Opinions? (what I want to be when I grow up)

GlossyTundra

GlossyTundra

Tractor Detailer
I know prob. none of yall care, but I figured I would get some opinions out of a few of you. Up until now I have been going to a community college with hopes to end up at NCSU for Contstruction Engineering and Mngmt. My father is in the industry that I hope to go to, general contracting. I have grew up around all aspects of building homes. And until now that is what I wanted to do with my life was to build houses. My father is extremely succesful and has a great reputation and buisness that I can follow in.



The other day I went to our local farm show in Raleigh. Full of every size tractor and truck you could imagine. from little lawn mowers all the way up to 600hp half a million dollar John Deeres. I just cant help but be more interested in tractors than I am in contracting. I also grew up around farming, my grandfather farmed since he was a kid and I grew up in the tractor cab with him. I love tractors and anything that has a diesel motor. Most of you know that I am the resident "tractor detailer" on this site posting a few threads about detailing tractors.



I just cant help but wondering if I love tractors so much, why am I going to build houses? I know the money is great at building houses, and I have a perfect setup for getting started (Dad). I also know that the money isnt quite as good working with tractors either, and I would loose the freedom of working for myself. If I were to go into this field, I could majior in Agri Engineering at NCSU with a minor in machinery, so I could still get the knowledge.



Would yall have any opinions on what you would do in this situation? I know most of you will say "do what you love" but I cant help but love being my own boss and owning my own buisness being a contractor. Also engineering the newest John Deere or CaseIH tractor would be my dream.:thx
 
When I was in school, high school and college, I took a bunch of interest and aptitude tests. Each test would score me high in the field of agriculture (farming). I didn't even consider agriculture as I was pushed into a business major. Well guess what, 20 years later I am still in the corporate world and wish I wasn't.



My advise: Complete your education as it can never be taken from you. Then go after your dream. Dreams are what life is made of...Go for it, you can alwyas fall back on dad's business.



My two cents.



Gary
 
Building tractors might not be everything it seems on the surface - I was previously an engineering major, and it was not nearly as enjoyable/interesting as I expected it to be. If you get an engineering job for JD, you will probably be sitting in an office all day designing parts.



Then again, that might be up your alley - get all the facts before you go for it, but theres no reason why you can't do what you really want to do in life.
 
Well, I dont want to be in the office all the time. If I were to purse this I would want to be in sales, marketing, dealership management or testing. I wouuld not enjoy sitting behind a desk all day.



A dream would be the guy that travels to other peoples farms and tells them what tractor will improve effeciancy.
 
I have a degree in Public Communications.. and ended up being a firefighter.



Do I regret my choice of career path?



Hell, no!



I have risen through the ranks over the last 25+ years and I am now a Deputy Fire Chief in my community. The skills I klearned from my degree in Communications has worked to my advantage, both for being able to deal with the public on a daily basis and the media at incidents, as well as transferring a loit of credits towards a second degree.



Tthe lastest promotion has me spending more of my time behind a :work: , which is taking some time to get used to.
 
IMO the greatest value in getting "education", and by that I *DO NOT* just mean going to college, is that you learn stuff about yourself, like what really appeals to you (and why)and what you have an aptitude for (and why). Learn as much as you can about as much as you can, especially yourself. The more you know the more, the broader your decision-making base so the better the chances that you'll make good decisions.



I'd spend a little time figuring out exactly what it is about the tractors that appeals to you, and what that oughta mean to you.
 
Being a current engineer student, the best possible advice I could give you would be don't make a definite decision until you have all your pre-reqs out of the way. Sure it is a good idea to have somewhat of an idea what you want to do in school, but don't make anything final. Also, don't look at it as something that you are forced to do for the rest of your life, as that will only make things more stressful for yourself. Dabble a little bit here, and there, take some classes out of the required schedule, as it could open up to some thing you have a passion for. I went into school almost three years ago, almost in your same position, but between computer science, and physical therapy. I took a computer science class, economics, biology, calculus, and an basic engineering course my first semester of college. After that first semester, I realized that I absolutely despised biology, which was the main focus of physical therapy, and I couldn't stand to look at another prompt of C++ to save my life. However, I absolutely loved the engineering class, and the way to look at things physically speaking. I liked to figure out why things work the way they do, and how they work the way they do. That initially sparked my desire for engineering. I too have a love for vehicles, the way that you did for tractors. I decided to go into Automotive engineering, which I will come out with a mechanical engineering degree.



You simply can't look at college as how you are going to spend your life. Things will happen, and you will find what you want by experimenting with different classes. Like somebody stated above, go to school, get an education, as you can always fall back on it. You will eventually find your niche in life as long as you have an open mind...
 
Thanks for the replys everyone. I figured I could give some of yall something to do.



I think I may talk to the Ag techs at NCSU and see how their description of classes compare to my current construction and pre-engineering rec. courses. I also want to see if there is a demand for Ag engineers or techs. in my area. I dont really care to move (or it would be to John Deere in Moline, IL), but I do know that there are tons of farmers in this area, so there has to be a demand for some type of Ag tech or engineer. I dont need a degree to be a contractor, but I do need one to be a Ag engineer, so I may go with that idea. I will let everyone know how it goes.
 
John Deere, eh? I live actually about 40 minutes away from the John Deere headquarters, and have been to John Deere Pavillion, and the John Deere classic a few times. If you ever head up this way, shoot me a PM, I'll show you around the Quad City Area.
 
We are coming up there July 7-14th to go to the pavilion and all that jazz. It's me and my best friends "dream" trip.



I may hit you up, I need some direction in that area, but we plan on spendin as much time as possible at "tractor heaven"
 
Brandon, just go to college and get your basics out of the way while you decide first. Then try and get some sort of internship in the field of tractors while in school to help you decide if that's what you want to do.



And on a side note, you don't really need to go to school to do contracting do you? There is a guy at my church, his son in law went to school for business and was in marketing, but several years ago he decided he wanted to build houses. From what I've heard, he is doing very well and I don't think he went to school at all for it. So if that's the case, go to school for the agricultural field, and if it doesn't work out, you can get into building houses.
 
No, you dont have to have school to build houses, but you do have to know something. I guess you are right, I could go to ag school and if it dosent work out, I always have my father there to help me build houses.
 
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