Bobbi

I need some experience working in the healthcare field and getting a sense of what it's like to be a nurse. That's why I am looking for a job as a CNA. Do these people do all of the disgusting work that no one else wants to do, or is this job only sometimes gruesome?

Have you had any internships during summers off from college? You might do good contacting some people you knew through those internships and finding out from them where you could go with your degree. Does your alma mater have a decent career services office? If so, I would suggest that you contact them and ask for advice. They might be able to give you a Myers-Briggs personality test, which would help you figure out what kind of career you are best suited for. If your school also has a strong alumni network, you could contact some graduates who work in a certain field and ask them what it is like, etc. There is also some potential for making connections which would lead you to a job or internship. If you answered no to the above questions, you might want to consider relinquishing some credits from your degree and use them towards a whole new Bachelor's at UF. Communications is supposed to be a hot field right now, and it might not be that different from Telecommunications, your original major. I would not recommend that you go for a graduate degree, degree or non-degree, unless you are certain what it is you want to do. You will just be wasting money and time. Have you ever considered going to a community college for an Associate's degree in Nursing? At the end of those two years, you will be qualified to sit for the NCLEX-RN exam, which would certify you as a registered nurse. If nothing I suggested so far appeals to you, you could also get in touch with some people you went to college with. What are they doing now? Does any of that sound like something you would like to do? And if you like to read, here are 2 book suggestions. I did not read them myself yet, but I just ordered them off Amazon: (1) Wishcraft: How to Get What You Really Want by Barbara Sher (2) The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction & Success By Nicholas Lore Originally, I would have suggested, "What Color is Your Parachute?" because it is very popular, but reviewers of (2) said that is a far better choice for people who want to figure out a career path.

Wow, that's so incredible you knew that early on.

DrKT, oh I could give you a long list of occupations I could never do! I don't know about you, but if I don't like a job, I can't do it even half well. After taking a Myers-Briggs test, I got diagnosed as an ISTJ. I'm curious about teaching, engineering, and medicine. Although additional schooling would be necessary for any one of those. I'm only concerned about (1) making sure that what I choose to do in grad school is what I really want, and (2) getting in. Thank you for the warning. Also, I'll pick up that book. What did you end up doing?

Sorry to ask another "finding oneself" question, but I'm really curious about Engineering... For those who went into the field, is this something you wanted to do ever since you were a little kid?

That's why I deleted my Facebook.

Thanks a lot. It's just that they say that your day job ends up becoming your career, and I always thought I could do more than just part-time retail work. We'll see...I'll continue sending my resume out there.

That's a beautiful story about how you picked what you wanted to do. You mention Biology - boy, looking back, do I wish I had majored in that! I kept picking these really hard majors that I couldn't do. Not to knock Biology. In fact, I'm much more interested in living systems and how organs work than mathematical formulas. Who let you do the Peace Corps? My Mom won't let me do sh*t, not even City Year, because she thinks it's too dangerous. Hello! I'm not getting any life experience here at home. (I did retail for 6 months but took leave of absence when they started cutting hours in Jan.) Sorry for that rant. Anyway, you sound like a very interesting person. I would like to do any of those jobs you listed as possibilities for yourself.

Mal83, it's funny you mention drifting because that's what I did throughout college. I was miserable! First, I made an attempt for a mathematics major, but that bit the dust quickly. I jammed too many hard courses into one semester. Between my sophomore and junior years, I decided to be brave and go for Bioengineering. However, I struggled a lot with a couple of courses, and even after signing up for what I believed to be my dream major, I wasn't getting better grades than I was before. So coward that I was, I dropped bioengineering and realized "shit I need to graduate in 3 semesters". Not the greatest plan, but I sifted through the course catalog and picked out a major that I could complete in that amount of time, just to get out of that university. I ended up with statistics, which I hated. I mean I hated pretty much every statistics class I took (after the intro course), except for probability. I even tried taking a couple actuarial exam prep courses, which I also loathed. So now that I'm a year out of that hot mess I made of my situation, I want to be a nurse. I'm going to be on a waiting list for an ADN program. Hopefully, it won't take more than a year for them to take me off that list because I am eager to get the ball rolling on this. When is my life finally going to start darn it? lol.

Thanks a lot, Mal83. I actually read your entire post, and it was very entertaining. I'm sorry that you had to go through all that in order to figure out what you wanted to do, but it's reassuring to know that I have good company in the "Drifters Club". I heard the Peace Corps is not at all an easy job, so good for you.

Thank you, all! If I could get a job, I would not necessarily have decided to return to school, but perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. I am thinking about nursing or physician's assistant, as I have always wanted to enter the healthcare field. Thank you again. Perhaps this is not the last step, but the first one of a more satisfying journey.

@ Gaijin Punch: Yes, people skills are very very important in the real world. I'm trying to network with people a lot older than me. BTW, a little off topic, but what is gaijin punch?

down under

I just wanted to mention that the only jobs that ask for my GPA are the technical ones, such as an analyst or consultant, which tends to lower my chances even further.

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Thank you. I will be conducting informational interviews next week for nursing and accountants, so hopefully that will clear some things up. Sales jobs aren't for me. Unfortunately, being an introvert can set you back even further in this economy.

Thank you, that is a good suggestion.

Thanks.

Thank you. That helps a lot. I am in fact looking at a grad program that is unrelated to my undergrad major, so hopefully it will not matter as much as perhaps GMAT score and postbacc classes.

If you were an employer or a graduate admissions counselor, what would you think if you saw an UG gpa below a 2.5? *My low gpa has killed my confidence. Can I go back to school for another 4 years, or just accept my fate as a burger flipper?*

Good point.

Say you weren't satisfied with your education or where your major could take you. So, you return to your alma mater for another bachelor's degree. Who here has actually done this?

I have been applying for jobs for the past year since graduating from college, and it seems like the only jobs I hear back from are the ones I don't want! I'm at my wit's end. If I were to take just anything with some kind of salary, where would it lead? If it's some terrible job for just a year, would I get an even better job after that? Who else has been in this position? I'm not qualified for any analyst positions anywhere (even though my bachelor's is in statistics) because I am not good at statistical analysis or related software.

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Is someone with an RN through a hospital's certificate program way behind someone who graduated from a university with a BSN? If not, after a few years in the nursing field, could a BS in statistics in addition to an RN be more or less comparable to a BSN degree? I'm a newbie to this field, so any insight you have into the profession would be greatly appreciated.