Career Choices

[barisaxyman]

I'm starting to have to figure what I want to major in and I am having a lot of trouble deciding what I should do. At the moment I am considering fighting since I have been training since I was 5 years old. As well as computer science, particularly cyber security or pentesting because i love coding and working with computers. In addition to fire fighting because I want to serve the community and pay back to society. So if anyone could help me decide or somewhat guide me to my choice, it would really help. I don't know what to do and I don't really have resources to help me. 

 

Thanks for your time, 

Zane Basquiat 

[wasab]

You don’t need to major in anything to fight fire, you do need to be fit though so try not be obese and workout often. It really appalls me how many police officers and firefighters I’ve seen are obese here in the US of A. They would be outright rejected if they were to apply for the French foreign legion.

 

Cyber security involves a lot of math and reverse engineering. I hope you are into those kind of stuffs. It isn’t about learning how to use a hacker software made by others. (Looking at you script kiddies)

 

To do that, a major in computer science should be good. Although you have to look into different CS programs to see how much of it a school will be covering.

 

My school for example offers fundamental secuirty(which is the bare bone minimum about cyber security), web security(securing web system), application security(securing softwares), offensive security(breaking rather than securing systems), and even mobile secuirty(breaking and rooting android or iOS).

 

For the CS degree, just fundenmental secuirty is good enough for graduation but students can take other classes if they wish to specialized more. 

 

Also, your high school guidance counselor or college academic/career advisors are the best persons to go to if you have any doubts.

[Damascus]

7 minutes ago, wasab said:

firefighters I’ve seen are obese here in the US of A.

wat - that's ridiculous.  In Canada if you want to be a firefighter part of the exam is carrying 250lb+ dummy down like 12 stories to simulate an actual rescue

 

(not saying you're wrong, more that that's awful)

[wasab]

28 minutes ago, Damascus said:

wat - that's ridiculous.  In Canada if you want to be a firefighter part of the exam is carrying 250lb+ dummy down like 12 stories to simulate an actual rescue

 

(not saying you're wrong, more that that's awful)

Well, awful yeah but this is the USA and obesity is an epidemic here

https://www-m.cnn.com/2014/07/18/health/firefighter-obesity/index.html

[Damascus]

1 hour ago, wasab said:

Well, awful yeah but this is the USA and obesity is an epidemic here

https://www-m.cnn.com/2014/07/18/health/firefighter-obesity/index.html

check out "unreported world's, the most obese place on the planet" for a really interesting video on a similar subject 

[Damascus]

32 minutes ago, Sierra Fox said:

maybe they were fit enough to pass the initial test and then got obese after they already got the job. I'm assuming it's the same reason why you always see fat police officers, there's no way they would have been able to pass their entrance test like that

Actually, many states have easy fitness tests for Police, the training is an utterly pathetic 3-6 months as well

[IAnthonyFX]

3 hours ago, barisaxyman said:

I'm starting to have to figure what I want to major in and I am having a lot of trouble deciding what I should do. At the moment I am considering fighting since I have been training since I was 5 years old. As well as computer science, particularly cyber security or pentesting because i love coding and working with computers. In addition to fire fighting because I want to serve the community and pay back to society. So if anyone could help me decide or somewhat guide me to my choice, it would really help. I don't know what to do and I don't really have resources to help me. 

 

Thanks for your time, 

Zane Basquiat 

Don't you have an advising centre at your college? Either way, I would hold back from taking advice from non-professionals on the matter from a tech forum. So go look for that where you are

[Damascus]

10 hours ago, Sierra Fox said:

welp...thats stupid

Yep, it's honestly not a surprise to me that the U.S.A. has constant police issues.  There's basically no training (look at a German officer for example, there's 3 years of training before they get on the force) so they panic when put in these situations.

10 hours ago, IAnthonyFX said:

Don't you have an advising centre at your college? Either way, I would hold back from taking advice from non-professionals on the matter from a tech forum. So go look for that where you are

/\ This, I basically derailed it anyways.

[dizmo]

 

Fighting doesn't require any formal schooling as far as I know, especially a degree, so I'm not sure why that'd play into it.

It's also kind of short lived; get hit in the head enough times, and it's game over.

 

Firefighting requires completely different training than anything computer related. Honestly, it sounds like like you need to figure out exactly what you want to pursue in life before anything else. If you really love all three, I'd suggest going into firefighting first. What you learn there won't need to be updated nearly as often as anything computer related. If you take all the computer classes, and decide to do firefighting instead, going back to computers will basically require going through all the certifications again and you'll have wasted all that time and money.

 

In the end, this is something you really need to decide on your own.

 

On 4/17/2018 at 5:07 PM, wasab said:

You don’t need to major in anything to fight fire, you do need to be fit though so try not be obese and workout often. It really appalls me how many police officers and firefighters I’ve seen are obese here in the US of A. They would be outright rejected if they were to apply for the French foreign legion.

-snip-

Really? In Canada most cities have pretty high requirements. In Edmonton, for example, you have to have advanced first aid. Vancouver requires the same in addition to 30 post secondary credits or an apprenticeship.

On 4/17/2018 at 5:14 PM, Damascus said:

wat - that's ridiculous.  In Canada if you want to be a firefighter part of the exam is carrying 250lb+ dummy down like 12 stories to simulate an actual rescue

 

(not saying you're wrong, more that that's awful)

Agreed. Not to mention everything else you have to know.

I believe only volunteer fire fighters get away with the physical training.

On 4/17/2018 at 7:35 PM, Damascus said:

Actually, many states have easy fitness tests for Police, the training is an utterly pathetic 3-6 months as well

Kind of hard to expect insanely in shape officers when a lot of departments pay under $20/hr