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Yossarian-22
Oct 26, 2014

I graduated from university a few months ago and I'm basically in no man's land, living in a university town to stay in touch with friends and looking for teaching jobs, but I have little to no job experience so I'm not getting hired anywhere. I'm also hoping to apply for my teaching credential next year, aspiring to travel, and I've even started trying to write standup comedy. And since the rules thread requested it, I'm 23 years old.

I'm lucky to come from a decently rich family so my parents pay my rent, etc. Since I'm a spoiled brat I have a lot of options in life and I'm not even sure if I want to live in the U.S., in case I get seriously injured/ill and need a single payer healthcare system to bail me out (I would be able to afford healthcare here but I hate imagining the material costs). I might also want the vacation time associated with full time jobs in European countries.

I'm rambling though. I'm really wondering if teaching is a sane goal considering how much crappier the profession has become over the past few decades, and sane alternatives to that goal if it's not worth holding onto. Working at a museum maybe? Or maybe I just want to take advantage of my background, become a lawyer, and retire in my 40s? I'm pretty interested in politics and history so maybe I want to become a serious journalist? Become a librarian?

I have a lot of ideas floating around in my head but I'm also incredibly indecisive and inept. I'm also considering teaching English abroad. Any thoughts?

Being a privileged brat, my main goal is to minimize the amount of work I have to do throughout my life, but also to have a decently stress-free/fulfilling job with a decent amount of autonomy. Ideally I would have a relatively autonomous job as a teacher, not tied too hard to a curriculum or standardized testing.

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grenada
Apr 20, 2013
Relax.
You'd be a lovely teacher, museum curator, or whatever else you mentioned. Luckily, no one will hire you.

You sound like a perfect candidate for academia. Study for the GRE and go get a MA in another humanities subject. Apply to PHD programs afterwards. You can tell people that you are going to become a college professor.

That should cover the next 10 or so years of your life. Of course, you probably won't be able to get a job again at that point either, but who cares!

litany of gulps
Jun 11, 2001

Fun Shoe

laxbro posted:

You'd be a lovely teacher, museum curator, or whatever else you mentioned. Luckily, no one will hire you.

Sounds like a strong TFA candidate to me.

Cicero
Dec 17, 2003

Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.
You're rather unsympathetic, OP. "Since I've had an easy life thus far, I want to be comfortable and do whatever I want without too much work, and without people telling me what to do." Yeah ok buddy, good luck with that.

moana
Jun 18, 2005

one of the more intellectual satire communities on the web
Yeah, if you think teaching is stress-free, you're gonna have a bad time. But seriously? You're asking what's best, being a teacher, a librarian, or a journalist. If you had vague inspirations to get a law degree, it would be a perfect troll of unemployable careers.

Don't try to get any job at all, there are people out there who need them who aren't entitled brats. I agree with the other poster, go into academia and gently caress around for a decade or two. You get the "prestige" of being a scholar, and you're not going to actively harm anyone.

Yossarian-22
Oct 26, 2014

I'm not entitled. I just recognize that my privilege allows me to work far fewer hours and far less hard than the average person and I'm trying to exploit that. Can you honestly say you'd act differently in my position?

facey fred
Sep 17, 2007
quite facey

Yossarian-22 posted:

I'm not entitled. I just recognize that my privilege allows me to work far fewer hours and far less hard than the average person and I'm trying to exploit that. Can you honestly say you'd act differently in my position?

Don't go into teaching. It's a job that, if done correctly, takes a lot of hours and a lot of hard work. I mean, you can do a lovely job, but that's going to directly impact kids' lives in a negative way. So don't.

If you don't need the money, go volunteer in museums or whatever.

Xyven
Jun 4, 2005

Check to induce a ban

Your privilege afforded you numerous opportunities which you apparently have not taken advantage of. Getting to go to college without having to work a part time job, the luxury of an unpaid internship, and other things like that were your extra opportunities. At this point, you are just another unemployed liberal arts major with no useful skills and little to offer to any employer. You have squandered all the chances you were given.. You are a fuckup. You should either work to change that or hope that your parents are rich enough for you to live off the inheritance.

moana
Jun 18, 2005

one of the more intellectual satire communities on the web

Yossarian-22 posted:

I'm not entitled. I just recognize that my privilege allows me to work far fewer hours and far less hard than the average person and I'm trying to exploit that.
So exploit it. Lounge around and do standup or whatever the gently caress you want and let your parents pick up the bill. Don't become a lovely lazy teacher. There's a ton of meaningful autonomous work you could do if you actually want to - pick a cause that matters to you and go start volunteering. Then maybe you'll pick up some skills that will make you less of a useless fuckup.

spinst
Jul 14, 2012



Yossarian-22 posted:


Ideally I would have a relatively autonomous job as a teacher, not tied too hard to a curriculum or standardized testing.

I'm not sure what kind of teaching job would have this…

I have been teaching now for 7 years, and even in that short amount of time things have changed greatly, and they will continue to.

tsa
Feb 3, 2014
Go back in history and get a real degree.

Residency Evil
Jul 28, 2003

4/5 godo... Schumi

Xyven posted:

Your privilege afforded you numerous opportunities which you apparently have not taken advantage of. Getting to go to college without having to work a part time job, the luxury of an unpaid internship, and other things like that were your extra opportunities. At this point, you are just another unemployed liberal arts major with no useful skills and little to offer to any employer. You have squandered all the chances you were given.. You are a fuckup. You should either work to change that or hope that your parents are rich enough for you to live off the inheritance.

Jesus Christ he's only 23. There's plenty of time for him to figure out what he wants to do with his life.

JewKiller 3000
Nov 28, 2006

by Lowtax

Yossarian-22 posted:

I'm not entitled. I just recognize that my privilege allows me to work far fewer hours and far less hard than the average person and I'm trying to exploit that. Can you honestly say you'd act differently in my position?

No I can't, but you should also recognize that what you wrote is literally the definition of entitled. Admit what you are and maybe people won't poo poo all over your thread.

Veskit
Mar 2, 2005

I love capitalism!! DM me for the best investing advice!
You could just use your credits that you gained with your history degree to get a different degree. You probably have 2 years banked toward whatever you'd want to do.




But i mean it sounds like you rather do whatever you want to do so yeah go do that. You'll probably fail because it's really hard to make it in but yeah go for it!

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe
Technically the OP is asking a question similar to what to do with my time or what do I do now that I'm retired. Defining a bigger goal that just getting a job would be a start. A job might take you to where you want to go but a goal would be more helpful.

If you are going to spend part of your life administering investments you could get a business degree, or if there is a family business work for that.

If you just want something else to do get a post-graduate degree. Having a degree opens the door for other degrees and there's a lot of options. Less for a BA than other degrees but there will be something interest but also potentially useless. You have the luxury of doing another degree of limited use without it having a negative impact on your future.

What do you want to do?

Snatch Duster
Feb 20, 2007

by FactsAreUseless
I have a history b.s. and I work in advertising. I would suggest getting into sales and making money. Its is a skill set that will always be in demand. From selling cars to pitching advertising to Inc 5ks, sales is a great career for someone like you.

Uranium 235
Oct 12, 2004

Veskit posted:

You could just use your credits that you gained with your history degree to get a different degree. You probably have 2 years banked toward whatever you'd want to do.

But i mean it sounds like you rather do whatever you want to do so yeah go do that. You'll probably fail because it's really hard to make it in but yeah go for it!
This is basically what I did. I got an anthropology degree with my full scholarship and worked in cultural resources management for 6 months--long enough to realize my mistake and to decide to change careers. I went back to school and took 2 years to get a degree in physics, then another year in a professional healthcare related program. Now I have a rewarding career which lets me help people in a direct way, is very lucrative, and only requires a 40-hour work week. It was definitely worth going back to school.

Uranium 235 fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Apr 13, 2015

Foma
Oct 1, 2004
Hello, My name is Lip Synch. Right now, I'm making a post that is anti-bush or something Micheal Moore would be proud of because I and the rest of my team lefty friends (koba1t included) need something to circle jerk to.
You will do ok teaching history as long as you can coach a sport. I would ignore the pissants in the thread.

I have a history degree ended up in IT because I don't have a sport I can coach.

Inept
Jul 8, 2003

Foma posted:

You will do ok teaching history as long as you can coach a sport. I would ignore the pissants in the thread.

I have a history degree ended up in IT because I don't have a sport I can coach.

It's still really loving hard to get a history teaching position with no experience even if you can coach.

Yossarian-22
Oct 26, 2014

JewKiller 3000 posted:

No I can't, but you should also recognize that what you wrote is literally the definition of entitled. Admit what you are and maybe people won't poo poo all over your thread.

This post is literally not true. Being "entitled" in today's vernacular means that you feel like the world owes you something. I recognize that I did nothing to deserve any of what I have and I certainly don't expect the world to offer me anything on a silver platter, nor do I think that I'm more "deserving" than other people. It's just that, well, the world has handed me a pretty good deal on a silver platter, so I feel obliged to dig in.

Anyhow... tbh, I'm bad at having direction in life. I've never had career goals and my parents never made a point of trying to prepare me for the real world, probably because they're of means and grew up with fairly far left politics. I never even did chores as a kid, although that was partially because I was such a brat at that time that they eventually just gave up.

My broader goals right now are traveling and improving my sense of self worth. I want to do creative things with my time and do real learning about the world independent of school. I haven't done enough preparing for the real world with my time on this planet so my ambitions and long term thinking have never involved thinking that much about what I actually wanted to do. Being a teacher and having summers off seemed in a vague sense "emotionally fulfilling" because of the prospect involved with face-to-face interaction as opposed to simply working a desk job, so I kind of resigned to the idea of teaching without thinking about its broader consequences or considering other possibilities that much.

Basically I'm indecisive when it comes to life choices and lacking direction right now, but I do have a vaguer hunger in terms of wanting to travel and "experience" poo poo on my own. My short term goal is to travel a lot; my long term goal is to figure out if I want to be a teacher and then either teach or pursue a more enjoyable profession.

Yossarian-22 fucked around with this message at 09:54 on Apr 14, 2015

Thesaurus
Oct 3, 2004


Just travel around and live the life of an aimless rich dandy with a family fortune to draw upon. This is what the upper classes used to do without worrying about the scummy poor people and their grimy professions.

Work some unpaid internships at exciting non-profit organizations where you won't be expected to do much but can pat yourself on the back. I know a girl like this, she was a "fellow" at a variety of international organizations in exciting locations domestic and abroad as she leeched off of her parents' wealth while "finding her path."

Also, buy me stuff.

litany of gulps
Jun 11, 2001

Fun Shoe
Why don't you get a hobby or something? Like painting or writing or having sex with underaged prostitutes. Why bother with a job if you have such a great deal from your parents?

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

Yossarian-22 posted:

Basically I'm indecisive when it comes to life choices and lacking direction right now, but I do have a vaguer hunger in terms of wanting to travel and "experience" poo poo on my own. My short term goal is to travel a lot; my long term goal is to figure out if I want to be a teacher and then either teach or pursue a more enjoyable profession.

While I don't agree with a lot of the Four Hour Work Week (4HWW) some chapters could be kind of useful to you. Maybe you'd find some ideas in the book or maybe none but part of it is about what to do with your life when you don't need to work. Also there's a lot of content on travel.

Why not travel for a while? However while you're travelling you can think about what you'd like to do. Starting a business, a time consuming hobby or doing charity work all have their merits and can include creative work. Some people don't figure out what they want to do until their late 20s and some never figure it out.

tuyop
Sep 15, 2006

Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted

Fun Shoe
This thread is basically the best loving thing. I actually laughed because you think teaching is an easy job with lots of autonomy where you can just put in time.

I'm not even sure that you'd be able to find work as a teacher because you:
- Have no passion for young people or education or... Anything?
- Have no work ethic and your admin and fellow teachers will see right through you immediately.
- Have no relatability. Have you actually done anything interesting in your life or come from a background that makes you a role model in any way?
- Have no vision or philosophy of education as far as it sounds. This is less important than it should be.

Snatch Duster
Feb 20, 2007

by FactsAreUseless
Just work at Taco Bell.

i say swears online
Mar 4, 2005

OP, do not get a job whatsoever. People above and below you in your work environment would hate you.

Your rent and expenses that your parents cover will most certainly also cover every penny of backpacking costs anywhere in the world. Hop on over to the Southeast Asia thread in the travel forum and in two months' time you could be in your first opium den.

duckmaster
Sep 13, 2004
Mr and Mrs Duck go and stay in a nice hotel.

One night they call room service for some condoms as things are heating up.

The guy arrives and says "do you want me to put it on your bill"

Mr Duck says "what kind of pervert do you think I am?!

QUACK QUACK
I was just lurking in this thread and wasn't going to wade in until someone mentioned the SE Asia thread. There are two types of people in the world who "want to travel":

1) Those who go on to their friends about how much they want to travel and how much they "enjoy travelling". These people will spend a week every year in some safe and easily accessible but dangerous sounding country, like Guetemala or something, and come back and tell their friends they "didn't do the touristy stuff". You can identify these insufferable idiots by the number of photos of their "travels" (usually a tour from a hotel-run land rover) which number in the thousands. They will also get plenty of completely useless injections to immunise them against yellow fever, that japanese one, hepatitis etc. Not because there is actually a cats chance in hell that they'll pick up any of these diseases in Trinidad but it's so they can tell you about it.

2) People who just sell their stuff and buy a plane ticket and go, sometimes taking out a bit of insurance but more often than not just hoping they won't get squashed by a quad bike because hey, you only live once, right? To be fair these people are generally just as insufferable as the first group albeit for vastly different reasons, but at least they have the pride and self-respect to die on the steps of their consulate rather than do something stupid like phone their parents.

The OP is clearly in the first group and isn't even good enough for the SE Asia thread. I doubt he'd even know the etiquette to survive in a meth den (it's not opium anymore man, this isn't the 1980s).

But to humour him somewhat:

quote:

I'm lucky to come from a decently rich family so my parents pay my rent, etc. Since I'm a spoiled brat I have a lot of options in life and I'm not even sure if I want to live in the U.S., in case I get seriously injured/ill and need a single payer healthcare system to bail me out (I would be able to afford healthcare here but I hate imagining the material costs). I might also want the vacation time associated with full time jobs in European countries.

Your family probably aren't as rich as you think they are and will cut you off eventually, possibly sooner than you think.

You might have a chance at moving to one of these "European countries" if you have an in-demand skill and all the qualifications and certificates to go with it, which it appears you don't. Don't exactly expect to be welcomed with open arms though, as "Americans" are somewhere between "Brown People" and "People with x's in their name" in the List Of Foreigners We Don't Like.

The systems to apply for visas to EU countries tend to be online and automated, and when you put in "History Degree" it's not even going to let you go to the next page, let alone submit your application. There are quite literally managers national banks in Africa who have been in the system for years; your degree and no experience is nowhere near good enough to even dream of applying.


quote:

I'm rambling though. I'm really wondering if teaching is a sane goal considering how much crappier the profession has become over the past few decades, and sane alternatives to that goal if it's not worth holding onto. Working at a museum maybe? Or maybe I just want to take advantage of my background, become a lawyer, and retire in my 40s? I'm pretty interested in politics and history so maybe I want to become a serious journalist? Become a librarian?

You seem lazy and unmotivated. Lawyers do not retire in their 40s because they're lazy and unmotivated, they do it because they've been badgered their entire life to work a bit harder and to make a bit more money. You are literally the opposite.


quote:

I have a lot of ideas floating around in my head but I'm also incredibly indecisive and inept. I'm also considering teaching English abroad. Any thoughts?

Go and do it then. Go and do the course, buy a plane ticket and go. Seriously. Why haven't you done it yet?


quote:

Being a privileged brat, my main goal is to minimize the amount of work I have to do throughout my life, but also to have a decently stress-free/fulfilling job with a decent amount of autonomy. Ideally I would have a relatively autonomous job as a teacher, not tied too hard to a curriculum or standardized testing.

Teaching English abroad is about as standardised as you get. You're at the mercy of how the schools owner wants you to teach, and he/she is more likely to be in it for the money than the education.



By the way, you are entitled. You may not think the world owes you something but you think you've got something already and as you said are "ready to dig in". What you really aren't considering is that the world is not You vs It, it's You And It And Everyone Else In It. So far in your life you've experience yourself and a bit of the world, but you haven't experienced the characters and the bullys and the charlatans and the clowns and the assholes that make up the rest of it.

I once had to train a guy from Hong Kong in a hotel I was working at. He was on some sort of internship program and had all the international tourism degrees and diplomas etc and point blank told me on our first day together that "I'm just here to get the experience to go and work at my fathers hotel in Hong Kong and I'm not going to be stuck here like you forever. Now show me how to do the accounts".

I made that little fucker polish every door knob in the building for three twelve hour shifts in a row until I found him in a stairwell crying his eyes out. Then I taught him how to do the accounts. Then it was back to polishing for a day, just to make my point.

There are far bigger, meaner and uglier people in the world than me. And believe me, they are going to eat you alive.

mastershakeman
Oct 28, 2008

by vyelkin
You should definitely go to law school

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

mastershakeman posted:

You should definitely go to law school

I'm not really sure that lawyers make the best coffee. Law school doesn't have any papers on coffee making either.

tuyop
Sep 15, 2006

Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted

Fun Shoe
OP, why don't you just join the Air Force as an officer or something? You sound like the perfect stereotype of an Air Force officer in some administrative trade, organizing fuel truck schedules and poo poo like that. It meets basically all of your criteria.

Cicero
Dec 17, 2003

Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.
That could work, and he'd even get auto-respect from people for being a soldier. Military benefits are quite nice too (50% pay pension after 20 years, GI Bill you can use yourself or give to spouse/kid, free healthcare, etc.).

Downside is, the military would control his life. I could see OP bristling at that.

tuyop
Sep 15, 2006

Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted

Fun Shoe

Cicero posted:

That could work, and he'd even get auto-respect from people for being a soldier. Military benefits are quite nice too (50% pay pension after 20 years, GI Bill you can use yourself or give to spouse/kid, free healthcare, etc.).

Downside is, the military would control his life. I could see OP bristling at that.

Nah, it'll be a comforting surrogate for daddy.

Snatch Duster
Feb 20, 2007

by FactsAreUseless
What about being a life coach or consultant. Good money in that if you get the right clients and your work to life balance is determined by you.

tbp
Mar 1, 2008

DU WIRST NIEMALS ALLEINE MARSCHIEREN

moana posted:

Yeah, if you think teaching is stress-free, you're gonna have a bad time. But seriously? You're asking what's best, being a teacher, a librarian, or a journalist. If you had vague inspirations to get a law degree, it would be a perfect troll of unemployable careers.

Don't try to get any job at all, there are people out there who need them who aren't entitled brats. I agree with the other poster, go into academia and gently caress around for a decade or two. You get the "prestige" of being a scholar, and you're not going to actively harm anyone.

think your being a bit dramatic

Cicero
Dec 17, 2003

Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

tbp posted:

think your being a bit dramatic
I've noticed that moana has pretty much become BFC's Judge Judy. Moana, do you think your time as a mod left you jaded?

tbp
Mar 1, 2008

DU WIRST NIEMALS ALLEINE MARSCHIEREN

Cicero posted:

I've noticed that moana has pretty much become BFC's Judge Judy. Moana, do you think your time as a mod left you jaded?

she is insane i think, but also the rest of the thread has been, a young kid asked for advice and ppl are like "your loving worthless hth" in that typically weird limp wristed style of own.

moana
Jun 18, 2005

one of the more intellectual satire communities on the web
can confirm I am both insane and jaded, but people who think teaching is easy peasy lemon squeezy just really get on my nerves

Snatch Duster
Feb 20, 2007

by FactsAreUseless

moana posted:

can confirm I am both insane and jaded, but people who think teaching is easy peasy lemon squeezy just really get on my nerves

Well you do get 3 months paid vacation.

ProperGanderPusher
Jan 13, 2012




Hey OP, you sound exactly like me four years ago, minus the rich rear end in a top hat part! History degree, some vague aspirations of becoming a college professor (lol), but otherwise wasn't sure what to do with myself.

I eventually wound up going to graduate school in the humanities (double lol), but I think so far it has provided me some indirect net benefits. Specifically, I had to move to SF, where there are lots of well-paying jobs and people to schmooze with to get access to those jobs. Now I'm getting plenty of call-backs from doctors and lawyers for administrative positions which can pay in the six-figure range after a number of years.

But seriously, ride the trust-funder train into the ground if money isn't an issue. Get an unfunded MA in systematic theology or some poo poo and spend the rest of your time eating brunch and posting filtered pictures of famous New York or San Francisco sights to your lovely Instagram.

ProperGanderPusher fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Apr 24, 2015

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Ccs
Feb 25, 2011


Funny that you thought of law. Did you see the law school thread a few topics down? Not a good career to go into. Tons of stress and work hours if you can even manage to get a job.

I know other people in your position who, after a year or two or three of putzing around finally woke up and went to business school or re-enrolled in college in an engineering program. Though one guy did end up becoming a teacher in America after doing a year teaching abroad in Taiwan. I think he's okay with it, though he also drinks a lot.

Or maybe you could move to Thailand and drink yourself to death on a beach over the next decade?

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