2005-10-28

Aspirations, huh....

It seems that the last post has made some buzz. Ray has reflected on it.

This seems like a good time to list some goals I have. Pardon the rip off of Ray's blog title, but what dreams may come? Indeed.

I've worked for a couple engineering firms and software companies, and quite frankly I can't see myself doing that for life. So what is there left? Drumroll.

I like university. I like the overall academic environment, and of course, the social side as well. So that brings me to graduate studies. The field is probably mathematics. After that, maybe professor? There's option one.

Option two is law. Law is interesting. The average lawyer doesn't actually make large amounts of dough, so it's really based on interest and my reluctance to just graduate and take a job at say, Epson.

Option three is medical school. My parents went to med school, so naturally I feel somewhat inclined to do the same thing. I'd have to admit that I don't have the stomach that my parents do for the things that may I have to learn and do in med school (actually a long story, lot's of talk with 'rents :P). So maybe it's not such a good idea, being afraid of germs, diseases, and nasty things in general. Yet, I do have an interest in the field, more so than programming let's say. :P

Options two and three seem pretty cliché for a person with no clear idea of what they want to do after graduation, and indeed I am, but I don't believe I'm choosing two and three for the popular reasons.

Anyways, this is basically as far as I've gone in contemplating my future.

7 comments:

Jason Yu said...

Actually I started reading up on some economics as of late too.. gold, monetary policy and what not.. intriguing. Damn, everything seems to be so interesting. Anything other than programming that is :P

Jason Yu said...

Rick, I've worked with engineers -- electrical and software -- for the past 3 years. Indeed, they are under appreciated and under paid. I have imagined myself doing the jobs of anyone I've worked with: division managers, section managers, project managers, ordinary engineers, -- heck, even the secretary -- and I came to the conclusion that none of these contemporary jobs at such firms are for me.

A few of the people I've worked with may like their jobs, but I haven't sensed much joy or satisfaction from them.

By the way, we mathies take pride in being known as the most lazy. =P Mathematicians are so much more lazy than engineers. Honestly, engineers work frantically, and hence 'over worked, under paid'.

Theomnifish said...

Hmmm...your parents went to med school, so you're somewhat inclined to do the same thing? For me, it's the opposite. My Dad is a parasitologist...he spends all his time looking at microscopes for micro-organisms and writing reports about what he finds. Because he was doing that, it made me want to stay away from bio. Didn't want to end up doing what my parents do and being compared with them etc.

When I was younger, I has aspirations to become a lawyer or some kind of programmer, but now both those options are pretty much closed to me. So, I don't really have that much choice left, unless I want to spend the rest of my life in school. :P So I guess what I do post-grad won't end being as "cool" as what most of you guys will be up to. I guess I'm at a crossroads too, only with fewer roads diverging from my location.

Oh, and Ray, I saw Peter Harron about a year ago I think, he went into Civ Eng at UW, and he told me that he's not really enjoying his program either. In my elec program here at UW, I know quite a few ppl who switched out also, besides Jason.

And yeah, I must agree that Mathies are the laziest ppl on earth. I can't remember how many times my math/stats profs have said something like "Now of course, us mathematicians/statisticians are lazy, so we use a shortcut and just do this instead of this long tedious way." It's kinda funny actually, how my profs seem to be encouraging me to be lazy haha. Also, based on the mathies I know vs. the engineers I know, I think I can have some evidence that mathies are truly lazier. Jason, do you have any evidence to reject my null hypoxes? :D

Ambrose said...

Better that you all are thinking about what you want to do now, than to go on with something you don't like (say, Engineering =p) and be miserable about it.

We still have time on our side, kinda. Still got about 40 years left to do stuff before "retirement age" (of course, I personally would like to "retire" before that time). That is, unless some global pandemic or natural disaster wipes us all out, ha ha.

As for engineers who are still sticking in their program, I'm pretty sure Ben Komalo and Jeff Hau are still in Soft Eng. Although the thing w/ Softies is that they end up being a lot like CS-ers it seems when it comes to finding jobs (they all go for Seattle or Silicon Valley). So maybe they're an exception.

Any word on where 'Zeeb is Ray? =p

Theomnifish said...

Haha...too bad our "instant win card" can't help us win at everything. :P It only applies in certain specific situations.

Jason Yu said...

Makes me wonder if there's a laziness contest somewhere out there.. :P

Jason Yu said...

It's not necessary that the organizers themselves are lazy. I do surmise however, that the task of recruiting the truly indolent would be difficult.