School Blows

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jesshamner · #31 Post by **jesshamner** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 6:20 am

I graduated from Western Kentucky University in December of 2005 with a degree in Geography (GIS and Spatial Analysis). I went straight to a paid internship on January 23, of 2006. I'm still at the same place but always looking for the bigger better deal. I love what I do and what I went to college for. Yes most of college was a waste. But if I didn't do it, I couldn't have the job that I love.

cannondale27 · #32 Post by **cannondale27** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 6:34 am

See now that is interesting Jesshammer.What is it you do?Always like to hear about different jobs.Think about it most things we take for granted somebody somewhere is behind it getting job done.

UpsMan · #33 Post by **UpsMan** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 3:13 pm

It sounds like he has a degree to read a map? Kind of like a janitor is a "sanitation engineer".

jesshamner · #34 Post by **jesshamner** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 5:52 pm

My degree is in Geographical Information Systems. I don't just read maps. I make them and very large geodatabases. I am actually doing 3D Stereo Extraction contracted by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. It's a little more hi-tech than "reading a map" or "sanitation engineer".

Before this, I was working on a project called Digital Nautical Chart for the same company. Our data goes to the US Navy, US Coast Guard, and major shipping fleets in their guidance systems. This product isn't just a map. From our data, they can chart their course, but also it will give real time and up to date hazards, chart updates, and Notices to Mariners. So they program in their ships draft, turning radius, etc..., and the system will help guide them through rocks, wrecks, shoal areas, and reefs. There are also shipping lanes and national/international regulations to follow that get collected in our data.

UpsMan · #35 Post by **UpsMan** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:10 pm

I still don't know what you do. I'm just a truck driver. This is one of the reasons I quit college. I don't understand what some jobs actually are and how an education fits in to the picture. For example, I drive a truck and deliver packages. You understand that. Now your job. I read what you typed, but I still don't know what you DO. I'm not picking on you, I just never understood what most of these kinds of jobs actually are. How do you know if you want to spend 4 or 6 years studying towards a degree, when you don't know what the heck you are even working towards? I never had a guidance counselor or career counselor or whatever that was ever willing or able to explain this to me. Maybe its just me. Its a good thing I like driving a truck.

jesshamner · #36 Post by **jesshamner** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:32 am

Well, I just kind of fell into it after taking the intro class. I origianlly went to WKU for meteorology. They really push students to have a minor in the geography department. So I was looking at my options and they came down to Math, Computer Science (programming), or Broadcast Journalism. Then my advisor told me about GIS. So I took the class because I didn't want to do any of the other ones. I pretty much fell in love with it and ultimately changed my major. Since it was still in the geography department, all my credits worked for the GIS major too so no lost time.

So yeah, I didn't know what I wanted to do either. Actually, I had an AutoCAD class as a requirement and like it too. Maybe I should have been a civil engineer instead.

cannondale27 · #37 Post by **cannondale27** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 1:20 am

Hey Roger he probably had something to do with the program that tracks you when your driving so you dont spend too much time in strip bars!Really Jesshammer thats a cool job.Hopefully someday you will be making programs like that for cruise control for our cars and trucks.Would be nice to hit a button and go to sleep.

jesshamner · #38 Post by **jesshamner** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 2:27 am

It's closer than you know. But our data is all navigation. It will not have anything to do with the actual driving of the car. By the way, we're not working on anything like that right now. But the car manufacturers are.

Nickc711 · #39 Post by **Nickc711** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 2:31 am

QUOTE (jesshamner @ Nov 19 2007, 02:27 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's closer than you know. But our data is all navigation. It will not have anything to do with the actual driving of the car. By the way, we're not working on anything like that right now. But the car manufacturers are.

ahhh that reminds me of the warnings in the car manuals. "this is not autopilot"

theJeStEr1340 · #40 Post by **theJeStEr1340** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 2:56 am

My opinion is your no different then the closed minded mornons you speak of.

Not going to college is fine. I (or one of those "idiots" who go to college) will be your boss one day. D's do not get degrees. To graduate from any university you must have at least a 2.0 GPA (that is a C-, but I am sure you already knew that). Now, if you think you can make enough to live comfortably and happily as a tech at a dealership or in a position you can excel to GO FOR IT! I chose to go to college because it opens doors. I am going to be an accountant. I will have an internship next year (sr year) after my internship I will be offered a full time position and the firm will more than likely pay for my grad school. When I get out I will have a salary in the high $50k's. I will get a $5k bonus when I complete the CPA exam, another $3k bonus for another large test for Accountign information systems. I will travel as much as I like. I will take clients out to dinner and the firm will pay for me to party like I pay to do here in college. Is this worth all the headaches? Sure. In my Intermediate Financial accountign class I have taken Words to complete financial statements (words being the transactions written for the day they happened). IS this what I am goign to be doing in my job? **** no. I want to do the IS part of Accounting (they make more and only work 55 hour weeks in their "busy season" - roughly 4 months), but is this class important? Very much so it is important to know what everyone else is doing so I can do my job that much better. And as far as professors go, once you get out fo the basic classes you realize you are the idiot, these professors (well we have good professors here at NC STate University, luckily professors who teach because they love to teach) are a **** of a lot smarter than I am and I hope one day I can be as smart as they are.

Now, open your eyes and your mind and quit being one of these morons you speak of.