Many people will ask you what you want to do with your life, or where you see yourself in 10 years. Problem is I’m not sure where I’ll see myself in 10 years. Would I like to have a career that I love? Sure. Would I like to have a family started and have money to blow? Who wouldn’t?! But I don’t know for sure because the future hasn’t happened yet, hence why they call it the future. I’d like to say that in ten years I’d have a beautiful family, a job I wake up every morning excited for, and enough money to feed a small country. But you can never be too sure. My search for the perfect job began when I was talking to my uncle about this report. I told him I had to pick three careers I was interested in which was hard for me because I’m scatter-brained and at times indecisive. So he helped me narrow it down, and from then on it was a search through hours of Google links and a few dead trees wasted. It took me three whole days to collect 12 sources for my three careers which is hard for someone with my personality type to do. After taking the Keirsey Temperament survey I discovered I’m an INFJ, which is the rarest personality type of all. The name dubbed to my personality type is “The Caregiver”. It states that they are caring and parental towards everyone they love and love organization, yet extremely unfocused and in need of routine (INFJ 1). When I read that I couldn’t help but think that for once, an online quiz was actually right. It also said I was good with people and was well suited for medical work or being an artist of some sort, which just happened to fit two of my career choices (Careers 1). My careers chosen have no correlation what-so-ever beside the kooky brain that likes all of them. I decided Tattoo Artist was a good one because I love tattoos and the idea of a piece of your work becoming a part of another person. Then, I chose Special Education due to my parental nature and love of working with special needs children. Lastly, I decided to look into my uncle’s profession, pharmacy. It’s a way that I can be in the medical field without a lot of schooling and help people without dealing with broken bones, surgeries, or blood. Entering a tattoo shop, I heard the whirring of a tattooing gun, winces and a murmured conversation. I walked right in to do my day on the job with an old family friend Spyder Jones. I asked him several questions on if he enjoyed his career of choice, why he had chosen to legally change his name for his career, and how he got there. Spyder, who I used to know as Uncle Derek, told me that after years of being in the business world he needed to get out because he wasn’t happy. He had a degree in business management and helped small companies around the area be more organized and also helped boost their sales little by little. So he quit his job, went to the only tattoo school in the country which is located in New Orleans, and went through the process of being an apprentice.
Being an apprentice, a process that has to be completed by most aspiring tattoo artists, is similar to being a vampire’s drudge. The person you are serving under controls your schedule, what you do in their shop, and if you make it in the rather competitive world of tattooing, all for barely any pay. You must endure two years of voluntary/involuntary slavery to the person you serve under until they see you have what it takes to make it. Any time during the two years they can tell you that you don’t have what it takes, which means you wasted two thousand dollars on tuition to a two week school in New Orleans and however much time you spent with this person for nothing. He then chose to change his name to Spyder to give himself a clean slate from the business world after opening his own shop. (Jones 1)
After my day on the job, I seriously contemplated being a tattoo artist. I was good at talking and consulting with people, which is a core task in being a tattoo artist. I knew the procedures like the back of my hand thanks to Spyder, which includes sterilizing needles and equipment, shaving the desired location of the tattoo, tracing it onto the skin, consulting the client again, and creating the tattoo. From there, you clean the tattooed area, apply ointment, bandages and tell the client how to care for the tattoo (Tattoo Artist 1).
Being an INFJ, I pick up on routines fairly quick and put that as a pro on my pro-con list. When working as a tattoo artist, you MUST dispose of all needles and inks that have been used. You also must follow all of the strict health and safety regulations, work with a variety of personality types, be willing to work weekends and evenings, and work for a studio or start your own business. I could handle all of that, no problem. Your earnings are based on experience, ability and location. When you are an apprentice, you make very little, if any. After the two year process and earning your license, you move up to a full-time artist, making $20,000 to $50,000 annually on commission with each tattoo ranging from $50- $+200. Finally, after many years of being a full-time artist, you can become a studio owner, which earns $45,000 to $100,000 per annum (Tattoo Artist 1).
When going to be a tattoo artist, a high school diploma or GED is required. A post-secondary degree is also very helpful to your success in the business. Some other requirements are creativity, hand-eye coordination, patience, being detail oriented, having an eye for color and design, and being good with people (Tattoo Artist 1).
I’ve had a lot of experience with children labeled as “special needs” or “special education”. I use quotations because some of the children I’ve encountered labeled as this are more intelligent than children their age, just in different ways. It’s amazing how their teachers only make on average $53,220 a year, with all of the extra effort they put in to teaching these “disabled” kids (Summary Special 1). My experiences with children of this category resulted in my pondering of joining the men and women I’ve always looked at with a sort of reverence.
To become a special education, you need at least a bachelor’s degree in your field and a state-issued license or certificate. No experience is needed although it can be recommended that you have at least a little experience under your belt because you have to work with children with a wide array of children with learning, mental, emotional, and physical disabilities (Special 1). To get experience, you can work with the Peace Corps. With them, you may have the privilege to work with underprivileged children in poor countries, as well as what America classifies as “special needs”. Working with the Peace Corps as a special Education is valued highly by many institutions, as well as public and private schools (Peace 1). Another way to get experience is to do an internship or residency, which is required of all prospective teachers. (Summary Special 1)
When working as a special education teacher you have to work school hours and typically spend nights, weekends, and even summers to get the work and lesson plans done (Special 1). A special education teacher also needs to prepare and grade papers and tests, consult with counselors, may need to adapt their teaching methods to fit a student’s needs, and use assistive technology This environment can sometimes seem extremely stressful to a person (Summary Special 1). Some abilities of attributes of a special education teacher are patience, energetic attitude, organizational skills, having good communications kills and you need to enjoy working with kids. If these traits describe a person, then there is a three level program to their career, starting with being a probationary special education teacher with an average earnings of $34,000- $45,000 per year (Special 6). Then, the person will get the title of special education teacher after the probationary period is done. The pay per annum for persons of this title is anywhere from $40,000- $80,000. Lastly, the teachers may become an assistant principal or a principal after many years of experience. This category is the highest paid at an annual income of $50,000- $150,000(Special 7). My last possible career choice is the career that fits my personality type the most, being a pharmacist. A pharmacists median annual take home pay is $111,570, which equals to about $47.70 per hour as starting salary and $53.64 after about 6 months. The highest salary a person may obtain is $57.85 an hour (Summary Pharmacist 1).
But, you need a doctoral or professional degree in pharmaceutical medicine with no work experience or on the job training needed. An additional business degree or public health component will make you a more viable contestant. Many of these degrees CVS, Rite-Aid, or Walgreen’s will pay for if you sign into a five year contract with them that will start after you graduate, and will even fund housing for their potential employees in special circumstances. Also needed is to be licensed by taking a minimum 2 federal examinations. Additional exams may be required covering pharmacy law (Summary Pharmacist 1).
After this, a one to two year post-graduate residency or fellowship is required. The number of jobs in 2010 for pharmaceutical medicine was 274,900, which was an outstanding 25% increase from the previous year, a whopping 69,700 job gain, and since then it has only gone up (Summary Pharmacist 1). A pharmacists’ main job is to dispense medication to patients and offer advice on how to take said medications safely in a drug store or grocery store pharmacy. They may also have to work in a hospital or clinic. Pharmacists use their unique mix of medical knowledge and people skills to get their job done properly (Summary Pharmacist 1). The pharmaceutical industry has seen such a great surge due to our aging population, increasingly complex medicines, and the new focal point of Medication Therapy Management (MTM). One of the most important aspects of MTM is trying to improve the quality of the patient’s life. With MTM may of the core tasks of being a pharmacist are crucial. A person must be able to be on their feet most of the day to assist their patients, wear gloves and masks when working with very sick people or dangerous products, inform patients of any ill effects, answer questions, have good people skills, tell patients timetables for their medications, and supervise their technicians. Most of the prescriptions come prepared and a pharmacist only need to dispense them correctly (Summary Pharmacist 1). A usual number of hours worked as a pharmacist is 35-40 hours a week, with many evenings and possible weekends going at $60- $120 per hour. The amount of pay depends heavily on experience, responsibilities, and number of employees. Many may start out with just filling prescriptions, but may move on to supervisory or administrative jobs accompanying a promotion with access to a larger area and more stores. Internet and mail-order pharmacies may also help a person’s career in the aforementioned aspects (Summary Pharmacist 1). To move quickly up the ladder a person must be patient, understanding, be able to handle high stress situations, and appear knowledgeable. The best way for the upward mobility without much flexibility guaranteed by entering this field is to join internships while still in school. It has been proven that exposure to patients and their care during school will make a student more successful in their studies. The studies focus mostly on examining if a student has technical, leadership, communication, and conflict resolution skills, which will set them apart from their fellow students (Summary Pharmacist 1). A person must start as a pharmacy intern at roughly $10 - $14 per hour for roughly six months to a year. From there they may move on to becoming a staff pharmacist earning $70,000- $110,000 per annum. Lastly, a person may become a pharmacy manager at take home of $110,000- $135,000 annually (Summary Pharmacist 5). After much consideration, I am still undecided as to what I want to do in life. Maybe I can do two of the three. Already, I have thrown becoming a tattoo artist out the window. I may want to do it, but my attitude and thick skull would not allow me to be under the control of a person in any aspect of a career. But maybe I can become a pharmacist and go back to school when I develop more patience and then pursue teaching elementary school special education. The future is fluid and ever changing, but pharmaceutical medicine seems like an appropriate calling to me at my age, patience level, and skill set. But who knows, maybe I’ll be a special education teacher by day and pharmacist by night.