Anybody know anything about college? I fooled around with community college back in the 90's and was a poor student. I quit and got a job. If I went back to the same place today to get an associates would I be able to start from scratch or would my grades from a decade ago still be around to drag my GPA down?

I'm thinking about being a draftsman. Does anybody know anything about that field? I was thinking about getting an associate's and then finding work at an architectual firm.

HI -

Strong suggestion: stop by your local county employment agency.

Your local EDD will have forecasts for "drafting" jobs over the next few years, and they'll be able to suggest alternatives if the forecast isn't good.

They'll also be able to suggest colleges ... or perhaps other, related vocational programs ... and ESPECIALLY opportunities for you to get EXPERIENCE while you're working toward your AA degree.

Good luck!

I wouldn't worry too much about the grades. I think that it's fairly common for someone coming back to college after a decade or so to have much much better grades (more maturity, real life experience in situations where there are real consequences to failure). Colleges know this. I think that the biggest challenge will be finding time to study, but you have control over that, or at least you know how much time you have going in to this.

I would suggest doing as much research as you can on whatever subject you're taking, prior to taking the class. The more of the material that you aren't seeing for the first time in class, the better off you'll be.

Local county employment agency? EDD? I never heard of such things. I guess it's a good thing I posted. Thanks.

I don't really care what the college thinks. I was a C student for a couple semesters. There's no doubt I would get accepted back into community college. I'm just wondering if I go back and get straight A's for two years and graduate with an associates if I'll have a 4.0 or if my ancient grades will drag my GPA down. I know my credits will have expired by now so I'm hoping I can just start from scratch. That would just be totally lame if I graduated and had C's and WD's all over my transcript from 1998 and it messed up my employment options. I mean if I payed for the damn courses and earned A's I don't see any reason I should be penalized for having been a lazy 20 year old.

Hell, I guess I'll just go ask the admissions office. I was just wondering if anybody knew off the top of their head.

Your recent history is always the most important. The only thing MORE important---eg on a resume---is divulging ALL of your history.

I'm uncertain about employment for "draftsman". Most of that work is now done using CAD/CAM. Regardless, the real key is talking to potential employers and learning about their needs. If you find someone you **really** want to work for, start in the shipping department if you have to.

What do you mean all my history? You mean it's important to put when I worked at the grocery store from '98 to '03? Why, so they know I wasn't in prison?

Are they really going to call Schnucks markets to ask how good of a clerk I was? It seems so irrelevant. I learned the trade in about a day. After that it was a waste of time.

A prospective employer---or an interviewer for same--does not want to see unexplained blanks, and they generally do not want to have to ask you about it.

For me, the "deal-breaker" is a situation where there is some period of time unaccounted for, I ask about it, and the candidate acts like he/she does not want to talk about it.

If you have a period in your life where you were not performing up to your potential, be honest about it---but don't belabor it. Focus on your strengths.

Oh. Well that's easy enough. Yeah they use CAD these days. I've been using different CADs at work all the time. I figure as a draftsmen I'd get to draw much more complicated stuff than what I've been doing.

I'm gonna check out the EDD (whatever that is) like that one guy said. Then I'll guess I'll see if architectual companies will talk to me and tell me what they look for when they hire a draftsman, tell me what kind of degree they want and if they need anybody in their shipping department or anything.

This would be the employment agency that I should talk to, right?:
http://www.co.st-louis.mo.us/dhs/workforce.html

It looks like EDD is Employment Development Department. Is that the same thing as employment agency? Am I just looking for one thing?