decide_my_career yummyC ok you guys, I am desparate and I really can't decide what my career path for highschool should be. if I decide on social worker which fits my "type" of personality according to all these tests i took freshman year, then I have a full year for senior year. but if i do photography, which i enjoy, i could have a less hectic senior year. BUT im afraid there aren't many career opportunities for photographers. like it sounds too iffy and open. i'd like structure, but not TOO much (monotonous office job might kill me)... i wanted to be a psychologist pretty badly but i keep gettin scaaaared that i'll be lost and it will be too mucn for me. Like I'm not smart enough. the n the whole writing thing, but thats strictly entertainment...and not too many people like what I write. and i just can't even think of any other jobs that would fit me. which is funny because those other ones dont even fit me that well. what should i be? maybe you could help me choose from these or give me suggestions. im so lost, that it would seriously help if i got advice. thanks 020319 ... Teenage Jesus Go for psychology. You can do it. Plus, soon (and almost certainly by the time you're "grown") psycholgists in the USA will be able to write prescriptions. This law modification has already passed in New Mexico. You'll have plenty of business. Think of it; no grueling years in med school, yet, just like an MD, you can write scripts! You'll have to turn clients away. ...and you can take pictures in your leisure time. 020320 ... phil psychological patterns repeat every 2.5 days. This one simple idea could make you famous. Feel free. 020320 ... Photophobe Photography all the way baby. There are plenty of career ops for photographers; you just haven't thought them through (or maybe you have) Building on camera skills: graphics, visual communications, cinematography, production design, typography, desktop publishing(yick), etc etc. But if you love psycology as well... do the one you prefer. The workload really shouldn't be that much of a big deal; this is your whole life you're talking about, 020320 ... yummyC (**~pulling a mahayana~**) -I think- {therefore I am} -that i will be- [as if I am not already] -aaaaa.....psychologist.- ((makes for less schedule changes because thats the career I've got on paper anyway.)) ++also, I talked to kingsuperspecial online yesterday and he helped me -UN-stress about it with his whole "its just highschool, if you got a D in math does not determine your future, I didn't know what i wanted to do until i was 27 and I'm fine" speech... so ok. psych. oi. and photography on the side. i was thinking of doing it like that, but then I was like "will i have time?" and "will I have the money?" and then if I went for photography alone, it would be cool coz it seems like a less-stress kinda job compared to psych. but what the fuck am i going to research? the freedom of psychology kinda scares me. Gives me the willies. Like that room in "hitchhikers guide to the galaxy" where they make planets. ?know what I'm talking about? what do u guys do for a living? and by that i mean...EVERYONE. Thanks so much for the advice, it helped tons. I'm more certain. of course still some questions buzzing, but I feel a lot...clearer. (thankyou) 020320 ... blown cherry Hmm. For a living, ie to get money, I do a crappy job in a cinema which largely involves me coming home smelling like popcorn all the time and being generally more and more disappointed by the level of human development exhibited by the partons to whom I am incredibly rude. As for my "career", I've been a student at uni for about 5 years so far and the end is not really in sight, and this does not disturb me in the least. There are worse ways to live than waking up at 2pm each day and learning heaps of cool stuff. I'm 23 now, I suppose one day I will move into the workforce and out of studentdom, but I hope not. What I'm saying yummyC is that don't stress too much about it now. Do what will make you happy for the next few years, and then you can always change. 10 years time you could always find youself in another degree, or travelling, or who knows? It's never too late to change your mind anyway. 020320 ... Photophobe yeah, you do hate customers a lot, don't you? I also work in the cinema, and I reckon its a pretty great job, mostly because I generally like people. I do hate popcorn though. I study at uni still, doing Design in Visual Communcation. I sub major in Production design and major in Web and Print Typography. Hence my support pro: photography. I have several friends who did psych majors and can't get jobs. then again, this is australia; I don't know what the job climate for psych is like over there, but it could be a lot better. I have only 2 friends who did vis com, and they both have jobs. psyche would be a different lifestyle to photography - 9 to 5 stuff probably. Unsure as to if that is a good thing. If its just high school though, how important is it for doing later study? I did almost nothing related to my curent studies at school. Only art + theory. Surely this choice won't have too lasting an effect on your carreer? :) 020321 ... Arwyn well study both psychology and photography... high school isn't college... maybe it will help you decide... and if you still like both, you could major in both in college, or major in one and minor in the other... could be fun... 020321 ... sabbie [to the sound of rocking chair creaks] let me give you some advice young YC i did photography at uni. twice. an undergrad degree and then honours. how this relates to your system i niether know or care, the cat needs watering and i still have to knit cthulu his running tights before next months meet, so i'll keep this short. i loved doing photography at uni - loved it. pretty much the only thing that kept me alive. never thought id use those degrees, there really are no photography jobs 'less you want to photograph weddings or babies in shopping malls .:shudders:. i did get a job as senior photographer for an ecommerce site for 18 months but i, too, be a victim of the dot.com crash and so now im a call centre monkey. when i did photogrtaphy for the 'site for 8 hours every day i came home every night and had no creativity left for me, i'd given it all to them. a carton of milk run dry everynight, refilled every morning in time to go back to work. i didnt like it. so now i work somewhere that i dont need to use it so i can come home and make beautiful art of all kinds for me and no nasty boss man can demand my creativity from me. i get to use my creative powers for good, not evil corporations and that makes me feel good. consequentially i have a shit job but a grand life. i dont intend to use my degrees for a job again. how this make help you i have no idea, but it be a story and it be mine. i have no advice to give. i dont know you. the only thing i have to share is me. so there it is. well... that bit of me anyway. 020610 ... humdedumshouldiornot hows law school sound? 020610 what's it to you? who go blather from