Hey there everyone

 

Im just thinking out loud that whether or not some of you have ever considered yourself having chosen a wrong pathway for a career.

 

For me, it is so - like it was interesting learning all the stuff in university and subjects - but it was until you started working that you finally realised 'uh-oh...this may not be the right career for me'

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate my job, In fact I find it fascianting and there are times where I just find the duties and demands overwhelmingly challenging, and I try to work as hard as I can to satisfy everyday, (despite that I still fall short unfortunately), furthermore what really is a concern is that I don't get a sense of fulfilment or a achievement, I just feel a little stressed at how I am going to cope in the long term.

 

I've done alot of research these few weeks since I commenced my job, I even did alot of those online quizes for job-personality type and I have come to conclude that my profession should have been in the creative arts, performing arts or academic research. But I didn't chase that pathway to satisfy the 'expectations' of having a career in the medical or health care field.

 

Just recently, I've started Violin lessons (I'm self taught Pianist, I have been fooling around with the violin for a few weeks before I finally decided to find myself a coach) and my coach said to me that If I had started earlier, I could've made an excellent violinist and stage performer since she noticed that I picked up the skills really quickly for a late learner. Throughout my life I've been told by many people that I do indeed have a musical side to me which I suppress using my objective side (i.e. maths and sciences), but I do let my subjective side (Musical) leak out in the form of catmaster0116 on youtube.

 

Naturally what those people said back then and what my violin coach confided in me made my day. But then again even if I did embark upon the road to be a violinist, a musician or stage performer back then, I would need to pose the question to myself "A stage performer may sound like an awesome career pathway...but also know that it can be a very stressful job as perfomances need to be perfect (hence you develop a OCD for perfection) and also the income is NOT stable and thus may not viable in supporting my life in future". But even then Im pretty damn sure I would've loved my job.

 

In the end, there needs to be a balance between the amount you earn, and job satisfaction. I know some people who earn like heaps but hate their job literally (and refuse to quit because the job is what pays the bills and the money earned is what keeps them going)...and then there are some people who manage to squeeze by each day with what little they earn and would not give up their job for anything else. To be honest I don't give a rats ass for being filthy rich or having a bank account with a 7-digit-balance, I just want a career in which I can find meaning in and can provide for me so I don't need to rely on others financially.

 

Anyway I digress...what I want to say here is that before you choose a career pathway, please consider your talents, consider the demands for this job in society and also consider whether or not you will be able to last in the long term.

 

DON'T rely on dreams of winning the lottery because if you studied probability in Math, you'd know that you'd have a better chance at becoming the CEO of a company.

 

DO NOT end up like me: I studied 4 years for my degree and at present, I'm already starting to crash and burnout....it feels like I wasted 4 years of my life, back to the drawing board for me ~

 

I have a passion in teaching, mathematics, sciences and most important of them all, music composition and performance. For my future, Im thinking of going back to study sometime in the future and emerge as a teacher for mathematics and hopefuly music theory.

 

For those heading into college/University, I'd advise you:

• DON'T choose your majors/course lightly
• DO NOT CHOOSE a course just because your best friend did and you wanna stay with him/her
• DO NOT allow yourself to be forced into a career pathwat which someone has chosen for you because you may find yourself in a tight situation once you realise its not for you
• ALWAYS consider for yourself in the present and for the future.
• If you have a dream, FOLLOW IT to the end, just make sure its a practical/realistic dream and do not delude yourself with something like "I want to become the next international Superstar!!" unless you are absolutely confident you already have the talent and support to back you up.

 

For those already in college/University, please make absolute sure that its the pathway that YOU yourself want - if it isn't and you cannot see yourself working confidently in whatever you are studying for then you are probably wasting your time.

 

Just letting you know so you don't make the same regretful mistakes as me and some of the people that I knew

 

Its never too early to consider your career pathway, for those still in school - school preps you with minimum basic skills so you can later choose to specialise in something you want to do for a career, it does NOT prep you for life.

 

What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree? Please share, Im eager to hear from all types of point of views

 

(This applies to people who are thinking about their future careers and people who are already engaged in their career)

i'm still hung up on what i want to do for a career and i'm almost in high school 

I agree with a lot of things you said. I still need to choose a career.

Something disappointing is that very, very few people have dreams that coincide with their breadwinners.  For most people, the thing that pays the bills and the thing you enjoy doing are separate, so the best case average scenario is having a job you don't hate doing that hopefully gives you time to pursue what you enjoy.  If you don't get fulfillment you want from your job, you're in the same boat as... oh, most of the industrialized world.  There are probably many options within your field, some which you'll tolerate more than others and hopefully won't eat up most of your time, so if you pick one you don't mind doing, you can be free to pursue other interests while still being able to support yourself.

 

A lot of people don't really enjoy their job, per se.  Even if it's within their field of interests, all jobs come with some sort of tedium, and doing it day after day will wear on you in some fashion.  Even movie makers, who rake in the cash and satisfaction from a creative work, have to deal with the metric crapton of stress and effort that comes with that output.  In that sense, all careers suck in their own ways so I don't think there are any true "dream jobs" out there.  I think the best case scenario, no matter what your aspirations may be, is to get a job where you won't dread getting out of bed in the morning.  Kinda sucks, but not all of it has to.

i'm still hung up on what i want to do for a career and i'm almost in high school 

 

No problem , you still have heaps of time to choose ~ Take the time to look around you and you may find something you might be passionate about and want to pursue as a career.

 

Something disappointing is that very, very few people have dreams that coincide with their breadwinners.  For most people, the thing that pays the bills and the thing you enjoy doing are separate, so the best case average scenario is having a job you don't hate doing that hopefully gives you time to pursue what you enjoy.  If you don't get fulfillment you want from your job, you're in the same boat as... oh, most of the industrialized world.  There are probably many options within your field, some which you'll tolerate more than others and hopefully won't eat up most of your time, so if you pick one you don't mind doing, you can be free to pursue other interests while still being able to support yourself.

 

A lot of people don't really enjoy their job, per se.  Even if it's within their field of interests, all jobs come with some sort of tedium, and doing it day after day will wear on you in some fashion.  Even movie makers, who rake in the cash and satisfaction from a creative work, have to deal with the metric crapton of stress and effort that comes with that output.  In that sense, all careers suck in their own ways so I don't think there are any true "dream jobs" out there.  I think the best case scenario, no matter what your aspirations may be, is to get a job where you won't dread getting out of bed in the morning.  Kinda sucks, but not all of it has to.

 

Yep, I totally agree with you ~ especially the 'dread getting out of bed in morning" part, Im not a morning person

No problem , you still have heaps of time to choose ~ Take the time to look around you and you may find something you might be passionate about and want to pursue as a career.

 

 

Yep, I totally agree with you ~ especially the 'dread getting out of bed in morning" part, Im not a morning person

thanks for the advice owo

I'm taking some economics courses and have quickly learned where the money's at, but the careers in the field don't seem very interesting. I'm conflicted.

In my opinion, you shouldn't do anything with the sole purpose of making money. You should enjoy your career. If you like what you are doing then you will never have to work a day in your life. Your job will be more like a hobby with pay. That is what you want to strive for. Just stay realistic about what you want to do and you will probably be happy where you wind up. 

God, do I know where you're coming from.  I went to college not knowing what I wanted to do so just took Gen Eds for a while.  I figured I would do something with the arts and at one point I got really into 3D animation.  But then I realized that it wasn't the best course for me.  Part of the reason was because most of the good jobs are in California, but mainly I didn't want to use my talents to make what my employers told me to make.  I like creating from my own ideas.

 

Stumbling into Japanese was a fluke really.  My friend said I should do it since I always had an interest in it.  I didn't believe I would do well because of my language processing disorder.  But my disorder didn't make it impossible for me to learn a language like I thought it would, so when I gave up the creative arts path, I had the confidence that Icould get a career using Japanese.  Right now I'm double majoring in Linguistics and East Asian Languages and Cultures.  It is definitely not a career path I would have considered straight out of high school, and I certainly didn't have the grades then my current University would except. 

 

So I have to say ditto to your advice.  I needed those extra years after high school to not make the mistake of going into the wrong career path.  It's not a decision to make lightly and you really have to do some soul searching to know what is the best path for you.

Appreciate the warning.

Just follow what Xehanort did.