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leifman7...sorry, but you said your only work experience is making pizzas and fast food and it took you 4 months to get a job a Jack in the box...you are in debt big time...you didn't origianlly indicate you are wanting to get a PHd and want to work for NASA. I read through the replies and didn't find anyone calling you stupid. You asked for suggestions on how to get out of the life you are in, and a few people gave you suggestions as you requested. Maybe you don't want to work in the oilfields of ND, but the fact of the matter is, that is where all of the BIG $$$ jobs are at and you don't need a lot of experience. I don't think you are going to find many high paying white collar or PHD related jobs without the education and experience. I think what you need to do is find a big paying job with little experience (like the oil field) and then get your debts payed off. And then once you have debts payed off and money in the bank, then concentrate on your PHD. If you are in a slump in northern Nevada working in a "Jack in the Box" and in big financial debt...then I don't think you should be scolding some of the posters who responded to you with suggestions...especially since you invited people for suggestions. It is OBVIOUS that North Dakota is not the place for you...because there are no high paying jobs without experience available in ND...other than the oil field. Good Luck though, because I think you may have problems where ever you plan to go. You really need an attitude adjustment to go along with your life change. Good Luck!
Last edited by Roloff1976; 07-07-2011 at 12:23 PM..
I come on here asking for advice and what I get is people essentially telling me that I'm stupid and should become a trucker. Thanks, but no thanks. To answer some questions, I'm going for my PhD in physics because I want to work for NASA. It's something I've wanted since I was 5 years old. And no, I'm not going to give up on my dream because some random people on a forum told me to give up. Unbelievable...
As far as my intelligence goes, I have a 3.94 GPA and my Calculus instructor told me I have a gift for mathematics.
I guess I won't be moving to ND. If my only option for moving there would be to work in an oil field or as a trucker or some other blue collar job and barely be able to make ends meet, then forget it, I'll have nothing of it. To the people who actually tried to help me and the people who stood up for me, thank you.
This is the last post I will make on this thread.
I strongly suggest to learn a thing or two about glutted labor market for fresh physics Ph.D.s, this is not to discourage, but for you to have a realistic picture of "what it takes" and it takes A LOT to have a Ph.D. career in Physics, an endorsement from a calculus teacher (as uplifting as it is) and high GPA (1 semester?) from an obscure educational establishment doesn't count for much in that game. I don't even remember myself being 5 y.o. not speaking of the dreams I had at that ripe age, so I guess your dream persistence must count for something.
As I said, Ph.D. track grad schools in Sci&Engineering are FREE for the overwhelming majority of Ph.D. students in an exchange for lots of cheap labor 24/7, if you have what it takes to get admitted to a grad school, don't worry about tuition and fast food jobs, your survival basics will be covered (until you are useful that is). Why? Because most of your fellow grad students will be foreigners from poor countries who could never come up with that kind of money . "Native borns" are a minority in Sci&Eng grad schools and for a good reason. Let's say magnitude of an expression "(PayBack/Efforts)*ChancesToSucceed" is very low in that line of business. The lower the rank of a University & Grad School the more Chinese & Indian its Sci&Eng graduate students & faculty look like. Unfortunately, unlike your undergrad university, name of your graduate school matters a lot. It has to be top Ph.D. school not just a graduate school for you to have a good shot at that dream of yours. I seriously doubt North Dakota universities are famous for their graduate physics programs, but who knows, check them out first.
Unfortunately, you don't have an undegrad (with good GPA), you don't have access to loans, you are not independently wealthy, being a trucker etc. is so much below your 3.94 GPA, so what's left?
1) Flipping burgers hoping somebody will see what a jewel you are inside
2) Marrying into wealth
3) Inheriting wealth
4) Playing lottery
5) Enlisting
6) Discovering&Polishing some other money making talents you are not aware of yet
i am proud of you ! BECAUSE YOU DO HAVE A JOB AND YOU WORK, that alone is something.Plus you are doing something very smart ,asking for adivse, maybe just not from the right people. good luck.
I come on here asking for advice and what I get is people essentially telling me that I'm stupid and should become a trucker. Thanks, but no thanks. To answer some questions, I'm going for my PhD in physics because I want to work for NASA. It's something I've wanted since I was 5 years old. And no, I'm not going to give up on my dream because some random people on a forum told me to give up. Unbelievable...
As far as my intelligence goes, I have a 3.94 GPA and my Calculus instructor told me I have a gift for mathematics.
I guess I won't be moving to ND. If my only option for moving there would be to work in an oil field or as a trucker or some other blue collar job and barely be able to make ends meet, then forget it, I'll have nothing of it. To the people who actually tried to help me and the people who stood up for me, thank you.
This is the last post I will make on this thread.
That's too bad, but I agree with Roloff.
To be honest, your attitude about blue collar jobs means that North Dakota is definitely not the right place for you. Most people here are blue collar and they're OK with that, not only that but they're making great money working blue collar jobs.
Your assumptions are ridiculous, if you'd spent even a fraction of time on this board you'd see that anyone who's struggling to make ends meet up here is choosing too. There are way too many decent paying jobs in this area.
With your high GPA and knowledge I'm guessing you would've been able to use the search feature on this forum to have found the information you were looking for without even having to ask in the first place.
I come on here asking for advice and what I get is people essentially telling me that I'm stupid and should become a trucker.
I think you have completely misinterpreted my well-meaning and benevolent post, which was filled with generous amounts of advice, learned wisdom, and links for further exploration. I took time to write it out of the goodness of my own heart because I feel badly for young people today (and my sense of justice compels me to combat the current higher education scam in this country). I hope that you will turn down your sensitivity meter, stop taking Internet posts so personally, and reread my post.
Food for thought. Who is more "stupid"?
The 25 year-old lawyer who graduated from the nation's 40th most prestigious law school with a 3.4 GPA (not bad) but who has $200,000 of non-dischargeable (in bankruptcy) student loan debt and no job (because the field is heavily over-saturated), who is now overqualified and unemployable for other white collar jobs and who lives at home with his parents and suffers suicidal thoughts and extreme feelings of inferiority, frustration, anger, and disappointment, OR
The local welder (truck driver, plumber, auto mechanic, etc.) who has zero (or minimal) dollars worth of student loan debt, who earns $35,000/year with benefits and who has been earning that kind of money since age 20? The welder does believe that the grass is greener on the other side and he wishes that he had gone to college, mistakenly believing that all college graduates are rich.
You can conduct this same sort of analysis for the 17 million people who went to college and who are either unemployed or who work low-wage jobs that make no use of a college education. Who is going to end up having the better life--the person who is loaded up with student loan debt or the person who is working a blue collar skilled trade? Who made the smarter choices in life?
Don't be so offended by the question of whether it makes more sense to learn a skilled trade. This is becoming a bigger and bigger issue as tuition prices increase and as job opportunities for college graduates decrease.
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Thanks, but no thanks. To answer some your questions, I'm going for my PhD in physics because I want to work for NASA. It's something I've wanted since I was 5 years old. And no, I'm not going to give up on my dream because some random people on a forum told me to give up. Unbelievable...
As far as my intelligence goes, I have a 3.94 GPA and my Calculus instructor told me I have a gift for mathematics.
If you have a deep love of the subject and if random strangers on an Internet forum who are posting links to news articles reporting a lack of jobs for scientists doesn't deter you, then you may be one of the few people for whom a PhD in physics might actually make sense. Just spend some time researching the job market and career options for physics PhD's if you haven't done so already so that you have a full understanding of what you're getting into. I also recommend the book "A Ph.D. Is Not Enough", which you should definitely read before beginning graduate study. Heck, read it before starting undergraduate study.
Do NOT do your graduate study in North Dakota. A science PhD from some no-name (in the science community) university in North Dakota will have almost no professional value. If you're going to get your PhD. you want to do it at the most prestigious university you can gain admission to in the field (Berkeley perhaps?) working for a very well known and respected professor who has a ton of grant money and professional connections (which he might be able to use to help you get a job if he likes you after you matriculate). Whether or not it would make sense to do undergraduate study here is debatable; it might make more sense to do it at a large research university with a very active physics department where you would have the opportunity to do undergraduate research and to mix with graduate students. (For context, I have a Masters degree in a hard science, so I know a little bit about how graduate science education works.)
Do note that part of growing up and maturing (which is a lifelong process) is questioning the feasibility and practicality of childhood dreams. Aspiring to work for NASA is a nice dream, but is it realistic? A dream can be difficult to achieve when it is so specific and limited to a single employer. What happens if you rub the NASA interviewer the wrong way, or what if you pissed off someone years ago who works for the guy who makes the hiring decisions? (These things happen.) NASA is soon going to lay off a couple thousand people, and I wouldn't be surprised if many of them have physics degrees or aeronautical engineering type degrees. With the way our nation's economy is going, will there even be a NASA in 10 or 15 years?
I think Dale Carnegie once said something to effect that to have a good life, you need to find something you are good at that you like doing and for which there is a good job/employment market. My point is--don't be offended because someone offers you well-intentioned advice that just may contain some life-experience-based learned nugget of wisdom.
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I guess I won't be moving to ND. If my only option for moving there would be to work in an oil field or as a trucker or some other blue collar job and barely be able to make ends meet, then forget it, I'll have nothing of it. To the people who actually tried to help me and the people who stood up for me, thank you.
If you're looking for a job to work while going to school, what kind of job do you have in mind? You probably wouldn't be able to find much other than retail service jobs as a college student in any location in today's economy.
I have no idea what you would do with a BS or PhD. in Physics in North Dakota. That doesn't mean that there isn't something to do with it, just that I don't know what, other than to teach at a high school (probably low pay) or one of the colleges (for which getting a job is probably very competitive, even in North Dakota). It may be possible that the oil industry would have some sort of a need, but what specifically they could use a physicist for, I don't know.
Last edited by Bhaalspawn; 07-13-2011 at 07:26 AM..
If I may say so, Bhaalspawn has some good points, however, I must disagree with how those points are being presented. Here is a young man that is trying to better his life and a few times, negative comments were made about his character ("Based on your post, I don't think you're PhD. material..."). I don't see how his post makes anyone see how he may not be PHD material.
It's difficult to judge based on a couple sentences in an Internet post, so maintain that context. I said, "based on your post" which isn't something that should necessarily be taken seriously in proper context.
Generally, people who succeed with PhDs or science PhDs complete their undergraduate studies within a few years after they graduate from high school, normally going directly from high school to a four year university, and then they go directly to graduate school, matriculating with their PhDs in their mid-twenties, allowing them to work tirelessly at post-docs before they have large financial obligations or would be at an age where they want to have children.
Also, keep in mind that PhD job markets are very, very competitive, especially in the humanities. He didn't say what kind of PhD he wanted in his first post, so I assumed he wanted one in the humanities. Basically, if you didn't go to a four year university directly out of high school either with loans or a scholarship, then you really might not be PhD material--at least not successful PhD material.
He said he has a 3.94 GPA (at a community college?) and is good at math, so it's possible that he might succeed if he has a deep passion for physics. But, I am skeptical of someone who didn't go directly to a four year university out of high school. In high school, a person who could be successful PhD material would have recognized his gifts and plotted a course for a four year degree, enrolling in the Fall semester after high school graduation, funding it with federal student loans.
That's just my take on it. Is it touchy-feely? Is it politically correct? No, but the real world isn't touchy-feely and political correctness and conventional wisdom aren't always reflections of hard reality. It's just my opinion as someone who has an MS in Chemistry and who knows a little bit about higher education and graduate study. Take it for what it's worth. I acknowledge that I may be completely wrong and that it's just my opinion. I really don't mean to argue or to come off as a troll; I'm just trying to provide thoughtful advice and analysis.
Hi all, I'm interested in anyone's take on the possibility of coming to Williston or some of the surrounding areas and starting a home services business. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, that sort of thing. Anyone have any thoughts? Jobs are very scarce in MN right now and would like to independently work for a couple of years. Would be interested also in construction cleaning of new houses. Thanks for your thoughts.
I am looking to move to North Dakota and have read about the pros and cons of the state. None of those bother me because the money outweighs all the bad. Would it be better to move and then look for a job or get acquire a job before moving? I am looking to get a job in the oil field. I'd be grateful for any help. Thanks in advance.
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. "Native borns" are a minority in Sci&Eng grad schools and for a good reason. Let's say magnitude of an expression "(PayBack/Efforts)*ChancesToSucceed" is very low in that line of business. The lower the rank of a University & Grad School the more Chinese & Indian its Sci&Eng graduate students & faculty look like. Unfortunately, unlike your undergrad university, name of your graduate school matters a lot. It has to be top Ph.D. school not just a graduate school for you to have a good shot at that dream of yours. I seriously doubt North Dakota universities are famous for their graduate physics programs, but who knows, check them out first.
Working in ND
