Having a hard time picking a career path

[Lilyrayne]

Ever since I graduated High School, I have not been able to decide what I want to do with my life, especially that would require a college education. I had originaly decided not to go to college, but I over the years (I'm 24) I have been going on and off, just taking the basics and one fun class.

I only have so many "basics" left that I can take before I have to pick a direction I'm going in college, because I will have to start taking classes for that path. The problem is I am still not sure what in the world I want to do with my life. Occasionally I will think of something that sounds good and think that's what I want, but later on when I come back to it and decide to start on it, I decide I don't want it after all.

What I want to do with my life, career-wise, has fluctuated between occasionally things that require a college degree, and more often things that don't, like dog training or photography.

I don't know if I just want a career that requires a degree because I feel like it has more prestige and better income or if that's what I reallly wanna do. I don't know if I want a career that doesn't require a degree because I am afraid I won't make it through college, or if that's just honestly what I want to do.

It has been suggested to me that I visit a career counselor at college, and I guess I could do that, but I don't think it would help much.

On top of all that, I have added complications that not everyone has. I am deaf, but I don't sign, I read lips instead, so that makes going to college really hard. Most of the classes I have taken thus far have been online. The ones in person, I had transcribers and notetakers and at that time my boyfriend (who is now my hsuband) was taking the same classes with me and I kind of used him as an interpreter cuz I could read his lips. Now I don't have him to go to classes with anymore because he's not going to finish college as of right now. I can still get transcribers but it's hard to communicate with a busy professor who does not always have time to rememeber to face me constantly and repeat things... and then they are so fond of playing those stupid un-closed captioned videos or slideshows.

I feel like I am just wandering aimlessly in the world of higher education and general career goals. I don't know what to do with myself. I feel so lost in this area. I am happy with being a homemaker as of right now, but I want a good job where I can have my own money and buy things, and of course if something happens to my hubby it would be nice to be able to support myself.

[veinglory]

I think you really have to know about your career first, because as you said a degree is often not needed. Most people don't have the choice of not having a career, so you need to think...

What are you good at?
What do you enjoy doing?
What would you never get tired of doing?
What did you get good grades for?
What are your hobbies?

Once you have some ideas I strongly suggest you drop in on someone who has that job as jobs are often a lot different to what you expect.

I guess that doesn't help much but in the end you just have to decide. If you think you might change jobs a lot you can always go for a good general qualification in areas like teaching, management, writing etc...?

[Thethirdbenjamin]

To be honest i have faith in you, i think you will chose the right path.

I can understand why you whould want a stable job, afterall thats what everyone wants.

I work part time as maintance worker and one of my coworkers has a disablity.
He's always mad so i figure he probible isn't happy with the position he is in.

I think what you should do, keep in mine this is just my opinion, see if you can go in the field of support teacher or otherwords program support.

Back in highschool i was an IEP student, that means i was diagnosed with some impariments, its wasn't as visably as yours bree, but it did have some affect on my work skills.

anyway i was assigned to a special program support teacher, and that teacher also had a disablity.

So maybe you should start a career as a special ed teacher, helping students with similar needs.

[dspiel]

What I've tended to do is just follow-up on things that excited me. So if you've done something in the past that really gave you a rush, try to pursue that.

And communicate with the school when it comes to the matter of being deaf. They may be able to offer you resources to help you get through the challenges.

Choosing a path, though, is very hard, I know. You might also try to find something that maybe overlaps several areas of interest so that if you want to look into changing focus later, you can do so without too much difficulty.

[littleskinny]

choosing a path is so so hard. I don't have any advice to offer really , other than to say that 99% of the people I know are not doing anything like what they thought they would do, or that they ever thought they would want to do. I always wanted a career and a direction to define me. I stumbled into one, which is respectable and pays well, but now I realise I do not like the designation of a "career" and just want a job that pays for me to do the things I want to do in my free time. Work to live, you know?


Like I say I don't know anyone who had a plan that worked out, if they had one at all. And I only know of two or three people from my degree course who are doing anything related to our degree. The choices you make in education are limiting to a point, like I quit science so can't be a doctor but I also dropped Math, and now work in Finance. I don't want to work in Finance, but I do. Things work out funny.

The other thing to bear in mind is that there are more jobs out there than you can imagine. When you start working you meet other people who are doing things that you never knew anyone did!! And also, the job/career you think you're going to do, may turn out nothing like you expect!! I work for the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs here in London but have nothing to do with the stuff I am interested in!! Hey ho. and I still don't know what I want to do with my life!

[Lilyrayne]

Yeah, I've heard it works out that way a lot. But alas, I have decided to pick one of the paths I was looking and just do it... just start working in that direction and see where I end up. I've got to do SOMETHING. So I just applied to a huge University nearby, and I'm scared to death of it being hard! I just hope I get in. They are the only ones I know of so far that have a good program for what I want to start out pursuing.

[littleskinny]

What are you thinking of pursuing then, Bree? Sounds to me like you have all the plan you need....everyone just needs a starting point and the motivation to ensure that whatever twists and turns they face, they end up someplace they want to be.

[dhs]

I would look into some of the assessment tests out there, they really are helpful and open your mind to things you normally wouldn't think of. www.quintcareers.com (http://www.quintcareers.com) suggests a bunch of them - careermaze is a particularly good one.

Its worth a shot. I'm battling a 'midlife' career crisis myself, I truly question the path I took over the last 10 years and some of these sites have helped me open up to possibilities I hadn't considered before.