How did you know what to do for a living?

Nix

Nix

Nix

Soldato
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A simple question that belies its truly loaded undertones.

How did you know what you wanted to do for a living?

How can you ever truly be sure without experiencing such a career-path in the first place?

Are we destined to simply meander along in life and hope it all works out?

I ask because I'm 25 soon and I still have no idea. I need to solve this soon, lest my potential go to waste.

It's taken me until this 'ripe' age to understand at least what I want from a job, even if I still fail to know what that job is. Many career paths of course are now closed to me - such as engineering - but re-training for some are not out of the question. I just don't know what I should be doing with myself. The only moral in all this is that 'destiny' and 'fate' are simply abstract ideas and the only true variables are those of self-determination and environmental factors (such as family environment/access to mobility).

How did you work out what you wanted to do? More importantly, how did you know it was the right choice? It is in my eyes perhaps easy to explain in some regards as if we make these choices - even without any genuine validity to our reasoning - our ego eventually adapts to accept such choices as a form of our identity: we believe we were meant to be whatever it was we trained to be.

At what point do we finally accept our disorientation, bite the bullet and hope for the best?

Help me out here chaps, I'm lost.
 
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Not the foggiest and I'm going to need to decide soon. Definitely not a teacher though, despite being told I would make a good teacher.

Something statistics based in the city is probably what I'll end up doing.
 
See Morba, I'd classify that as being completely normal. Subjective to my own person of course.

We seem to be living in a contradictory time whereby we must at once know and expect what we want from ourselves whilst specialising for obscure career paths. Both deserve a life-time of contemplation each.
 
agreed.
but then even as a i was growing up I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. early on it was an accountant, but got bored of that idea (silly me!).

given my circumstances I can't just go back and train as something else, need to carry on what im doing lol. how crap :D
 
At 25 you can turn into whatever you want to be fair. Not like you are 5 years off retirement is it?

You just have to stop.... and go do it.

If you have commitments it is easier said than done, not the impossible however.

You just have to pick.
 
That's my point though.

How am I supposed to know what to pick? There's a plethora of specialised career-paths out there. How am I to choose between two variables when I have no indication of which I 'prefer' due to no primary experience?

The only potential paths I have in my head (which are few) have as much conviction behind them as an impulse buy at the supermarket.
 
I'm older than you and still don't know what I want to do. I'm a programmer at the minute, but fell into it (I was head hunted to my previous job based on previous work I'd done when working for the same company in the tech support area). It seemed a good idea at the time and the pay isn't bad so I then got my current job on that basis. I don't enjoy the work though (I'd prefer it as a hobby really) and I don't feel like a valued employee of the company.

However, I feel a little trapped in the job for the time being because of the kids, I think if I took a job paying less it could impact on their lives and we're often skint enough as it is. And even though I don't enjoy my job, I stick it out for the benefit of the family. When they're older and aren't so relying on my income, I will be in a better position (than I am now) to be able to change things then.


What I'm trying to say is to look at what it is you enjoy doing (I know you're already doing this, but I recommend taking a bit longer to think this through to avoid going for the wrong thing and then re-thinking it all over again). Think about whether you could do it every day for the next 20+ years (I know you have longer until retirement age, but I think a 20yr period is a decent time period to gauge your feelings for a career). If you know someone who does a job you think you'd enjoy, have a chat to them about their daily work to get an impression of if it would suit you. Other than that, I don't really know what else to suggest (sorry!) but good luck in making the right decision :D
 
Nix said:
That's my point though.

How am I supposed to know what to pick? There's a plethora of specialised career-paths out there. How am I to choose between two variables when I have no indication of which I 'prefer' due to no primary experience?

The only potential paths I have in my head (which are few) have as much conviction behind them as an impulse buy at the supermarket.
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Well let's start by narrowing it down to a list of stuff you might be able to do and you are actually interested in. No point in going for a career that you don't enjoy. If memory serves didn't you do geography or geology or something at uni?
 
Nix said:
That's my point though.

How am I supposed to know what to pick? There's a plethora of specialised career-paths out there. How am I to choose between two variables when I have no indication of which I 'prefer' due to no primary experience?

The only potential paths I have in my head (which are few) have as much conviction behind them as an impulse buy at the supermarket.
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You will never be able to pick then if primary experience is your MAIN indicator.

It will take you a lifetime, as you acknowledge, to do that alone... if you could. Which for various reasons I doubt you would be able to.

Unfortunately this is going to be rather subjective for anyone to really nail it down for you, I'd say change tact. If you haven't been able to gain a decent inclination by now, stab in the dark for something that as an industry looks to have promise.

No point picking your 'dream' or 'best guess' if you ever had one if it ruins you.
 
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Can I say the opposite of the other guys, don't work with what you enjoy as a hobby etc.

I think that ruins a lot of past times more than it does make people super happy.

My opinion of course..
 
Nix said:
I'm currently deliberating between either:

1. Writing of some form as I've been continuously told I have a 'talent' for it. However, I fear this is putting too many eggs in a basket that might never get me there.

2. Going back to university, doing a masters degree and then having a stab at the graduate market once again. However, this may take some time to save up for!

3. Film production. Again, perhaps silly, but it's one of the few things that really have always appealed to me. Like one however, I fear it may be a cul-de-sac.

4. Training to be a doctor. It will take five years of hard slog, but I think it's a genuine possibility as it will give me one thing I crucially need/want in my work more than anything else: purpose. The issue of course being, that I'm not sure. Like a getting a tattoo, I'd want to be certain before throwing myself behind the idea.
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I'm stuck between pipe-dreams and unknowns.
 
Biohazard said:
Can I say the opposite of the other guys, don't work with what you enjoy as a hobby etc.

I think that ruins a lot of past times more than it does make people super happy.

My opinion of course..
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No I didn't mean my comment like that. You are completely right, keep hobbies as hobbies. What I meant, using myself as an example my preferred subject at the moment is statistics, it's a subject area I find interesting and challenging and have reasonable knowledge in. It also allows me to work in areas such as economics another area I am interested in. However these interests are not something I would consider my hobby. Bit of a muddled explanation but you get what I mean. We just need to find what works for Nix.
 
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I absolutely don't know. I picked Electrical Engineering because I find the subject interesting but as to what i'd do at the end of it...? No idea.

Thing is, everything i've looked at for an actual career doesn't really enthuse me.
 
I grew up in a armed forces family, so I was exposed to it at a very early age. My parents were in the RAF so I always wanted to be a pilot when I was a kid :p I forgot about it by the time I was about 15 though, as I was more interested in being a teenager and moping around being generally useless.

As I grew up and started taking world events more seriously, watching videos of the conflict in Afghanistan gave me this feeling of what can only be described as a "calling".

After much deliberation as to which service to join, I saw some old pictures of my Dad in mess dress when I was visiting home, and that's the moment I decided to join the RAF. I picked my trade because I didn't have the stuff required of an Officer, and it was the trade I was most interested in.

:edit: I didn't know it was the best thing to do, but after weighing up everything it seemed like it was probably the best. I don't think anyone can remove that doubt and be completely sure.
 
My decisions have been mostly on a whim. My degree choice was a bit willy nilly, kinda just saw a few pros to an alternative idea and thought 'why not?'

You will only know what you don't like from doing it. So just pick something and do it.
 
im at a similar point. coming up to 25 in april and while i am a 4th engineer going deep sea im unsure whether to go back as my gf hates it and im unsure whether im actually that good or if i enjoy the job at all. i know i could go and continue my IT to degred level but my chances of a job are far slimmer than being a engineer, however i like the job a lot more.

i think the comment about dont have a job that is your hobby is sometimes true. also bare in mind a job isnt always going to be enjoyable. my reazon for being an engineer is the money 1st and an actual career. i didnt base it on what i would be doing or whether id enjoy it. maybe thats stupid and id be slightly inclined to agree.

just something you and do it. also like others have said if theres no dependants or debt etc then go for it :)

best of luck choosing
 
I always wanted to join the army, i had an interest in the military from an early age. But as a catholic from northern ireland that was a a no go, (people i knew would have readily killed me if i had chosen that path), always had an interest in design/decorating, hence my job as a painter/decorator, i love going into a new building, painting it and seeng the finished article.
 
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