Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Canucks Community

28, Looking for a Career, need help


hsedin33

Recommended Posts

Teaching is the bomb, Hank. I love it! There is so much more to it than most people realize, though. Lots of politics and paper pushing. It's not just about lessons and marking.

If you genuinely enjoy being around kids and enjoy their company, go for it. It's quite a bit of post sec, though. I have a 4 year BHK from UBC and a 2 year BEd, also from UBC. Sounds like teaching Phys. Ed. might be up your alley? ECE is pre-school stuff and does not include K. K-3 is a Primary Ed. focus, at least it was at UBC. Langara used to have a good ECE program.

Link to comment

Hang in there, bud, you're not the only one. There are lots of us going back to school, or who have not figured out what we want to do for the rest of our lives.

I'm going back to school too (I'm 27) and currently teaching to save a little coin before I go. I still haven't quite figured out what I'd like to do, and have been trying some career counselling to find a good fit. For me, the problem is that I'm not really, really good at one very specific thing. I'm quite good at a quite a few things, so narrowing it down can be hard.

From what I've figured out so far, start by eliminating careers that include doing things you definitely know you DON'T want to do. For me, for example, I know I could never do a sales job that involved selling a product I didn't believe in. I've done that before when I was a poor student, and I felt scummy, as if I was ripping people off (to be fair the product wasn't terrible, but most definitely not worth the price).

Once you've got that figured, the best advice I can give is just to go out and start trying stuff. It's really hard to know what interests you until you give it a try. People change careers/education paths all the time. Someone I know, for example, tried his hand at something like 6-7 career paths/jobs before realizing he wanted to be a Psychologist specializing in brain wave therapy. Go figure. He found out by volunteering to be a test subject while he was in school for something else, hahaha. Took a keen interest in psychology and the rest is history, as they say.

Good luck, don't be discouraged. No experience is bad experience or a waste of time. All the life experience you've garnered so far is useful.

Link to comment

I have a lot of friends who are out of work, and have been out of work for a long time.

I was laid off from work in 2008, became self employed and while I struggled at first, I'm finally making enough to pay rent and buy food. Unless it is a lot of pay I'll never take another job again.

You said you were a martial arts instructor. MMA is in yo! In the long run, I believe you should adapt your martial arts to MMA and learn to teach that. Even NHL hockey players are getting MMA training. I foresee that eventually MMA will be more popular than all the other instructions of martial arts / self defense. A lot of people are gonna want to learn it. There is a lot of career flexibility with that. You can work for a studio, or you can branch out on your own, or both. If you do it for a while and do well, you will make a name for yourself and make a good income.

In the short run perhaps you would need a McJob to get by. But in the long run I really think you should look into becoming a MMA instructor.

Good luck!

Link to comment

If you'd like to start your own business (such as opening your own dojo or your own bootcamp company) you should look into the self-employment program at Langara. It's a free program that's designed to help people on EI start their own business.

http://www.langara.bc.ca/continuing-studies/programs-and-courses/programs/self-employment/index.html

Check it out. FYI, last summer our company had bootcamp classes and the guy that came to run the classes charged 200 bucks per person for 10 classes and we had to provide all our own equipment (ie. mats, free weights etc.) I remember thinking it was a pretty good business model since he came to us and used our facilities he didn't have to pay rent for his own studio. We also had a yoga instructor come do classes as well, though she only charged about 10 bucks a class. It seems like a pretty easy way to make money with low overhead.

If you're not interested in self-employment you could also look into personal training. The advantage to something like that is the hours are generally flexible so you could do that while going to school.

Link to comment

Based on your stated interests and in the interest of what's in demand, I'd say going in to physio/sports therapy etc would be a good route for you. Only "downside" is potentially a fair bit of school depending on what you pick.

Medicine is a growth industry (aging population etc) so it fits your needs for career stability in that regard and will allow you to "teach" one on one in a physical/active and generally quieter environment.

Link to comment

hard to tell if you already have a bachelors or not.

an extra 2 v. 5 years is pretty significant when it comes to considering financial costs and opportunity costs..

for me, i never was really passionate or spectacularly good at anything. i ended up just focusing on getting a versatile skill set and education... in preparation for my multiple career changes. (so far just one for me at age 32)

then worked backwards... i thought about what i wanted (big v small, sick leave, vacation, stress level, brain engagement), then researched organizations that treated their employees well and then looked at jobs within those organizations that i could eventually see myself doing. didn't limit myself to what i got my bachelors in.

eg. if you want a pension, then look at hospitals, city sites, libraries, universities, etc. (full list of MPP Employers)

keep in mind that your needs and priorities will change as you get older - family (flex work schedule, kids in health plan), retire (job security, pension)

make sure you talk to people in the profession before you make any concrete decisions.

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...