The Power of Psychology

[Savorybacon]

I would like some opinions on this, be as honest as possible. I know some on here are def. older than typical late teen college kid years and I need some help. Right now I am on my last quarter of my first year as a Psychology major which I am really loving. However, my heart is with cars, and I love to work on mine and I sorta am I d1ck about having others work on my car except one or two others. I wanna know how to work on my car for every problem, matter of a fact I want to be one of those guys that car guys trust to bring their car to, so after this year drop psych. major and go to community college for auto tech or stay in psych. major. The only reason I am stressing out is because they are two completely opposite career paths. Either one stick out more positive? I think I would be happy with either but I can't see being able to do both, esp. with my college money coming from a Delphi employee.

[nikon]

Re: The Power of Psychology

I worked as a tech for 6 mos everyone I worked with said it was nice that I wanted to learn something else....they then kicked my *** (literaly) and said now go back to school idiot...all of the techs hated working on cars, even the ones that had only been doing it a couple years, sure they were good and loved it at first, but have come to hate it....in other words, make cars your hobby so you can actually enjoy it....I will say when I finished working at the dealer I didnt want to work on my own car for a while...in fact I despised the fact of doing so.....trust me, you can learn about it after college.....Im now starting as a business major and it's what I should have done in the first place (2 years ago) but you live and learn.....

[camaro_speedemon]

Re: The Power of Psychology

Don't do it. Once you get older, you'll get to the point where cars aren't life anymore. When I was 18, all I ever wanted to do was sink money into my car. Every spare penny went to buy something for the car.

Now I'm 23 married with a family, and I can tell you that modding the car is way down on the list of priorities. I still love cars, but not like I did when I was younger.

Now as for wanting to be a mechanic, don't do it. All my mechanic friends hate it. The LAST think you'll want to do when you get home, is work on your own car, after working on everyone elses car. My friend went 20k miles on an oil change once. We basically went out, bought the oil and jacked the car up for him just so he would change his oil. After a month or 2, you'll hate it.

I assume you're gonna be a pyscologist of some sort, so why throw away a 6 figure income to work on cars? Stay in school as a physc major, and when your in your career, make cars you hobby. You don't need to go to school to learn how to work on a car. Find a friend that knows his **** about cars. If you can't get a junker and tinker away. That way, you'll always love them.

[Dojo2000]

Re: The Power of Psychology

make cars your hobby so you can actually enjoy it....trust me, you can learn about it after college

quoted for emphasis

[Savorybacon]

Re: The Power of Psychology

You all brought up some very valid points. LOL you actually made me feel stupid for every thinking about it, good parenting (or future parenting). Thanks for your input, greatly appreciated. I guess psych. wouldn't make a good hobby for a mechanic either. lol.

[Phate]

Re: The Power of Psychology

Im a 21 year old Automotive Tech, and am joining the local PD. I've loved cars since I was a kid, my father even owned a shop. Ive built cars forever and loved every minute of it. As with every post on this thread, I now HATE working on cars, granted I work on mine, but its all I can do to work on it after working on other peoples mistreated peices of crap all week long.

If your going to work on cars, make it a hobby, enjoy it, learn. Dont make it a profession, it ruins the enjoyment of it.

[ChrisV6]

Re: The Power of Psychology

I had to make a similar decision.
About 5 years ago i started to study computer science here in germany.
I always liked working on computers, earned some serious money this way, so i thought it was the right decision. Of course i also loved working on cars, but i thought if i earn enough money after college it would be a very nice hobby.

But after 2 years i discovered that i wanted to know more about car technology and engineering, not only scratching on the surface - and i still was the only computer scientist there that had greasy hands from time to time... ;)

So, even though i had quite decent marks, i decided to change my course of studies and start something entirely different - mechanical engineering.
I´m doing this now for 3 years and i really love it. I never regretted anything,
even though i "wasted" 2 years. And who knows, probably i´m going to build cars later...

Ok, this is somehow different as i never considered becoming a car mechanic, i wanted to build or seriously modify cars - like already said, if you work on cars for money it stops being fun for quite sure.

However you decide, just realize that you´ll work in your future job for some serious time (probably 40yrs? who knows..) unless you learn again something different - so you better should like it ;)

[SpeedingFirebird]

Re: The Power of Psychology

Don't feel stupid for asking. Life decisions are tough, and it's better to ask stupid questions than to make a mistake.

I am just like you. I hate taking my cars to mechanics. I take my own wheels off the car just to have them balanced. For me, it makes a great hobby. Since I am a SW engineer, I like spending my weekends working on cars (and landscaping and my house). It's a way of working with my hands and giving my brain a break. Being in psych, you will likely find the same release. Stress your brain all week, and then work on cars as a stress relief.

Conversely, I used to love computers as a hobby, but since I work on them 50 - 60 hours a week, I don't touch them when I don't have to. I prefer to spend time outside or in the garage.

BTW, I find psych very cool. Took a few classes back in the day.

Stay in school and finish your degree.

But after 2 years i discovered that i wanted to know more about car technology and engineering, not only scratching on the surface - and i still was the only computer scientist there that had greasy hands from time to time... ;)

That's a problem I have. People at work think I am nuts when I come in with grease under my fingernails and my knuckles banged up. Of course, I am the local "car guru" whenever somone has a problem.

[Mighty Thor]

Re: The Power of Psychology

Yeah, just don't make a career out of your hobby. Unless if that really is what you want to do for the rest of your working life.