My QLC

[blasto333]

I Graduated college in 3 years with a degree in Information technology with a high GPA and 9+ months of internships from a pretty well know university.

During my last internship, I absolutely did not like what I was doing and had a very hard time understanding it, so much so that I had to leave early (Programming enterprise software) and have ended up in a depression (Still trying to work through).

Reflecting back on my college experience I determined that I was starting to lose interest about a year ago, but was still doing great in college so it never really crossed my mind.

Now I am interviewing for a bunch of positions in web based programming (which I am "good" at, but don't really enjoy) and a couple of other less technical positions (but still some programming).

I feel I am at a real crossroads, because my inner voice is saying slow down and don't get in the wrong situation again and evaluate what to do, but my brain says, go out and get a job and see what happens.

I just have a real stigma against programming now, and cannot see myself doing it as a job (thats what all my experience is in for the IT field)

Some of the options I was thinking of are:

* Got to a career career counselor and get some other ideas
* Join americorps for a year and develop other skills such as teaching, leadership, and communication while helping out a community and then maybe I will realize something about myself I never knew.
* Go for a job in IT and hope for the best (I feel less certain about this every day)
* Go back to school once I discover a better career path

Any ideas and feedback from people who went through the after college crisis would be very helpful.

Thank you,

Chris

[jdubbs]

I don't have much advice to offer, but I can sympathize -- I'm not a fan of my chosen career path either. At one point I thought it was right for me, and every step I took in college to get here was pretty calculated...and then shortly before I graduated I realized how disinterested I was. Right now I'm in the Marketing/Communications biz, and it's really a poor fit for me. I have no idea what else to look into right now right now either so yeah -- I feel your pain!

I can tell you this much -- unless you have an idea of another career path you would like to persue, answers to your question are going to be very hard to come by. For myself, none of my hobbies could qualify as viable career paths that people would actually pay me for, so that's frustrating. Returning to school is such a huge sacrafice that I'm loathe to make unless I'm pretty certain I'd enjoy whatever career I went back to school for. So, unless you know another direction you'd like to go, it's probably going to take you some time until you make your next move.

At the moment my advice is to enjoy life outside of work as much as you can, and use your spare time to think about why you don't like your current job, and what might be a better fit for you. If I ever figure out a quick fix to this, I'll let you know hahal.

[erika36]

I too, can sympathize with career problems, although I have no advice. I'm in the midst of changing careers, because the one I went to school for isn't doing it for me either. Hang in there.

[UtopiaFive]

Chris!

I know exactly what you're saying here man. I lost interest in CS towards the end of college, yet stuck in because I was doing well. Almost 3 years of working in 3 different software jobs across different sized companies in different industries, and I've concluded -- software is just not for me.

Unfortunately, I am now collecting unemployment.

I want to be able to maintain my own schedule and lifestyle on unemployment for a short time, exploring different things.

BTW -- Not having health insurance sucks -- I feel worried about being 'risky' in sports.

My plan -- I've found out here in NYC you can get paid well to tutor high schoolers math and physics. And tutoring is a more scalable job. You can work 5 hours a week or 20. Software, you can just work 40 or more. No 'part time' gigs I can find. Screw that. Whoever came up with 40 hours a week?

Chris, some books I've started reading,

on finding your own passions:
"I could do anything if only i knew what it was"
"Finding your own north star"

on the possibility of making enough cash without a real job, and having all the free time you need to explore those passions:
"4 hour work week"

I also plan to work in other 'scalable' jobs that reflect my more sociable side thats developed in concert with being unable to do software all day (bartending, green peace frontlining, personal training).

Notice however the smaller pay scale of these jobs in comparison to my old one.... =)

What I will say though, is, I prefer being frugal on $405/wk (unemployment) than being in a rush all the time on many times that.

What's been up in the past 6 weeks since you've posted this?

--Tom


I Graduated college in 3 years with a degree in Information technology with a high GPA and 9+ months of internships from a pretty well know university.

During my last internship, I absolutely did not like what I was doing and had a very hard time understanding it, so much so that I had to leave early (Programming enterprise software) and have ended up in a depression (Still trying to work through).

Reflecting back on my college experience I determined that I was starting to lose interest about a year ago, but was still doing great in college so it never really crossed my mind.

Now I am interviewing for a bunch of positions in web based programming (which I am "good" at, but don't really enjoy) and a couple of other less technical positions (but still some programming).

I feel I am at a real crossroads, because my inner voice is saying slow down and don't get in the wrong situation again and evaluate what to do, but my brain says, go out and get a job and see what happens.

I just have a real stigma against programming now, and cannot see myself doing it as a job (thats what all my experience is in for the IT field)

Some of the options I was thinking of are:

* Got to a career career counselor and get some other ideas
* Join americorps for a year and develop other skills such as teaching, leadership, and communication while helping out a community and then maybe I will realize something about myself I never knew.
* Go for a job in IT and hope for the best (I feel less certain about this every day)
* Go back to school once I discover a better career path

Any ideas and feedback from people who went through the after college crisis would be very helpful.

Thank you,

Chris

[Jersey_Steve]

I Graduated college in 3 years with a degree in Information technology with a high GPA and 9+ months of internships from a pretty well know university.

During my last internship, I absolutely did not like what I was doing and had a very hard time understanding it, so much so that I had to leave early (Programming enterprise software) and have ended up in a depression (Still trying to work through).

Enterprise software is a PITA, so I don't blame you for have a rough time with it.

I guess this goes back to: a) Why did you get into IT in the first place? and b) What do you like doing?

The bright side, really, is that with the IT background, even if what you want to do is nowhere close to IT, the general computer knowledge will be a definite boost.

[heymikey]

Hey, you and I are on the same field. Even though I like programming, I understand your sentiments with working with enterprise software. Have you considered some related careers like Business Analysis? It doesn't have any programming aspects to it but with your experience working with enterprise software, you could use that knowledge to switch to the other end -- working with customers analyze their business practices to help the application developers design and work around the ERP software for their needs.