What's Your Career Story?

[denverpilot]

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.

Even that's dead. The two brilliant folks I've known who worked at IBM Global Services in Gunbarrel, CO (always liked that town name) called it a "sweatshop".

One described a typical afternoon as two simultaneous phone calls walking customers through problems with one on mute and talking to them alternately, while also writing Java code for a third customer to fix a grave bug that IBM Engineering couldn't be bothered with, because it was too small... even though it was causing massive data loss.

He left as soon as he could. Now he manages Russian software coders. He writes solid code fluently in six languages (probably more by now) but he's more valuable reviewing six mediocre coder's work than writing it himself.

 

[Delta Foxtrot]

To the OP: Did this idea ever get off the ground?

 

[RJM62]

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

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?

1a. Yes
1b. Possibly.
2. Be thoughtful when designing the databases. At some point, your site may become a tool for people investigating both general fields and specific jobs, as well as those who have particular aptitudes and are interested in jobs that require those abilities.

You will want the ability to render pages by general categories, interests, specific job titles, similar jobs, aptitudes, etc. Write down all these different ways, and then sit on it for a while, and come up with some more. Or look at the Occupational Outlook Handbook and take some clues from there.

Whatever your site may look like, it's just a pretty wrapper for the database, so put in the effort to make it right from the start.

-Rich

 

[Norman]

I think the website is a great idea in that it will give people some introspection on what they would like to do for the next xxxx years.

Do you intend to gear this just to "the professions" or also to those who don't want/can't afford a four degree but could take a trade school or apprenticeship path?