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What should I major in?

Sully

AnaSCI VET / Donating Member
Dec 3, 2012
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Teaching CPR/ACLS/PALS/NRP classes can be quite lucrative from what I've heard...gotta be renewed every two years...easy money!

Around here it pays very little and it's also very political. Plus, like I said before, I want to get away from what I do now. 20 years of it has burned me out on emergency services. There's nothing about the industry that holds any interest for me.
 

humpthebobcat

Registered User
Dec 22, 2013
585
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Around here it pays very little and it's also very political. Plus, like I said before, I want to get away from what I do now. 20 years of it has burned me out on emergency services. There's nothing about the industry that holds any interest for me.

well I agree with ya about healthcare, it's a shit show....but an acls class is like 200 bucks...X10 people is 2 grand...start a business and have people teach the classes for you...California has like 20 million people in the place....mad cash bro...just take some business classes on setting up your llc and all the tax b.s.
 

Sully

AnaSCI VET / Donating Member
Dec 3, 2012
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well I agree with ya about healthcare, it's a shit show....but an acls class is like 200 bucks...X10 people is 2 grand...start a business and have people teach the classes for you...California has like 20 million people in the place....mad cash bro...just take some business classes on setting up your llc and all the tax b.s.

Does Cali not make you go through an accredited college for those classes? Where I'm at, any class first responder and above has to be taught through a college with a state approved curriculum and overseen by a professor with some sort of minimum degree standard. Surely they don't just let anyone go into business teaching this stuff out there? Isn't California the land of having to get governmental verification for everything?
 

lycan Venom

AnaSCI VET / Donating Member
Nov 22, 2013
1,963
7
38
Yes only accredited and certified institutions can teach health care. Paramedic and first responder classes are usually taught at certain community colleges or county regional centers. Some ROP and adult schools get certified for classes. Everything is regulated here.

San diego and sacramento are the best places so im told by individuals in the industry/field.
 

lycan Venom

AnaSCI VET / Donating Member
Nov 22, 2013
1,963
7
38
Getting back on track though.. you are better off just gettimg an instructor position. It would require a lot of overhead to establish a training center.

I think milburn is guiding you in the right direction with business management. However with that in mind, my wife just finished her degree and it required math. Statistics, accounting, and calculus.

I know any degree for general education will require you to take a placement test and finish math courses. Certain degrees require extra and business is one of them.

A good friend of mine just finished his Info. Tech. Degree with an emphasis in networking and he just had remedial math courses.

If milburn teaches here Cali he can speak more on it. I know the private institutions like ITT, wyotech, etc are easy and dont really do math but thise degrees dont really hold value.

Idea.. download ASU catalog and it will break down all the required courses for the different degrees. Beside those main major courses you just need to complete the general education.
 

aon1

AnaSCI VET / Donating Member
Dec 10, 2013
1,087
0
36
dark side of Olympus
I don't know if your set on the degree path but I would think central Cali on the ocean could present some other avenues. You could take maritime courses ,study up on all the local and fed fishing rules , and study up on fishing in the area so that by the time you retire you know everything there is to know about charter fishing , its cost of operation, rules and regs for the area and just buy a boat and start chartering out when you retire. I realise boats can be expensive but if you look and pinch pennies you can find a used unit at a fair affordable price for a small set up.

I couldn't imagine a more flexible laid back retirement than getting paid to go fishing......and hell if the fish don't sell get some hookers and take high end clients out to international waters where it legal....lol
 

humpthebobcat

Registered User
Dec 22, 2013
585
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0
Does Cali not make you go through an accredited college for those classes? Where I'm at, any class first responder and above has to be taught through a college with a state approved curriculum and overseen by a professor with some sort of minimum degree standard. Surely they don't just let anyone go into business teaching this stuff out there? Isn't California the land of having to get governmental verification for everything?

what? no dude...we are talking cpr and advanced cpr...are you really a firefighter? You should know this.....my mom is certified to teach cpr and she is a school teacher, never done cpr before in her life lol...anybody can do it, it's not hard to get cetified
 

lycan Venom

AnaSCI VET / Donating Member
Nov 22, 2013
1,963
7
38
what? no dude...we are talking cpr and advanced cpr...are you really a firefighter? You should know this.....my mom is certified to teach cpr and she is a school teacher, never done cpr before in her life lol...anybody can do it, it's not hard to get cetified

Oh cpr courses just require a person to be certified in a trainer course from what i remember. Whike in the IBEW i was certified by one of our IBEW / NECA JATC instructors who was a nobody. I mean for a side job maybe but red cross, rop and adult schools offer it 24/7. Better with OSHA safety intructor and contracting out with big firms to train new hires. Then utilize the cpr trainer cert.

If you do consider the fishing thing i have a buddy who does it here in San Diego. He is still working as a paramedic and charters as a side hustle. He said buying a boat from florida and having it shipped here is cheaper than finding one on the west coast. Its seasonal as most good paying fishing trips are the ones for yellow fin tuna but you will get those that like bottom fishing on the rocks for cod.

Still need to get your commercial fishing vessel license so you can have more than 6 passengers.

Fishing doesnt require a degree. Maybe a side hustle while going to school.
 

Sully

AnaSCI VET / Donating Member
Dec 3, 2012
3,324
0
36
what? no dude...we are talking cpr and advanced cpr...are you really a firefighter? You should know this.....my mom is certified to teach cpr and she is a school teacher, never done cpr before in her life lol...anybody can do it, it's not hard to get cetified

Didn't know you were talking about CPR. Thought u were talking about EMT courses. All of our training is done in house at my department. Our training officer puts in the CPR video once a year, we take a written test and we're done. I don't have a clue how CPR training is done outside of my department. I never had a reason to care, honestly.
 

Sully

AnaSCI VET / Donating Member
Dec 3, 2012
3,324
0
36
I don't know if your set on the degree path but I would think central Cali on the ocean could present some other avenues. You could take maritime courses ,study up on all the local and fed fishing rules , and study up on fishing in the area so that by the time you retire you know everything there is to know about charter fishing , its cost of operation, rules and regs for the area and just buy a boat and start chartering out when you retire. I realise boats can be expensive but if you look and pinch pennies you can find a used unit at a fair affordable price for a small set up.

I couldn't imagine a more flexible laid back retirement than getting paid to go fishing......and hell if the fish don't sell get some hookers and take high end clients out to international waters where it legal....lol

Fishing holds absolutely no appeal for me. I really don't enjoy doing it, and I don't wanna spend the rest of my life stinking like fish. I think it might be interesting to go tuna fishing once, just to say I did it, but past that I couldn't care less about it.

I should be a little more clear about something. I'll only be 42 when I'm eligible to retire from the FD. I plan on starting a second career, not sitting back and relaxing. I want to get a degree so I can find a career that will increase my annual income to the point that I can enjoy a higher quality of life and a higher standard of living that has been just out of my reach since I started this job. I'm not looking for some laid back ride into the sunset.
 

Sully

AnaSCI VET / Donating Member
Dec 3, 2012
3,324
0
36
Getting back on track though.. you are better off just gettimg an instructor position. It would require a lot of overhead to establish a training center.

I think milburn is guiding you in the right direction with business management. However with that in mind, my wife just finished her degree and it required math. Statistics, accounting, and calculus.

I know any degree for general education will require you to take a placement test and finish math courses. Certain degrees require extra and business is one of them.

A good friend of mine just finished his Info. Tech. Degree with an emphasis in networking and he just had remedial math courses.

If milburn teaches here Cali he can speak more on it. I know the private institutions like ITT, wyotech, etc are easy and dont really do math but thise degrees dont really hold value.

Idea.. download ASU catalog and it will break down all the required courses for the different degrees. Beside those main major courses you just need to complete the general education.

Statistics and accounting I can do. I took 2 years of accounting in high school, wasn't a problem. The issue is higher mathematics classes like calculus. In high school I went as high as Pre Cal, but I struggled with it. Even with significant studying and effort on my part I was only able to squeak out a C.

I definitely have more of a language and writing kind of brain. Also history and geography. I excel at those topics without even trying. Whatever math I have to do, I'm sure I can muddle my way through it, I just don't want to try to go down a path that's extremely math heavy, like engineering.
 

Sully

AnaSCI VET / Donating Member
Dec 3, 2012
3,324
0
36
Idea.. download ASU catalog and it will break down all the required courses for the different degrees. Beside those main major courses you just need to complete the general education.

I actually just did that last night. Slowly working my way through a couple of them. Hopefully it'll be a slow day for runs and I can get some reading done.
 

aon1

AnaSCI VET / Donating Member
Dec 10, 2013
1,087
0
36
dark side of Olympus
An accounting degree really doesn't need more than algebra.... and if you got with the right company it can be done mostly from home...and again with the right company would pay really well for a at home flexible schedule
 

aon1

AnaSCI VET / Donating Member
Dec 10, 2013
1,087
0
36
dark side of Olympus
The reason I bring up the above I have the courses for this partially complete before life happened and have been considering going back and finishing the degree.....I discussed this with my accountant and she explained it like this as long as we have any form of government at all there's going to be paperwork and a demand for accounting......a person that takes pride in there work and does only quality work will have no problem making a very good living from a home office......if I wanted to she said I could make a fair enough living just tax season if I wanted to do the tax season side of it with the right company

Just for example I'm an average guy and I pay her 5-600 each year just for my return and it takes 30-60 min to do
 
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MilburnCreek

Registered User
Oct 28, 2012
627
0
0
Chester, VT
I definitely have more of a language and writing kind of brain. Also history and geography. I excel at those topics without even trying. Whatever math I have to do, I'm sure I can muddle my way through it, I just don't want to try to go down a path that's extremely math heavy, like engineering.

If those are your strengths, you might want to consider some type of Communications degree. You could branch off into web development, marketing communications, sports journalism, radio copy writing, employee manual production for an HR office, etc...
 

AR-15

Registered User
Jan 10, 2016
566
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0
OK here's my worthless opinion but I don't care your getting it anyway. Its gonna be based on my experiences but there is a point to it. I know when I went to college ,although it was driven by sports, two of the most interesting fields or classes to me that I took were the psych and criminology courses. I was always interested in how the human brain works and why people act the way they do and both of those classes dipped into that world for sure.

After I pulled my head out of my ass coming out of college and a quick stop in the military I realized I wasn't what I thought but I actually landed a job that paid me very well for about 15 yrs. I stayed with that job even though I hated it because it allowed me to give my family what they needed and wanted. Now its later in my life and I realize I did what I had to do but I was miserable. If I was in your situation I would definitely not go for the money and do something that I enjoyed everyday.

My interests obviously aren't yours but I just used them as examples of what I would do if given the chance to do something different. They can have the criminology shit as over the years I've seen just how bad LE has lost their way but I'd give my left nut to sit and help people get over their issues everyday. To me that would be the most rewarding thing ever. IMO at your stage in life happiness should be the only thing your looking for. Something that stimulates and rewards you on a daily basis. Good luck bro!!!! ....AR....
 

Sully

AnaSCI VET / Donating Member
Dec 3, 2012
3,324
0
36
OK here's my worthless opinion but I don't care your getting it anyway. Its gonna be based on my experiences but there is a point to it. I know when I went to college ,although it was driven by sports, two of the most interesting fields or classes to me that I took were the psych and criminology courses. I was always interested in how the human brain works and why people act the way they do and both of those classes dipped into that world for sure.

After I pulled my head out of my ass coming out of college and a quick stop in the military I realized I wasn't what I thought but I actually landed a job that paid me very well for about 15 yrs. I stayed with that job even though I hated it because it allowed me to give my family what they needed and wanted. Now its later in my life and I realize I did what I had to do but I was miserable. If I was in your situation I would definitely not go for the money and do something that I enjoyed everyday.

My interests obviously aren't yours but I just used them as examples of what I would do if given the chance to do something different. They can have the criminology shit as over the years I've seen just how bad LE has lost their way but I'd give my left nut to sit and help people get over their issues everyday. To me that would be the most rewarding thing ever. IMO at your stage in life happiness should be the only thing your looking for. Something that stimulates and rewards you on a daily basis. Good luck bro!!!! ....AR....

Nothing worthless about your opinion bro. Every little bit of info and insight helps. Life experience is just as valuable as time spent in academic institutions, at least IMO it is.

And I agree about criminology. I wouldn't go into a career involving LE no matter how much they paid me. I've dealt with some of that through my current career, and I want to stay as far away from it as possible.