What's Your Career Story?

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janikpilot

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A while back I came up with the idea of having a website where people could go to look up career stories. It's easy to find normal career statistics like annual income or education requirements, but finding actual stories of people in the field is next to impossible. A doctor makes upwards of $100,000 a year, but what is it like to actually work at a hospital? What kind of people do you meet, and why did you choose to become a doctor? Those are the questions that are hard to find answers to unless you actually know somebody who is a doctor. So, I began to design a website where people could read stories what it is like to actually work in a career field. It began as just a way to learn about PHP/MySQL interaction, but it's becoming a really serious project that I would love to see take off. I know a lot of friends that have no idea what they want to be after high school, and having a place where they could go to figure it out would be awesome. But in order for that to happen, I need people to actually tell their stories.

So, I came to the POA forum for help. I know you guys have seen me around here a couple times, but I have trouble actually posting on any thread, since I offer little help to any aviation discussion, due to the fact I have yet to actually start my training. But trust me, I read through the threads often. I know there are a TON of different career paths on here, and it would be really cool to have them on my website.

Let me clarify the purpose of this post. In no way is this meant to be an advertisement for my website. It is merely a topic of discussion for what you guys think about this idea. Whether or not you choose to post on my website is your choice, and only your choice. Would it help if you did? Yes, and I would greatly appreciate it :yes:

So two questions:
1. Do you think this is a good idea? Does it have potential to expand?

2. What can I do to make the website better?
 
Interestingly (to me anyway) I had this exact conversation with a 22-y/o grandson on Sunday night.

Our education system doesn't offer kids a good up-close insight into the actual day-to-day activities in most careers. As a result, many career decisions are based on guesswork. This particular kid had the opportunity to work part-time in a BK law firm last year, and progressed nicely to a level of responsibility just below the attorneys. Even so, he now knows that he doesn't want to attend law school even though he learned a lot and left on excellent terms and job-referral referral status. IMO, knowing what you don't want to do is almost as important as the other side of the equation, and I'm glad he got the experience.

Now he's thinking about oil and gas, so I'm setting up some interviews with people in that business. If he gets paid it's a bonus, but the real value is understanding the various elements of the business and what the people do every day when they work there.

We then discussed a cousin who knew he wanted to be a dentist since age 13 after working in his uncle's office. At 45 he was totally burned out, by 50 he was re-energized and then died too young from an aneurism.

I don't know squat about websites or any of that stuff, but any method of providing this kind of information can be of tremendous value to those in need.

janikpilot said:
A while back I came up with the idea of having a website where people could go to look up career stories. It's easy to find normal career statistics like annual income or education requirements, but finding actual stories of people in the field is next to impossible. A doctor makes upwards of $100,000 a year, but what is it like to actually work at a hospital? What kind of people do you meet, and why did you choose to become a doctor? Those are the questions that are hard to find answers to unless you actually know somebody who is a doctor. So, I began to design a website where people could read stories what it is like to actually work in a career field. It began as just a way to learn about PHP/MySQL interaction, but it's becoming a really serious project that I would love to see take off. I know a lot of friends that have no idea what they want to be after high school, and having a place where they could go to figure it out would be awesome. But in order for that to happen, I need people to actually tell their stories.

So, I came to the POA forum for help. I know you guys have seen me around here a couple times, but I have trouble actually posting on any thread, since I offer little help to any aviation discussion, due to the fact I have yet to actually start my training. But trust me, I read through the threads often. I know there are a TON of different career paths on here, and it would be really cool to have them on my website.

Let me clarify the purpose of this post. In no way is this meant to be an advertisement for my website. It is merely a topic of discussion for what you guys think about this idea. Whether or not you choose to post on my website is your choice, and only your choice. Would it help if you did? Yes, and I would greatly appreciate it :yes:

So two questions:
1. Do you think this is a good idea? Does it have potential to expand?

2. What can I do to make the website better?
Click to expand...
 
Any Dr. making only $100k must have some felonies to disclose in his/her story.
 
I don't know squat about websites or any of that stuff, but any method of providing this kind of information can be of tremendous value to those in need.
Click to expand...

it's stories like that which are why I started the project.

Any Dr. making only $100k must have some felonies to disclose in his/her story.
Click to expand...

it was just a number I threw out there, you get the point :rolleyes: I didn't bother to look up any actual numbers, but I knew somebody would say something haha.
 
I think it's a good idea and could see a lot of career counselor, especially high school counselors, referring clients/students to such a site.
 
LDJones said:
I think it's a good idea and could see a lot of career counselor, especially high school counselors, referring clients/students to such a site.
Click to expand...

That really is the ultimate goal, to help somebody find their career path. Any ideas on getting stories to populate the website? I've thought of t-shirts and posts like this. Just getting the word out is the hard part, I know once it's started it's easier to get more posts just by word of mouth. The hard part is getting it out there though.
 
I think it's a good idea and would have helped me when I was young since I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do when I grew up. I did have ideas about what I DIDN'T want to do, though.

One thing I can see is that there are many varieties of jobs that would come under the same general heading. Doctors, to use your example, have all kinds of different working conditions and day-to-day activities depending on what they do and who they work for.

Then you'll also have posters who are jaded about their profession as well as those who are Pollyannas. Hopefully you can get people who can view what they do in an objective manner, but sometimes that's difficult.
 
janikpilot said:
That really is the ultimate goal, to help somebody find their career path. Any ideas on getting stories to populate the website? I've thought of t-shirts and posts like this. Just getting the word out is the hard part, I know once it's started it's easier to get more posts just by word of mouth. The hard part is getting it out there though.
Click to expand...

Talk to some school counselors and get their buy in. They're talking to career people for career days and things. Also consider connecting with recruiter/headhunter types for some input/referrals. Also consider making the rounds of service clubs i.e. Rotary, Lions, Optimists, etc. and educate them on your site and what you're trying to accomplish. They're always looking for speakers and have a desire to be of service.

On the site itself, find a way to make refer-a-friend easy to do for those who've posted a story to encourage spreading the word.

Finally, get on LinkedIn and promote it there.
 
Everskyward said:
I think it's a good idea and would have helped me when I was young since I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do when I grew up. I did have ideas about what I DIDN'T want to do, though.

One thing I can see is that there are many varieties of jobs that would come under the same general heading. Doctors, to use your example, have all kinds of different working conditions and day-to-day activities depending on what they do and who they work for.

Then you'll also have posters who are jaded about their profession as well as those who are Pollyannas. Hopefully you can get people who can view what they do in an objective manner, but sometimes that's difficult.
Click to expand...

Two very important points you brought up.

Professions do have varied working conditions. But that's part of the reason this website will come in handy! Let's say you wanted to be a doctor. You may think all doctors work in pristine hospitals in cities, and that's just not the case. Theres city doctors, doctors at universities, doctors without borders, etc. You'll be able to see that the idea of being a 'doctor' varies, and it's not limited to just one set of working conditions.

Secondly, each career profile is reviewed by me before it is approved to be posted on the site. That means I'll be able to read each and every review, filtering out those that are skewed. If the project expands, I can always have people work with me.
 
denverpilot said:
How will you know what's "skewed"?
Click to expand...

More or less determined on a case-by-case basis. The first layer of defense is to ensure the profile is from a person that actually works in the field, and not some 12 year old. The chance of a post being rejected is actually lower than it sounds, it's just more of a 'is this really a person who works in the field' kind of security.
 
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LDJones said:
Any Dr. making only $100k must have some felonies to disclose in his/her story.
Click to expand...

Actually a lot of doctors without felonies are in this salary range, pediatricians, family practice doctors, many government employed physicians, for example, and with the current payment paradigm, decreasing reimbursement with increasing costs, there will be a whole lot of more doctors that are in this group.

Doug
 
douglas393 said:
Actually a lot of doctors without felonies are in this salary range, pediatricians, family practice doctors, many government employed physicians, for example, and with the current payment paradigm, decreasing reimbursement with increasing costs, there will be a whole lot of more doctors that are in this group.

Doug
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I think that will be a short term problem. Once the rewards are removed from that career choice, many of those smart enough to be a doctor will do the math and decide their intelligence can be more rewardingly applied to another area of endeavor.
 
LDJones said:
I think that will be a short term problem. Once the rewards are removed from that career choice, many of those smart enough to be a doctor will do the math and decide their intelligence can be more rewardingly applied to another area of endeavor.
Click to expand...

Does this mean less intelligent physicians in our future, or just more docs in it for the right reasons? Or both?
 
Great post, Wayne.

Probably explains why so many follow their parents path...they know more about it than any other path.

Your post also points to the benefit of having well connected relatives and/or adult friends.

To the OP..

.I think the idea is excellent. I wonder if a vBulletin forum would add value? As the participants grow, the number of categories would grow. You will need to deal with the BS of moderation, but it would be a good source of information from which the main articles could be built.
 
They've already done it. Our loss.

LDJones said:
I think that will be a short term problem. Once the rewards are removed from that career choice, many of those smart enough to be a doctor will do the math and decide their intelligence can be more rewardingly applied to another area of endeavor.
Click to expand...
 
brentee said:
Does this mean less intelligent physicians in our future, or just more docs in it for the right reasons? Or both?
Click to expand...

It means fewer physicians period. Economics will keep even those with altruistic motives from being able to afford to pursue that career choice.
 
You've got a smart grandson. There are some opportunities for kids to get an idea about what a career might be like. Summer internships similar to what your grandson did are a great option. Some Universities, like Drexel here in Philly, offer a co-op or work-study program. It typically consists of three 6 month jobs spread out during a 5 year bachelor program. I'm sure there are other universities with similar programs. Drexel was one of the first in the nation to implement their program.

wabower said:
Interestingly (to me anyway) I had this exact conversation with a 22-y/o grandson on Sunday night.

Our education system doesn't offer kids a good up-close insight into the actual day-to-day activities in most careers. As a result, many career decisions are based on guesswork. This particular kid had the opportunity to work part-time in a BK law firm last year, and progressed nicely to a level of responsibility just below the attorneys. Even so, he now knows that he doesn't want to attend law school even though he learned a lot and left on excellent terms and job-referral referral status. IMO, knowing what you don't want to do is almost as important as the other side of the equation, and I'm glad he got the experience.

Now he's thinking about oil and gas, so I'm setting up some interviews with people in that business. If he gets paid it's a bonus, but the real value is understanding the various elements of the business and what the people do every day when they work there.

We then discussed a cousin who knew he wanted to be a dentist since age 13 after working in his uncle's office. At 45 he was totally burned out, by 50 he was re-energized and then died too young from an aneurism.

I don't know squat about websites or any of that stuff, but any method of providing this kind of information can be of tremendous value to those in need.
Click to expand...
 
Our Class Clown, when asked about what he wanted to be said, "garbage man". He was as serious as cancer. Of course, considering the source and the content, he got quite a response. The teacher didn't want to accept his answer. Shame.
 
I didn't know about Drexel, but will pass the info along. He's at Princeton now, and having a difficult time settling on which program to pursue.

David said:
You've got a smart grandson. There are some opportunities for kids to get an idea about what a career might be like. Summer internships similar to what your grandson did are a great option. Some Universities, like Drexel here in Philly, offer a co-op or work-study program. It typically consists of three 6 month jobs spread out during a 5 year bachelor program. I'm sure there are other universities with similar programs. Drexel was one of the first in the nation to implement their program.
Click to expand...
 
Jaybird180 said:
Our Class Clown, when asked about what he wanted to be said, "garbage man". He was as serious as cancer. Of course, considering the source and the content, he got quite a response. The teacher didn't want to accept his answer. Shame.
Click to expand...

I wished I'd have gotten involved with an electronics recycling business in the early days. Could have made a lot more money than from actually designing and producing products.
 
Median pay for new family physician here in the Midwest is around $165,000.

Most I visit with have upwards of $200,000 in debt. Most don't drive fancy cars or live in large homes, instead they live a modest existence while paying off their debts. The average work week a few years ago for a family physician was around 50 hours.

Medical school isn't fun and I describe it as donating your life for a few years. Most wouldnt do it and with the continued loss of autonomy many will choose not too in the future. I've been out for 10 years and have witnessed many unpopular changes mandated by the government. The future for medicine is employment, not ownership which is sad because it's removing many physicians incentives.

I would be happy to provide you an aspect of medicine from a family medicine provider for your site if you ever need it.

Take care
 
jhausch said:
Which is your favorite and why? What don't you like about vB? I have experienced only 3 or 4 forum SWs and this one is my favorite.
Click to expand...

Not one of the forums I have ever joined that use vBulletin allow a user to delete their account. None. Either it isn't included in the base software or everyone seems to turn it off. When I asked the owner of Van's Airforce forum to delete the account I had created there he couldn't (or wouldn't?) do it. The best he could offer me was to "ban" my account so no one could hack into it.

It has now become a personal criteria that a forum or social media site allow me a way to delete my account if I decide to leave. Any forum software that doesn't support that basic capability is written by idiots. (Might pay to read the Wikipedia page on vBulletin if you need more info on its dubious history.)

I also happen to think the available ways vBulletin presents threads suck relative to what some of the better Usenet readers used to allow.

As to alternatives - I use forums, not implement them. I'd love to suggest forums that use something other than vBulletin but I haven't joined all that many forums - and the few that I have all had the same affinity for vBulletin.
 
wabower said:
Interestingly (to me anyway) I had this exact conversation with a 22-y/o grandson on Sunday night.
Click to expand...
Same here. A nephew about to start college asked me about my work. His mother has been filling his head with stories about testing locomotives in far corners of the world. I told him my job in engineering/sales has only 2 parts. First part, we put some numbers on a spreadsheet. If we don't know some of the numbers then we guess. Second part, we have long phone calls where we argue about the numbers with other people who guessed differently.
 
JHW said:
Same here. A nephew about to start college asked me about my work. His mother has been filling his head with stories about testing locomotives in far corners of the world. I told him my job in engineering/sales has only 2 parts. First part, we put some numbers on a spreadsheet. If we don't know some of the numbers then we guess. Second part, we have long phone calls where we argue about the numbers with other people who guessed differently.
Click to expand...

Excellent post:rofl:
 
JHW said:
First part, we put some numbers on a spreadsheet. If we don't know some of the numbers then we guess. Second part, we have long phone calls where we argue about the numbers with other people who guessed differently.
Click to expand...
Change some of your words and sort of sounds like some of the threads on aviation forums.
 
David said:
You've got a smart grandson. There are some opportunities for kids to get an idea about what a career might be like. Summer internships similar to what your grandson did are a great option. Some Universities, like Drexel here in Philly, offer a co-op or work-study program. It typically consists of three 6 month jobs spread out during a 5 year bachelor program. I'm sure there are other universities with similar programs. Drexel was one of the first in the nation to implement their program.
Click to expand...


Co-Op was started at my alma mater, University of Cincinnati back in 1901.:wink2: To this day, it is the only way to study Engineering there and there are other colleges at UC that also offer Co-Op.

It's a great program wherever it is offered. I managed to graduate as both a Mechinical Engineer and as a Journeyman Machinist because of Co-Op. The machinist part was a nice backup in case engineering didn't work out. :D

Cheers

Ps what I really wanted to be was a fighter pilot but since I couldn't see the chalk board without glasses by my senior year in high school, that sort of eliminated it as a choice.
 
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brentee said:
Does this mean less intelligent physicians in our future, or just more docs in it for the right reasons? Or both?
Click to expand...

It might be something worse. A friend recently retired. He was a doc for 40 years and loved it. When i met him about 15 years ago, he was making $350k/year and could spend as much time as needed with his patients. When he left, he was making half that and was contractually limited to spending no more than 15 minutes with any patient.

So the answer maybe fewer docs and much worse care. At least that's the way it is if your insurer is Aurora and you live in WI.
 
Wow that's a long run. Drexel's 100th anniversary for their co-op program will be in 2019.


X3 Skier said:
Co-Op was started at my alma mater, University of Cincinnati back in 1901.:wink2: To this day, it is the only way to study Engineering there and there are other colleges at UC that also offer Co-Op.

It's a great program wherever it is offered. I managed to graduate as both a Mechinical Engineer and as a Journeyman Machinist because of Co-Op. The machinist part was a nice backup in case engineering didn't work out. :D

Cheers

Ps what I really wanted to be was a fighter pilot but since I couldn't see the chalk board without glasses by my senior year in high school, that sort of eliminated it as a choice.
Click to expand...
 
wabower said:
I didn't know about Drexel, but will pass the info along. He's at Princeton now, and having a difficult time settling on which program to pursue.
Click to expand...

Wayne,
I'm a Drexel grad and adjunct professor there. That being said, I'd have a hard time leaving Princeton for Drexel ;).
 
I appreciate your comments. I think he knows it's on him to figure out his future, and that he's fortunate to be at P. I also think that knowing other schools have developed programs like Drexel's and UC's will help him think about methods to do it better, and he might find that visiting with someone familiar to be beneficial. In that case, you can expect a call. :D

David said:
Wayne,
I'm a Drexel grad and adjunct professor there. That being said, I'd have a hard time leaving Princeton for Drexel ;).
Click to expand...
 
To the OP, it sounds like a good program. I knew what I wanted to do when I was 16 and saw an IBM engineer working on huge computers in an air conditioned lab. He got out of the lab and walked over to a bright green Jensen Interceptor. I was sold.

Now, to the next generation of doctors. Most of you have no idea how bad it's going to be. I have a brilliant daughter in college now in Chem Eng and physics. She started college at 15, and will graduate with a masters pretty soon. She's looking at the MD/PhD programs at several universities and even though the costs are minimal, we look at the long term payback and the numbers just don't add up. It's about 7-8 years of hard work for the dual degree, then more training after that. Even if it's free that delays entry into the job market for at least 5 years, and the limits on income are not worth the time spent.

Most doctors coming out of med schools in the coming years are going to be second tier students who have some kind of outside or personal financial assistance. Young students with a passion for medicine and no money, despite being brilliant are going to be shut out.
 
David said:
Wow that's a long run. Drexel's 100th anniversary for their co-op program will be in 2019.
Click to expand...

Actually Dean Herman Schnieder started the first Co-Op program in the country then. He had students do two weeks on the job then two weeks in school. By the time I started, it was a seven week school term alternating with a seven week work period with a few weeks off for holidays etc. for the middle three years. Freshman and Senior (5 year total) were full time. By the time I graduated, it was expended to quarters for the middle three years where it is today. Just a bit if trivia. :wink2:

I graduated with no debts and no money since the job covered the cost after the first year. Same for my brother-in-law who went to business school at the same time.

I cannot for the life of me see why kids will intern for free and pile up debt when a Co-Op program pays pretty good and the school finds the job for you. :dunno:

Cheers
 
wabower said:
I appreciate your comments. I think he knows it's on him to figure out his future, and that he's fortunate to be at P. I also think that knowing other schools have developed programs like Drexel's and UC's will help him think about methods to do it better, and he might find that visiting with someone familiar to be beneficial. In that case, you can expect a call. :D
Click to expand...

Just let me know if I can help. I'm sure however that Princeton can offer him summer internships. BTW - Drexel costs more than Princeton - figure that out :confused:.
 
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