Question about school (people with informatic knowledge needed)

[ventrilol]

Hello I am kind of new to the forums, I mainly speak french but i'll do my best.

 

I am 19 years old and still don't know what to do for a job in the future and I am extremely stressed about it at the moment

I have tried pretty much everything, excepted informatic,

I'm pretty good with mathematics (wasn't that good when i tried natural sciences, but wasn't that bad either) etc. I just have

no idea of what to expect if i choose this way

 

1.Could you please give me some leads on what's difficult? I've heard programmation is like learning another language (C, C++, etc??)

 

I'd like to add that I like art and videogames, so I'm pretty sure this path would fulfill the things I am looking for if i'd do that for a job, but is the gaming industry looking for people? people specialized in what precisely?

Please give me anything you know about informatic/conception/programmation/art if you have any experience, I'D love to hear, really

 

I'm guess i'm just looking for some comfort as i'm desperate as hell, thank you.

[BarefootWarrior]

I can appreciate your confusion. As an older student who has gone to college or university four times I can give a bit of advice.

 

First off, don't be desperate and don't be in a hurry. I know this may sound like an odd thing to say, but..in this day and age, rushing into any education without knowing for sure what you want to go into can be a bad thing. It can turn into a costly mistake, quite literally. If I may suggest, take some time off and give your self the time you need to explore all the venues that interest you. You say you are only 19...you have time on your side so use it...don't rush.

 

Take a year off from education and get a bit more life experience and give your self a chance to figure things out.

 

But more to the point, game programming involves a lot of math and a special mindset to be sure. One that I know I don't have, even with the years of technical experience that I have. I am more on the artistic side and am going the way of texture artist and modeling, or conceptual artist. I should have done this years ago and am only now getting into the 3D modeling. I am 56 years old..so, as I said...don't rush into something that you are not sure of. Explore your skills and interests and what ever you do, do something that you enjoy! Don't go into something just for the money. If you enjoy what ever you choose, the money will happen on it's own in time. Trust me, I know and found out almost to late.

 

Good luck to you and I hope you understand what I am saying.

[ventrilol]

I can appreciate your confusion. As an older student who has gone to college or university four times I can give a bit of advice.

 

First off, don't be desperate and don't be in a hurry. I know this may sound like an odd thing to say, but..in this day and age, rushing into any education without knowing for sure what you want to go into can be a bad thing. It can turn into a costly mistake, quite literally. If I may suggest, take some time off and give your self the time you need to explore all the venues that interest you. You say you are only 19...you have time on your side so use it...don't rush.

 

Take a year off from education and get a bit more life experience and give your self a chance to figure things out.

 

But more to the point, game programming involves a lot of math and a special mindset to be sure. One that I know I don't have, even with the years of technical experience that I have. I am more on the artistic side and am going the way of texture artist and modeling, or conceptual artist. I should have done this years ago and am only now getting into the 3D modeling. I am 56 years old..so, as I said...don't rush into something that you are not sure of. Explore your skills and interests and what ever you do, do something that you enjoy! Don't go into something just for the money. If you enjoy what ever you choose, the money will happen on it's own in time. Trust me, I know and found out almost to late.

 

Good luck to you and I hope you understand what I am saying.

 

That's what I am currently doing, I am not studying for half a year actually, but I have to work to live, 40 hours per week, that doesn't allow me to look at every oportunity really much,

I think I should give schools a visit or something and ask for a "practice day" with a student or something, or is there any other way do you think I could discover what kind of job in

the industry suits me? is there a website for that? I have searched and haven't found yet..

 

and Whoa, you have a story that's actually given me shivers, I really appreciate your advice and wish you good luck with 3D modeling!

[hoofhearted4]

i was in a similar boat. i went into college right after high school. (graduated in '09. im 21 now.) at first i wanted to do something with science. considered astronomy (my favorite science subject) but realized astronomers prolly dont make a lot of money. then i wanted to go into marine biology, took a couple of classes in it at my high school (the teacher was a PhD. in marine bio and taught at the UNE which is a big college) so i talked to him. basically if i was going to do anything with science, i would have to become a teacher most likely. so ok. i considered it. also considered accounting. took 3 or 4 classes of it in high school, including quickbooks and stuff on investing and small businesses. and although i enjoyed it to a degree, i realized i didnt wanna do it for a living. anyways, my first year of college was in the Liberal Arts, or teaching. i took a bunch of lame classes like Psychology, and Philosophy and what have you, but before i took any actual teaching classes, i dropped it and realized i didnt want to do that either. so i took a semester off and thought about it, and it came to me. i want to learn about computers. i knew nothing about them to begin with. an extremely novice user. i could set my desktop back ground, play games and surf the web. thats it. i hadnt been a PC geek all my life like many other ppl were. there were two reasons how i knew i wanted to learn. the first one, was when i was buying a laptop, of course i didnt know what CPU or RAM meant, but when i was learning it so i did know so i could buy a good laptop, i enjoyed looking it up and learning. the second reason was cause my friends who are geeks, did know PCs, so one of them was always telling me about his new PC, but i didnt know what he was saying, but i knew i wanted to learn. so the following semester i signed up and took 3 Computer Technology classes. Intro to Computer tech (using DOS and Windows and stuff) Intro to Databases, and a Math class called Discrete Math, which was learning about binary, octodecimal and hexadecimal and pseudo-code. an now, in my second semester im taking Microcomputer Hardware (taking apart PCs) Intro to Web Design (building web pages) and Intro to Programming (using Netbeans and Java) and all of it is completely new to me and i enjoy it all and dont regret going into this one bit....i dont however enjoy the Programming, i think it sucks lol! its kinda hard!!

 

that said, i also plan on taking some sort of Electrical Engineering major afterwards, because they are in need right now. a whole factory was build out west in the US and they needed to hire 300 Electrical Engineers or w/e and couldnt find them. ive always been interest in Electrical stuff (though dont know anything about it, just would like to learn) and the thing is, is in America, ppl who know trades and can work with their hands are the ones making the money (for the most part, unless it has to do with building houses) and so im going to learn that as a fall back major in case computer stuff doesnt work out, cause while im still learning, idk what about PCs id wanna make a living out of....Programers though are the ones who make the money, i hope i can learn to like it lol.

 

also, a tip. if you can, go to a local community college. im going to one, i dont need to board since i live 20 minutes away, it costs me under $1400 for 3 classes, i know its still under $2000 for 4-5 classes. (thats without having to pay for school insurance though, since im insured), but ya. i have friends going to big universities, paying 20k or whatever, taking out loans and everything and they arent even sure 100% what they wanna do. they are getting themselves into debt before they even start life....so if you can, at all costs avoid loans. the last thing you want is to come out of an education in debt.

 

good luck! :D

[ventrilol]

i was in a similar boat. i went into college right after high school. (graduated in '09. im 21 now.) at first i wanted to do something with science. considered astronomy (my favorite science subject) but realized astronomers prolly dont make a lot of money. then i wanted to go into marine biology, took a couple of classes in it at my high school (the teacher was a PhD. in marine bio and taught at the UNE which is a big college) so i talked to him. basically if i was going to do anything with science, i would have to become a teacher most likely. so ok. i considered it. also considered accounting. took 3 or 4 classes of it in high school, including quickbooks and stuff on investing and small businesses. and although i enjoyed it to a degree, i realized i didnt wanna do it for a living. anyways, my first year of college was in the Liberal Arts, or teaching. i took a bunch of lame classes like Psychology, and Philosophy and what have you, but before i took any actual teaching classes, i dropped it and realized i didnt want to do that either. so i took a semester off and thought about it, and it came to me. i want to learn about computers. i knew nothing about them to begin with. an extremely novice user. i could set my desktop back ground, play games and surf the web. thats it. i hadnt been a PC geek all my life like many other ppl were. there were two reasons how i knew i wanted to learn. the first one, was when i was buying a laptop, of course i didnt know what CPU or RAM meant, but when i was learning it so i did know so i could buy a good laptop, i enjoyed looking it up and learning. the second reason was cause my friends who are geeks, did know PCs, so one of them was always telling me about his new PC, but i didnt know what he was saying, but i knew i wanted to learn. so the following semester i signed up and took 3 Computer Technology classes. Intro to Computer tech (using DOS and Windows and stuff) Intro to Databases, and a Math class called Discrete Math, which was learning about binary, octodecimal and hexadecimal and pseudo-code. an now, in my second semester im taking Microcomputer Hardware (taking apart PCs) Intro to Web Design (building web pages) and Intro to Programming (using Netbeans and Java) and all of it is completely new to me and i enjoy it all and dont regret going into this one bit....i dont however enjoy the Programming, i think it sucks lol! its kinda hard!!

 

that said, i also plan on taking some sort of Electrical Engineering major afterwards, because they are in need right now. a whole factory was build out west in the US and they needed to hire 300 Electrical Engineers or w/e and couldnt find them. ive always been interest in Electrical stuff (though dont know anything about it, just would like to learn) and the thing is, is in America, ppl who know trades and can work with their hands are the ones making the money (for the most part, unless it has to do with building houses) and so im going to learn that as a fall back major in case computer stuff doesnt work out, cause while im still learning, idk what about PCs id wanna make a living out of....Programers though are the ones who make the money, i hope i can learn to like it lol.

 

also, a tip. if you can, go to a local community college. im going to one, i dont need to board since i live 20 minutes away, it costs me under $1400 for 3 classes, i know its still under $2000 for 4-5 classes. (thats without having to pay for school insurance though, since im insured), but ya. i have friends going to big universities, paying 20k or whatever, taking out loans and everything and they arent even sure 100% what they wanna do. they are getting themselves into debt before they even start life....so if you can, at all costs avoid loans. the last thing you want is to come out of an education in debt.

 

good luck! :D

 

You are totally pumping me up, I mean, I don't know much about computers, don't even have a computer geek as a friend, but still, i'm pretty interested in all that stuff, i play PC games since i'm 4 years old lol,

only thing that keeps discouraging me is the past three years i spent (almost wanted to say "wasted" but that would be harsh) in different classes I know I won't like as a job later in my life.

So that's it for me, only difference is that I live in Canada, and the school system here (in Quebec) is unique, and sucks, it's called Cegep, not high school, nor college; CEGEP. You don't choose your classes, you

just randomly enter in this program, hoping for the best, and the three programs i've tried, well I did not like them, at all. I'm pretty sure we all have have to work with our strengths, so that's what i'm going to do, finally, not

going not to study computers just because it is different from others (friends, family, etc.)

 

Still like i said i'm only 19, only problem is that I don't want to end up being 28 and still living

with my parents, anyways, thanks for the comments, they give me hope

[RitualBlack]

Since you like computers you could always look into the engineering field. I like computers and video games a lot, but I didn't think there would be too much demand for a job related to that where I live so I decided to go into engineering (I also live in Canada, just not Quebec). It is a fair amount of work but if you like working with blender/3ds max than autocad is the next best thing (at least for me). Things are even rendered in 3ds max. What ever you choose just make sure you like what you are doing. I thought I would be doing business like my parents but I tried several courses in high school and it just wasn't for me. Like hoofhearted4 says, a community college is a very good thing. I am currently in first year and it is a good transition from high school, its affordable (Yay, no debt :biggrin: ) and there are many more branching opportunities. College often has 90%+ chance to get employed within 6 months and in some cases you can use your college diploma to transition into university if you wish. For example I can attend 3 years college and graduate with a great job as a civil engineer technologist, or I can go to university for 2 years after and become a civil engineer with 1 year work experience. Also, if you are unsure about jobs you probably wouldn't want to go to university first because that could be a $20,000 "whoops, don't want to do that for the rest of my life". Anyways, make sure you do a great deal of research about your job such as projected demand, possible income, room for promotion and other things. Also, if you get a job and you wish to continue your diploma in university it is possible to have your work pay you through if you sign a contract, and if not, you are employed and can properly afford it (For continuing your diploma the course has to have the option, ask with student services/guidance councilor about jobs which allow you to do so first). There also is not a need to go to university after college unless you want to for personal reasons because just about any job will make a great living, and not all jobs from university are going to make more (even more research to be done!). I am just saying this because where I live there is an unhealthy and slightly elitist push towards university if you attended "U" level courses which really bothered me. Just giving my two cents worth, and I hope that some of what I am saying connects with you as we seem to be close in age (assuming you are not born in 1910 like your profile says :rolleyes: ).

To sum it all up, and as cliche as this sounds; choose what is best for you, don't let people discourage you from your learning level and comfort zone and understand that college and university (as well apprenticeship) are all amazing choices. What I find most important is that graduation doesn't have to be the end of education. You can always get a dual diploma, attend a night school program so you are learning while working, as well as many other possibilities. Post secondary is great because almost every one wants to be there making it a much greater learning environment and friendlier place. Just make sure you do some research and enjoy life. You only life once so make the best of it and make it your own :happy: .