I gave up on a study course after five years of hell and now I’m back at my parents’ house and must make a big decision on what career to pursue and find a job asap. But I just can’t decide, I can’t picture myself in 5/10 years from now and can’t even imagine what type of job I’d love, bc everything seems out fo reach and impossible, just like it felt when I was 20.
I’m from Italy, and I made my previous choice based on job perspectives here, now I’d like some perspective from abroad…
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business and economics This is a course in English, I also speak French and in an ideal world I would have studied foreign languages (but in reality, I would have found no job, here at least, or nothing promising). Studying economics in English would sort of fulfill that, I’d study other languages and strive to become an export manager with time. Other than that I could combine it, in THe future, with studies in cultural heritage, which would be my first choice if only I could live off of that. And find related jobs as I go.
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computer science. Never interested me that much, I had a basic programming course which wasn’t that bad, I think I’d be able to do that… But I don’t know if I’d really want that. I’ve thought about it bc I’m interested in data journalism, and I could combine it with data visualization, design, writing… But that’s more like an interest, I don’t think I’d like the actual careers I’d have access too… I don’t even have that much knowledge on what possible jobs would be like.
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management engineering Again export or project manager. I’d prefer economics, but bc of my age this might give me slightly better chances of finding a job asap?
Of course the careers I mentioned require years of work and I’m willing to do that, the problem is I feel very confused, I’m afraid of wasting time bc of my age, maybe studying and not finding a job and also how can one know if a career is the right one for you? You first have to get there…
Any type of advice would be of great help, thank you in advance
can’t even imagine what type of job I’d love
Fun fact! Most of us don’t love our jobs. We just do them to have a roof over our heads and food on our tables.
Well of course, but the context is I’m choosing what to major in… And if you read you’ll see I’m choosing between things I don’t hate that much for more job opportunities, but still in hope I’ll get a chance at something I like.
Love is a big word but that’s what came to me in the moment, and being that ppl ho read me usually can contextualize, I used it without fear of being misinterpreted this much
So far, I found that many people underestimate the soft skills they bring. For many (not all) jobs the actual knowledge of the field you need to fulfill the job can be learned quite fast. But they need people that are good organizers or good communicators or good critics, or people that dive in and check every detail or people good in seeing the bigger picture. I sometimes think its more important to find a job fitting to your softskills than to your degree. In an ideal Job it would be both of course.
For example. My father switched fields from social worker to systems administrator. Most would say what a big shift, but he just loves to help people - no matter if its their daily life or their computers he can help with. But IT had better job opportunities. He is very happy.
Tell us more about your skills and maybe we have more specific ideas for you.
You’re right.
Well I’ve always been great with languages, intuitive with technology (but I’d prefer to avoid working with it, or living with it in general), I’m detail oriented and good at getting organized (when I know what I want haha). I like helping people, I’m understanding and I love interacting with others, I’m curious and I like variety even though I’m a bit introverted and reserved. But being of service is a good way for me to bridge that gap, if it makes sense.
I like researching and collecting stuff, mostly when it comes to things I like, be it music or films or books.
I wonder if something like project management might be a good fit for you. Or perhaps some sort of social services.
In any case, I think most people work any number of different jobs before settling on a career path, and sometimes trying things out is the way we find what we’d like to do. And when thinking about a long-term direction it’s less important to “love” the work than to choose sometimes that will be sustainably intellectually engaging for you and that you feel is worth doing, and worth doing well.
I’m 48. You have ages. Do it now or you’ll be me remembering when I was you.
Jobs are just a means to live life. If you can make money doing something you love, great. But if you can’t, use the money from work to pursue your hobbies and interests.
I travel (I’m on a flight to Queretaro, Mexico right now), paint, play music, run a D&D game, and snowboard.
Live a full life; your job doesn’t define you.
First: stay strong, you got this.
If you’re “not really” into CS, I would think long and hard before committing to it. While it’s very useful to pick up a few basic skills, studying theoretical computer science is a whole different level. I’d suggest you look at the basics, start programming on some of the websites people have suggested in the comments and do a few small projects for yourself. Then at least you’ll know, if you have fun programming and problem solving.
I studied computer science without knowing much about it when I started, and it was a good decision for me - however it wouldn’t have been for everyone.
Edit: format
That’s exactly what stops me: I had a course, it was C and Python programming and I did quite well but it was really basic. And if it hadn’t been for what I was studying before, I would have never tried programming.
But new things are actually a good thing… For example what makes me consider computer science is the idea that later I might get into data science and maybe do something as a data journalist. But even if I think it’s really cool, I don’t know if I’ll actually like doing it.
I was thinking I could combine it with something about design (single courses, self taught or whatever opportunity arises), and I even found out about this guy, Leonardo Nicoletti Just imagine being able to do that! What scares me is the actual doing, I’d like to get more into it but don’t know how to try it out in the few months I have left. I think I could access further studies in Data Science even through Economics or Engineering but CS seemed like the “whole package”… Idk
If you’re not fascinated by computers and you’re not sure if you want to really dedicate your career to it, I’d really think twice about going into CS. If you want to get into programming/development, you can either do that by learning specific languages and building stuff, or study something technical that interests you.
Nowadays, programming is very much required in any STEM related fields if you want to keep up with the times. I myself have an Aerospace Master’s degree but have been mostly doing software related things in my career and am now a data engineer at an aircraft manufacturer. None of my data science colleagues studied CS, neither did the data engineers that I work with.
Just one perspective. Don’t give up, you’ve got this!
Get a degree in accounting. The last person to ever get the axe when jobs start getting cut are the accountants. It will be a boring job but the thing is, boring is good! Boring means your needs are met and you aren’t stressed out. Boredom is a first world problem. An easy, boring job that pays well is what I would tell my 27 y/o self to go for if I could. I’ve given my (now adult) kids this same advice FWIW.
The first option sounds to be fitting your interest the most, so why not go with that?
As it reads like another study course, the question is if the reasons for giving up your original course still persist. If so, deal with that first, I would suggest.
If you can afford it, just get a MBA and try to get a business job. It may not be the most exciting career path, but it’s at least pretty guaranteed to get you a job that pays decently (of course salaries vary widely but this is one of the paths to least resistance) and opens up a ton of opportunities.
Again, this is advice for if you don’t have an alternative career parh that excites and motivates you. It’s just a decent way to get a decent paying (or even well paying) job. Better than nothing.
For me, a job is just a way to pay the bills and build wealth with the hope of retiring early. I get my satisfaction from my hobbies and family, not my job.
You won’t love your job. Get a job you’d be good at and that pays well. Spend your free time doing what you love.
If you wouldn’t really want to do programming, don’t. That only gets worse for a lot of people. It’s something I enjoy and have done well at, and it can be tempting given the number of jobs and growth, and good pay. However the people I know who are most miserable are those who weren’t especially interested in the work but the jobs and the money.
I’m sure you could do programming, and you’d deal with it a few years, but it’s a specialty that not everyone will enjoy, and you may just get more and more miserable.
I Personally believe not enough people start from the other side, the subject matter interest. Pretty much every field needs programming or technical skills, and data science is exploding across many fields. Definitely an option to consider is whatever subject you like, but the technical skills to bring the automation or the data analysis. That going to be huge!
The first thing to consider is: can you afford the luxury of picking something you like?
In an ideal world we get the job we want, we have fun doing it, nice colleagues, etc… This may not be true for you. You can pick a job you don’t particularly like, if the job market seems good, use that to just afford living and go from there. That makes it somewhat easy, because you’re no longer picking something that’s “nice” you’re optimizing working conditions: working times, union coverage, how long the education takes, vs. how much it pays. Maybe you find that working in a sewage plant or being a plumber isn’t nice, but way better than doing a public facing customer service job. Or working your ass off in academia, 60 hours a week, with the reward of a wet handshake, a mention in a paper that’s cited 5 times that your supervisor uses to boost their standing but not yours and a two year timer on job stability.
I can’t picture myself in 5/10 years from now and can’t even imagine what type of job I’d love, bc everything seems out fo reach and impossible, just like it felt when I was 20.
I’m afraid of wasting time bc of my age
Besides the job, what do you even want? And that question is hard and some people don’t find the answer for decades, so don’t stress over it. Sometimes it takes a decade of life experience to come to an “obvious” conclusion. The trick is that the ten years aren’t “wasted”, they are *necessary" to give you the context to understand what you want.
We are generally limited in the time we have, but it’s only really urgent in three aspects: if you are terminally ill, you are becoming old or disabled and physically can’t do certain things and family planning. If you know you want kids, make a plan for 10 years into the future. That’s important because the requirements around kids are completely different than without. I don’t think traveling with toddlers is smart, kids are expensive, they will eat your time and attention. If you want to get something bigger done, consider doing it before having kids, or your kids making you choose them instead of your “dream”. Which can be bad, because you never ever want to think that you could have done X if only you didn’t have kids. That’s a regret that poisons a lot of things.
Anyway, YOU still have plenty of time. At least 10 years, probably 20, until you even have to start worrying about anything.
Do you care for art, people, technology, animals? Sitting on a couch? Sports? Cooking? Baking? Culture? Anything?
If nothing particular jumps at you, it’s totally fine to browse e.g. movies, technology, memes, comics, music, literature, or to travel until you find something that strikes you. Like, do you even know what’s out there? How are you supposed to pick something you like if you haven’t seen anything?
Society throws a lot of things at you that you are supposed to care about and supposed to do, but you have to actually explore and decide if those things are actually for you, or if you just believe or do them because everyone you know does them or talks about them.
I recommend writing a diary or taking notes on this. Revisiting your old thoughts can be difficult and it’s easier to organize your thoughts on paper.
Personally, I finished a technical education, worked in a few projects and even finished a few things I didn’t like to test out what I didn’t like and want to avoid. E.g. I worked in a city I didn’t live in, commuted 3 hours one way every other weekend, lived in conditions I didn’t like… It wasn’t nice in the moment, but now I know what to avoid.
I can’t picture myself in 5/10 years from now and can’t even imagine what type of job I’d love, bc everything seems out fo reach and impossible
You’re approaching this with 100% the wrong view and attitude. You sound like you’re trying to define your life by what job you have. Your job should just be the way you fund your life.
Find out what you want out of life. Do you want a family? Do you want to travel? Make art? Build community? Learn what hobbies you enjoy, how you want to spend your days, who you like to surround yourself with. Then figure out what you need financially to make that happen to the best of your ability. (Nothing will ever be perfect, and you shouldn’t expect that.) Then find a job that can fund the lifestyle you want.
Who cares what the job is? That’s not what life is about. That’s just how you pay for your life. Most people don’t love their job. Hell, most people don’t even like their job. It’s just how we get food and shelter.
Yes you’re right but what I’m talking about refers to the job side alone. I’m going to opt for one of these three things, and I don’t know how to choose
Research what working in those fields is like and choose the one that has the highest pay for the least time commitment. Whichever requires you to actually be at work the least is your best bet.
Since you’re not sure what you want to do, I say don’t pursue a specific career, but pursue a field that interests you. You might not have the luxury of finding a job opening for exactly what you want, even if you did have something specific in mind, but by having relevant skills you can get closer and eventually find something that works for you.
I went to school for a certain field, found a job that was in no way related, and eventually got a position there that did use my education (I was chosen because of it). 10 years later, found a new company in “my field” that uses both my education and the skills from the previous job that I thought would never be useful elsewhere. The more things you can put on your resume, the better, especially in a world where AI will be screening thousands of applications for the most keywords.
If you’re at a University of some kind, you can ask a counselor there about job shadowing opportunities in the fields you are considering.
In my 20s I worked a lot of different jobs in a lot of different industries and learned something from each one. There is nothing wrong with making a living until you can make a career.
I second this, if you are unsure of what direction to take, get a job that is easy. Something simple like grocery store, deli, etc. If you have the intelligence for higher education you will excell at simple jobs, get in a groove doing your daily taks and you will probably get promoted through the ranks while you figure out what direction you want to take in life.
If i lost my job tomorrow (professional technical career) i would seriously consider becoming barista and living stress free for a while and not rush to figure out my ‘next move’.
I think a problem is that many jobs exist in the world, and we don’t even know that most of them exist or what they are. If there are any really large companies near you, see if you can get in doing something, anything. Once you are in, you can learn about the different types of jobs in the company and maybe start trying to work towards something that you like better, either within that company or in another company. Also just having co-workers or a boss to discuss these things with can be a big help and open you up to some new possibilities that you didn’t know about. But yeah, don’t worry about finding your perfect job right away. Having any job will open doors and connections, making it easier to land that perfect job in the future.
