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Hey guys..I'm sure there are numerous threads about this, but I'm having some trouble on deciding the career path I want to pursue.
For a brief background info, I'm 19 and a college freshman who is currently a biology major. The reason why I chose biology was that I want to become a dentist. However, there is a much deeper reason for this choice.
My parents divorced when I was about seven. This was when I was in Seoul, and my mom took me to the states to start a new life. Fortunately, my aunt lives here and helped us get situated. But the main problem was that my mom could never settle with a decent job. She graduated with some liberal arts major back in Seoul and taught students time to time. This was what she wanted. But it's different here, especially being single, and ended up with a waiter job for some time. Eventually, the hardships she dealt with took toll, and she told me to find a secure career from this point on. Having known my other aunt in Korea as a dentist as well as someone who had an "easy" life, I decided to go with dentistry. Ever since then, I had somewhat of a passion to become a dentist. Again, this was when I was seven; what did I know?
But now that I'm in college and taking the prerequisite courses for dental school, I'm not sure anymore. To make things worse, a few of my friends who were pursuing a career in dentistry chose a different route, a route they enjoyed. For example, one of my friends got accepted to this early acceptance program at a dental school (all she needed to do was maintain a decent GPA and earn an average score on the dental admissions test), but she quit the program the next year. Personally, she said she cannot see herself going through the same shit for the next 7 years.
Recently, I think I found out what I wanted to do which is web design/programming. Although I only have little knowledge on these topics, I kind of "learned" html css in about a week using some of the sites/books my good friend provided. I can do basic stuff by memory, good enough to make a decent webpage (decent in a weeks time). I'm not trying to boast or anything; Rather, I wanted to bring light of the intensity of my interest in this particular field. If it weren't for my interest, I probably wouldn't have spent a couple of hours trying to learn every single day.
And now I'm left with a conflict: should I go through hell for the next 7 years in college and live a bountiful life, or should I follow my interest even though life may not seem pretty? I guess what I'm also trying to ask is how secure is web designing as a full time job.
I'd appreciate your thoughts. thx
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Well fuck, it's not like web design isn't a lucrative field.
Now if you wanted to be say, a philosophy major...
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I could say you can be a teacher or something, but web designing isn't so bad, if you ask me.
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Web design can be lucrative as hell, as has already been mentioned.
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web design can absolutely land you a high-paying job.. but to be realistic, if you're looking for an easier and less burdening life after you complete your education, i'd say you should stick to dentistry... the chances of getting a good job from web design is tough imo and as long as you finish dental school, it shouldn't be hard at all to start making money.. if you can handle the workload in the dental track, you should definitely stick to it.. it's a sure-fire way to live an easier life and provide for your mother.. granted you are sure you'll finish the coursework
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If you have an interest in web design, you should perhaps look into becoming more of a programmer/developer as opposed to focusing on the technologies that have you competing with every 14 year old kid with a laptop. Once you've read a little and exposed yourself to some of the great new technologies around web development, you can have a better understanding of whether or not its something you want to pursue and guide your decision from there~
Here's a cool new framework to start learning:
http://www.asp.net/mvc/mvc3
Or if you prefer open-source:
http://rubyonrails.org/
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Calgary25993 Posts
This is an easy one. Continue towards dentistry (via biology) while doing web design in your personal time. If you start making money with web design, at least you have a backup biology degree.
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Well fuck, it's not like web design isn't a lucrative field.
But super highly competitive and well crowded. If you really want to go into that field you better like the challenge. Also to note that until you reach a certain credibility / fame you will work with unfriendly customers, around 11 hours per day and poorly payed. You will most likely do web design on a freelancer base without a 9/5 job and with the full financial risk on your site.
The same is true for programming, but its less drastic there since you will most likely get hired by a company. But still you better love working under high pressure if you go into that field.
I'm doing both for my daily job and i agree with Chill : Get a real job and do web design / programming in your free time. Will certainly be better for your health ( physically and financially ;D )
If you really want to take a sneak peak into webdesign read the first 100 pages of http://smashingmagazine.com ( can be done in ~5 hours ). They have some VERY good articles about the daily life of a web designer in it.
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I agree with XiaN that it's both a competitive and well crowded field of work, but I also believe that it really is the kind of profession that you got to have the correct mindset to be successful in!
Anyways, good luck no matter what you end up doing!
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but I also believe that it really is the kind of profession that you got to have the correct mindset to be successful in!
A very good point and very true. Its like online affiliate marketing or being a broker. You need the right mindset to be successful in it AND enjoy it on a daily basis. However when you have the correct mindset, you can earn absurd amounts of money. At least the upper 5% do 
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EPT
