How do you decide where to go after School?
Hey guys, I’m wondering how many of you know where you want to live, and what career you want to get into after you graduate from University?
I’m not in any particular hurry to decide since that’s still a long way from now, but this question has come to me often, usually when you meet old friends and family and I know it’ll come up when I visit family during the holidays.
Do you stay in your home country, or go overseas or are there any other options?
I Googled around and found those interesting stats on TCKs:
- TCKs are 4 times as likely as non-TCKs to earn a bachelor’s degree (81% vs 21%)[27]
- 40% earn an advanced degree (as compared to 5% of the non-TCK population.)[28]
- 45% of TCKs attended 3 universities before earning a degree.[28]
- 44% earned undergraduate degree after the age of 22.[28]
- Educators, medicine, professional positions, and self employment are the most common professions for TCKs.[28]
- TCKs are unlikely to work for big business, government, or follow their parents’ career choices. “One won’t find many TCKs in large corporations. Nor are there many in government … they have not followed in parental footsteps”.[28]
- 90% feel “out of sync” with their peers.[29]
- 90% report feeling as if they understand other cultures/peoples better than the average American.[30]
- 80% believe they can get along with anybody.[30]
- Divorce rates among TCKs are lower than the general population, but they marry older (25+).[28][31]
- Military brats, however, tend to marry earlier.
- Linguistically adept (not as true for military ATCKs.)[28]
- A study whose subjects were all “career military brats”—those who had a parent in the military from birth through high school—shows that brats are linguistically adept.[32]
- Teenage TCKs are more mature than non-TCKs, but ironically take longer to “grow up” in their 20s.[29]
- More welcoming of others into their community.[26]
- Lack a sense of “where home is” but often nationalistic.[26][30]
- Some studies show a desire to “settle down” others a “restlessness to move”.
- Depression and suicide are more prominent among TCK’s.[29]
November 19th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
i did not know anything about the tck phenomenon when i had to decide what to study in college. so i went with my heart and became an actor.
now when i look back, i know being a tck had a lot to do with the decision, not just to be an artist, but also just having the balls (or boobs) to make that choice. i think being tck makes us more willing to take chances, because we know that if things don’t work, its not the end, just try something else.
i have found a lot of non tcks are sort of stuck in that “keeping up with the joneses” world. not to paint all monos with one brush, but living one place all your life, you begin to think this is what life’s about and whatever the cool thing to be doing in that area is what you should do. being tck we meet lots of “joneses” and realise there is no use in trying to keep up with anyone, and that “keeping up” is usually just an imaginary thing anyway (EVERYONE’S got problems, even the precious joneses) and we should just do our own thing.
oops, i’ve gone off on a tangent…
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November 19th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I think Warona is right, I guess being a TCK tends to make you take more chances. I guess some of us walk the unbeaten path.. but from my experience, TCKs will usually replicate the lifestyle they had and go towards internationally mobile jobs.
Take a look at this, you’ll probably find it interesting..
“Career choices also reflect a dedication to both education and international interests: 25 percent work in some form of educational institution; the next largest category are professionals and the self-employed. A third of TCKs established their own companies, a reflection of the tendency of the group to be independent, flexible, creative, risk-takers. Few worked in the corporate sector or government; those who did were likely to work in development, the Foreign Service, or other fields through which they drew upon their experiences overseas.
Perhaps the most significant findings are the indications that TCKs emerge as adults who are adept at solving problems and mediating conflicts. They are flexible and adaptable in ambiguous situations, able to relate to a variety of people, and are culturally aware. Many are active in international volunteer activities.”
I thought I was different but I guess I do fit the profile since I’m self-employed, and I have considered all the previous alternative as possible career choices (Diplomat, Hotel/Tourism, Foreign Service, etc…)
Warona: when I read the “independent, flexible, creative, risk-takers” description I thought of you hehe
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November 19th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I know I want to be a forensic anthropologist, which is going to take a while to train for. But eventually I don’t know where I want to settle lol. I know I would love to live in Montreal for a while, especially since my idol, a top forensic anthropologist works there lol. I don’t want to stay in my home country, but I will have to train there as I’ll need a PhD and can’t afford to study anywhere else for that long.
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November 19th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
come to montreal, its lovely and VERY international
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November 19th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
When I was in high school and applying for colleges I KNEW I wanted to leave. I was in China for 4 years then already and didn’t really like it here. My dad wanted me to be close to home but knowing us he just can’t keep me there. I chose the US because I was considering going into Computer Science and US schools have great reputations. I wanted to go to Europe though but it was very very very expensive so I resolved to the US (Australia was my last choice if I couldn’t get into the US). And there I was for 5 years.
Then after that I didn’t really know where I wanted to go but thank goodness I had a bf already so that helped me a bit. I wanted to stay in the States only because of my bf. I’m only back in China because of the visa thing and it’s not that hard for me to get in China.
Now I’m thinking of grad school and I want to go to Europe but I don’t know yet :p
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November 29th, 2007 at 11:25 am
I can identify with those things listed. I am trying to get a job, but havent succeeded so far. The worst question is “where do you see yourself in 5 years?”. I mean realistically I can’t know. Plus the fact that secretly I just want to get a job, so I can make some money till the summer, so I can go to Spain for 2 months to study Spanish. And then move somewhere else.
Oh yeah Montreal..very international, but very cold in the winter…
Cynthia…Europe was expensive to study? I actually wish I had stayed in Europe to do my university study, cauz there it’s free in most countries. While McGill is a good school and Montreal is a great city, the international tuition I had to pay there, meant I couldnt enjoy what it had to offer much cauz I had no money. I kind of find the very idea of “international” tuition kinda BS… The funny thing is that I got discriminated in my passport country too when I applied for a scholarship to study “abroad”, cauz I wasn’t a product of their educational system and so didnt qualify. Discriminated all around.
So where did I decide to go after school. Very random decision as have been all my decisions. A few weeks before I made it I was considering to go somewhere totally else. So now I am jobless and kinda lost, cauz I am living in a country where I have lived before, but don’t know anyone here…
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December 3rd, 2007 at 2:01 pm
When I was graduating from high school, I had no idea where I wanted to live and no practical idea what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to be a writer, but I wasn’t thinking much about what I’d do to pay my rent.
Where I went to college was decided by where my family just happened to live in the year before we moved to Germany. We have no roots and no extended family in Texas, but my father had a job there in 1983, so when I started applying to schools I was strongly encouraged to apply where the tuition would be cheap.
Where I lived after college was decided by my family’s finances. I was completely financially independent by the age of twenty-two, and until this year I’ve never made enough money to travel. I stayed in Austin after college because there was no where else to go and no money to get there. When we moved to Chicago two years ago, it was so my husband could get his Master’s and so that we could live in a more urban environment. There was no serious talk of living overseas. We didn’t have the money to go, and thought we’d be unlikely to find jobs that locals couldn’t do just as well or better.
I think my path is not the most typical for a TCK, career-wise. I studied English in college, with a focus on creative writing, but I was so depressed and so hung up on my problems (some of them very typical for a TCK) that I developed a huge case of writer’s block. I was working in a restaurant to help pay my bills, and when I graduated I didn’t know what else to do, so I just stay put. I thought about becoming a teacher, but I didn’t really want to work with little kids, and American teenagers intimidate me. All I know of the American school system comes from TV. I thought about getting a graduate degree and being a university professor, but I didn’t want to be pigeonholed as an academic. University life is very political and there’s a lot of pressure to publish. When I was twenty-two, still feeling scared and depressed, still all blocked up, and weighing my options, that kind of pressure was very unappealing.
Now I work at a grocery store in Chicago. I have a strong work ethic, and I value my job, so it would be a lie to say I don’t care about where I work. But I’m trying to view it more as a way to make my real goals possible. I write and draw independent comics. That’s what I really want to do. How I help pay rent is less important.
What it comes down to is this: my life has been marked by randomness. Where I went to school, where I’ve lived, where I’ve worked, even where I grew up and how I met my husband have all been very random. I’ve never found planning to be very relevant. I take the few things I find important and focus on them, and the rest will happen as it happens. Of course I do plan some, and I try to exert control over my life, but I’ve accepted that “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
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January 5th, 2008 at 2:22 am
Off topic: Those stats are very true by the way.
“More welcoming of others into their community.[26]”
I noticed TCKs are more welcoming to other outcasts. Plus, look at tckid, and all the welcomes newcomers get. I think that’s cool.
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January 5th, 2008 at 7:30 am
I definitely relate to quite a few of those statistics. In a year and a half I’ll be 22 and graduating from university with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering with French. Now I just need to figure out what to do with it… Interestingly, my Dad was also an engineer (electronics though initially, although he ended up working for an oil company).
When I was applying for university, my interests were quite science oriented. At the time I wasn’t really aware of the TCK phenomenon (I’d heard of the term, but as far as I was concerned it wasn’t of much interest, because I considered myself normal, since I was still living overseas and everyone else was like me). So I followed my interest in science. Since I’ve been in Europe and in my ‘home’ countries though, I’ve felt out of sync (as the stats say) until recently, when I was in a more international setting. I’ve decided that either I will have to really commit myself to staying in one country (and picking up the culture, which will take years) and stay there for the rest of my life essentially, or pick up where I left off i.e. continue moving around.
I’m definitely leaning towards moving around, because it’s what I’m used to and there are still so many things I want to do and see in the world - things I just don’t think I’ll get the chance to do if I settle down. In terms of a career though I have no idea what I want to do. Going into university, before all of my TCK issues came up as a result of repatriation, I dreamed of working for a space agency or something along those lines. Now though I realise that in order to do that (in particular in the space industry) I would have to settle down. I also feel that repatriation gave me more insight and perspective into my previous years, and I’d like to do something that is a bit more meaningful than firing chunks of metal into space. So now I’m looking at things like engineering with the UN, but to be honest I have very little direction and am still have very little idea of what to do when I graduate - which is beginning to worry me, since it’s not far away!
I’m also no longer sure that engineering was the right choice. Again because of repatriating, I think I value the years I spent overseas more than I used to. I’ve realised that I have a greater appreciation for other people and cultures than a lot of people I’ve met at university. I’ve always had an interest in history, international relations, etc. but never really considered it as a career for some reason. Now I’m beginning to wonder if one of those lines of work wouldn’t be more suited to me…
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January 6th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
As for what I wanted to do…I was completely clueless. Back then I chose CS because I enjoyed web designing and wanted to get into that field but unfortunately I didn’t get into that program so I had to choose a different one!! It was a last minute thing! I had no idea what I wanted to do. I ended up in Engineering coz of the “money” but now I wish I didn’t…hated it…:p
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