What do you do for a living? What lead you to that decision?

Question

and what kind of schooling/training did you need to get into it?

Answer 1

I've had 3 main careers in my life: In the early-to-mid 80's, I was an Arabic interpreter in the Navy. After that, I went to chef school, and became a caterer, and did other sundry food-related things. Then I went social work school, getting a BSW and immediately after that, an MSW (the MSW was my goal all along). If you ask me what I do, I say, "I'm a social worker." I chose all 3 careers because they are things that interest me, and that I have an aptitude for, such as communication, languages, cooking, and multiculturalism.

To be a military interpreter, one must join the military, and attend their language training school in Monterey, CA. However, the idiosyncratic demands of military life aren't always compatible with the best methods of language instruction, and the military's dirty secret is that for some difficult-to-learn languages, like Arabic, their program doesn't lead to enormous linguistic abilities, unless the student is able and willing to work extraordinarily hard, and to put up with a lot of extraneous military nonsense (what are sometimes referred to as "non-mission-related demands"). The military is rueing the fact now that they are terribly short of competent Arabic interpreters.

Chefs most certainly don't need to go to school, and in the US, I would say unless you obtain a 4 year degree in hotel and restaurant management, I wouldn't bother. There are only a few schools in the US offering such degrees; note again that I am not talking about an AOS or associate degree. You will go further in the restaurant/culinary field on raw talent and hard work. You could also look into professional apprenticeship programs, where you work and train at the same time.

Social workers come in a variety of training styles too, from the Associate's degree in, say, child welfare (depending on your state--training requirements vary by state), to the MSW, if you want to practice, and the PhD or DSW, if you want to teach.

The BSW requires 4 years of college and about 400 hours of (usually unpaid) internship experience. The MSW requires another 2 years of college and another 800 hours or so of similar internship (but in grad school, is called a "practicum"). Most people I know find social work graduate education severely emotionally and physically taxing--the workload, both in practicum time and class/study/writing time, is huge.

One of the dirty secrets of social work is licensure. Over the past 20 years, SW licensing requirements have become onerous and expensive, particularly for people who typically earn about $30K/year. To obtain your full license, such as the LMSW or LCSW, can easily cost you $8000-$10000 in supervisory fees, exam fees, and licensing and related fees, over a 2 to 3 year period. This is a complicated topic, and I will leave it at that unless you write to ask for more detail. In any field you might want to work in, research not only the educational requirements, but also investigate what licensing or certifications are required, if any.

Sadly, I no longer recommend the social work field to anybody, because of the rapid deterioration of working conditions, salaries, and professional standards in the field in the last 10 years. Social work jobs have been largely taken over by paraprofessionals in many parts of the country, and whenever a hospital or gov't agency hiring social workers needs to cut expenses, they always go after social work departments and workers first, it seems.

Browse to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook for information on nearly any job in the U.S.: http://www.bls.gov/oco/home.htm It is wise to do 2 things when choosing a career: (a) get aptitude and interests testing, and (b) see what the wages, working conditions and prospect are for your various career interests. You want to enjoy you life, and earning a decent living and working in decent conditions is part of that.

Answer 2

I went to college and majored in finance. I applied with every finance company that recruited at my college and interviewed with as many as possible. I took the best offer; I am now a banker who specializes in commercial lending.

I suggest that any young person get a good education and then apply to jobs accross the board. There's no point in wasting time dreaming up your ideal job; it may not even exist, and even if it does, you probably won't get it. Competition is fierce. Plus it's hard to imagine what any job/industry will be like until you work in it.

Just take the best job you can get (opportunity for growth, good salary, great company, whatever), and see if you like it. Go from there. The average person graduating from college today will have 5 careers--that doesn't count multiple jobs within one career! So don't worry about getting it right on the first swing.

Answer 3

Realtor. My dad owns 3 offices so it seemed like the right choice. I love it. I did go to college for business and finance, but do not use my degree for my career.
Good luck