I have a few suggestions that might give you food for thought (or you can toss them if you want). To discuss each of them, Iā€™m going to take your post out of order.

I donā€™t know if you know this, but my career was in publishing, where I had a reputation for being the ā€œbarracuda!ā€ of some of the different publishing worlds I inhabited. I mention this to show you that I recognize good publishing skills when I see them, and to say I think you have a very good talent for using words to their best effect.

You are a very good writer: you are concise, and your sentences and paragraphs are sequential and easy to read. Your paragraphs contain very basic thesis statements that lay the groundwork for the next thesis statement (paragraph) that ultimately creates the whole of the ā€œsubject matter.ā€ This is not an easy thing for most people to do.

Additionally, I have noticed you have a knack for readability; that is, you know how to make your comments easy for any of us to read, even when your subject is a bit more difficult to explain. Not many people have this innate ability to recognize if a documentā€™s readability is effective or not. But I think if you went into publishing, you would excel at it.

Another suggestion that is tied into writing would be a curriculum developer/ demonstrator/trainer. If you can get your foot in the door of one of these companies, you will have a chance to wear many different hats, and be paid quite well in the process.

For example, you could work for a software developer that designs custom-fit software to me a companyā€™s very specific needs. One example could be a library software, perhaps to replace an obsolete software.

Your job would be to design curriculum for the software, including writing and directing videos, power

point presentations, hands on demonstrations, etc. You would use any training tool at your disposal to develop the most effective curriculum possible.

Next, whenever a company is interested in your software product, you would be the one to demonstrate it to your clients. This would include fielding the questions that would be best answered by you because of your expertise.

Finally, you would go to the companyā€™s place of business, set up the computers, software, and any media youā€˜ve brought along. You would use your curriculum youā€™ve already developed, including competencies that must be mastered before the employee can rise to the next step. Then you would get train the employees how to use the software.

I think this would be an excellent option for you, as, like I said before, you are an excellent writer, you are very personable, and you enjoy a challenge. The position I described above is always changing as new software (or other product) is developed. I doubt you would ever be bored with this one. I know I wasnā€™t.

The other suggestion I had was sales technology. You are very personable and gregarious, which is an absolute must in sales. And obviously there are innumerable sales positions anywhere you go, but when I was reading your post I thought of you being a buyer, say for a department store, or a shoe brand, or something along those lines.

I suppose the instructor in sales technology would make a world of difference when choosing whether to

go into sales or not. In 1989 I was the editor of my collegeā€™s newspaper, and Iā€™d be sitting there working when all of my ā€œkidsā€ would come in from the sales technology class, just dancing and laughing and prancing everywhere. The instructor was wonderful, and most of them did go on and be successful in sales. Depending on what your product is, ā€œfree spiritsā€ can do very well in sales.

It is difficult to become a buyer, and most of them I know worked their way up, sometimes from the floor. But with your degree behind you, and if this is what you wanted to do, I would just rap on every personā€˜s door until they listened to me.

However, if you have no intention of being a social worker or therapist, I would change majors. I would even become a Communications major rather than social worker. Of course, it depends on what you ultimately decide to do, but a communications major helps you to excel, personally and in print, and teaches you to engage whatever audience you desire.

Communications is also an excellent major if you plan on going forward with a masterā€™s degree. It is about as broad as you can get, and Iā€™ve even seen law schools that accept communications majors.

The communications major is sometimes thought of as a joke, and the truth is, the class work is oftentimes not as challenging as it should be. But the fact is, itā€™s generic enough that, no matter what career you finally choose, you will have the skills needed to interact successfully with people, both in your personal and professional lives.

Perhaps someone here knows otherwise, but it was my experience that, when applying for jobs, all I had to have was the degree. No one ever looked at it, nor did they ask me about it. I had worked my butt off to get straight Aā€™s, knowing I was going to go into a masterā€™s program, only to discover the choosing committee was put off by straight Aā€™s. It said it showed a lack of balance in oneā€™s life, and Iā€™ve come to discover that is true. I would never spend the amount of time and anxiety I did to get all of those Aā€™s again. It was NOT worth it.

So, if you are willing to go through that much school, then teaching college would be an excellent thing to do.

As far as choosing a major, yes, it was very hard for me. I knew I wrote well, but, believe it or not, I HATE writing. Like I said, Iā€™m the barracuda when it comes to editing, but out and out writing made me miserable.

But, I am glad I went that route. I really created some lovely books, and some kick-butt curriculum. And I think, if you were interested, you could be very good at that as well.

I really am sorry for my rambling. I would go back and edit it, but am too tired. So, if you find a mistake the "barracuda" missed, just feel sorry for me, okay?

Elphaba