Asklemmy

I never did. Not everyone has to have a "meaningful career". I realised I don't really care what my job is, as long as it pays enough to fund my mountain of hobbies.

Work is important, but is probably the least important thing around you. Your friends, your family. Now those are hard to find more of if you run out.

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.

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'm 29 and I still don't know.

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.

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.

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.

Honestly, I couldnt figure it out myself. I just took whatever job I could get at the time. I ended up sticking with it and working my way up. I still wish I could have done something more with my career, but having worked with a lot of young people over the years, Ill say this. Work whatever job you can take. Even if you hate it, just try it out. Figure out what you enjoy, and what you dont. Its ok to jump around. But most importantly, give it your best.

I see to many young people (and older people) who come in, hate the job and just put zero effort into it. Yeah, you may be quitting in a few months, or a few years, whatever. But every job is an opportunity to learn new skills. Those skills will usually transfer over to whatever job you do eventually settle into, though most of the time it wont be so obvious. Be it work ethic, speed, ability to follow directions, knowledge about a topic, how to be a salesman, etc. To me, that seems like the best way to get what you can from any job, even if you dont enjoy the work.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Obviously, making more than minimum wage is ideal in life. As long as you're doing that, your career choice doesn't have to be something you love more than free Saturdays.

The biggest thing for that to become true is to learn how to save and limit spending. If you make 200k and spend 195k on luxury car leases and other crap, you're doing the same as a person who makes 45k and spends 40k. Yes the person "making more" has those things, but they're just as beholden to their job as the 2nd person, and stuff doesn't make you happy in the end.

On Reddit, I'd normally point ppl to /r/financialindependence but here there is [email protected] which isn't as active.

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.