Lost and No Clue What To Do
 

hey i thought that i would call upon the wisdom of revscene to help me through this hard time in my life. I am just about to graduate ubc with a bachelors in biochem but I have absolutely no clue what to do that this. I might do a masters in biochem but I feel like i am not motivated enough to spend another two years doing something I don't really enjoy. I have considered the DAP or the physio program at ubc. Should i just start working or continue on with school? Any suggestions would be appiciated. thanks :fullofwin:

Did you do any co-op?

No I really regret not doing co op now
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Hey man, don't worry, and good job on your for having the courage to speak out.

All I have to say is that you're not alone. Many people graduate with an Arts or Science degree and know squat all, or know very little about the subject they got their degree in.

First thing's first.

DO YOU WANT TO CONTINUE DOWN THE BIOCHEM ROAD?????

IF NO, then STOP IMMEDIATELY.

If you are living someone else's dream or went into Biochem because someone else thought it was a good idea, FUCK THEM.

It's time to take your own life into your own hands and decide what you want to do as a human being, as an adult. Figure out your priorites.

Do you have enough money?
Do you want to travel?

What is your real passion and hobbies and dreams and how can you make money doing it? You need to make money, no doubt about it, it's important. Don't spend all this time wasting away and feeling regrets, like "shit, I wish I did this degree," or I wish I did coop, etc.

The situation is.. you didn't do coop, you don't really like biochem and you're not really interested in it.

The worst thing to do is to continue your education and not really know what to do, being scared of the real world, and just go "oh, two more years of school, i'll do this.". If your passion is not biochem, then you are PROCRASTINATING YOUR LIFE AWAY.

So if I were you, I would sit down and think about the big issues in life. It's time to be a grownup. You're 22-23 probably, and you have your whole life ahead of you.

Pick your priorities in life and go for them FULL STEAM AHEAD. Ditch your current way of life if you have to.

If you have the courage to speak out about it, then I believe your courage to actually do something about your situation/life.

Don't ever life for someone's else's expectation, now is the best time to forge your own path and come out of this stronger than ever.

Just my 02 cents.

^ how poetic

finish your degree, go overseas and teach for a few years, save money and be a hedonist at the same time, learn how to play the market and invest, do a lot of networking, and start a business

There are a few other options you can pursue in graduate studies, like law, MBA, etc. You don't necessarily have to stay in the same field.

All depends on what you want to do.

If you're grades are great you can go into Med since there are some options open for you there and it would be along the same lines.

You really need to think about 10 years down the road which is hard but if you do that, you'll be way ahead of everyone else.

Find out how you REALLY want your life to look like in the future. I can tell you from personal experience do not do something because of the money. Money should be part of it because you need to eat but do not make that the focus becuase it will not make you happy.

The education system is making more people feel insecure and unsure about tomorrow which is ironic because we're all told that it's going to be the gateway to this happy place.

You have a degree which is great. Be proud of yourself but understand this is where your future starts. This is the beginning. Don't expect to make big money right now and be prepared to work hard.

Aside from this fluff of an answer, nobody can tell you what to do. If you didn't get awesome grades and just got by with B's and C's you may want to consider work. Remember, these days, a degree is just a tool to show you're not a complete moron. You can graduate with biochem and take a job in Hotel Management.

Give it some thought and meanwhile, apply to whatever you can to network and get experience. I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life and I tried everything. I even was interviewed to go to med school and decided against it. I had no clue I'd be doing what I'm doing now and yet I couldn't imagine doing anything else.

Jump around and learn real world stuff while you can. You may not feel like it but you're young. If you get your jitters out before you're 30 and then you find your ground you will be just fine.

Don't be like the dudes that are 40 and say "I want to go back to school" or "I hate my life, and wife" A lot of people are like that because they settled too soon. Explore for a few years and you'll find something.

When you first started biochem - why did you want to go into it? What excited you about it?
Find something you are passionate about.


I was at the AI portfolio show yesterday, and the passion of the students there was off the scale. I've never seen anything like that before. Dont go into a field of study because the money is good - find something you like and the money will follow. Remember you are going to be working for atleast another 40 years.

QFT

unless the jobs you love to do pay very well to begin with (i.e. project management).

save some money and learn how to play the markets. your knowledge in biochem will help you in other ways, other than making money. it just makes you that much smarter than everyone else.

There is truth in this.

You're young (I assume). You have lots of years ahead to worry about a career, you don't have to decide on one now. Try some different jobs and see if something clicks - you could find that you enjoy doing something you never thought of before.

If you're the personable type who can get into conversation easily, try getting a job in a customer-service field where you have to talk to people a lot (bartender, Starbucks barista, doorman... cabbie?)... then ask the people you deal with about THEIR jobs - what they do, and how they like it. You never know what ideas you might get from listening to them.

You can never have too much experience, and you'll never know how experience in one field might help you in a future career, even one that may seem completely unrelated.

If you're up for more school then try your hardest to get in the physio/any professional program. Getting a masters is pretty useless if its just for the sake of buying time to figure out what you want to do. Its never a bad idea to have a skill that will pretty much allows you to make good money anywhere you go.

I was in a similar situation when I graduated.

If you did any coop in school, maybe the company you worked for can help you out?

If not, I know BC Cancer Research center hire people in your field!

I would apply to other professional schools abroad (e.g States/Aus/UK). I left Vancouver at 24 after Microbiology/working 2 lab/tech jobs at VGH. I'm now nearly a Pharmacist (pending exam in a month), and 90% of my friends who stayed in Van are still earning roughly the same as they did when I left (50k roughly).
The same goes for many of my other friends who did law school abroad etc -- the opportunities in bigger cities is far more abundant than Vancouver. PM me if you have any questions as I was once exactly in your spot!

Hi, I was exactly in your situation a few years ago.

I graduated at SFU with MBB (molecular biology and biochemistry) which is basically biochem at UBC. With that said, I worked co-op for about 8 months, and even shortened it because I worked in a research/microbiology lab which had very routine tests and experiments. With a bachelors degree, you would not do much of the research planning. If you had a masters degree, you can at least apply for grants and whatnot. I warn you now that in the research field, you will not make money.

So my grades at SFU weren't bad but not great, and I had a ton of extracurricular activities with great volunteer experience all around. I had a pretty good shot at med but I knew med wasn't for everyone, and I knew that med school would've taken over my life. I would not consider pharm for the life of me because it is a very high paying job that has no self-fulfillment for me. I needed a job that allowed me to apply science to people (because I love socializing), a job that had good pay (30/hr+), and a job that gave me a balanced satisfied life. So with a ton of career/soul searching, I am now in a nursing program. It is a stressful job with a ton of responsibility, but at the end of the day, you get good pay and you've helped people.

I recommend you spend some time to see what you like to do, then find jobs that can meet that criteria. I got accepted into radiation therapy which is also a great field, but I withdrew from that program because I could do so much more with nursing. Education, office work, travelling, etc.

It is not easy, and I do not regret obtaining my biochem degree. It helps a lot with my immunology and pathophysiology classes in nursing. I am 25yo this year, and I'm going to assume you're about 22-23. Many people go into the DAP program because like you, they want job security but with no satisfaction. If anything, I would recommend you try for physio if you like helping people. Not much biochemistry but there's physiology. Extremely competitive at UBC though.

Good luck with your career searching.

PS. I never considered nursing ever and somehow love it now. I even told myself during my third year that I would never go into nursing but that's because I believed many of the stereotype/misconceptions about that field. Like someone above has mentioned, you might find a field that you never thought of. Google is your friend =).

Working until you're 65 is a myth a lot of people need to get over. There's plenty of people who retire early because they saved enough, invested enough, own a solid business, etc..

A couple of my family friends are making ~$1000-$1500 a week working from home doing absolutely nothing. They're 22 and living like they're retired already. So it depends on the lifestyle you want. A lot of people are ok with working 9-5 everyday for the next 40 years, which is fine - to each their own.

I'm currently doing the 9-5 thing now as an engineer.. but I can honestly say I would not be happy doing this for the next 40 years, and know I won't be here long.

Of course, it comes with your career choice, if you're a 9-5 pharmacist, engineer, mechanic etc, it'll be a little harder for you to get the freedom that business owners have. Still possible, but that's another story.

Are your family friends just playing the stock markets? Or have they opened up their own successful businesses?

Just curious

They own a design company where most, if not all, the work and communication is done over the Internet. They meet with their workers once a month at Starbucks, and that's pretty much it. I don't know too many details, but I know they're still growing. From what I've heard from family members, they're not making "crazy" money, but they each take home ~50-80k a year for working less than 8 hours a week.

I'm pretty sure they play the stock markets too.. Not too sure about this one.

With some help, I'm hoping to follow in a similar path in the near future.

Where's the OP?

Sorry this is a small rarity of people. I hate when people talk about sample of one like everyone is doing it.

Sorry if I offended you.
I'm not saying everyone's doing it.
I'm saying there's many options out there, and that was just an example of a success story.

It's not a rarity of people, its just people who want to, and are willing to do something different. How do you think they got there? They started out right where we are and worked for it.

Like I said, to each their own. If you are okay with working 40 hours a week for the next 40 years, that's totally fine, I'm not bashing. I'm actually doing it right now. It is logically the safer and more secure choice, with benefits and all. But in exchange, you work 5 days a week, and get x amount of vacation days a year.

I'm not saying straying from 9-5 is easier or harder, I'm just letting OP and readers know that there's more options out there, depending on who you are, what you want to do, and how you want to live.
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