in a photo-lab and met too many photographers to think you could make a living at it). I was intimidated by all the people around me who seemed to know what they wanted to do, so I followed good advice from old people that does not apply to children: study what you love/are interested in and let a career follow. That's great if you have a life savings to lean on or marketable job skills - moronic if you're 20 and poor. I chose psychology because I was in a psyc 101 class and found it interesting.
My family and related financial support fell apart in college. This made money and survival important to me, so I met with a guidance counselor, still lacking direction and being too lazy to make a direction. When I told her I wanted to make 50k or more with my BA she tried really hard not to laugh; she suggested the closest I might come was by focusing on marketable skills - hence the certificate in personnel which potentially made me marketable. She was right - I took classes in interviewing techniques, accounting, business, and economics that were valuable by comparison to psyc. More valuable would have been an actual degree in acct, econ...
2) MA in I/O Psyc: I tried to get a job and failed, took work in the company my dad worked for - a print factory. I thought my degree wasn't enough to land a good job (without learning how to really search for one) so I looked into grad school GMU was nearby and had a PhD program in Industrial & Organizational Psyc...I failed to get into the PhD program, but got into the MA program which was really more of a probation for the PhD (they were phasing it out). I worked hard on classes, but half-assed everything to do with research. I didn't connect socially and became kind of bitter...I call my MA degree "dropping out of a PhD program."
From my MA I was lucky to get hired in Dept. of Labor by a racist guy who thought I was more Latino. That was 1995 and I never left gummint.
3) AA in IT: I thought with computers I could be a contractor and secure in employment as a MA degree gets a higher billing and markup rate from contractors, plus my blue-haired friends were making bank in IT. The prereqs for the IT MA were the same as the AA, so I grabbed the paper.
4) JD: when the tech sector dropped out and my blue haired friends were taking lower jobs and losing their houses, I was having an awful time working for a lazy woman who saw me as a threat and was trying to get rid of me...I was taking the LSAT without a prep course, and looking for a job like mad. I landed both my USDA job and got into GMU Law at the same time. My plan was to quit whichever was harder, but I was too greedy and hoarded my leave in case I needed it and ... I failed at quitting. I also failed, for the first time, to graduate with honors (was close, but working and school was just too much).
So the sum is I was drifting around, willing to work on things in front of me, but too lazy to properly research anything so many of my efforts were wasted. I drifted around directionless and only had some mild achievements through sheer tenacity and failing to quit, when I could have made far more with 10% of my efforts in making sure what I was working on was a good idea.
