[Share] Why you chose your Uni/Career path?

[qazser]

For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted a career in the health sciences because they truly integrate both the Arts and the Science fields. After my bachelor of science degree, my only postgrad preference was the Doctor of Optometry, so you can imagine the degree of uncertainty and stress I was experiencing when it came to admissions time. Why Optometry though?

1. Multi-disciplinary health profession: As optometrists, you work with GPs, Ophthalmologists, neurologists, orthoptists and many other different health professions to help diagnose, monitor and treat patients for various ocular conditions, that often are the implication of an underlying systemic cause. I could potentially pick up early signs of diabetic retinopathy, a CN3 palsy manifesting as a result of an internal carotid artery occlusion that if not immediately referred as an ocular emergency could result in the death of a patient. Often optometrists are only considered by the wider community for their role in performing refraction to ultimately prescribe glasses, however investigating a patient's ocular health is equally, if not, more important. All of these factors together can lead to Optometry being an incredibly rewarding profession.

2. I see it as a career that can involve a flexible lifestyle. Many opportunities are available to perform locum work, part-time work or full-time work. Relative to medicine, I believe the number of hours you need to practice as an Optometrist to hold down your job is comparatively less, so that opens the door to pursuing an additional career if you so desire. This for me was the downside to pursuing a career in Medicine, the lifestyle is often much more fixed and strict, my stress levels didn't need to be further elevated by late-night or on-call shifts.

3. Although we consider both systemic and ocular conditions, our central focus is on examining the eye. There's only so much I feel I can learn about the body's anatomy until my brain explodes from information overload, another reason why I personally could not pursue a career in Medicine at this point of my life.

4. Took a bunch of vision-related subjects in undergrad: 1- Vision: How the Eye sees the world, 2- Principles of Neuroscience, 3- Neurophysiology: Neurons and Circuits, 4- Sensation, Movement and Complex Functions, 5- Visual Neuroscience. I never would have elected to study these subjects if I didn't have the passion for them. Instead, I was becoming more and more intrigued in undergrad as I learned more about the anatomy, physiology and neuroscience behind the eye and vision overall.

5. As I mentioned above, careers in the health science field are truly an art form in themselves. Communication with your patient is incredibly important and has had a large emphasis in the first year of the Optometry course. We've learned about taking a patient's case history, how terribly wrong things can go if you aren't confident with your patient instructions before performing an eye test, our role in providing advice to patients who are colour-blind- describing the vocational and educational implications it may have for them, how one day we may regrettably have to tell a low-vision patient that they could be blind in the next year. Optometry won't always be all fun and dance, but it's important that we inform the patient of the ocular changes they are experiencing regardless.

6. As well as being intrigued about optometry through undergrad, i'm also a regular patient because i've got shortsightedness, which isn't all that uncommon. Regardless, it was amazing to have all that frustration about not being able to see in the distance during High School disappear when I was given simple negative power spectacle lenses as a means of correction. I'll always remember that.

Added bonuses:

1. Small course: There are only about 60 students doing the program at UoM. By the end of first year, i've learned everyone's names and talked to everyone at least once. I can see myself working with many of my peers in the future and I would welcome that opportunity.

2. The technology that is used within many optometry practices is truly fascinating. You've got visual fields machines, OCTs, opportunities to take fundus photographs, autorefractors. We've been learning about both the optics and biology about said machines, this to me highlights how dynamic Optometry is in terms of not being restricted to one field of science.

3. In the fourth-year of our course, we'll have the chance to undertake an overseas externship with numerous sites around the world being offered. It could be a great opportunity to step outside my comfort zone and choose a country where you have patients with incredibly rare eye conditions and where the resources to treat them are limited.


Hope this has given some insight Feel free to PM me any questions you may have.

Ty for sharing starlight

[Starlight]

Ty for sharing starlight

No problemo.

[wyzard]

*Sorry to mods in advance if this is in the wrong sub forum.

Hey all,

I was just wondering what makes you choose your (future/present) uni/career path?

Some general questions:
Your current uni path/job
Why did you choose this path? (Money? Interesting career? Flexible career?)
 
No clue what do study after Y12, maybe this will give us that haven't graduated an insight into your choices.

Thanks so much,
Qazser

Edit:
So far we have:
Pi - Medicine/Surgery
Joseph41 - Linguistics
Euler- Science/Maths
mahler- BioChem
Starlight- Optometry

Thanks to Pi, Joseph41, Euler, Mahler and Starlight who have shared their experiences

 

That's a really good question And it is inspiring to read that other people over here have their ambitions and passionate on what they want as a career. I hope reading some of the stories here can give you a better idea what you'd like to do in the future qazser. Do explore around, and you don't have to pick a specific path, and you can change them along the way.

I'll share mine here.

I'm currently doing my Bachelor of Science in Melbourne Uni, majoring in physics. I'm really interested in a research career in Theoretical Physics, as physics is what I have been in love with since I was sixteen. I love figuring things out, solving complex puzzles, tackling challenging questions and being creative in explaining how the world works. A pathway to research in physics is long and hard, but definitely very rewarding and fun

The reason for doing physics is purely because of passion and I wanted to learn more about the physical world. I remember my parent discouraging me not to enter physics as they have doubts about the prospects and wanted me to do Commerce and pick something more "safe". Thankfully I didn't follow their advice

I'm always curious about the world around us, and I want to push the boundaries of our knowledge; be it in discovering new things or developing new technologies. At the moment my physics education is kinda broad, building up my foundation in different areas, so I'm not focusing on anything specific. There are a few areas that I'm pretty interested in at the moment; such as quantum computing, improving computing methods for quantum computation, superconductors etc. that I might look into in the future.

Besides I'm currently a writer and tutor along the side of my physics education. I really enjoy explaining concepts and sharing my ideas; helping out students to appreciate the power and beauty of maths and science, help them to become better learners, and inspire them to find what their ambitions are for their future and work towards them.

Hope this gives you some idea of what I'm doing and inspiration of what you'd like to do

[BigAl]

I'll share mine...at least try to...

I'm studying bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical), recently switched from bachelor of Aerospace Engineering and Science. There are a few reasons behind this switch. I'll try to list them all.

First and foremost, I attended one of those career talks and specifically asked this question to several firms
"Will you hire an aerospace engineer or mechanical engineer at equal conditions?" I wanted a clear answer for this because, well, aerospace is just a subspace of mechanical engineering and an aerospace engineer can work as a mechanical engineer. This was the thing I told to myself in the past years and I wanted to know how much of this was actually true. Every firm leaned towards mechanical engineer so as a result, I started questioning my course decision in 2013.

I actually stopped doing any science subject so I was actually going to drop science anyway and continue with aerospace. Then I thought, if I was going with single degree then why not change it to mechanical?

The reason why I wanted to drop science was simple. High school physics is indistinguishable from mechanical engineering, at least in first year eng. I had a false sense of what a physicist might do in his career and I was quite disappointed when I took 2nd year physics classes.

I actually wanted to be a computer scientist when I was a kid. You can probably guess why? I wanted make games...At some point I wanted to study linguistics but then my brother, who happens to be an engineer as well, told me that I was actually math oriented and I would waste myself in non math related things.

I was good at physical sciences and physics was my favourite subject, though not so good at maths. So at the same time, I wanted to be a physicist too. My engineering choice would be mechanical engineering as I loved those projectile questions and gears, plus I am a huge fan of F1. I don't know what happened after this moment. I don't really know what made me choose of aerospace engineering. I guess I was under the impression of space travel but how realistic this path was to me?

When I got into uni, I was barely questioning my decision. I was thinking, 'oh well, aerospace industry doesn't have that many jobs...well at least I can work as an mechanical engineer.'I got frustrated when I saw my mechanical engineering student friends in Turkey doing internships at aerospace firms. I was actually wrong at this point. I was deceiving myself all along. A mechanical engineer could work at an aerospace firm as well as in other fields. I did some research and decided to make a switch to mechanical engineering.

Afterwards, things got much better. I've improved my grades drastically. I now have a clear idea of what I want to do when I graduate compared to the times when I was in aerospace. Electromechanics is an emerging field and I want to do something in this field or in hydraulics although I will make a final decision depending on my final year project. (I will end up in something related to electrical power - 90% odds)

Why did I choose mechanical engineering?

I still love gears as much as I did when I was a kid.

My ultimate goal is to learn German and work for a German firm in Turkey. Don't get me started on my enthusiasm on German engineering, will ya? (Here's a hint. I've been admiring German engineering since I was a kid)

[qazser]

Ty Wyzard and Big Al for sharing 

[DeezNuts]

just wanted to bump this....i'd love to hear more stories which will help me (and others) decide on our own paths

[pi]

just wanted to bump this....i'd love to hear more stories which will help me (and others) decide on our own paths

Another bump. For all those uni students procrastinating in the exam period, chuck up a few paras

[Aaron]

Wow... As if I haven't already posted here... Any opportunity to talk about myself, sure!

Your current uni/job
-- Previous course/uni: Bachelor of IT, La Trobe
-- Current course/uni: Master of Teaching (Secondary Ed), Monash
-- Previous job: Class tutor/teaching associate, La Trobe (in Computer Science/IT)
-- Current job: n/a

Why I chose IT to begin with?
I've always had a fascination with computers - I was introduced to them at a very young age and have used them ever since.

What I actually really wanted to do.. and why
My aim has always been Education - but I decided against jumping straight into a Bachelor of Education/Teaching. I personally believe that teachers should have at least 3 years of pure academic knowledge in their areas before going off to 'teach' our next generation. That's just me anyway. The desire to help others has always been a strong element in my life. The only job i've ever held is a class tutor at university level (and to be fair, I absolutely loved it). I was able to achieve heaps more with a Bachelor degree first (e.g. social skills improvement, knowledge improvement, relevant work experience etc).

But... IT pays so much more than teaching? Why would you do that?
I'll be completely honest here, money means something, but it doesn't mean everything. I've always enjoyed helping people, from a very young age. I've had my career path set in stone for quite a while - I knew exactly what I wanted and how I intended on getting there (with a few bumps in the road along the way). In my final year of my undergrad, I was a class tutor (some unis call these 'Teaching Associates') and this paved the way for me to get involved a little bit more at uni (e.g. Open Day, Orientation).

In just under a year's time, I will be a qualified secondary teacher in IT/Computing and Maths. I have absolutely put my heart and soul into working and being semi-smart (lol). I didn't go to a prestigious school, didn't get a great ATAR, didn't even go to a "great" university to begin with. My main teaching method is IT, and Maths is just the 2nd part of the package (because I had to choose two methods to be qualified in).

I'm always happy to give advice in regards to IT/Computer Science or Education/Teaching areas if anyone is ever interested. All you have to do is PM

Life's short. Choose a career that will make you happy. That's what I'm doing.

[tashhhaaa]

are there any lawyers around? would love to hear about their experiences!

[heids]

Disclaimer: less than unqualified to answer, just wanted to throw an existentially confused spanner in everyone else's works

My totally un-inspirational pathway so far

I've basically always wanted something in healthcare (blah blah helping people get better blah blah), but after VCE, I took a gap year, where I did certificates in Aged Care, tutored and AN’ed.  I then gave in and figured this year I’d better jump on the uni train to see what the hype was all about.  Location made Monash Clayton the only option, and in the field it basically only offered Med and Nursing, so – Nursing it was.  Boom.

I kind of didn’t like uni.  My fault.  And shit happens, y'know.

So unmotivated and passionless me is now launching into gap year #2 where I’ll be working and volunteering – don’t know exactly where I’m going with it or whether I intend to return to uni afterwards or not.  Psychiatric nursing currently interests me due to recent first-hand patient experience and general passion for mental health, but… given how much life has changed for me in the 18 months since I finished VCE, I’m expecting that totally new things and ideas will come up over this year.  I and my experiences are sure to change so much and so unpredictably that I’m leaving it open-ended.

Why Nursing and Aged Care?

Weeeeeell, I'm one of those incredibly lame people who say they 'want to help people' and have hazy visions of Mother Teresa and Florence Nightingale and all.  You know the type.

But I guess that's what's always driven me.  The desire to connect with people and touch their lives in some little way, and be there for them when they just need someone to be there.  Despite my introversion, I’d never be satisfied in a career like IT, commerce, science or maths, where I didn’t directly interact with people to improve their lives.  (In fact, money and prestigious careers have this skill of almost repelling me. )  That’s why I want to be a carer and nurse, not a doctor, even though doctors probably have a larger influence on people’s lives.  Doctors just don’t get that one-on-one chance to get close to, nurture and be there for the individual as a person... to, I guess, be there to hold their hand when they need their hand held.  Or just chuck 'em a bit of cheeky ol' banter when they need a bit of cheeky ol' banter.

And why do I seem to spend more time taking gap years than, well, filled years? ::)

The quote that's maybe influenced me most is this famous (and truly thrilling) fragment of poetry:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I guess I’ve never wanted to do things the normal, the boring, the default, the zombie way.  That’s why I’ve taken gap years, that’s why I wondered (wonder) if I’ll ever go to uni, that’s why I’ve always had this kind of thrilling pull towards ‘the great unknown’, because… well… who knows what you’ll be able to discover and achieve?  Where you’ll be able to go?  Who you’ll be able to become?

So my second drive has always been growth, learning, seeing the world in a new way, adding new puzzle pieces to my limited picture of the world, developing myself, pushing myself to find new experiences and views, and taking initiative to change things and learn things from everyone I meet.  And I guess if you actually go and open yourself up to really search for new ideas, then a gap year of exploration, trial and error, thought, planning, self-teaching, work, travelling and volunteering can be awesome.

From gap year #1, in practical terms, I’m involved in AN and VCE and various projects when I wouldn’t otherwise be, but in personal terms, interacting with this group of people and the related world and study has completely broadened and deepened myself and my view of life, which has had a disproportionately large flow-on effect.  Gap year #2… well… who knows!  I might volunteer, I might head overseas alone, I might start a business, I might sit and eat pancakes while trolling on BoS.

My main messages

... because can you imagine Heidi writing a post like this without her fair share of ignorant and opinionated preaching?!

It’s okay to take initiative and be different and see something beyond money and prestige (in a genuine rather than superficially cliche sense) - they're not going to make you happy in themselves.  You don’t have to go for med or law – hell, you don’t even have to go to uni.

And it’s okay not to have the answers.  You don’t have to have your career or ‘passion’ sorted out from day dot.  You’re young, you have time, you can explore a bit, you can ‘waste’ a year or two in a course you didn’t want or a gap year of uncertainty (as long as you’re open to learning life lessons in the wasting, rather than just… surfing the internet and partying haha).  It’ll probably be totally unexpected experiences that shape where you end up heading anyway, and I guess I’m encouraging you to be open to those rather than setting yourself in concrete.  You'll change a heap meeting such new experiences and people, and most of it's stuff you can't predict.  So I reckon just go ahead and try something, throw yourself into it, see a bit more what life is like and what *you* are like, and you can work from there.  You can transfer, you can defer, you can try another job or volunteering field, you can move in any range of directions from your starting point.

You don’t have to have your life laid out on a pretty little colour-coordinated map just because VCE is finishing.  It’s okay to be uncertain.  It’s okay to learn by trial and error.

at least I sure as hell hope it is

(you can hear the oh-so-old-and-experienced teen talking here )

/heidi out

[pi]

Doctors just don’t get that one-on-one chance to get close to, nurture and be there for the individual as a person... to, I guess, be there to hold their hand when they need their hand held.  Or just chuck 'em a bit of cheeky ol' banter when they need a bit of cheeky ol' banter.

V controv hahaha. Perhaps ward doctors don't get to to do that, but many in private practice do, especially GPs.

[heids]

V controv hahaha. Perhaps ward doctors don't get to to do that, but many in private practice do, especially GPs.

hhhhhow did I know you were going to comment on that

I can't debate, other than ignorantly, with someone with far more experience, but it's very much my gut sense from everything I've observed in various settings that doctors *do* have that opportunity (though as you say it appears to me minimal in a ward setting) but it's never as great as (many) nurses, and partly because of the different way patients treat doctors and nurses.  And nurses have less opportunity than the lower-level-again nursing assistants.

And true, I may or may not have inevitably joined the nurses-let's-hate-on-doctors club (because tbh you doctors can be infuriating haha)

[Joseph41]

Pretty random bump but I'd be pretty dickens interested in perspectives of anybody who is currently studying/has previously studied Education. And also anything else (I like this thread).

[Aaron]

Pretty random bump but I'd be pretty dickens interested in perspectives of anybody who is currently studying/has previously studied Education. And also anything else (I like this thread).

Anything specific you're after?

[Joseph41]

I guess primarily if teaching and the like was always the end goal - or always in mind, at least - or whether it sort of just organically developed over time. Or any other path to get there.