Trasfering schools

[HiImBrian]

I work for ATK inc and no, I was looking for something withing accounting. I don't want to get you mixed up, but I'm not a VP. I still work in the accounting area. I'm setting my goals for VP in the next 10-20 years. LOL

Ooo haha ok. I was gunna say your the vp and your still going to school haha. I have a meeting set up with my business advisor tomorrow, so I'll have a good talk with her. I'd really like more information about sales representatives and what they actually do. I'm up for traveling and talking with different people, just not sitting in a store selling hondas all my life haha. I just spoke with one of my friends about having a business pay your tuition, and he thought you had to take less credits and actually end up in school longer. Do you work full time while you go to school?

[AJ]

Taking less credits will depend on how much they pay for during a specific time frame and how much of a work load you can handle.

I work full time, and generally take 8-12 credits every 16 week semester. I also go all year round. I'm about 2 years away at that pace to reach my goal, but I'usually take more during the winter months.

[JET]

A sales rep goes out and tries to sell their product to the dealer. If you were a car rep, you would go to the car dealerships, tell them about the new models and how great they are going to be. Then when you have them all Wowed, then you have them sign an order. Of course everything has to be sold, so there are tons of different things to sell.

[TurboDomestics]

Im an ME major at UMN with a minor in Mathematics.

If you can do Calc 1, then Calc 2, DiffEq and Multivariable are pretty simple in my opinion. Phys1 is really easy too, Phys 2 gets a little complicated though. Also I only needed one semester of intro Chem so I wouldnt worry to much about that.

I wouldnt plan to major in ME if you have a big social life on the weekdays, I usually come home from school, and do hw till its time to go to sleep mon-fri.

But if your technically minded all the stuff your studying ends up being really interesting, so doing all the hw isnt soo bad at all. Plus at the UMN there are LOTS of places to go for help.

I just transfered in to UMN this year from a different school in michigan, and ill be graduating in 5 years total, and thats with studying abroad for a semester and getting a minor in math.


Not sure how usefull all that was, but I really recommend UMN!!
If you think youll enjoy the things you will be learning than go for it, if not then I wouldnt bother.

[TurboDomestics]

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm

try this site, it has a general description of hole list of careers.

Figure out where you want to be in like 10-15 years, and see if you think that whatever career path would still be interesting then.

Heres the flow chart for the ME courses needed to graduate:

http://www.me.umn.edu/education/pdf/ME_flowchart.pdf

If those courses look interesting then go for it!

[HiImBrian]

Thanks so much for your help! I met up with my business advisor for a while this morning and you guys are definitely a lot more help than she was. I'm planning on meeting up with an ME advisor later today so I'll see what I can find out there. Thanks for the links as well, I'll check those out more in depth as soon as I get out of class :)

[sleepy2lazy]

Sorry, I'm a bit loss in all the postings. Are you still planning to be a ME major or have you started to get into Business? There's a variety of VP type positios in Business. But like the admin said, becoming a VP in the area of Finance / Accounting will definitely take awhile. They look for outstanding employees, to managers, then to VP. Of course, I hope to become an audit manager within the next 10 years (if i get lucky), but its something that I'm aiming for. If your planning to go the SALES route, your definitely gonna need to be a sales oriented guy. Alot of business sales reps get paid by commission, and on top of that, if your not doing so good with sales, expect to get canned. Currently Right now, i'm working at Wells Fargo. Over at WF, tuition reimbursement is also an option. Of course, you need to work there for 6 months first, and then have a certain progress level to meet requirements. In addition, you need to work part time, 15-20 hrs a week i believe to get part reimbursement, or full time 40 to get a higher reimbursement rate. The hard part about this is that your not going to be able to go to school during the day, expect night classes / online courses. In addition, I don't know if tuition reimbursement works for positions such as tellers. Depends on what position I believe. But if your into sales, and your into your senior year or have graduated. There's a really great intern position here that helps step your way into becoming a full time sales rep. (Traveling, commission, and so forth.) Where i'm at, its not the general banking, its more of the SBA credit / loan area.

[sleepy2lazy]

Sales and Business can be tought if you have the mind set. I foiled out of school after 1 year when I went right out of high school. Now I'm half way finished with my BSBA in Finance and have a path to also get my BSBA in Business Management and move to my Masters in Finance or Business after that. I plan to work in Finance/Accounting for 5-10 year during all this school till I can work and network my way into my own business again or into a VP positon in a company like the one I work for now. The best thing is, my work is paying for everything but my books right now, so it was the perfect time to go back and I'll milk it for everything can.

In addition to these steps, if you do plan on getting into business / sales / management, you don't necessarily need to get a Bachelors in these fields. Whatever undergrad your in, you can still go into your master in these fields. Many colleges nowadays offer these masters programs in the evenings as well for the working person. Although, some do not. For example, St. Thomas offers there masters of science in accountancy program but you'll be in the traditional hours with your cohorts. Then they have a guaranteed paid internship with the big 4 accounting firms. when your done there, you take your cpa test and your set to go. (Not advertising for them, but just an example)

In these aspects, each business aspect is different then others. Sales / Marketing / Gen. Business / Accounting / Finance / Economics and so forth, you will develop a different mindset. If you major in finance or other fields instead of accounting, and get into the accounting career, you may indeed need to spend extra class time to get your CPA, if you want it.

Personally, I like accounting and finance. Finance with the sales and business integrated (personal finance / investments / analyst positions etc..) to the accounting (all the book work / documentation for a company)

[HiImBrian]

That's kinda funny, I'm actually sitting in my accounting class right now. I wasn't really planning on doing book work or any sort of accounting, just not something im passionate about. Any I may have been a little unclear about what I'm doing now, but I'm just finishing my freshman year at ISU. I took mostly business generals these first two semesters. It looks like about 1 semester of classes would switch over to ME if I decided to. I am planning on speaking with the ME advisor in a little bit and get some first hand experience about what ME has to offer. TurboDomestics those links were very helpful and provide a great amount of information! I'll definitely reference that site when I speak with the ME advisor.

I guess what I'm thinking is even though sales is something I am good at, my passion is really with mechanics. I think it would be so cool to sit down and work on a project with a group of guys designing or critiquing engines/transmitions/etc. I understand that most engineers get the opportunity to test their final results and that really excites me about that profession. I am going to try and get a hold of some engineers that work for mitsu and see what kind of jobs they offer for MEs and what I could do to get to that point.

As far as having a business pay for my tuition or part of it. That would be really great, but I don't really think I would want to sacrifice a "real college experience" for night classes and a extra heavy work load. I am currently working while I'm here at school, but not much more than 16 hours a week, so that's not too bad. I'll post up later tonight after I speak with the ME advisor. Thanks again so much guys. You have all been very helpful and I look forward to replies every time I log on :)

[HiImBrian]

Well i've spoken with both of my advisors and done a lot of thinking. I have decided I am going to go with what I'm more passionate about- Mechanical Engineering. I understand the job market has just been exploding with new jobs in the past few years and it is planned to continue to do so. I will obviously start up some summer classes at north hennipen cc this summer to start my "catch up" process haha. Hopefully I can continue to gain knowledge about the profession and end up with a job I really love. Thanks again for all your help and comments. I am still open to new ideas and comments if anybody has any for me :)
-Brian