<p>I’m a junior getting ready to transfer. In looking at my strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, I’ve never really even considered being “talkative” a skill. The other day it struck me that I was completely ignoring it while considering majors or jobs.</p>
<p>So what kind of work/major is there for a very articulate, fast paced (almost hyperactive), person that likes to speak about technology, finance, and just useful information in general? Keep in mind that I really don’t like to schmooze, gossip, or BS, and would rather not speak then have to up up a facade. So that rules out things like sales, news reporting etc. I also like informative writing.</p>
<p>So did you just look at my post history and list the things I’ve most posted about? lol. j/k</p>
<p>I see computer science as a little more introverted, and film production as a little more group oriented / artistic. Less to do with the newest technology, well, except maybe post-production and special effects.</p>
<p>Hmm. Try to think of something that relies more around speaking skills. I’ve looked at public speaking but don’t know much about it or where it fits in the tech world.</p>
<p>Customer support in the computer industry involves a lot of talking about technology. My first job coming out of school was handling the tech support phone lines, not for end customers but for my company’s field personnel. I was dealing with engineers on the phone and engineers in the lab. It was my job to keep track of the most common tech problems (usually discovered by one of our engineers out in the field at a customer site) and not only get the lab to fix it, but also communicate work-arounds to other field engineers. In addition, I ran training courses for the field engineers on new products or enhancements to old products. I often had to develop the course as well as teach it. It was a fast-paced job with a steep learning curve, involved a lot of talking, and incorporated a bit of the education career someone else suggested. I was trained as an electrical engineer with an emphasis on computer engineering. Many people stayed in this job and became experts in the overall system, looking at it from a customer’s point of view instead from a development engineer’s point of view. I chose to pursue a lab engineering path instead and ultimately became a manager which also involved a lot of talking.</p>
<p>At first I reared back from your post after reading “customer support” lol. It made me think of tier 1 phone tech support which I absolutely hate. I don’t mind translating incredibly complicated processes into relateable or understandable terms but I definitely don’t like walking someone through adding a printer!Although, the environment you describe sounds quite different from that. Kind of interesting since you are relating information between experienced people in the field. </p>
<p>My school (ut knoxville) doesn’t have information systems. The other school I was looking at, middle tn state, has IT (infs management) but it revolves heavily around database management and programming and less around the other parts of the field I’m interested in. Although they do have a minor in just electronics, which covers all the stuff I find interesting. Who knows, maybe I’ll shoot for the theory once I nail the basics. </p>
<p>My current plan is to start a website and become a full time writer. Last week I knew nothing and this week I have the basic installs for a few sites up. I’m setting a date to have made significant progress with it by the end up summer. When looking into this I noticed that many people who maintain technology sites don’t even like to sit down and write their articles, but they do it for the money. I have a hard time NOT writing a thousand words each time I sit down. (my forum posts are drivel compared to a planned paper)</p>
<p>I’m also going to get the A+, Security+, and Net+ over the summer. I flipped through the books and the info is just way to easy for me to justify not having the certs. I’ll probably start in on the CCNA too, since I enjoy networking. I still plan on continuing college but unless something goes wrong with the site, the concentration is much less important as long as I still get a degree. (really for nothing more than backup)</p>
<p>You sound a lot like my husband. He has done well as a manger in the computer department of a large energy/oil company. His college degree was in economics but he got involved with computers while working in his first job at a bank. His company is large enough that he has done a variety of jobs including website design and now he does something with disaster recovery planning and construction of a data center. (I’m not a tech person so I’m not sure exactly what he is doing.) His company encourages employees to do community service and also to exercise so he got really involved with the company bicyling team and also plays on company basketball teams (this helps calm down the hyperactive part). He is now the team captain of the bike team and as such maintains the team website, sends out extensive blogs several times a week and attends numerous team captain meetings and conventions. He occasionally goes to nearby universities for his company and recruits from the MIS and CS departments. He also maintains the website for our son’s boy scout troop and of course helps lots of friends and relatives with their computers. His main complaints about his job have been his supervisors. They have tended to not be very communicative. But bad bosses seem to be a problem everywhere. Good luck!</p>