How To Even Know About Diff Jobs/Careers...How Did You Get Into Your Line Of Work?
04-02-2014, 11:18 AM
Alot of my buddies come to me for advice. I was talking to a buddy the other day who's looking for jobs. It brought up an interesting point. If you went to school for accounting obviously you go into accounting. Granted there's diff types of accounting but your going to be an accountant doing books or working with numbers or auditing.
Someone like myself or others who have degrees in things like communications which really isn't geared towards anything. You can really sell yourself into any business job but hwo does one even know about all the jobs out there?
Granted there's some jobs which will be the same at every company. An account manager manages accounts and is the liason between clients and the company. Analytics does analytics on whatever the industry is.
Just for example, I have a buddy who rents out rail cars to transport chemicals, grains, all types of stuff across the country. He also repairs them, handles border crossings, etc. He really seems to like his job, it's a good job. He got into it because his dad worked at the company.
I think most people probably get in somewhere because of connections or know somebody. To someone starting out fresh out of college with a clean slate and a vague degree how to even know what to look for?
I doubt anybody comes out of college saying I want to rent and manage container cars for trains. Having no reason to look into the industry I never even thought about the fact people who transport on trains need to get the cars somewhere, someone needs to give them a rate and manage it for them, someone needs to clean the cars after use.
I guess I'm always just kind of surprsied when I hear people with some jobs and like man how did you ever think I wanna get into that or even know that job existed. I guess most of us either have a connection through family, friends or colleages or just browse job boards, career builder, etc. but when your trying to think what are my strengths, what would I be good at, what would I enjoy doing or be passionate about. I wish in high school and college there was more exposure to diff careers, jobs, etc. Granted there are internships but most people who do one do maybe one in college not a ton of experience of trying out jobs and seeing whats out there.
I guess I should begin. I probbaly would have been better suited to the trades or enjoyed it more. I also always thought teaching would be a good fit for me. I wound up going into business basically because you always hear people say teachers make crap even though I have two cousins making like 70k and 100k just a few years in. Granted we live in a good school district. I basically wanted to make money so followed my dadds footsteps and went into business. Not really realizing only sales guys really make big money, otherwise most come out of college making like 30k or 35k for an entry level job. My dad worked in tv and web analytics so I went into the same thing, as did my sister. I never really explored anything else, just kidn of went to something I was familiar with, knew someone doing and knew a little about.
I sort of wish I would have went into teaching. I had jobs teaching during college sorta enjoyed it, more laid back atmosphere than business, plus I like having side hustles, worklife balance, freetime. Teacher you out of work early, plenty of time off during the year as well as summers, could easily have a second business on the side and plenty of time to travel and do fun stuff. It's a hard thing to get back into. It's not like other things where you can take night classes while your working. Teaching no way around student teaching which is 6 months, technically not supposed to have another job, and have to pay the school to monitor your student teaching. I can't afford nor do I want to be out fo work for 6 months while paying for school.
Someone like myself or others who have degrees in things like communications which really isn't geared towards anything. You can really sell yourself into any business job but hwo does one even know about all the jobs out there?
Granted there's some jobs which will be the same at every company. An account manager manages accounts and is the liason between clients and the company. Analytics does analytics on whatever the industry is.
Just for example, I have a buddy who rents out rail cars to transport chemicals, grains, all types of stuff across the country. He also repairs them, handles border crossings, etc. He really seems to like his job, it's a good job. He got into it because his dad worked at the company.
I think most people probably get in somewhere because of connections or know somebody. To someone starting out fresh out of college with a clean slate and a vague degree how to even know what to look for?
I doubt anybody comes out of college saying I want to rent and manage container cars for trains. Having no reason to look into the industry I never even thought about the fact people who transport on trains need to get the cars somewhere, someone needs to give them a rate and manage it for them, someone needs to clean the cars after use.
I guess I'm always just kind of surprsied when I hear people with some jobs and like man how did you ever think I wanna get into that or even know that job existed. I guess most of us either have a connection through family, friends or colleages or just browse job boards, career builder, etc. but when your trying to think what are my strengths, what would I be good at, what would I enjoy doing or be passionate about. I wish in high school and college there was more exposure to diff careers, jobs, etc. Granted there are internships but most people who do one do maybe one in college not a ton of experience of trying out jobs and seeing whats out there.
I guess I should begin. I probbaly would have been better suited to the trades or enjoyed it more. I also always thought teaching would be a good fit for me. I wound up going into business basically because you always hear people say teachers make crap even though I have two cousins making like 70k and 100k just a few years in. Granted we live in a good school district. I basically wanted to make money so followed my dadds footsteps and went into business. Not really realizing only sales guys really make big money, otherwise most come out of college making like 30k or 35k for an entry level job. My dad worked in tv and web analytics so I went into the same thing, as did my sister. I never really explored anything else, just kidn of went to something I was familiar with, knew someone doing and knew a little about.
I sort of wish I would have went into teaching. I had jobs teaching during college sorta enjoyed it, more laid back atmosphere than business, plus I like having side hustles, worklife balance, freetime. Teacher you out of work early, plenty of time off during the year as well as summers, could easily have a second business on the side and plenty of time to travel and do fun stuff. It's a hard thing to get back into. It's not like other things where you can take night classes while your working. Teaching no way around student teaching which is 6 months, technically not supposed to have another job, and have to pay the school to monitor your student teaching. I can't afford nor do I want to be out fo work for 6 months while paying for school.