The WTF are u doing with your life thread

[Method]

People can lie about advice they give you IRL too, why the stipulation for advice on the internet? The advice given so far seems genuine. 

 

Some of the best advice I've been given for my career change was from online, and a lot of it from complete strangers who had no vested interest in my well being. Of course, I cross referenced a lot of their advice with people I knew personally in the same fields of occupation, and most of it checked out. Any personal experience should be taken with a grain of salt, but could provide valuable information if you're taking the correct things away from them. 

Edited January 15, 2014 by Method

[Arwhyayen]

dressed by the internet is one thing

occupation by the internet is completely stupid

never meant to pos you.

for spouting so much garbage.

I never had my possible career choice given to me via internet. I'm a tad stuck and undecided.

[macky]

my goal is to do something that my parents never would have dreamed of themselves growing up in poverty in the philippines. when we moved here to america, my dad was almost jobless and had to babysit a kid next door and my mom worked 80 hours a week to get me and my siblings through school. now I'm a senior in college about to start my last semester of nursing school. i'm hoping to go back as soon as i can while i don't have kids, a house to pay for, etc. to get my doctorates to become either a nurse practitioner or nurse anesthetist.

[insted]

my goal is to do something that my parents never would have dreamed of themselves growing up in poverty in the philippines. when we moved here to america, my dad was almost jobless and had to babysit a kid next door and my mom worked 80 hours a week to get me and my siblings through school. now I'm a senior in college about to start my last semester of nursing school. i'm hoping to go back as soon as i can while i don't have kids, a house to pay for, etc. to get my doctorates to become either a nurse practitioner or nurse anesthetist.

 

damn man, that's deep shit. sounds like you're working with a great head on your shoulders and an honest drive. your ambition will prove to be your greatest asset. it's funny, when you know what it is you want to do and know how you need to do it, nothing seems impossible or unrealistic.

 

let us know how things are going - your parents deserve to see you thrive, and you owe it to yourself. 

[macky]

damn man, that's deep shit. sounds like you're working with a great head on your shoulders and an honest drive. your ambition will prove to be your greatest asset. it's funny, when you know what it is you want to do and know how you need to do it, nothing seems impossible or unrealistic.

 

let us know how things are going - your parents deserve to see you thrive, and you owe it to yourself. 

 

yup i owe it to myself to make the most out of my life but i also owe it to my parents to make the most out of the opportunities that they've given me through their sacrifices. and related to what you said about the perception of what's impossible and what not, i remember thinking of a quote when i was up all night studying for a chemistry 101 exam freshman year, something like "it's funny how you lose sleep the more you realize your dreams" or something like that. it's eery how similar they sound.

 

but anyway, i appreciate the kind words. i'll definitely keep you guys in the loop. i figure i'll be around sufu when i start making more $ anyway cause i'm hoping to spend it on clothes i really like lol.

[phen3N]

i graduated with a design degree (media/graphic/web/etc) in 2010 and went on the hunt for agency work, but besides a four month internship at a product design firm, it was a struggle to find any legit jobs. an old friend from middle/high school eventually offered me a job at his car dealership and i jumped on board immediately—being an in-house creative director seemed better than an intern or jr position at an agency. I've been at the company for ~20 months now and gained a ton of experience so far: creating a brand, dealing with vendors, art directing freelancers... basically having creative freedom and a decent-sized budget. but in the end, i've been working in a silo—i'm the one creative in a team of four. the quality and efficiency of my work is plateauing because I'm only getting feedback from salesmen and GMs (who i really enjoy working with but really are in a different mindset, professionally). 

 

all of this, plus the drama of mixing work with friends, plus the fact that i can't ever see myself engaging with "car culture" although i really do appreciate them as design objects, is why i'm going back on the job hunt... I'm leaving my current position as creative director to go find an entry-level job at a design agency, preferably branding or web. it's really sad to leave a company that i was so deeply rooted in, but i feel like i'm back on the right career path. currently preparing my resume and portfolio; applying this week; hopefully getting hired in october..

i should prob just copy paste this all into my cover letter

 

update on wtf i'm doing w my life:

 

so I got hired at the end of october at a really great brand design agency for a three month internship. It was exactly the kind of work I wanted to be doing, at exactly the kind of company I wanted to work for (small, flat, no team-building activity bullshit). I got to be as close to the CEO as any other employee and we built a legit professional relationship; I don't know many companies where an intern could get this kind of attention from the company's owner.

 

The three months are officially up as of last week, but there's not enough work at the company for me to get hired fulltime—even though my boss really does like my work. We had a talk yesterday and figured a way to continue collaborating: I'm gonna be working part time while he helps me setup MY OWN brand design agency! Basically I'll be getting all the clients that want to hire his company but can't afford it. I'm suuper excited and also really scared— he already warned me that I'm gonna be failing/falling a lot during the beginning of the "experiment"(as we're calling it). This is an insanely perfect opportunity for me because I've always wanted to start an agency, but was too daunted by the process of acquiring clients, writing contracts, all that logistic owning-a-business stuff that I've always been deathly afraid of. But I realized that I gotta suck it up and deal with that bullshit if I wanna have big ambitions... take the good with the bad, etc... 

 

I'm thinking of a company name now and starting to build the website later this week... wish me luck 

[hellogoodbye]

phen3n, i checked out your portfolio. the company you interned with is a brand/digial consultancy targeted at startups? seeing as most startups are trying to boostrap and keep everything as lean as possible, how popular is such a service?

[phen3N]

good question, and something we're slowly answering ourselves (the company used to be a general design agency, this is only the 2nd year as a dedicated BRAND design agency). any new company would love to hire an agency to design it's logo, identity, etc, but they usually can't afford it. if the startup has gone through a round of funding, they're usually very happy to spend some of that on branding. Our services are decently popular, especially because design has become such a hot topic within the startup world... it's just a matter of whether they can afford to hire a legit agency instead of their friend/brother/cousin who knows photoshop