I might be going down the wrong route college wise

1ZRed

I've recieved and deferred my biotechnology course and I'm reasonably happy with it but I'm a bit unsure. I like everything about the course and it's very interesting but I've been told by many career guidance teachers that if I go down that route, I could be unhappy. And I kind of feel it could.
It's been evaluated that my key strengths are in science and engineering but also in anything creative, which is conflicting. Either way, there is a good chance I won't be fulfilled in either route, whether scientific or creative, as I can't have both realistically.

Now that said, I'm not so sure what to do. I am a very artistic guy and people have wondered why I haven't perused that side of things as apposed to engineering or science. But I don't know how I would go down that creative route. Ideally, I would love to get into editing videos and photos, directing, maybe animating, even photography. I'd like to be very hands on with it and not just be a graphic designer, but work on big projects in which I could utilise my skills and creativity and get a satisfying end result.

So yeah, now that I've got a year to think things over I'm starting to doubt my course and where it will take me, but I'm not even sure where to begin looking into something creative.

Any sort of advice for someone in this situation?

daithimacgroin

people will tell you do what you love
but i think do what will get you a stable career with a good salary
then u can use that money to do what u love at the weekend

Fluorescence

Just be aware that doing what you love for a living can suck all the joy out of it. I used to study music in university, which led to me becoming very dispassionate about it. I now study Computer Science and keep playing music in my spare time. I found that works much better for me.


Just something to consider.

LegacyUser

Op I wish I'd written this post myself ten years ago. Like you I was torn, it was like half my brain was that of a scientist and half a creative. My first choice hons degree on my cao was science related and my first choice ordinary degree was creative.

I picked the creative course. Now have a masters in a creative subject. To this day it's my biggest regret.

As another poster said doing what you love everyday sucks the fun and joy out of it. Creativity becomes a job, a chore. Added to that trying to get work in the creative sector is virtually impossible.

If I could have given advice to my 18 year old self? Do the science degree, it will allow you to get a well paying job, save a bit, do the creative thing as a hobby, something to get pleasure from. In the future you can always go back and do the creative course if you feel you made wrong choice.

Op I believe that if you are talented creatively and want it enough, you'll get there at some point. I personally think you don't think you need a degree to work in the creative field, having been immersed in it for a few years, there are loads of people out there in the field who have no academic background in the area. You either have a talent or you don't when it comes to creative stuff imho. Theres often a lot of luck involved too.

I now find myself close to 30 with little job prospects, so have no hope of going back to start a science course because I just can't afford it. it's also much harder to go back to do an academic course after a creative course.

edellc

OP please stop listening to all these people and there tests as to what you will be happy with career wise, when your 16, 17, 18 years old who knows what will make you happy when your 30/40yrs old, seriously.

I went to college straight after school did a music course which I loved but never worked properly in the industry and it sucked all my enjoyment out of what I loved. Years later I retrained as an accountant and now I love music again and dont mind what I do for a living.

thefeatheredcat

Actually you're really lucky in the sense that both the practical and the artistic side are aptitudes that have been identified, even though it does make a tough decision.

Some companies nowadays want someone who can do the work have the degrees and that and yet have a creative mentality and be willing to being open to a different set of thinking, using the imagination which creative and artistic people often fulfil and want people to take a different approach to the job than the traditional norm.

If you enjoy having an artistic streak, and enjoy even just the idea of editing videos and photos and an interest in photography, yes you can keep them as a hobby to enjoy to unwind or even study them and pursue them professionally at some point.

Creative skills will always come in use, even if they're not something you've developed through a course and sometimes you don't need to. they're a part of who you are as a person and any job or course you're in you can always bring that to the table in any project. Take robot engineering you need both the practical knowledge to know how it should be put together at the basic level, yet the imagination and creativity to put together something that is beyond chips, code and practical design for it to be fully functioning. And it's the creative intelligence that has brought even the idea and concepts that little bit further (look up InnoRobo and the recent articles in the news about research that has come from Harvard University).

LegacyUser

I'm going to go against the grain here and suggest you do what you LIKE not just what you think might lead to more money/success.

Like you, I was always good at science and art in school. I choose to do science in college because I thought it would lead to good career prospects. But there really aren't as many jobs in Ireland as people seem to think. I'm fully educated in the field, but I'm now faced with a world of short term contracts that are very competitive to get and to stay in this career long term I need to have international experience and even at that I'd need to spend the rest of my life chasing funding (VERY difficult to come by these days; the money just isn't there for basic science anymore).

Now I don't know what it's like in biotechnology specifically, but for biological research the situation is pretty dire. I want to stay in Ireland for personal reasons so I'm now trying to see what 'transferable skills' I have to side step my way into another field that has more permanency. But the competition is fierce.

I’m going to go anonymous just so I can be perfectly frank… I’ve have learned to loath science. I used to love it in school and even during my degree. But I took it further to PhD level and I’ve genuinely come to HATE it. If I could turn back time and do something more creative I would. Now I don’t mean something creative just for the sake of it, but something to keep the creative juices flowing AND have some sort of job security. Something like graphic design maybe as a ‘day job’ and then it would be easier to switch to your own artist interests in your spare time. While I’ve tried to keep art up on the side it’s very difficult to do on top of study or a full time job. It’s not like picking up a book for an hour in the evening; I find I need a good chunk of time to really get myself into it and actually be productive at it (not to mention the clean up etc afterwards). I think if I was already doing something creative as a day job it would be easier to keep my more personal creative interests going as I’d already be in that frame of mind.

I just wanted you to see the flip side of the coin… I’m always saying ‘if I could turn back time’. But then again the grass is always greener? I don’t have all the answers, I just know that I’m not particularly happy with my lot atm…

I’d suggest you have a serious talk with a career guidance counsellor and find out what the job situations are REALLY like in the two sectors you’re interested. And what sacrifices you’ll have to make. I really wish I had been told earlier that to have any chance for my career to flourish in Ireland that I’d need international experience. And while something like that might be appealing to you now, it might not be possible in the future. What if you have a family then that you just can’t leave or drag with you to another country? Sorry I know I’m going on a bit so I’ll stop… I just encourage you to really explore all your options fully so you know what you’re getting yourself into now AND in the future.

steel_spine

It's a tough position to be in OP, I was in the same place once. I had a natural aptitude for art in school, and although I harboured David Attenborough-esque dreams of being a marine scientist, I felt a bit directionless and science at my school was crap anyway so I went off to study art in college.
As other people have said here, I hated it when it was work, I don't think I could have done it as a job. There were other factors complicating the situation too such as having no job and being in a city where I knew noone for the first time, but I ended up dropping out. Tried again a few years later and did a portfolio course followed by a photography course. Ended up leaving the photography course too.
Part of the trouble with studying and being graded on art is that it's such a subjective thing. Additionally in a lot of art schools the whims of the teachers and what they like/want to see/is hot right now can play quite a big factor. I'm not trying to put the frighteners on you, I know people who've done very well, learnt a lot and can hold their own, but I know many more people for whom art school has sapped their desire to do art for a living completely. I didn't pick up a pencil for at least 5-6 year myself after college, and to this day have no confidence in my abilities and find creativity quite stressful. Of course my experiences are my own, but I know a lot of disillusioned ex-art school students.

Cut to years later and I wound up studying Marine Science as a mature student, and I'm doing much better. Yes there's aspects that I find boring, and I'm still not entirely sure what I want to do when it's all over, but the most important thing I realised was that I didn't have to keep going down the path I was on because I picked my area and that was it. Art wasn't working for me, so I gave science a try and it's going well. Nor do you have to pick just one path - for me my balance was meeting the teacher for the Art society in college and going back to classes. It was daunting after so long, but I think I found a balance in my life - I get to study science, and I get to learn more about art, but in a much more casual hobby-like environment where creativity became something more enjoyable again. I also got to see other people like me - massive science geeks who were creative and 'artsy-fartsy' too.
Now I pick up art projects for other societies and get to try out new things. I'm also seeing a lot more interest these days in combining the worlds of art & science.

It's an option worth considering, but I will warn as was pointed out above, it can be hard to juggle both, especially if you have to work too. I was grand for the first year or two, but after that it got very difficult to find time, and my art classes dropped off. I still get to use the facilities but I'm in final year now and it's a struggle to find time and energy - I was talked into a large spare-time art project for next year and the prospect of juggling it is pretty stressful, but I'll probably enjoy the finished product when it's done.

Bear in mind, that you don't only have to work in the field you're qualified for. Maybe you'll find creative inspiration in a Biotech degree, maybe not, but don't feel that you have to lock yourself into the 'Science' or the 'Art ' camps and stay there, I made that mistake and it delayed me finding my feet for quite a few years.

lace

When I was young, I was very stubborn. I was soooo into creative arts and technology (painting, sculpting, film, animation etc.) that I completely ignored all my academic strengths. I went against what everyone told me and went into an arts/technology course. As the course progressed and I matured, I came to realise that it was a lot more challenging and tiring than I had thought. Everyone else seemed to naturally talented and I felt inferior and found myself struggling to love my work. I also began to realise how little job prospects there are in the industry. Now I've finished my course and occasionally tutor in creative technology but other than that, I'm finding it near impossible to get a job related to my degree.

While being creative is a fantastic skill to have and the idea of working in creative industries may be enticing, the reality isn't so rosy. At the age of 18, I never thought I would be saying this and I hate how grown-up I've become but I have to advise you to think about money. Think about a career. Think about being able to afford a nice life.

Creative skills such as photography, animation, graphic design etc. can be self-taught and I'd be happy to recommend websites and tutorials. They're a great asset to have and can come in handy in any workplace. If you decide to go down the science route, be sure to join the college photography/media/radio/tv societies and get experience in all these skills. Getting to know the right people and make connections is important and you may be able to find creative work without having to have a degree in that area.

You're definitely doing the right thing by taking a year out. If you want to start looking into creative courses IADT offers things like animation, film and tv production, multimedia programming, photography, visual arts practices, visual communications etc. DIT offers creative digital media, film and television, graphic design and a few others, DCU offers multimedia and communications, NCAD offers loads of fine art courses, Maynooth offers media studies and multimedia, Athlone IT offers art, graphic design etc. This is all I could think of off the top of my head but I'm sure I could go through my old bookmarks and provide a more comprehensive list if necessary

Overheal

How is biotechnology not creative? Beer is biotechnology for fecks sake. Do you know how many products compete with each other using the same 4 ingredients? And thats just scratching the surface. What about cloning a sheep? Biotechnology! What made you think the field wasn't creative? Hell I just heard my calculus teacher call the solution to the integral of sec(x) a 'piece of art', and honestly he had a point. If you've ever seen the steps involved in integrating that bastard, it was all because of creativity that someone figured that out.