I had a dead-set career path (game design) and even went to college with this path in mind. When it all came together and I finally had the opportunity to do it, I made a sudden decision against it.
Ended up being the right choice, but I don’t think my younger self would believe it.
Some of the teachers said “go to college and get a job like ours”, some said trades are a good idea. The one guy was like “you’ll move through tens of careers and IT WILL BE GREAT!”. But, at no point was flexibility encouraged. It was “find your calling and pursue it ruthlessly”. I wasn’t sure what to major in going out of high school, because lots of stuff is cool, and they thought that was the worst thing ever.
Wow, I could write something similar. It was game dev for me. My younger self prepared for the college path. I didn’t deviate. I didn’t land a job in the industry and now do something similar, which isn’t exactly games (VR training simulations). Best decision of my life.
Younger self might be disappointed I don’t make cool games.
I studied video game art in uni, but left the course after 1.5 years bc it went in a different direction I hoped for (it went all-in on 3D, and the 2D I was actually interested in was done in a month). By that point I already had a part-time job as graphic designer, so I continued that instead, and eventually managed to land a graphic-designer-ish job at a non-profit organisation.
My current job is a lot less glamorous from the outside than video game art, or even a typical graphic design portfolio would be, but I really enjoy it :)
I had a dead-set career path (game design) and even went to college with this path in mind. When it all came together and I finally had the opportunity to do it, I made a sudden decision against it.
Ended up being the right choice, but I don’t think my younger self would believe it.
Some of the teachers said “go to college and get a job like ours”, some said trades are a good idea. The one guy was like “you’ll move through tens of careers and IT WILL BE GREAT!”. But, at no point was flexibility encouraged. It was “find your calling and pursue it ruthlessly”. I wasn’t sure what to major in going out of high school, because lots of stuff is cool, and they thought that was the worst thing ever.
Wow, I could write something similar. It was game dev for me. My younger self prepared for the college path. I didn’t deviate. I didn’t land a job in the industry and now do something similar, which isn’t exactly games (VR training simulations). Best decision of my life.
Younger self might be disappointed I don’t make cool games.
I studied video game art in uni, but left the course after 1.5 years bc it went in a different direction I hoped for (it went all-in on 3D, and the 2D I was actually interested in was done in a month). By that point I already had a part-time job as graphic designer, so I continued that instead, and eventually managed to land a graphic-designer-ish job at a non-profit organisation.
My current job is a lot less glamorous from the outside than video game art, or even a typical graphic design portfolio would be, but I really enjoy it :)
That made me curious: what’s your current field? And has your college degree been useful in another way than originally intended?