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
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. I also speak several languages like you. Use them or lose them, literally.
Live a full life; your job doesn’t define you.
When I was 23 I was in the same position as OP is now. I decided to have a child with my wife and do some practical work and also learn some basic working skills and ethics while doing that. I started out in a factory, but hated it so much that I decided to go trucking, where it would just be me and my truck ( and my audiobooks).
I enjoyed that for a long while, but eventually I wanted to feel useful. I wanted to make something, to accomplish something, to be proud of myself. So I went back to school. Now I’m 35, finishing my bachelor in IT and also teaching a basic programming course at that same school.
Life is not just life, you can make mistakes and change your mind a few times. It’s not a big deal unless you make it a big deal. There’s a theory where it takes eleven years to master a skill, so between you 18th birthday and your 81st, you can master 7 skills. That means basically you could have 7 careers. There’s a xkcd about it (saw it around here somewhere), but I can’t find it
Yeah, 11 years makes sense. I’ve also heard 10,000 hours. Congrats on your change in life. You have a great attitude.
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.
Take a backpacking trip with one of those places that get you a job at hostel for sleep and food. It’s a great way to travel around, explore and get to know yourself until you figure out what really interests you. It also connects you with variety of people for potential career and gives you perspective of how other people found their spark.
People often overlook this but having a genuine interest in your career subject is the key to sustainable success as you’ve probably noticed with your computer science studies.
The only danger here is getting trapped in a party loop but it’s easy to avoid if you have temperance and are mindful of your goals.
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’.
Can you speak italian, french, and english fluently and if so how common is that around you? If you can speak several languages fluently and its not a common thing then you may want to look at law.
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.
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Accounting is basically a dead career at this point of AI curve for junior accountants.
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.
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.
Random suggestion: International genealogy and emigration support. I have Italian ancestry and my siblings and I are working on dual citizenship to have an option to get out of the US. It cost a fortune for the researcher/lawyer. I bet they need bilingual help.
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’d prefer to avoid working with it, or living with it in general
Then you won’t like programming. Definitely scratch that off, especially given the carnage going on in /r/cscareerquestions—it’s not looking good.
especially given the carnage going on in /r/cscareerquestions—it’s not looking good.
What do you mean? if you have the time, of course
The industry is severely oversaturated and may present a hard time for you career-wise to find work.
Same thing here in Italy, according to what I read.
Thank you!
Dont commit to a course of study unless you are following your passion, or have a realistic plan to monetise the skills you get out of it.
Even if university is cheap/free in your region, the opportunity cost is steep. You will spend the next 3-5 years on subsistence wages, and come out the other end with very few practical skills beyond those of your specific area of study.
As cliché as it may sound, take a year off and bum around the world doing casual/seasonal labour while you figure out where you actually want to end up, because no-one else can define your future.
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.
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.
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.
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
I have one friend went to school for veterinary medicine and zoology. He’s now an endpoint engineer. I have another that went for his MBA and is now a butcher. I worked retail, never finished school, and now I’m a Desktop Support director.
Pick what you’re interested in, pursue knowledge and growth over anything else. People mostly want hard workers who show they are able and willing to learn imo. A degree in anything shows that that.
Obviously this doesn’t apply if you’re persuing something high level in a specific field. But if you’re lost as I am in this crazy world I think it’s a solid choice lol.
Don’t bother with “do a job you love and you’ll never work a day” that’s garbage. Not only does it lead to existential dread, it often doesn’t put food on the table, and often times doing what you love for a living ruins that love for you to boot.
Get something you don’t hate that’s easy to find employment for - maybe accounting, for example. Think of things everybody needs, don’t get a niche specialization.
If you get the bug to go after something your heart calls you for later, you have a stable and well paying job to keep you afloat while you take night classes or whatever you gotta do to switch careers. There is no rule that says you gotta stick with whatever you pick first
What was that study course and what made it hell? Might want to a avoid a similar situation in the future.
What exactly seems out of reach and impossible? If you had something specific in mind but gave it up, it might be a good way forward to consider something similar with less (or more manageable) obstacles.
Have you considered job perspectives abroad? It might be even harder to get a good picture of the situation abroad, but there could be chances there.
What are your passions or things you like? Languages, obviously, and that is great because that gives you a much greater area to look for jobs (if you want to maybe go abroad).
I don’t want to share too many details, but I’m happy to talk about my passions.
I love music, cinema, literature, and theatre. I’m also interested in psychology and sociology. In fact, I’d put everything I enjoy under “sociology” because what I like is understanding society from different perspectives and media.
If I had to merge these, I’d say design, but I’m not particularly fond of the kinds of work that involve it. Enjoying something doesn’t always translate to enjoying a job related to it.
This is why I find it difficult to identify a job that I would enjoy more than others.
Persue lots of money now and achieve lots of free time later
