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Say Something Random II - Eclectic Depression


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Nobody's college major should be biology. Unless you want to get a doctorate or MD before you're able to make a living with your degree.

Yeah.. My sister studied for a decade or more before she got her Doctorate in biology (she's a geneticist), and even then it was a long hard road to find a stable position (that wasn't big pharma) anywhere. She's now a research scientist in Gothenburg.

 

But it all flies by well high above my head.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

Nobody's college major should be biology. Unless you want to get a doctorate or MD before you're able to make a living with your degree.

 

It's a decent stepping stone to being a nurse practitioner. I have two friends (who happen to be married) who did that. He's a psych NP and makes a lot of money.

 

I do not make a lot of money.

Without invalidating what you just stated there, you do make Cashmere's point: nurse practitioners generally require a DNP degree these days, though depending on the state and employer, a masters in nursing is the minimum required degree.

 

But you are right about making a good living, and NPs can make almost as money as an MD in some cases.

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Yeah, I have lots of friends who are nurses, DNP is the new requirement.

 

Astronomy/physics is another one. PhD or gtfo.

Like I said, I based my comments on Ohio law, and DNP isn't required here. I can say that with absolute certainty, because I have 5 friends who are NPs and another 2 who are in school right now.

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I take it the two in school are planning on staying in Ohio?

 

Teaching has a similar situation - you have to have a Masters in Teaching to teach at any grade level in New York, while a Bachelors with a Teaching Certificate is fine in other states. My cousin got her Masters just in case - she knew she was going to be a military wife, so she didn't want to get stuck with a useless degree depending on where she ended up.

 

(weirdly enough, she ended up a stay-at-home mom, and her husband left the military and they all settled down in a state that doesn't require a Masters to teach)

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Yeah, once you reach a certain age, most people I know aren't looking to move, just move up in the world after working in the field for a while. Not saying that it doesn't happen, but they're in their thirties, are married and have kids.

 

I'm pushing 40, so I don't have a lot of friends who are young enough to be traditional students.

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I have a BFA in art.

An MFA in creative writing.

And by accident, an AA in film production while I was taking rando classes to keep my loans in deferment.

 

This is a triple threat of expensive private education and I am eternally grateful to the universe I actually broke into these fields.

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Yeah, once you reach a certain age, most people I know aren't looking to move, just move up in the world after working in the field for a while. Not saying that it doesn't happen, but they're in their thirties, are married and have kids.

 

I'm pushing 40, so I don't have a lot of friends who are young enough to be traditional students.

 

Ha, just goes to show how much one's life choices and social circle diverges when you get married and have kids vs. stay single. I'm pushing 40, and do actually count both traditional and non-trad students as friends (and would consider a long-distance move for a new career).

 

 

 

This is a triple threat of expensive private education and I am eternally grateful to the universe I actually broke into these fields.

 

Thank heavens you still like those fields! I worked in my degree field for four years. After about two years I said fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck all of this (and then had to suffer through as I looked for a new job).

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I thought about going back to school... but I couldn't afford it.

 

Thankfully, my professors knew that the vast majority of their students weren't going to go into the field proper, so we were taught how to sell our training as like a human Swiss Army Knife, and I ended up in a job I really like.

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Yeah, once you reach a certain age, most people I know aren't looking to move, just move up in the world after working in the field for a while. Not saying that it doesn't happen, but they're in their thirties, are married and have kids.

 

I get a lot of hits from recruiters on LinkedIn because I'm in a really specialized field. I've told all of them that unless they have jobs in Washington or Florida, leave me alone. I did the cross country move for my career in my 20s, I'm not doing another one to some random place where I don't know anyone. Here I have a support network (even if it's not family). Ok, I would consider southern California because it has family and friends, but I like not being working poor and having a reasonable commute. Other than that, Florida is it because we have lots of family and friends, and it's affordable.
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Guest El Chalupacabra

Huh. I only am familiar with Ohio laws, so I didn't know that a doctorate was required in other states.

It varies, but the trend is going that way. Not an absolute, though, but a lot of NPs recognize that if they have their doctorate in NP, they get significant pay bumps over a masters, and in a lot of cases, they can make almost as much as MDs. Masters is the minimum in some (maybe even most?) places, but to be competitive, NPs are often going beyond the minimum.

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Well that is why I went back to school... after working as a designer, that killed visual art for me and I found writing to be a more creative outlet.

You make me SO glad that I decided not to exploit my art talent for a living every time we talk about things like this. It is precisely why I made that decision.

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Well that is why I went back to school... after working as a designer, that killed visual art for me and I found writing to be a more creative outlet.

That's the point I reached with commercial art and advertising. I still have the eye for it, but my heart isn't in it.

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Well that is why I went back to school... after working as a designer, that killed visual art for me and I found writing to be a more creative outlet.

You make me SO glad that I decided not to exploit my art talent for a living every time we talk about things like this. It is precisely why I made that decision.

Yeah, well, exploiting it with writing didn't kill it and it's been lucrative. So don't shit on me chasing a dream.

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The common denominator here is advertising. Art, writing and design for advertising is about as soulless as it can get. If your hearts not in that it means you're still an artist. Working for film, or TV or games or painting book covers is essentially still doing work for a creative enterprise. Drawing shampoo bottles? There is nothing satisfying in that.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was at a men's event tonight that included a pumpkin pie eating contest. Seeing what team of 5 guys could eat a piece the fastest. Everyone lined up, each with their own piece, going down the line. My team did horribly, so without asking I immediately signed us up for another chance with a 30 second penalty.

 

I ate half a pie by myself in 49 seconds to give my team the victory even with the 30 second penalty. So proud/ashamed/scared to go to bed because I'm going to puke.

 

Oh, and the two top teams then played tackle football. So i may die tonight.

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