...are back! i'm going back to school. i've done my first two years, and accomplished my basic requirements through either class completion or CLEP exams. i had a psychology focus, to which i'm considering going back. i'm just feeling pretty lost as to what to do with myself. i'm concerned (as i was a few years ago) that a career in the psych field will push me over the edge to total-crazy, and/or that i may not be able to just leave the job at work without taking it home with me emotionally.

i really like the idea of working with people, examining their feelings, trying to understand what makes them tick. all the basics of the field. but what if i end up only being able to work in a sector that handles abused children, or burn victims, or something else totally heinous that i wouldn't be able to leave behind once i left my office for the day? my cousin just received her master's in clinical psychology, and makes $40k/year at a second-level position at a boston hospital, mostly filing paperwork for the resident psychologist on payroll. unfuckingbelievable!

today is the day i spend figuring out if this really is how i want to continue my education. it's definitely my strongest inclination when i take into account what i want to do and what interests me most (aside from love and sex) in this boring world of ours. however, most of the jobs available in new england as of today require a master's, and sometimes a doctorate. what the fuck? i guess i'm never having children.

One whole day. You'll make a great psych.

i know, right?!

I am heading back to finish out my BA next fall. I am thinking something marketable.

I thought going back to school would solve my problems by nailing me down into one field that I could grow into.
Now I'm dead broke and deeply in debt and I have nailed myself into my own coffin where only my hair and fingernails can grow and even then for only a few days.

I wouldn't say don't go back to school. There's nothing more personally satisfying and ultimately position-improving than learning.
But I will say make sure you are independently interested in the field or your life will become an evil hell of drowning graveyard suffocation.

and of course, that's my biggest worry.

i want to make money doing something i enjoy, or at least that greatly interests me. what a conundrum!

I thought this thread was about one day uni courses, it took me longer than it should've to understand.


Anyway, congrats.

and of course, that's my biggest worry.

i want to make money doing something i enjoy, or at least that greatly interests me. what a conundrum!

do some work shadowing..?

and of course, that's my biggest worry.

i want to make money doing something i enjoy, or at least that greatly interests me. what a conundrum!

Porn Star.

Katie,

I know a few people at various ends of the Psychology totem pole.  I think if you are going for a 4-yr degree than Psychology is virtually worthless (and I speak from the experience of having a virtually worthless BA in History).  To make any money in social sciences you have to finish a Masters or Phd program.

My friend Katie (coincidence), has a BA in Psychology and she spent the last year counseling at a reform school in North Carolina for what basically amounts to a bunch of crazy kids who have been abused and are probably future convicts if released on the general population.  One kid bit her arm and she had to get shots, she had physically fight and restrain others during various outbreaks of crazy.  After her year contract she quit and moved back home to try and sort out what to do next.

My best friend Matt, his older sister Lauren is a Phd in Psychology and she is currently working as a clinical psychologist in Cleveland.  She makes bank from what I can tell.

What you posted on your original paragraph or so is right on the money.  If you want to be rich and you want to study Psychology, you have to go all the way to the end.  Period.

If you finish a Bachelor's in Psychology you are either going to be doing something completely undesirable or you are going to be an administrative assistant for a Phd level psychologist with limited input.  All in all, just finishing a four year degree might open up more white collar jobs for you, but likely won't make you any more money than any other average job, and you will have to take on a debt burden to return to school.

The supply of average/meddling/4-yr degree psychologist is enormous and the demand for them is very low, their pay follows.

The supply of doctorate level 7-yr degree psychologists is very low and the demand for their specialized services is very high, and their pay follows.

The people I mentioned are real people, if you want me to link you up to either of them I probably can and they might be able to help you with advice if that's what you are looking at.

I'm conflicted about my university experience for a similar reason.  While I like learning and am grateful for the educational opportunities I had, I do feel hemmed in by the debt I accumulated in paying for said education.  That's a product of both the expense of education & my foolish decisions in the way I financed things.  I lean more towards valuing the knowledge I gained more than regretting the expense most of the time, though.

I think the important thing to weigh with regards to careers is the opportunities they present for the rest of your life - pay, vacation, typical time commitment to the job, retirement, and that sort of thing.  Even your dream job is going to suck eventually - things get boring, there's interpersonal politics any place you work, there will always be tasks that don't make sense/feel like a waste of time, etc.        

if you want me to link you up to either of them I probably can and they might be able to help you with advice if that's what you are looking at.

I hate this.
I should clarify that there's nothing necessarily wrong with it - in fact it's the way life works - and looking at things realistically, networking and linking-up/hooking-up is the next thing to a necessity for career advancement.
That said, I can't stand it. As well-meaning as my friends are and as much good as it would do me personally, I can't help but feel like networking is on the whole intensely fake and that at its core it's an implicit condonation of nepotism. I'm a private (some might say reclusive) person and an idealist who thinks that whatever good works I can perform should be readily self-apparent. If I'm hot shit at my field, others should notice and seek me out on their own and it shouldn't be that the only reason I'm sought is that I'm associated with someone that my seeker is beholden to.

This viewpoint cripples me. My peers are elevated to the top while I struggle at the bottom. Whenever I am lifted by these means (i.e. by connections), I feel like a mongoose's asshole.
I'm not sure there's a point here. I wish I weren't so sensitive to networking and could do it organically.

Even your dream job is going to suck eventually - things get boring, there's interpersonal politics any place you work, there will always be tasks that don't make sense/feel like a waste of time, etc.        

I'd say there will be days when even your dream job sucks. I think if you are genuinely interested in your field then that should get you through periods of suckiness.

Perhaps a better way to put it is that there is no such thing as a "dream job," but there are "dream fields of work." Provided you are involved in an area you like/love, I think this goes a long way to contentment with a job despite individually rough days.

Even your dream job is going to suck eventually - things get boring, there's interpersonal politics any place you work, there will always be tasks that don't make sense/feel like a waste of time, etc.       

I'd say there will be days when even your dream job sucks. I think if you are genuinely interested in your field then that should get you through periods of suckiness.

Perhaps a better way to put it is that there is no such thing as a "dream job," but there are "dream fields of work." Provided you are involved in an area you like/love, I think this goes a long way to contentment with a job despite individually rough days.

I disagree, but that might be because I don't want to be in any field (except maybe a real field a few months of the year to grow my own vegetables).  I think specialization leads to boredom.

That's fair. Heck, my dream is be to be a gentleman scientist - independently wealthy and free to explore the mystery that is nature. Note: I agree, a vegetable-growing field would fit nicely into this picture for me as well.

But given the realities of life, I think specialization in a field you are interested in is better than specializing in a field you don't give a tinker's cuss about. It's true that interests change, but by one's mid-20s, there is already some basis on which to identify general themes of interest at least. I would recommend aiming for these for a career even if the job might suck sometimes. All jobs suck most of the time. They are defined by their impingement on your freedom to work as you like.

This viewpoint cripples me. My peers are elevated to the top while I struggle at the bottom. Whenever I am lifted by these means (i.e. by connections), I feel like a mongoose's asshole.

People are people so why should it be, you and I should get along without networking?

You're good at something?  Really.  How is that demonstrated to others?

Can it be found in your resume?  Can you hand over a project and say "this is what i can do"?  Are you able to point to a physical object and say "i made this"?

All jobs suck most of the time. They are defined by their impingement on your freedom to work as you like.

I pretty much love my job.  Every day, I leave with a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of reward.  So...

i really like the idea of working with people, examining their feelings, trying to understand what makes them tick. all the basics of the field.

You should think about a Marketing degree.  Same kind of thing, but you're trying to understand how they tick to ensure you can sell things to them!

Like healthy diets, dirty sex lives, and everything else you enjoy in life. 

I second Libertine's post.

My girlfriend's sister recently finished a four year psych degree and went to work promptly for the state protecting kids from their parents. After about a year she's tired of her job, but the only way to get anything better is to go back to school, which she'll be doing shortly.

You're good at something?  Really.  How is that demonstrated to others?
Can it be found in your resume?  Can you hand over a project and say "this is what i can do"?  Are you able to point to a physical object and say "i made this"?

The ideal would be that you toil at the bottom along with your peers and before long the wheat and chaff are separated. I'm realistic. I know my issues with networking are ultimately silly.

All jobs suck most of the time. They are defined by their impingement on your freedom to work as you like.

I pretty much love my job.  Every day, I leave with a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of reward.  So...

No. You love your work. Perhaps you love the fact that you're paid for your work, but unless you're completely institutionalized, you're at best indifferent to your job. I'm talking semantics here.

i want to make money doing something i enjoy, or at least that greatly interests me. what a conundrum!

Porn Star.

i don't want to make money fucking more than one person. if i could make money for fucking my boyfriend and my boyfriend alone (without broadcasting our sex life online), of course that would be the ultimate job for me. but alas, at the moment he is not what i'd call wealthy enough for me to be put on his payroll, especially just for simply doing what i want to do to him anyway. it would be both selfish and detrimental to the future of our savings.

i need to get a job with good salary and benefits. i don't mind working hard in classes, and supporting myself by continuing to work in the bar/food service for another few years. i just don't want to sign up for something that in reality requires multiple levels of degrees and 10 years of my life to complete. i could be a nurse like many of the other girls i know who had a mid-20's life crisis, but that would mean blood, maybe some guts, and at least a year or so of changing bedpans at a nursing home. no. thank. you.

No. You love your work. Perhaps you love the fact that you're paid for your work, but unless you're completely institutionalized, you're at best indifferent to your job. I'm talking semantics here.

i'm not sure i understand your distinction.

i don't want to make money fucking more than one person. if i could make money for fucking my boyfriend and my boyfriend alone (without broadcasting our sex life online), of course that would be the ultimate job for me. but alas, at the moment he is not what i'd call wealthy enough for me to be put on his payroll, especially just for simply doing what i want to do to him anyway. it would be both selfish and detrimental to the future of our savings.

This, paired with your comment about being a mommy, makes me just wonder if the women's liberation movement last century didn't do some collateral damage.

Why do you NEED a career, or even a job?  What about being a loving mom & cock-crazy housewife?

It just seems to me that you're despairing over finding some direction in life, but I don't understand why you picked this particular path.  Do you think you'll need a job outside of your family to be fulfilled in life?

No. You love your work. Perhaps you love the fact that you're paid for your work, but unless you're completely institutionalized, you're at best indifferent to your job. I'm talking semantics here.

i'm not sure i understand your distinction.

By "job" I mean paid-for duty. You have obligations with jobs. You have to report to superiors. You have to come in when you feel like going to the beach. You have to produce output even when you're in a productive dry spell.
By work I mean exertion toward an end. Work isn't necessarily useful to society at large, but it can be.

I'm arguing that rather than throwing up your hands and seeking out the job that offers the best frills (vacation, pay, medical, etc) irrespective of the field of work, you should look for the best job within your favorite field of work. I think you get more satisfaction that way even if the jobness of the occupation can be a drag at times.

By "job" I mean paid-for duty. You have obligations with jobs. You have to report to superiors. You have to come in when you feel like going to the beach. You have to produce output even when you're in a productive dry spell.
By work I mean exertion toward an end. Work isn't necessarily useful to society at large, but it can be.

I'm arguing that rather than throwing up your hands and seeking out the job that offers the best frills (vacation, pay, medical, etc) irrespective of the field of work, you should look for the best job within your favorite field of work. I think you get more satisfaction that way even if the jobness of the occupation can be a drag at times.

Well, to date - and I could still be in an honeymoon period - I actually do quite like my job AND work.

But then, I will just call in and say "I want to go to the beach" if I want to go to the beach, and I can't think of the last time I was in a productive dry-spell, so...

All jobs suck most of the time.

Well, to date - and I could still be in an honeymoon period - I actually do quite like my job AND work.

I was perhaps a bit too broad. A person can be indifferent to a job if it meshes well with what he wants to do. This goes to my point about looking for a job within your field of interest rather than looking for any old job provided it allows him to get the most out of his non-job life. It's just the concept of a job that is unpleasant. In practice they hopefully aren't so bad.

But then, I will just call in and say "I want to go to the beach" if I want to go to the beach

What are you self-employed? Those "jobs" are certainly fine.
Or do you mean you can take one of the finite number of vacation days allotted to you?
Or is it really your employer's lax requirements that you like?
I can't imagine anyone being enthused about the fact that there are obligations imposed on them.
I mean come on: "Yay! There will be times when... like it or not... I am required to perform! Whee!"
That's institutionalism (or Stockholm syndrome maybe).

I'm not self-employed.  I'm just very valuable.

I'm definitely able to take off days more than what's allotted to me, due to that value.
And that generally ends up being true where ever I work, because I... network!    ...and I make sure to advertise the things I do which add value.

Maybe I'm institutionalized, because when I go into the office, it's not a burden.  It's a part of my life.
For example:  not going to work today - so that I can clean up my house for Mosh's visit (!!) - has felt pretty weird.

I would have guessed that your field of interest and the demands of the job just overlap.

And yeah, I was going to mention networking in the last post. I don't do that so maybe my advice is only applicable to one like me.

What, you mean you dont live that Brady Bunch spotless house lifestyle normally???

Shame, Lucas, shame!

And yeah, I was going to mention networking in the last post. I don't do that so maybe my advice is only applicable to one like me.

It took me some kind of psychological shift to get to the place where I'm okay with shouting about my skills like a whore on a street corner.  But I get a lot more business that way. 

What, you mean you dont live that Brady Bunch spotless house lifestyle normally???

Sasha won't even come to my house anymore, it's so un-Brady.