What should I do if I don't know what career path I want?
You should stop obsessing over what career path you want. Just start.Figure out what you might like right now and try it. You don’t need a college degree to test the waters. In other words, would you say that we need 4-years worth of knowledge about a country (study the subject for 4 years) to be able to explore it a bit for the first time? Such approach would be ridiculous.Try. Test. Learn what you like and what you don’t like about it.Don’t obsess over which career path will offer you better job prospects.We are very bad at predicting what will happen in the future, even the near future.People often forget that they have today’s data and they apply this data to the future and build scenarios which are worthless because they didn’t factor in myriad different things (because they didn’t have this knowledge about unknown future events that could change the landscape in a significant way, or even turn everything on its head). Birth of a new industry, or death of an existing one, or some major technological breakthrough.Plus, people always fail to factor in surprises (unexpected things they will do in the future, like pivoting to something else, coming up with a fantastic idea, sudden changes in our personal life which may affect our career, etc). How could we?And I’m talking about near future! Now think how little we actually know about the opportunities our college major might open for us in say 5 or 10 years, let alone 15 or 20.It’s ridiculous what we do, this obsessing about college majors and labelling them “practical” or “impractical”, but we do it because everyone does it (and because our parents also did it).Which brings me to my main message.Always choose things / areas of study because you care about them (feel excited about learning about them), not because picking one over the other will offer you better job prospects. It’s all bullshit, taking into account how few accurate predictions we can make.
I don't know what career I want to pursue?
I'm 18 years old and I have no idea what I want to do with my future. I have my family breathing down my neck about my future and what I should do. On the one hand, I have my moms fiance saying 'It's not about your interests or if you like it, it's about the money.' and then on the other hand I have my mother telling me not to immediately jump into school without knowing what I want to do. I also have my moms fiance telling me that I should just go to a trade school. I'm really bothered by all this. I can't decide on what kind of career path I'd like to follow. I have an interest in - creative writing - graphic design - video editing - drawing - criminal psychology - videogames - forensics - animals/wildlife - criminal justic I've contemplated jobs ranging from becoming a criminologist to a 2D/3D animator. I know that I want to be an author ( not as a career but something along the lines of a hobby ) I'm even writing a book atm I hope to get published. But I can't narrow down what I'd like to do with my life. I don't want to become like my mother and rush into school thinking I know what I want to do and get no where in life with the degrees I've gotten. And I don't want to rush into a career I know I won't like. And no, I'm not out to become the worlds next billionaire. I would like to live comfortably though making a decent wage. I thought about going to a community college for 2 years. I thought it might give me more time to contemplate on what I want to do and then transfer to a good college/university. How do I get out of this rut in my life? Do you think it would be wise to go to a community college? Do you think I should put aside my indifference and go to a field I know I won't like but do it anyways for the money? ( I'm talking about IT, medical field, etc )
Why do you want to pursue a career in IT?
Simple: I find computers cool!Seriously, information technology has never been this far into development for just about every civilization of humankind. We've developed devices with more processing power than the ones used to send Man to space, we can communicate with people thousands of miles away as if they were in the same room, and we can be amateur photographers when decades ago you needed to pay millions for artwork that merely resembled life.If you brought an average person from the 1800s or even the 900s to our timeline, they'd be shocked by the drawless carriages and our widely different cultures and popular ideologies sure, but it's the stuff associated with information technology that they'll look at and say, “SORCERY!”.Because even when our other sciences can pull off magics of their own, it's our Facebooks and Quoras and Googles that would make us seem like we know everything, see everywhere, and are capable of stealing souls and what not… yet it's all just normal everyday stuff for us.The more I know and understand IT and the different fields that it both encompasses and ties itself to (database management, ethical hacking, computer aided design, game development, etc.), the more I find it awesome and fascinating and scary all at once. And I want more of it. More of that knowledge, more of that cool stuff that I can pull off simply because I know how “smart” devices work, especially in this upcoming age of the Internet of Things.
What career should I get if I want to study just atoms?
A branch of mechanical engineering concentrates on materials science, and in the study of materials, you begin to understand lattice structures of solids and their effects on material properties, as well as the quantum makeup of materials and how a materials quantum signature will effect its properties.For instance - why can't water or air pass through glass, but light can pass right through it? It’s a great question if you think about it, and if you really want an answer to it. But without understanding the quantum mechanics of glass, you cannot understand why light goes through it, but not water or air. Most materials that prevent water and air from passing through them are like metal plates - where only the heat from the light will pass through them.You may also find yourself working with lasers and crystals, or silicon chip manufacturing for use in both solar panels or computers.Or, super insulators such as what would be used on space-craft so that it may survive the heat of re-entry into earth’s atmosphere.You could push yourself into a role as a researcher working at CERN or as some type of scientist doing research on quantum properties, or you could look into careers in chemistry - both of these will also center around molecular foundations… but in my personal opinion, mechanical engineering may be a little more accessible - both educationally and in terms of a future career.
Should I go for my career or what my mom wants me to do?
Hello, I prefer for more of the serious answers. I am stuck on deciding on what I want to do with my life. I would love to get a bachelor s in biology so I can be a zooloogist, wildlife officer, zookeeper, or vet. Just something animal related, but my mom wants me to go into dental hygiene since you only need an associates degree for the high dental yearly salary of 80,000 a year. She says animals is a dieing feild unless you do veternary, and you will not find a job for zoology and stuff. I am not rich so i would probably have to pull out a student loan to go into veternary work. I have no interest in dental hygeine other than the schooling to pay ratio, i dont even like going to the dentist let alone being one, but i could be just over exaggerating. Should I continue with my schooling plan or should I go with my moms choice? She usually knows what she is talking about which is why I am still torn on the matter. Thank you for you time.
Did you change your career goals?
From the time I was 15 years old I wanted to be a High School Band & Choir teacher. I learned a ton of different instruments in Jr. High through High School (B flat clarinet, bass clarinet, alto clarinet, contrabass clarinet, A flat clarinet - I know, a lot of clarinets-, saxaphone, french horn, trumpet, oboe, basoon, flute, and piano.) I was in every musical I could get my hands on, often landing lead roles. I was a madrigal, and my senior year, head madrigal, I was in chamber choir, I did solo and ensemble....EVERYTHING to do with music I did. I went the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point and spent one semester in the program. EVERYTHING I had ever LOVED about music flew out the window. We had to pull notes from the air, sing a capella with no starting note, do hours and hours a day of piano music. While I expected this, I didn't expect to be so horrible at it. I struggled. What was the final cut is there was only one spot open in the music program when I auditioned that Spring, and I wound up not making the cut. I was devistated. I spent a semester at a local tech school just taking general courses so I could decide what to do with my life. Then I sort of had a life changing event. One night at work I was opening a gallon can of ketchup when the can opener slipped and I cut my left thumb clear to the bone. I severed the tendon, nerves and knicked an artery. I spent the next two weeks bawling 'cause of the impossibility of playing a single instrument. Then I started therapy. Occupational Therapy. Upper body, hands, reconstruction of your life therapy. They gave me back my music. I was hooked. I got an associates degree at Madison Area Technical College in two years (thanks to all those generals I had taken) and have been a Pediatric Occupational Therapy Assistant. I work with children who have autism, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, etc. I teach them how to write, how to get stronger, colors, numbers, how to use a fork, how to wash dishes, how to cook...how to dress....the list goes on and on. Most wonderful moment of my life? Cutting my thumb. Why? 'Cause I wouldn't be where I am today...and I love where I am.
I am 30 years old and I still don't know what I want to do in life or career? Is my behavior normal?
One of the most interesting ways to answer this is this. Only when I start to answer these questions do I get deeper in to my own confusions. Do you know that the most creative people actually dont have any control over their creativity. It is not like ‘tomorrow I am going to come up with some thing creative’. When it comes, it comes in streams. And for some the stream is endless. They carry notebooks every where, since they keep forgetting all they got. I believe that they are day dreamers with active conscience. Just like the origin of dreams is a question, creative people have this steady stream of ideas. They simple have no control. Ask the best of the actors. Follow their school life. They simply had no control over it. their jawlines, their expressive eyes, their voice, their body movements. The things just fit into place. The direction I am heading is that, there is no simple way to learn or know who you are. This is not how it was designed. That would make life too boring. If you figured out, that you are a good accountant. Trust me, I would be bored to hell not knowing that ever in my life I will not be a good photographer. Or the fact that I want this definitely in my life. Societies other big lie, after ‘Looks don’t matter’ is ’find your passion’. It is always told by people who themselves dabble in finding their passion and think that asking ‘others to find their passion’ is the way go. Most success stories have painful pasts. Some of them so painful that they question whether the result was worth it. There is a whole endless line of shifting passions even for the greatest people. Most actors hate the fact that they are not identified by some other talent of theirs. Top entrepreneurs want to be known for their artistic merits. It is a constant fight of the right side of your brain to the left
How do you choose your career?
Yes it is very important and a very difficult choice. I remember being there myself. You have no clue about life, there are so many choices and you don't know left from right. The biggest mistakes people make when it comes to college is that they don't do any research on what will actually give you a job and they choose with their heart and not their mind. People always tell you to follow your heart. Don't do that. I have hobbies too, I have things I love to do and that I would love to work with. I used to want to be a marine biologist. But it would be nothing short of a miracle if I landed a job in that field. Another misconception is that college is going to be fun. Sure there are some fun times but just like life it's not going to be all fun. Maybe you'll choose something that will land you a good job but it's boring as f**k. Yeah, well that's what I did. I had 3 years in engineering and I hated every single day. But it was the best decision of my life. Good luck to you!