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 was kind of lost in my late 20s and went to a career counselor. We did a bunch of exercises and I did a bunch of reading. After a few weeks with her help I narrowed it down to about 4-5 careers I was interested in. We then looked at job markets and education requirements and I picked a direction to go.
It’s been about 10 years and it was a great decision.
Can confirm. Boring is the way. Accounting, economics, etc.
For me, I worked my ass off to be a person that works on movies and TV etc. Got lucky, held some dream positions, and even got to make my own thing.
However, if I could do it all again, I’d stay in the boring office job I had and share twice as much time with my family and friends.
Instead, I worked 80 hour weeks, made some decent money in respected roles, and then Covid took everyone and everything close to me. Money and respect mean nothing if you can’t share it with those you love.
Boring is the way. Don’t worry about liking your job in 10-20 years, worry about liking your life.
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.
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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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!
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
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’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!
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.
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’.
Persue lots of money now and achieve lots of free time later
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.
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 always ask people with cultural interests if they enjoy writing, and have ever thought of writing books. Could even be writing fiction, incorporating your own cultural interests into the setting and characters. For example, someone’s journey to find a lost relative, or solve a mystery about an ancestor. Just a thought.
