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Topic to discuss: the difficulty of choosing the right career

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by Straight ally, Sep 3, 2015.

  1. Straight ally

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    I have been thinking that it is incredible hard to choose a career that is right for you for these reasons:

    -usually people don't know what they want or don't even ask themselves what they want
    -sometimes the person think it knows what it wants, but only have a false idea of what they want
    -And most important, you dont really know how is working at a certain proffesion until you begin working on it. You only get a partial idea at college. So in order to search what career is your ideal career it could take many years because what you would have to do is, making a list of professions, eliminating those that you obviously don't like and then... What?

    Doing internships to know different proffesions? Studying many careers and working on each one for a while?(aka spending time and money)

    At some point you will likely to take a blind jump.

    Also there are many professions that we don't even know they exist or what they are about.

    Maybe your ideal job doesnt exist and you have to create it by innovating.

    Now, go on and lets discuss this.
     
    #1 Straight ally, Sep 3, 2015
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2015
  2. Kasey

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    Short of being paid more I love being a teacher. I get to work with and make an impact on the future of this world.
    I guess not having to grade outside of school hours would be nice.
     
  3. greatwhale

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    This is such an important topic! Given the pace of change in our technologies and knowledge, we're in a situation where knowledge is obsolete before you graduate, it is an even stronger argument for getting a broad-based education that teaches not only a particular subject, but how to learn and how to think critically (much more important).

    I believe there is a place for internships, as long as they are limited in time and one is not exploited. Soon enough, you learn what is worth pursuing and what isn't.

    Fact is, if you get enough depth in almost any subject, and any career, you will find things that are interesting, and some that are not. Best to pursue excellence in whatever you do, and focus on that, rather than on a particular career (whose expiry dates are becoming shorter and shorter).
     
  4. Aspen

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    I feel like there's too much emphasis in this society to know what you want to do NOW. Honestly, how many people work in the same career they started out going for? I'm sure there's quite a few but also just as many who didn't. Internships are important and so, I think, are networking and job shadowing. I've heard a lot of stories of people just falling into careers. Studying fields and being meticulous about picking a profession may have interfered with that. Not that I think anyone shouldn't, just that there are many ways of doing things.
     
  5. GlindaRose

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    Recently I came across one kind of job that I had NO IDEA even existed. Mystery shopping.

    A mystery shopper is a person who is employed to go into a shop, make a purchase and report back on the customer service/quality of the store, so that the store can make improvements. The people working there have no idea that the person is a mystery shopper as they act just like a normal person when they are in there. Kinda like the FBI for shopping!!

    All that aside, I've only had vague ideas of what I want to do for a career. I know I want it to involve music in some way. Currently I am a music teacher. Whether I remain in teaching has yet to be seen.
     
  6. HM03

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    This is too true.

    It feels like everybody starts asking what you want to do so early, yet for the majority of schooling all you do is copy notes. And you can't get a realistic idea of what you want without getting a sample of what it's like.

    I personally am finding it difficult not to care about what other people think is a respectable job. My mom still wants me to be a doctor, which is getting kinda annoying yet laughable.
     
  7. timo

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    I still have no clue what I want to do in life, and I've definitely given up on "choosing the right career" for now. There are no jobs in my field of work at the moment anyway.

    I'll just see what happens.
     
  8. Straight ally

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    So you would suggest:? if you already have a title, focus in doing that with excelence, and make sure to learn about of variety of things inside and outside your profession field and then along the way you can discover what you want to really do and begin to be alble to make career changes.
     
  9. kageshiro

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    It isn't that hard.. I had the same problem, look inside yourself, be HONEST, and ask, "what are the things I like doing most?" Use an average day in your life as an example. Look at what you spent the most time doing in that day, what you disliked and what felt like a chore to do, what things did you not have time for; wish you had more time for, is there anything in this list you could do with getting PAID for, and so on. Whatever you answer, whatever you like to do, there is a relevant field, and a job within that field, for that, that you can do.

    Do not allow yourself to waste away doing a job you hate. I'm not an expert, or a mathematician, but I wouldn't be surprised if at least 50% of all suicides happen because of this. I would certianly rather die than live a pointless life with no sense of purpose or motivation in what I have to get up every day to do.

    Do whatever it takes, no matter how long or how much work it takes, to take control of your life and escape that living nightmare.
     
  10. CameronMR

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    I decided to be a nurse because I love caring for people and it is, in many ways, like being a mom. I have been a mom for 17 plus years now. Same job, more pay.
     
  11. kyoujin

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    I go with what I love, and that is music. I will become a musician.


    Do what you want to do, and do not let society's opinion have any effect on that.
     
  12. kageshiro

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    Do it, don't let anything stop you, even failure. Others made it, so can you.
     
  13. biAnnika

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    Hah! There is no such thing as the right career!

    I have the same advice for this question as I do for people worrying about what sexuality label to apply to themselves: stop worrying about it and start living your life in ways that feel gratifying and rewarding (this involves being unafraid to try stuff that sounds good).

    Of course you can have goals. But only let your goal dictate what you should be doing *right now*, and revise the goal as your interests shift or you become better aware of the realities or your abilities...what sounds like a great goal right now may feel less and less comfortable or attainable as time goes on, and may simply be unrealistic.

    If you're in school trying to figure out what to study (as preparation for a career), this advice translates to: try things that sound good, and study what you discover you love. If you love an academic discipline and do well at it, it will lead you to jobs.

    But just like sexuality can be fluid over time (I said "can be", damn it...I'm not making predictions here), so can your vocational interests. One job may turn into a career that is beautiful for you for 5-20+ years...and then may begin to no longer sustain you. Be as open to these changes as you would be to discovering after 5-20+ years of marriage that "hey, y'know I'd really rather be with someone of a different sex than my spouse".
     
  14. skateeboy

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    Well spoken . . . .
     
  15. Acuba403

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    I'm not there yet but I'm going military, because it's a challenge, no day is the same, you get to travel the world and do something that makes a difference. plus they're taking steps to help accommodate the LGBT community.
     
  16. kyoujin

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    Thank you for your kind words, but I am not in doubt ^^
     
  17. GarbageKnight

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    I'm sort of of the opinion that not everyone in the world will have some kind of "calling" that they really want to do as their job.

    And I'm inclined to say that that's absolutely one hundred percent okay...we aren't defined as people by our jobs. or at least, I don't think we should be.

    I don't really care what I do for money as long as I don't hate it. I have lots of other things in my life that are fulfilling. I don't need to find fulfillment in getting money to survive.
     
  18. Aviator182

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    You have to go with what you love. For me that choice was easy, I love aviation. Flew for the first time with my grandfather when I was 1 years old. It was kind of cool growing up and flying somewhere for a day for a fishing trip or just for lunch in another state. Had my first flying lesson from an actual instructor at 14 and that completely confirmed that I wanted to go in to aviation. Now I just have to decide if I want to keep instructing, go to an airline, or go in to one of the many other fields in aviation.

    The best advice I was ever given is do something that you love, something that you're passionate about and do the best that you can at that job. Because if you love your job, you're never actually working.
     
    #18 Aviator182, Sep 3, 2015
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2015
  19. greatwhale

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    I have a strong recommendation for a book, Shopclass as Soulcraft, by Matthew B. Crawford that is beautifully written, brilliant, and very pertinent to the OP's topic.

    The book is about work, and about how the decline of the manual trades is a terrible problem that goes far beyond mere economics. For example, Crawford talks about the importance of failure and our diminishing experience of it (which seems to be a common affliction among those who work almost exclusively in abstractions instead of real-world matters) which leads to a dangerous sense of infallibility among our "leaders".

    Or, consider this great line in the book:

    Crawford is a philosopher/electrician/mechanic who repairs motorcycles. He describes in the book that repairing motorcycles richly engages his intellectual, cognitive, intuitive, physical and emotional self much more than sitting at the prior "think tank" job he had as a highly educated consultant (a job he eventually quit). This is how he describes why he chose this particular profession:

    You get the point above? To put yourself in the service of something meaningful and excellent, your profession chooses you, it is something you are called upon to serve, therefore your task, when deciding what to do, requires only one thing: that you listen carefully to those "intuitions...about human excellence".
     
  20. biAnnika

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    ...and to continue listening to them, even after you've decided what they're telling you and chosen a (first) career or job path.

    Great quotes and exploration, Mr. Whale! Thank you!