I was wondering what everyone did after college. What was your first job? How did you find it? How long was it before you found the job you really wanted to do for the rest of your life?

I'm answering this because it's potentially very interesting,even though my own story is not particularly.

I graduated in a year which marked the beginning of a 'glut' in that field.

So I lied my way into a computer job, then nearly went bonkers learning the stuff on my own time that I was supposed to already know.

But I pulled it off. Then after seven years "paying dues", I started my own small business, which was a modest success.

Immediately after college (graduated with two bachelors of science in the Fire Science field), I went back to my summer job which was doing Code Enforcement for a large town near where I lived with my parents. When the summer ended, so did the job, so I took a position as a Fire Marshal at an automotive plant where my then-fiancé (now husband) worked. Spent two years there, a few months as a substitute teacher, and ended up where I am now: at a code publishing company.
As for the "How long was it before you found the job you really wanted to do for the rest of your life?" part of the question... well, it's been seven years since I graduated and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, so I guess I have no answer for that...

What's a code publishing company?

Literally, a company that publishes codes. We publish the code for the City of Toronto, for example. Building ordinances, noise ordinances, alcoholic beverages (or, intoxicating liquor and fermented malt beverages, as they call it in Wisconsin) ordinances, vehicles and traffic ordinances... we take 'em and make 'em pretty and put 'em in a code book.

Mine is a rather complicated story. After discharge from the Army I worked in the steel industry, first as an electrician and later as an engineer. I attended college, Johns Hopkins, the Evening College, three nights a week and during the summers. The company re-imbursed tuition costs as long as my grades were high enough. I left after 25 years, (industry, that is) taking a vested pension and opening a business of my own.

After three years in the business, my son and partner wanted to go into real estate, so I went into teacing vocational electricity in the Roanoke, Virginia schools for eleven more years. After retiring at 65 I taught electrical apprenticeship and adult classes at a community college for another couple of years. My ambition had always been to get an advanced degree and teach college level math, but I ran out of time and energy and have now forgotten everything I ever knew. So I come here to AP to pick other people's brains.

Oh, that kind of code! I thought you meant cyphers.

I invented a never-yet-broken code. Are you up to the challenge? (It is a sentence in the English language, by the way. Hey, I play fair!)

There are only six rules to this code.

You can use decoding software if you like.

Get out your decoding rings, because here is the message:

XM&P7L2 3WCK5QYXP*P9WM!S

B: Is the space between the 2 and 3 a break between two words, or is it the 'space' character?

After college I got sucked into a decade-long educational vortex, from which I didn't re-emerge to begin a real life (and get a real job) until my early 30's. After that, things have been pretty good.

I graduated High School to work as a volunteer for a year and then went to college for a BA in Studio Art. I didn't get this degree because I actually WANTED to be an artist, but because I was afraid to do something I didn't know anything about. And I knew I was good at art.

Fast forward half a decade past a few years as a McDonalds employee and nursing assistant (and getting married). I started college for my Nursing degree. I didn't do THIS degree with a clear mission to become a nurse for the altruism, but as a job that earns a good wage with many possible positions. It was only when I was in the program that I found the passion of stretching my mind and learning about the human body.

Of course, I proceeded to have 2 premature infants while completing my degree (and dropping out each time, only to return the next year).

I finally completed my degree and got my licence in 1998, so I have been an RN for almost a decade now. I've worked in Home Health care and Hospice, Hospitals, Nursing Homes and for the State of Pennsylvania for the Developmental Delayed.

Since I am a parent to 2 Autistic children, this last job (which I currently work in) is especially enlightening, and frankly both educating AND frightening.

I didn't know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and, really, and not sure if Nursing is what I want to do. I absolutely LOVE teaching and I loved the teaching aspect of my Nursing in Home Health.

But I really do love the nursing I am currently doing and I like the Night Shift since it allows my husband to go to college/work and also allows me to spend more time with my family when they are doing school for the evening.

I love college, who knows if I will ever stop going. I am not currently going, but I may go back, I don't know.

quote:

Originally posted by babthrower:
Oh, that kind of code! I thought you meant cyphers.

Right, that kind, not the cool kind.

Perf needs to know:
Is the space between the 2 and 3 a break between two words, or is it the 'space' character?

It is the latter.

XM&P7L2 3WCK5QYXP*P9WM!S

That is the question. I guess I should move it to a different category. But maybe Perf will make short work of it. No one so far has been able to bust it.

It's an English sentence.

We really don't have a place for it, Babs, but go ahead and post it in News & Reference, Polls. It will be seen by more there than in here.

As for me, I'm just starting my job searching, although it feels like I've already been doing a lot in the month or so since I've graduated. I finished my first job last week after only two weeks that they needed me. They weren't sure how long it would last. They wanted me to write out the work process of billing specialists so that other people could do the job. I seem to be getting a lot of my offers through staffing agencies. I guess they're getting a lot more work with all the job sites online.

I'm not gutsy enough to post my story on the web, but I can tell you this: I've been out of college for almost a decade, and "the job I wanted to do for the rest of my life" was clear as day to me a couple of years ago, and then all of a sudden it wasn't. It has changed, and will probably change again as I get older. Our generation doesn't seem to fit the "stay in the same company for 50 years" model that our parents followed.

Anyway, I'm so excited because I've been looking for a reason to recommend this book to someone.

Thanks, Sarai. That looks like it could be interesting.