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I guess I'll go for licensed clinical social worker like my mom wants me to. It can't be THAT bad, and I hear they make about what engineers make, anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic Qwan
I want money...enough that I can go hide out somewhere and do what I want on my own terms when I feel like it. I'm looking for something I can use to make enough money to retire when I'm middle aged or that provides a pension...THEN I might do one of those things I feel like doing.
A social worker is kinda by definition involved in "social" stuff, so you really wouldn't be able to "hide out somewhere and...." You also say that you don't want to deal with "mean" people in your OP. Social workers exist to help deal with other people's issues. This just doesn't look like a good fit for you.
ETA: plus, even in the Federal government, social workers do not make what engineers make. Plus, there aren't all that many positions, and intense competition for the jobs that are available. Plus, there is that little thing about military veterans getting preference. Are you a vet?
Now this is getting silly. OP wants a high paying job that uses skills they don't have, with no real work to do?
This is not unusual. I can count at least 5 threads in the last few months with the same general idea: I have no specific skills, I don't really feel like working hard to learn them, but I want a no-stress job that pays 70-80K/yr.
I dislike standing on my feet all day, being scolded for overlooking details (I have innattentive ADHD, without the hyperactivity), and dealing with unpleasant customers.
Go see a psychiatrist and get a prescription for Vyvanse or similar ADHD drug. You should do that regardless of any career change decisions you might make.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic Qwan
I guess I'll go for licensed clinical social worker like my mom wants me to. It can't be THAT bad, and I hear they make about what engineers make, anyway.
Do what you want, not what your Mom wants. Social workers are pretty low on the pay scale, even at the Federal level. If you are a decent programmer, you can do quite well, formal degree or not. Only about a third of my colleagues in a major company IT department have actual IT degrees.
I guess I'll go for licensed clinical social worker like my mom wants me to. It can't be THAT bad, and I hear they make about what engineers make, anyway.
There are a million kinds of engineers...a quick perusal on the same website usually listed $50k or more to start as a minimum, depending on type...and I'm surprised it's not a bigger gap than that.
Go see a psychiatrist and get a prescription for Vyvanse or similar ADHD drug. You should do that regardless of any career change decisions you might make.
Do what you want, not what your Mom wants. Social workers are pretty low on the pay scale, even at the Federal level. If you are a decent programmer, you can do quite well, formal degree or not. Only about a third of my colleagues in a major company IT department have actual IT degrees.
I was on adhd meds most of my childhood. They made little to no positive difference except they made me really emotional. No, I'm not a veteran, but if I can get a medical waiver for my medical history and can lose some weight, I will be...hopefully. I just hope that after I get in shape, my waiver is approved, since it will open my life options back up. The only good things I can see with social work is it has a higher earning potential than pharmacy tech, and its not too physically demanding.
Last edited by Magic Qwan; 12-23-2017 at 12:04 PM..
Github, github, github. If an employer likes what they see on your github ( contribution to projects as well as your own projects) they don't care what degree you have.
Not true.
At some start ups, they won't care. But you'll need more than GitHub.
But at MOST tech companies, mosts of the programmer will have degrees in CS, math, physics, etc.
One of the best mechanical engineers I worked with had his degree in marine biology. The part of his education he used was in how to think and reason. Right now there is no curriculum for the field with the best jobs ten years from now. No one is teaching the preferred computer languages of the next decade. These things will be invented as we go along, by the people working in the field.
This looks like a good place to jump in.
I have a degree in marine biology.
There are two things about my work with computers that I would say are extremely useful.
The first is that I have a way of understanding how the computer "sees" the data. Which comes to the second item in that I am rather good of turning real life events into numbers so the computer can then understand what is going on.
My strong language is C (not ++ or more, but just C). I use it for number crunching, I have used for turning "ancient" processes into files that other systems could then understand.
For example, as a proof of concept, I wrote a C program to track an oil spill point over a distance for the winds and over the hours. I wrote the program in C using equations out of a Bowditch (that's a nautical manual) and it made a file that ARCGIS could then use to produce map projections.
It was a very simple program and not that realistic. If it was realistic, it would have worked in sea state, the type of oil spilled, currents, how much the slick dispersed, and perhaps even when the slick could not be ignited. As a proof of concept, however, it worked.
Look at a table, say of wave characteristics for the wind speed. Can you generate equations from the different factors? That for this wind speed, the height of the wave should be that while the trough should be this? These are great skills to have.
Learn ways to translate the real world to how a computer sees it. Then you can learn any language to accomplish it.
To answer, however, your question directly. Visual Basic and Python are good languages. They work with ARCGIS.
Startups are not the places to hide out if you just want to relax and take it easy. The work is often demanding and you will have to wear many hats.
If you want to take it easy and do nothing in the tech field, a large Fortune 500 company is the way to go. However, it's not every job. You have to be lucky and usually be at that job for a few years. These companies are so large, sometimes they forget what some people do and just leave them alone without projects for a few years. If there is a layoff, you will be the first one on the chopping block though.
Counseling, to me, doesn't seem like a field you should go into on the basis of someone else telling you to. That's pretty draining work, if it's not your thing (and it can still be emotionally draining, even if it is your passion!).
Programming and counseling are pretty disparate fields, too--what's driving you to programming, in particular? The field's flexibility in terms of self-study, or because you like the concept? Programming is very amenable to self-study (I have a psych degree and switched over), but I also think it's one of things you have to really like. The poster above mentioned github--having projects to put on github requires you to like it enough that it's not just a 9-5, "got the bare minimum done" sort of thing.
Rather what you don't like about your current job, what aspects of your job (or things you've studied) do you really, truly enjoy?
I like turning angry, bitter people into happy people. Ironically, the part I dislike most about the job is trying to do that a failing, which happens a third or so of the time I attempt to help somebody. I'm was always somewhat sensitive, and its always been draining to try to help somebody and they don't appreciate what I did for them. The rest of the job is kinda of bad. Insurance does anything they can NOT to help people and after 5 years on the job, insurance still confuses me. Also, when I'm in the back part of the pharmacy retrieving and counting pills, I don't like that because it's repetitive and I end up taking forever finding the medicines (even if I know a store, I overlook things because things move with inventory and I've never been very good at picking out things in my environment). That said, I gravitate towards the front of the pharmacy because I'm relatively better working with people. What's really bad is when I'm trying to make sure one person is fully taken care of and isn't getting screwed over by either the pharmacy or the insurance company, since I am usually pretty compliant with my bosses, but I like to be open about the pros and cons of different things to help people decide what's best for them instead of just pushing every money-making thing under the sun, and somebody else in line at the pharmacy gets all pissy about it taking too long. I suppose my problem is less not liking people and more just needing a brief break from people. In that sense, school social work could be alright since I will be working more one on one with students and there is a break period built into the work schedule.
My mother is a high ranking school official and she has always been one who says "I work with social workers and your persona fits a social worker better than it fits a teacher."
One thing that draws me to programming is that it is a cottage industry I can take anywhere. I can work two hours, take a 1 hour break to walk/jog and grab a coffee and snack, work another 2 hours, do a 30 minute power nap, work another 2 hours, ect. I could travel places, and when I need money, rustle something up over the internet and refuel my bank account. That is very appealing to me. As much as I want a stable income, outside of work, I like flexibility and variety and a chance to explore things instead of getting stuck in a rut.
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