I have this dilemma that is making me waste time and need some advise or at least a direction where to move. I have a mess of career and education. The way I understood things were like this: you have to study 2 things: 1 that you like and 1 that can make you money. Of course merging the 2 was the sane thing to do but Im 30 and a bit late for repent.
I did a bachelors in Sociology. Years of punk rock with social and political lyrics and begin a positive/ideologist chap made me believe I could make the difference and change the world. Party and drugs kept me from actually checking out reality the way it is until it was time to look for a job. Soon after graduation I realize there weren’t any jobs with my preparation.
Luckily, all the jobs I had during the BA were in computers and managed to build quite a resume working with some of the best IT companies locally until I realized I could manage to study computers so I did some certifications. Up to this point im saying “fuck punk rock. I should have studied information systems of computer engineer or some computer oriented stuff”.
So we have a guy with a BA in sociology who has worked all his life in IT. Now the question that begs to be answered: How the hell could I merge those 2 things into something preferably on demand? Beign the author of " What is your day job? (If any)" What is your day job? (If any) I have realized theres a lot of super prepared people enough to put you all in an island and make a small superpower. I once read a comment that it said something like “Damn with that preparation I would be doing lots of things!” But at the time I had a good job and not the one I have now…
So if you were in my position, what would you do? I have no family so I could move anywhere in the world… Maybe a dreamjob with those 2 things would be working with Facebook or some social network… but thats just mental farts… Where to begin? Who to ask? Maybe starting from zero? maybe disregard the sociology thing?
You don’t have to merge them. The IT experience can take you wherever you want it to… it will just be harder to get your foot in the door in some places. I have a bachelor’s in Japanese, never took a single IT course, and didn’t even get to be more than just a computer enthusiast until after college. I’m now a programmer.
As I lived in Tokyo, the largest pool of jobs for foreigners other than teaching is securities, so that’s where I went. Got a contract job on a help desk about 11 years ago. The rest is history.
Prolly not the best piece of advice since I’m 25 but here it goes.
The question is, would you like a Sociology related job? or do you feel like it’s something you would do because you have a title? Merging would be nice but don’t take it as the only option. I would, in your place, stay in the IT path.
a lot of people have this dilema during their 40s-50s or even later.
I dropped 2 different careers before realizing music was my thing. No Uni here would teach the studio side of things in a decent academic level so I decided to drop completely and save the money to invest in gear and get a music related job to start gaining experience in the subject and tune my ears. I’ve always preferred to dig info and learn for myself anyway . I’m not making any big bucks but I’m on the happy side.
I might be young and stupid but an office job is not the kind of life I want for me, time will tell if I did the right thing or not.
(sorry for stealing your thread a bit, but felt like sharing )
Unless you find something which really tickles your fancy, whether it be In sociology or something new you really think you can pull off, stick with what works, and tweak it to make it better.
That’d be the sensible thing to do IMO.
IT/Technology as a whole do not always care about a degree. I’m a Linux Systems Admin with 10+ years of experience and no degree except for my HS one. I’m a successful 29 year old admin, who was self taught. People in the IT world understand what it takes to be in it. They’ll respect you if you can prove what you know and if you’re not looking to become a developer. Developers are the one thing that come out of college and with degrees. Its one of the harder areas to really get ahead as its saturated along with Tech Support.
I interview people to work under me and you can easily see who knows their shit and who doesn’t. Its part of the industry and people care less about what paper you have. They just want to see if you have the logic and the means to figure out an issue that can’t be taught in a book.
. I’m not making any big bucks but I’m on the happy side.