Crossroads of life

[Jonathan]

Well-- turning 16 in one month and three days exactly.
Well, bout one month and two days for james cuz he's in austrailia.
Same for those in the Netherlands if I recall correctly.

Mom just got of phone w/ the teacher lady-- gonna head
down to the Great Urban Jungles of Waste-- ie, Deltona.

And, I always knew I could get my GED @ 16 and it'd be cool,
not frowned on like I was a highschool dropout or anything...

Well mom's talking little more bout it and I'm thinking bout
heading over to DBCC and taking a GED course in August or so

I admit-- I'd have to do tons and tons of catching up, cause
all of this-- well let's say I'm not exactly on the grade-level I'm suppose 2b

Anyways-- I'm not even sure what I want to do with my life..
I want to possibly do some duel-enrollment (depending) for college
classes while getting my GED but I'm not sure what 2do...

Sure, I could do web design, since I've devoted my last
some-odd four, nearly five years doing...

Or maybe computer programming-- that'd be a good job
and I admit I'd like to do so, as I'd not be *too* far
away from web design (well, rather the "coding" part of it)

Or possibly something in no way connected to my current life!
Like maybe a political anlysist, or an history teacher

I do love history, but teacher pay is kinda crappy;
plus I admit-- I do want a technical job...

Dunno, hard choices ahead; not only this, but do I go out
and buy a new copy of BHD (on DVD) or get a new harddrive???

So many choices

[Frank Hagan]

Jonathan, you are certainly a talented guy, so you should do whatever will get you an education. It will make a big difference in GETTING job interviews. I have jobs I fill now that don't even have the resumes forwarded to me if the person doesn't have a college degree. The ironic thing is, I don't have a college degree. But it took me an extra 15 years to get to a position I could have had within 2 or 3 years of graduating with a degree.

I encourage you to take a job once you are 16 working someplace where you'll see people in their 30's and 40's ... really old guys, you know? ... working for low wages. If you're anything like my daughter, who had her first job at 18, you'll be shocked. Its boring, mind-numbing, dirty work, and those people have been doing it for 20 years or more.

My youngest is now 19, and was barely making it in high school. She graduated, but it was touch and go for a while there. It seemed that her goal was to get by with as little effort as possible .... and she confirmed that was exactly what she was doing.

She did graduate, and has worked several of those beginning jobs. She has a new respect for an education, and now has a 3.75 gpa at the community college. She was shocked that I was right, and the state college system wouldn't accept "D" grades as passing a class (in California, the hierarchy of schools is community college, state colleges, then the university system). Now she's working to get into the state college level after 2 years at the community college. It would have been a lot easier if she had just done a bit more ... just gotten a "C" in math instead of a "D" ... and been 2 years ahead of where she is. No matter, she'll just do the extra two years of work. She doesn't want to end up like those people she works with. Fine people, but for 20 years they have been working for low wages, in jobs people don't respect, with limits they don't like.

You may find college much more challenging and, for that reason, easier to do than high school. You may blossom in college. Just try to keep all your options open. Does your state have a state college system like California's, where you go for very low cost and you only have to get "C's" to get in? Can you go to those at 16 with a GED, or do you have to wait until you are over 18? Many of the programs you may be counting on want you to be in the workforce first, then go back. That's harder, and it rarely happens. My nephew did it, graduating from the University of California at Irvine at 26. But that's rare.

So some free advice ... and remember free advice is usually worth what you pay for ... keep as many of your options open as you can.

[Jonathan]

Dunno I'm hoping for a job @ a computer related place
Though-- don't get me wrong I'd love to land something
to do with history or astronomy

I admit-- I have lots of stuff I like; I like learning about
history, the stars and galaxies, military-- you name it

And-- what it is (and mom doesn't get how I do this), I can sit
and watch or read something, and remember it clearly for many years to come.

An example is just last night, when I was explaining to my mom
why I was so late in shutting down her computer @ church and closing up-

Explained how I was having a debate over who invented the modern day
parachute infantry-- germany or the soviet union. Well, needless to say he
refused to believe it was the Soviets in the '20s til they scrapped it after
Stalin had the lead general executed for trasion (which was not true).
After this, when hitler came to power in the '30s they copyed the soviet ideas.

Then we got into a debate over who came after Brezhnev--
Andropov, the KGB chairman / politoburo member, or Gorbachev.

Again-- I beat him sensless with facts bout Andropov;
examples include that he was the ambassardor of Prague during
the invasion of hungry (not to meantion he was main reason for the invasion!)

After that, good discussion on why Black Tuesday (NYSE crash in october of '29)
occured.

So ~ as I said, I have good knowledge bout stuff besides just
web design (well IMO anyways), and I'd love to get a job to allow
my knowledge in these areas to grow.

But I am open to new knowledge and experiences.
Still-- I don't want to wait til its too late to get any
sort of scollarship and have to foot a huge bill.
(bro did and he has a $21,000 bill [then again he went to a tech school])

[shalom_m]

Jonathan,

My father had a proverb he used to quote to me when I was a little older than you and wanted to stop studies and start working.

“Self employed people eat well – salaried people sleep well”

Having tried both, he was right!

I also would like to add: The knowledge you value so much are the tools you may one day work with – the pieces of paper called diplomas and degrees are the keys that open the doors to the toolshed.

[-Oz-]

Every field requires a diploma of some sort, even if you are not going into the field your diploma is in.

Don't think military either Jonathon, if you want to go anywhere in it you need a degree in something.

I'd reccomend finishing high school because GEDs are more frowned upon. Also, if you move to college too quickly you won't fit in and will lack the life experience companies are looking for.

[DomainDog]

Finish School.
Get some experience to go along with the education.
The world will be your oyster.

Carpe Diem!

He that climbs the tall tree has won right to the fruit.
Sir Walter Scott

[Pedja]

Try as many things you can, even those not related to computers. You will then easily find out what will suit you the best.

whn I was on the same crossroad I urged for studing electronics. Few year later I found myself in totaly different stuff.. programming, Internet, developing sites...

[Fran]

Diplomas

Jonathan,

just one more note from an old guy, because this is a serious subject...

As you mentioned, you enjoy learning. The question is how will you learn? Getting a degree is taking the road to learning by being tutored. Digging the ditch is living it day by day. Trust me, the first avenue is faster.

In the preceding messages, the tone has been the same - get your degree. Not having one, I can only agree.

By teaching, you've already experienced what we're talking about. Do you tutor people with your knowledge of web skills? Do they learn faster being guided? The next question is - Do they pay now? If you had the degree, would they pay more?

Hope you make the right decision for you...

- Fran

[Jonathan]

Jonathan,

just one more note from an old guy, because this is a serious subject...

As you mentioned, you enjoy learning. The question is how will you learn? Getting a degree is taking the road to learning by being tutored. Digging the ditch is living it day by day. Trust me, the first avenue is faster.

In the preceding messages, the tone has been the same - get your degree. Not having one, I can only agree.

By teaching, you've already experienced what we're talking about. Do you tutor people with your knowledge of web skills? Do they learn faster being guided? The next question is - Do they pay now? If you had the degree, would they pay more?

Hope you make the right decision for you...

- Fran

Unfortantly-- no I do not tutor people in web skills,
nor can I say they learn faster by being guided.

:P I'd kill to get paid, but right now not
getting paid for diddly.

I am going to be more actively trying
to get some sort of job-- and study math @ night to improve

A local PC shop does a business bundle; like $799
for PC, web hosting & development, email, etc.

Looking @ their site, it just makes me
believe they obviously contract work out.

With this knowledge I've made two "demo"
sites, that were built as "replacements" for theirs.

I plan to take these two demos and head
down their tomorrow and after asking about
a motherboard and my evil HP computer~~ corner 'em on the issue

[Fran]

Guidance Please!!

This may work both ways - I need tutoring and maybe some outright canned code. If you're interested, send me an e-mail and let's see what might work. Maybe this will get you started and me up to speed - quicker. Include the 2 urls you did for the store so I can see some handiwork.

- Fran

Unfortantly-- no I do not tutor people in web skills,
nor can I say they learn faster by being guided.

:P I'd kill to get paid, but right now not
getting paid for diddly.

I am going to be more actively trying
to get some sort of job-- and study math @ night to improve

I plan to take these two demos and head
down their tomorrow and after asking about
a motherboard and my evil HP computer~~ corner 'em on the issue

[Jonathan]

You got that turned off
Also it doesn't seem to let me Private Message you

Turn one of 'em on

BTW-- can you detail
exactly what all?

I can do HTML, XHTML no problem.
CSS still grasping fully.

PHP/mySQL ~~ not 100% best,
but got some experience and pretty
good for my age I'd have to say (*insert laugh*)

[avenuex]

Hi Jonathan,

I'm about my mid-20's. Dual degree programs are not really worthwhile unless they really come together. I had a dual Computer Science & Computer Engineering degree and frankly god help me if I'm ever stuck trying to re-wire a circuit.

What I noticed after graduation and although this was just before the 9-11 economic death-knell was that 90% of the employers I interviewed with had the following methodology when hiring.

#1. Degree was needed to even see an interviewer. (HR never cares about who you are or what you can do. Only that your resume meets the minimum requirements)

#2. Experience tops education almost every time.

My opinion is (and only mine.. hehe) that neither college or HS really adequately prepares you for anything. The degree is simply the hall pass that allows you to wander the hallway. Experience is key for any future career.

That said, persuing computers (programming specifically) I think is a hard road from now on. I've discussed this with my brother many times (he's 20) that unless you plan on working a lot freelance or otherwise with small/medium businesses, you'll need specialized programming to make it a career. PHP/MySQL will do for small biz, but most large corporations are working either in ASP or JAVA. The general trend also is moving towards a "overall developer" who knows the entire software cycle, and not simply one aspect of coding.

Thats my $.02. hope it makes some sense

best of luck to you.
(btw.. I've done a few free lance projects approaching these small pc biz. Hit em in the wallet. they don't care about presence or marketing so much as they care about how to make more $$ with less effort.)

[Jonathan]

avenuex ~ think you misunderstood (or I mistyped it)

If I do duel enroll~~ it'll be for my GED / HS diploma
and whatever I want my assoicates in

Still deciding...and deciding...

[Jonathan]

never mind Fran-- checked
my old Earthlink email and saw your's