Help 47 yr old man decide on degree?

It sounds like you've got a solution without a problem. Or, more precisely, like you're planning on going back to school without knowing why. If, as you say, it feels good, then that may be all the reason you need; but that won't necessarily help with a career path.

Thinking of a sheepskin as a "tool" is good; but the kind of tool you need depends on the job you're trying to do. I'll offer you the same advice I typically give youngsters and high-schoolers facing college choices and career path decisions.

First, find out what you really, REALLY want to do with the irreplaceable hours and days and years that ARE your life. If you don't get that part right, then nothing else will matter. Think about something you'd be proud to do, would enjoy every day for a long, long time, and could be passionate about, regardless of whether it offered any other rewards. Owning your own business isn't it. That's just another way of saying that you're not happy with whatever you're doing now; but don't have any clue about something you'd like better.

Read, think, or just go get whatever jobs you can find in fields that you think might be interesting. And I mean WHATEVER jobs you can get, in ANY field that looks like it might make sense. It might seem strange that a 47 year old man would take a job as a second assistant paper pusher in a dentist's office, for example; but I'll guarantee you'd learn more about the real world of dentistry in the first week on that job than you could learn in ten years of standing OUTSIDE the dentist's office wondering or guessing what goes on behind the door.

Talk to people about what they do - in detail, not just generalities. FIND SOMETHING that you'd love, that you want to be good at (even if you aren't at the moment). And THEN take whatever steps, including education, that will help you make a career in that field.

Think about it this way: If I could plug a USB cable into the back of your head, and just MAKE you educated, experienced, and capable at anything you wanted, what would it be? If you're like most people, there are countless possibilities that wouldn't make you happy at all. And, if something doesn't make you happy - if it doesn't challenge and excite and motivate you, then you probably won't work hard enough, or master it well enough, that it'll pay you much money either.

And if you name some non-specific thing like "owning your own business", then don't expect to be real satisfied with the results of that, either. What KIND of business is what matters, and what you do with your ownership of it. Those things work the same as with any other job description. The name on the stock certificates doesn't matter as much as what gets done in a typical workday.

And when you CAN tell me what to upload through the cable, then you'll already know the most important part. And after that, education, work experience, or whatever, will serve just as well as an instant upload. Better, actually, because the process of growing into a career is often more important, as as much fun, as the career itself.

In case it matters, I'm 53. I'm self employed. I design and build CNC metalcutting machinery. And I wouldn't do anything else if you put a gun to my head. And I got where I am by doing things I loved and cared about. The years I spent in college, actually, were some of the hardest years, because all the time in school got in the way of work. And I loved my work. I loved it 35 years ago. I loved it this afternoon. And I'll love it tomorrow, too. And the rest of my life benefits every minute from the fact that I'm happy about what I do for a living.

Answer the important question first. THEN all the other stuff will be easy, no matter how hard it is, or how long it takes.

Just my two cents worth. Hope it helps.

KG

snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net wrote:

If you feel the deep interest inside you, go for it, and you'll love it. Have an open mind, making adjustments if necessary, as this is something new to you, and as you'll also have to look for opportunities.

My situation is not quite the same as yours as I am 64 and retired. The similarity is that I made a big switch to go for something which I like. I end up being a sculptor. I am working very hard on it as this has become my passion.

wrote ..

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The going back to school part makes sense. I don't know about deciding

*now* what you are going to specialize in making sense.

Here's how I see it. for one, an engineering degree is a four year (at least) undertaking, and I've known plenty of college people who don't really decide their major until the end of sophomore year. Not that I reccommend that practice, but the bacc core classes are pretty much the same.(not the math and physics stuff, though)

I went back to school, for mechanical engineering, when I was about 29. I was laid off from an inventory auditing job when the plant closed; and truth be told, though it paid the bills fine, it was boring as hell and in my opinion a trained monkey could have done it fairly well.

I had good unemployment bennies for about 6 months, so I decided to explore re-educating myself. Luckily, I saw a career counselor at the nearby community college who was perceptive and helpful. I told her my interests- math, science, machinery and mechanics- and my personality traits- precise, organized, a good communicator- and she said, "consider engineering". I researched it, and was focused on M.E. from day one back in school.

Maybe see a career counselor, or take an aptitude test, or just look inside and say "what feels right? what could I do every day for the rest of my life and love doing?"

I am about to graduate this winter with a degree in ME from a good school. It's been really tough, sometimes, as I have more responsibilities than some of the college kids with no family or other obligations, but never have I regretted choosing this path. I get more and more fascinated with my chosen field of specialization the more i learn about it, which is thermodynamics and power generation. I love studying this stuff and can't wait to work in the field with it.

If you don't feel like that about engineering, the incredible amount of work required to get a degree might not feel worth it. If you do, though, you will learn lots of really cool stuff and have a very worthwhile degree at the end.

my four cents, anyway, boiling down to 'find what you love and do it".

k wallace

If your goal is to eventually work for yourself as an engineer, you may want to reconsider being self employed. I say this because a BS in engineering will take at least 4 years to obtain. Then, if you want to work for yourself you will need to get a Professional Engineering license. To get the license you have to pass the Fundamentals of Engineering and the Professional Engineering License exams. You also will have to have 4 years of experience, in most states, before you can get licensed. Unless you develop some specialty very quickly, there aren't very many companies that would contract with you until you do get your license.

If you were 20 years younger, I would say go for it, but since you would be

10 to 15 years away from retirement once you got licensed I would be concerned.

You would be better off with a drafting degree, but I don't know how good the market is for people trying to be self employed.

You may also want to go to a college or university and observe some of the engineering students. Engineers and scientists tend to have a different personality type than the rest of the world. You may want to see if you can identify with them, or if they scare you. If their world seems very foreign, maybe you should go with one of your other options.

Without regard to where you will work, or what you will do, try selecting the set of courses that are MOST interesting to you.

When all done, stand back and see where that takes you.

You'd be amazed how simple that can show you what you already know.

Or, slightly "shift" the direction you were going.

- Robert -

Thanks for the input K

yes I'm probably getting ahead of myself on the "path" as I'm just starting. Heck I don't even have a two year degree yet. Only a handful of credits.

Matter of fact I went up and talked to the counselor this PM

She has convinced me to forget accounting for now.. Said that is best taken later anyway so its fresh in your mind when transferring to a four year school.

Looks like I will be taking the following:

college algebra psychology econ 102

I've already had econ 101 so hate to NOT take econ 102.

Question for you tho. Did you START at a two year college and then transfer? If yes.... how was the transition to the bigger school (4 yr)?

Looking back now do you wish you'd just started in the four year school to begin with?

And....what kind of job do you see yourself doing when graduating? Working in a power plant?

Thanks for advice Robert

I will consider doing that

I think some of my problem is finding TOO many things interesting

Heck I even thought abt an English degree.

Reason being cause as I get older I'm drawn more to people and philosophy rather than gadgets and "things"

Hence my concerns if engineering really IS for me.

No....I guess I should reword that

My goal would be to work for myself in ANY form.... but not as an engineer.

Example.... I might own rental housing or storage units or a car wash.... work for myself

But have the engineering degree to "fall back" on if the businesses don't work. To have the engineering degree to sell to the "man". Does that make sense?

yes, I went to a community college,and no I don't wish I'd started at the 4 yr school. I got a really good preparatory education, as far as the theory goes- the classes were smaller, I found a set of friends doing the same things and studied with them. What was not preparatory were two things- the amount of work that I would have to do in my jr/sr years compared to my fresh/soph years- there's NO comparison, my workload has made me totally nuts at times- and the reliance on numerical computation, computer analysis,etc- this really wasn't stressed to the degree (I feel ) it should have been. I got to junior year and had barely heard of mathematica, never heard of Maple or MatLab(which we have used a LOT and I was very behind on compared to the students who'd been at OSU for 4 years). I'd also only been required to take very basic programming classes as requisites. This stuff is what's used now, and really needs to be stressed and taught at the sophomore level, introduced at least.

As far as what do I want to do? Power plant would be okay, I have lots of thoughts regarding the alternative energy industry, but it's still (unfortunately) a niche market. I want to be able to use my thermo, and expand on it, basically. OTOH, I'm doing a VERY cool senior project using computational fluid dynamics to model the heat-sink capabilities of a fractal-geometried object, and it may work out really well. My advisor on that project would like to see me stay for grad school, but the reality is I am way in debt, which is not comfortable for me, and I want to get back to work and maybe get a MS later.

HTH, k wallace

um...not to me. An engineering degree is a S**TLOAD of work; why anyone who doesn't really really REALLY want to do it, would bother undertaking it, is beyond me. IOW, if you don't love it, don't do it. Being self-employed has its perks- my ex and I used to own a landscaping business, and there were good things about being the boss(es). But...we put in 60+ hours a week each and netted, our best year, 40 K. So, owning "a business" can be great, or it can suck; generally it does a little of both. IMO of course. k wallace

An engineering degree is not a "fall back" type of career field. You should look elsewhere for that type of degree. You should consider a degree that is non-technical or does not have any aspect that changes from year to year, unless your self employment deals with it directly.

Point taken

But what degree would that be? Especially the part where the "aspect" of that degree doesn't change from year to year.

By that do you mean that in a tech degree such as computers or engineering what Id learn at college would be outdated in a few tears after graduating?

And that something like and English degree would NOT be?

Business, law, economics, pharmacy, health services have staying power.

Brian Whatcott Altus, OK

Yes. My wife has a degree in English, and she was able stop working as an editor for a couple of years, then go right back into it without any problems.

With engineering or many technical degrees, you would be far enough out of touch with the current technology that you would be worth less than a college intern. Let me put it this way, if I was hiring somebody for a technical position, and they had a 5 year gap where they did not work in that technical field, I would hold that against them. The reason that I would hold that against them is because I would consider them seriously out of practice, and not up to date on the current technology.

The more I think about what you want to do, the more I would encourage you to get a degree that would help you with your self employment desires. If you want to own and run a self storage place, maybe you should get a business degree.

Point very well taken. Make sense too. Maybe I should avoid engineering or any filed that changes on daily basis.

Possibly. Ill sleep on it

Its early still....and most of the classes I'm taking this fall pretty much cover ANY direction I go

So far I'm taking college algebra, psychology, Accounting 101, and Econ 102

Advice on those classes?

You are in the freshman level classes, and they are designed to do two things. First they give you a sanitized look at that career field. Second, the freshman and sophomore level courses often weed out the people who don't have what it takes. Look at what you like to do, and what you want to do with your life and see where they meet. Money should be secondary because if you like what you do, you will be able to do better at it than if you hate what you do.

Interesting choice of classes

MATH -pattern recognition PSYCHOLOGY - why people do what they do ACCOUNTING - keeping track of activity ECON - patterns in business

do you see the direction here?

- Robert -

Umm...... maybe.

What do you see?

Am I a "systems" kind of person? Looking for systems?

the question was a bit "tongue in cheek" like the psychiatrist caricature, "what do *you* think?"

interesting that you brought up systems. more like choreography manipulation than component creation.

- Robert -