Glad you are seeing a therapist. Good luck moving forward.
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Judgement on grades is what 4 year colleges (and to some extent employers) do.
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grades are important but there’s more to a person than there grades and test scores.
Yes, of course there is more to people than grades. But not every career path is right for every person. It is definitely a warning sign that you didn’t do well in Algebra; I think that is all people are trying to say. (You are talking to someone who is not a geologist because I had bad chem grades). 
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@intparent Chemsitry Is a requirement for every STEM major. When you were in college, did you have access to Professor office hours and tutors for help with chemistry? What else is marketable besides STEM? I don’t wanna work in Education, Healthcare,or the trades because I don’t like people or manual labor. Business seems the most boring thing on earth. I thought about Project management but people around me don’t recommend it because they it would be stressful for me.
Well… I happen to be a project manager. And it is stressful. Why don’t you get a copy of the Book of Majors (published by CollegeBoard)? Your CC career office or library may have a copy. Look thru with a pack of post-its to tag majors and related careers that sound interesting.
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@intparent what pre-req classes and major core classes did you take for the project management major? Is construction project management that you work in or a different area of that? I’ve looked at the curriculum for construction management and they still require atleast one calculus class, a few physics classes, maybe Chemistry at some schools, and maybe a few engineering classes because it combines business and STEM it seems. Industrial management seems kind of interesting too. For Chemsitry, did you have access to tutors and professor office hours for help when you thought about majoring in Geology before?
No, it is project management for IT and business projects. I have a bachelor’s of business administration with some computer science classes added in. Eventually I got an MBA with a focus in Management Information Systems, but I don’t think it made that much difference in my career. None of my classes were specific to project management (it wasn’t really a job title back then). I worked for one of the large consulting firms for several years, which is where I really learned how it was done. I am also certified through the Project Management Institute (PMI) with a PMP (Project Management Professional) certification, although I personally found the material covered in the PMP exam had little to do with the real day to day work in the job.
Regarding chem, I was a large well regarded public university, and took chem my first semester. I didn’t know a soul taking the same class, had taken chem at a mediocre public HS (but no AP, honors, and my high school wasn’t great), had a TA that barely spoke English, and it was a course that pre-meds needed an A in – so they were gunning for good grades. There were hundreds in the lecture, and we were told to work with our TA if we had questions. It is what is know as a weed out class at a large university, and I got weeded. In retrospect, I’d have tried to hire a tutor, and maybe switched sections (although I sort of remember trying to do that and not being allowed – but now I know there would probably be nothing wrong with sitting in on another section sometimes).
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@intparent do you have to be good at math to be in project management?
By the way, I happen to of been bored because it’s summer is why during this time I keep putting the cart before the horse. There’s a math program I’ve been working on online to strengthen my math skills to have the knowledge fresh in the fall.
It doesn’t hurt – budgets and estimating are a significant part of the job. But you don’t usually need advanced math (but I use algebra every day).
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@intparent do you believe someone can become good at a subject through help from good tutoring and professor office hours? No one is born good at math or critical thinking.
It can help, for sure.
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@intparent can I ask some Questions about when seeking Jobs since you are a project manager?
If I don’t have much extracurricular experience from high school, is it looked down upon(even If I have a lot from college)?
Do you think retail or food industry experience is good for any Job even If it’s not related to Project Management?
What kind of work experience do you look for when seeking candidates (internships, co-op, exec)?
Is it looked down upon if a candidate doesn’t have a driver’s license or didn’t get one until a certain age?
Is it looked down upon if you were to find out about an applicant, candidate, or employees personal life (Factbook, Twitter, extc)?
- High school ECs are meaningless in the post-college job search. 2 & 3. Hardly anyone could start right into project management. It is a leadership sort of position. Ways people often get into it in the business world is starting as a project coordinator or business analyst or developer or in a business department role representing the area on projects in some way (like helping define requirements or as a tester or something like that). You'd be best off looking for internships on the back office side of some kind of company. Or even an office-type student job on your campus. My nephew who just held food industry jobs in college has had a hard time finding a real job post-college. I think even working as a temp can get you some interesting business experience while in college. Relevant work experience and grades count more than ECs in the post-college job hunt. In general -- I'd hire someone with some kind of office experience over retail or food industry. Even if you don't end up as a project manager, that is generally true for other business related jobs.
- Drivers license doesn't matter at all for many jobs as long as you can get to and from work reliably. Certainly some jobs (sales or requiring calling on customers) would need you to be able to drive. And I guess I've had customers a couple times with multiple locations when I needed to go back & forth during the day. But they wouldn't care if I got my license late.
- I guess personal life issues could keep you out of a job, and I'd assume any employer would Google you these days. Set all your social media to private settings, and be careful what you post. Nothing you can do if you have public record info out there -- but don't lie on your app. Some employers do a credit check, background check, or drug screen (I've had them all more than once). Most workplaces aren't keen on hearing about personal issues (family or relationship issues, traffic violations, etc). They want you to show up to work, be mentally present and focused while you are there, learn quickly and don't need to be told twice, work hard, and do the things they've hired you to do without causing a lot of problems.
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@intparent can you share how much interaction you have with people in your current job? Are you pretty much left alone or do you have to interact with with people on a regular basis? OP has stated on this thread and past threads that they “don’t like people” If your job doesn’t require to much personal interaction with actual people it may be something it might be a potential career path but you mentioned meeting with customers, is that a big part of your job?.
Thanks for taking the time to share so much about your job, I’ve found it very enlightening as, it’s a field I know nothing about.
Every Job requires some kind of people interaction. That’s the way it is. Any kind of work someone does is for someone else. Things that serve or produce things for people are economic value. Everyone has people who they like and don’t like. Even managers know people they wish to avoid.
I have a lot of interaction. A project manager almost never has supervisory responsibility for the people working on the project. But somehow I have to get them to complete the tasks I need them to do. Of course I work with their managers to get their time, but actually getting stuff done requires cajoling, reminding, coaxing, etc. I run a lot of meetings, too. So yes, there is a lot of people interaction. I’d say about 60% of my time is with people somehow, and maybe 40% is individual tasks.
I don’t believe all jobs are equal in the amount of interaction required. I know people with jobs where it is minimal – 90% of their work is dictated by their job responsibilities and tasks that flow to them through that, and they dont need to talk to people to get that work done.
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Well it sounds like my customer service skills that I’m developing will be transferable for If I go into Project management but I’ll still wanna aim for getting Jobs in temporary or office work while in school or get an internship.
Sure. And keep an open mond about other types of jobs you encounter that might suit you. There’s are tons of of jobs you’ve never hear during of.
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OP dream is Meteorology, zoology and environmental science. If it takes longer for him, I don’t see why you have to discourage the man. If you’re struggling with math after the third try then maybe switch your major. Always have a backup. My backup is to either major in history, geography, English and etc. just try to have. Backup plan if the following math coruses will be hard or can’t pass them