Asklemmy

I had an average uninteresting job for 10 years. It was fine. But I still went back to school and changed career. Now I love it. Nothing wrong with trying something out, and nothing wrong with changing your mind.

I'm 29 and I still don't know.

It's not wrong to start with whatever / at random. Once you gain some experience you can decide whether to pursue or try something else.

For me it came naturally from my interests and learned capabilities.

You can ask about and try out different jobs to get a bit of insight and more data points for making a decision. Even if you won't have a definite favorite you may find things you consider undesired or desirable for you.

After highschool (I actually dropped out) I worked a ton of dead end jobs. Cooking mostly, but there was roofing, painting, digging holes, lots of manual labour.

Eventually I moved to Vancouver and had an opportunity to become a card dealer. It was.... How do I put it so you can fully understand... The worst experience by far, ever. It was toxic abusive, exhausting, and just all around the worst.

My partner at the time got pregnant and she actually gave me an out, said I didn't have to be there at all. I thought my options over and decided I was going to be apart of this kids life and enrolled in college for IT. It was a bit of cheating really, I was already good at it so why not. 18 years later, I'm a consultant, doing well and my daughter is starting grade 12 next year.

I went to college for engineering, ended up switching to a math degree.

Figured out I liked computer science while taking CS classes for my math degree, minored in that and planned to be a software engineer.

Realized I don't want to code all day, got offered a sys engineer position.

Figured out DevOps existed a few years into working and now I do that

Most people don't know what they want to do and figure it out as they go. There are a lot of people that picked X for the money and stuck with it and hate their job.

If you end up hating your job just keep looking and find a different company or position. Job satisfaction is so many factors, e.g. how well you get along with your coworkers, how much recognition you get from the higher ups for what you do and so on. The career path you choose now might not affect the outcome that much.

I heard somewhere that people on average will make 3 career changes during their lifetime. Which is not a hard fast rule of course but the point is to expect that your goals may change over time as you yourself will also likely change over time.

So in the meantime, I suggest pursuing stable work that gives you a comfortable standard living and maximizing the use of your free time to pursue enrichment in your life and not worrying too hard about trying to get satisfaction from your work.

For me the best way for finding out what job I wanted out of highschool was turning 27. Out of highschool, I thought I wanted to become a teacher. That didn't work out, so I did some years (12) of various blue collar jobs, got married, had children. In the meantime I kept searching for my passion. Eventually I found it in programming. I spend a good 4 years tinkering with it until I eventually decided to go back to school. Now I'm finally loving my job and I'm again back in school trying to get my master.

Well, I would say first, don't be afraid that you'll pick the wrong thing. Keep an open mind and research and try different things. Like some others have said, generally avoid the idea of picking something you love, unless that is something that has a good demand/supply ratio of workers. Otherwise you'll be competing with other people who love the same thing, in a race to the bottom in terms of both money and work conditions.

Here are a few things that could help:

There are probably many online articles and websites that provide additional/updated ideas and resources.

Your local public library should have a section with books on the topic of choosing a career. Ask your librarian for help.

If you're still in high school, find out if they offer aptitude testing and other career counseling. If not, check your local community college to find out if they do. Another option that's less accessible (price and distance) but that you may find worthwhile is the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation (https://www.jocrf.org/)

Disclaimer: some of this advice is a little United-States focused, but you should be able to generalize it to many other countries.

You don't. You're highly likely going to go through some big psychological changes as you age that will probably cause perspective shifts about just who you are and what you want. And that's biological. You're going to experience other things that aren't biological products that cause perspective shifts. You at 18 and you at 35 should be two fairly different people.

Hopefully you can find something that you continue to enjoy throughout life. If not it's really not a big deal. Do what you have to, take opportunities given to you as they arise and you'll probably end up somewhere you never expected. Work is work is work. Even if you love the field you can still hate work. It's easier to make a change in career than to pigeonhole yourself into something that presents no way to diversify.

Try something and probably change your mind later. Not having payed a fortune for an education before your change of heart would be extremely helpful though.

Try to pick something that gives you freedom instead of limiting yourself. A craft might be good, or an internship before studying if possible.

First of all it's not set in stone. You just need some kind of point to dive in.

• work out roughly what kind of thing you like

• work out what you're good at

• look for something that's in both those zones

• try and pick training for it that will translate over a few different things

• once you're in training you will get a better sense of what you want to do.

When I figure it out, I'll let you know. It'll have been literally 20 years this August since I graduated and I still don't know what job I want. Got a big long list of jobs I've tried that I don't want tho.

While Mike Rowe is kind of a piece of shit, he did say one right thing: "Stop looking for the “right” career, and start looking for a job. Any job. Forget about what you like. Focus on what’s available. Get yourself hired. Show up early. Stay late. Volunteer for the scut work. Become indispensable. You can always quit later, and be no worse off than you are today. But don’t waste another year looking for a career that doesn’t exist."

There is no perfect job. There are jobs you make perfect for you. If the job you are in prevents that, you move on. Never wait too long for a promotion, as you can promote yourself by having the strength and will to find that promotion at a different company.

I enjoyed my computer science classes and had a talent for it so I became a software engineer. For the first 5 years of my career, I loved it and it was a core part of my identity. These days, it’s just a job that pays the bills. I’m still good at it and enjoy parts of it but every job is going to have something that annoys you. These days I define myself by my hobbies and friends which are funded by my job.

Figure out your favorite hobby or whatever makes you feel the most fulfilled/happy. Look for a viable job/career that is related to that. Figure out the path to get into that career.

What are you interested in? What are your hobbies/what are you good at? Do something that involves that field. For me it was technology, I was always into video games and computers growing up in the 90's and by high school I knew I wanted to get into programming. After high school I knew I wanted to go into some form of programming so I went into computer engineering and am now an embedded software engineer. Do you have passion for any particular topic or area of study as a hobby?