In an attempt to end my stay at this dead end job, I have enrolled my self in a small community college here in Texas. I started off taking my basic classes cause I had no clue in the world what I wanted to do when I started. I think I found that most people you talk to had very little direction as to where they where they were going or what they wanted to accomplish by going to school.
About half way through my first semester I decided I would really buckle down and focus a lot of my extra time really trying to decide what direction I want my education to take me. Did I really want to spend the next 2 years or more going to school not even going for what I would like to land a job in after I was finished.
So long story short, the answer to that was of course no. I knew that by going to school I would be able to get a better job, but just because a job makes more money does not mean I will enjoy it more. Its nice to earn extra money, but if I am gonna take the time to learn something I want to enjoy what I am learning.
Instead of choosing a college course that would take me 4 years to complete I thought I would look into some shorter, skill based programs. I was shocked to find out what people where earning with a 2 year degree. Not to share exactly what I make per year, but they were making almost double right after graduation with huge room for growth.
I also really started researching what factors of the career choice program I chose would help me to find a job faster. Is that job field in need of employees? Or is that market flooded. What is the graduation percentage of people who took the same courses as me, and do I feel that I am smart enough to finish the course successfully. The last thing I wanted was to start a career program and not finish. So I selectively looked through about 15 different career training programs until I found what I though would suit me the best.
After talking with a counselor at my school, I even found that they offered help with job placement after I graduated if I kept my scores up and showed that I was truley there to learn and better myself. Its a lot to take in and really was a little bit stressful, but I know it will pay off in the end. I chose a 2 year course as an x ray tech and will explain a bit more about it in the coming days or weeks when I have some more time to blog about it.
