Professions

[Archangel]

"A profession is a vocation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain"

Source: Oxford English Dictionary

So what is it that you guys do for a living? Do you have a bachelors or a masters? If you're still in school what do you plan major in?

Personally i'm on university to be a Civil Engineer, first year

[Death BOO Z]

currently I'm studying towards the psychometric test, which the local equivalent of the SAT score test in the U.S, it should determinate what I can study in the university, (and at which university\collage).

as for what I want to do in the future, I've got no idea.

meanwhile, I work at a school\home-office supplies store, selling crap products (really.. what kind of jerk buys something called E-pod?) to crappy people (they won't pay 10 more bucks for a decent product that actually works, no. they'll get the shit product).

also, the local dress up holyday (a-la-halloween) is coming soon, so I'm going to have some shit stories about my job in the next week.

[Ryllharu]

Mechanical Engineer (B.S.) by education, paper pusher by trade!

Seriously, I haven't done a single calculation in over a year since I graduated from university. Wait...one time I calculated a percent error using Excel.

I review reports (yay!) and study program and specification requirements so that my company never gets caught with its pants down when we are regularly (at least once every 6 months) audited by the government.

It's not as bad as it sounds though (well, sometimes it is...), it ends up being more like Interpretive Law. Auditors will try to twist the spec requirement wording one way in order to catch us, so we have to twist it back and wriggle our way out. Personally we may agree with the auditors, but we have to try to explain away every issue. There's only a half-dozen documents (not counting the actual designs) that are about 200-400 pages each, so it's not as bad as actual Law.

[RyougaZell]

Computer Systems Engineer. Graduated in December 2004.

I haven't programmed in 5 years though. Currently I work at a telephonic company, where I analyze new products, design test cases and execute them, in order to see the new 'products' working correctly before offering them to the customers.

[Assertn]

senior flash developer / software architect / co-owner
I make tools, apps, and games that people use online.

My bachelor's degree is in multimedia...which is kind of meaningless on its own.

[Buffalobiian]

Bachelor of Pharmacy - 3rd year (of the 4 year course)

To be honest, I don't know much pharmacy. I can study and pass tests and such, but that's more like being an academic than being one practicing a profession.

I've got 30-40 hours of community placements every year, and I really dislike them. I think it's just I know shit all about actual practice, that I feel stressed and completely useless compared to everyone else. A bit part of that is that the university teaches you drug names, while 98% of the time, people in pharmacy will mention the drug as their brand name.

The rationale is that brand names change, drug names don't. While that's good and all, it doesn't help us recognise all those products out there and associate that with their drug-name counterparts.

It really explains why after graduation, you have to do a year of full-time work & some study before you're registered with the Board. You really need hands on experience for both customers and yourself to be confident in your ability.

There are generally 4 paths you can take after that: community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, government/board administrative and regulation works or research/industrial pharmacy.

I'm considering doing a B.Medicine/B. Surgery after all this. It really depends on how satisfied I am with where I'm at after I've finished.

[David75]

Had prep school for 3 years after being a bachelor, Entered directly as a third year in Engineering school, graduated from there.
It is considered the thoughest route for students, bullshit.


Worked 3 years in the industry, then I install audio-video systems.

Not much to say, I think I was able to have any kind of diploma, but did something useless with lack of knowledge regarding possibilities and what jobs after that really are.

[Honoko]

On my way to becoming a marriage and family therapist.

(I graduated with a engineering degree a while back, which explains my gEEk side =P)

[kAi]

IT - Store Systems Specialist
Look after all our stores nationwide and New Zealand, looking after servers, workstations, registers with Progress and SQL databases and other various applications.

Did Computer Science degree for a year and dropped out.
But have a diploma in Network Engineering at Tafe.

[Animeniax]

What store chain do you work for? And what's Tafe, a technical school?

I think we had a thread like this already.

[Buffalobiian]

What store chain do you work for? And what's Tafe, a technical school?

I think we had a thread like this already.

Yeah, tafe is the Australian equivalent of a technical school. Not the name of one, but rather, tafe means "technical school".

There other similar thread we had was something like "Where are you on your career path"

[Animeniax]

Yeah, tafe is the Australian equivalent of a technical school. Not the name of one, but rather, tafe means "technical school".

There other similar thread we had was something like "Where are you on your career path"Oh cool, so it's like how you Aussies say "uni" when you're talking about university schooling.

I considered going to trade school, but it's almost as expensive as 4 years at state university. The leading IT school in the region is ITT, and they charge something like $19k for 2 years' tuition. They had the silliest commercials in the early 1990s where the job interviewer asks the interviewee "have you worked on anything 'high tech'?" At which the applicant, who had not attended a technical school, solemnly shakes his head. The interviewer sighs and it's presumed the applicant doesn't get the job.

[Buffalobiian]

Oh cool, so it's like how you Aussies say "uni" when you're talking about university schooling.
Oh? I didn't realise "uni" was something Aussie (and maybe NZealand) specific. I just googled TAFE, and while I knew it was an acronym, I didn't know it stood for Technical and Further Education.

What's the difference between College and University in the US and other places? Over here, schools that are both high and primary (elementary) schools call themselves colleges, while at our (and perhaps other) uni, college refers to the on-campus dorms.

[Animeniax]

I think it used to be a difference in campus size that determined if it was a college or university, but they're the same thing these days in so far as you work towards a 4 year undergraduate degree. The difference might be post-graduate work at universities that is not offered at colleges. And no, we don't refer to them as "uni" here in the states. The first time I heard the term and ever since, it was an Australian saying it.

[kAi]

I work for Woolworths Limited.
We look after the supermarkets but we also look after Dan Murphy's, BWS , and Caltex Petrol (There are other companies we own but we look after these). There are only a few differences between the software and hardware that they use though.
All up, there would be about 2000+ sites.

Yeah, Tafe is like a technical school, and it's no way near as expensive as university.
But since I didn't finish High School and you either need a diploma in Tafe or finish high school to get into uni, but I think everything has worked out for the better, although I could've been where I'm at sooner. Will probably apply for development in a year or more.

[Honoko]

Huh, I thought everyone outside the US referred to college as "uni." Don't the Canadians refer to college life that way too?

In the states, a university is usually made up of different colleges (ie, University X is made up of the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Engineering). They also tend to offer Ph.D. programs because they're more research focused. Colleges ocassionally offer Masters programs but I doubt you'll ever see them offer doctorate degrees.

And yes, this is definitely similar to the career path thread.

[Board of Command]

My university program is Systems Design Engineering, whatever the hell that is. I've already finished half the degree and still don't know what it is.

My actual "job" right now is Platform Product Management at AMD Markham. This will finish at the end of April.

[Buffalobiian]

In the states, a university is usually made up of different colleges (ie, University X is made up of the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Engineering).

We call those "schools" down here. For example, at our uni, we've got the School of Pharmacy, School of Law etc.

We haven't got the individual colleges as such. We've either got TAFE, which gets you things like diplomas, certificates and stuff, and then we've got University. There is no in between, or non-research Bachelor institutions.

[itadakimasu]

BOC, where you going after AMD?

[Board of Command]

BOC, where you going after AMD?
Back to school. Work is part of my degree.

[Xrlderek]

I don't know exactly what I want yet, so I'm just taking the subjects which will give me the most options to choose from later on. I'm thinking of becoming a civil engineer and taking a masters in it, but I am far from sure. I'm trying to learn some C++ on the side, but haven't made much progress yet.

[Assertn]

specializing is the shit