So I'm stuck. Currently I just finished grade 11, (3rd year of high school) and am going into grade 12. I have absolutely no idea what I want to do for a career. At the moment, I'm planning on taking an extra year of high school and get the extra credits + mark boost. And I live in Canada so I don't think US education applies at all.
I think I'm fairly decent at everything. Granted, that's if I actually try. For example I had a 65 average in Chemistry in mid-semester, then I realized I had to actually do stuff and got an 82 by the end of the semester. Of course, I'll be trying to try in school from now on where it actually counts. My math is good if I do the homework and figure out the concepts. My sciences are good and I enjoy physics. I can present well, I've done some programming and some computer engineering. I'm learning Japanese. There isn't anything I excel at but there isn't anything I'm bad at either.
I have no idea what I want to be. Currently, I guess I'd like to be a high school teacher (I can't stand kids but HS should be fine), but I hear it's tough to get a job. Since I actually haven't worked at all, I don't know what it's like and don't know what I want to dedicate my studies towards.
Not knowing what you want to pursue as a career is a common issue among all high school (and even University) students. I'm sure if you ask around, there will be many people with a similar predicament. A ton of people end up switching after taking a couple years of university, whether it be out of lack of interest in their current program, or a new found passion in another one.
My advice to you would be to keep trying new things, exploring, volunteering, etc. Just stuff in general that can give you an idea of what some careers would be like. In the mean time, you want to keep your options open. Grade 12 is the important year for Canadian Universities, so just keep performing well in school so your grades do not limit you. Additionally, take a peek at some of the requirements of potentially interesting programs, and make sure you meet them. If your sciences are good, I'd play it safe and take Physics, Chem, and Bio since often times, two or more of them are required to go into a Science program. Math and English are also usually necessary.
You wanna be a teacher even though you don't like kids? That's kind of odd, don't you think?
My advice would be don't think about it too much for now, since you've still got a lot of time before you actually need to decide. If you force yourself to pick something now, you'll probably end up changing anyways.
Copying most of this from Hakker's blog, where i posted it there. I think it'll help you as well.
Don't plan on taking an extra year of HS now. Only do that if you feel like you need it once you finish Grade 12. Take a year off, and get a job as soon as you can. Its not going to pay well, and you're not going to enjoy it most likely. Thats not incredibly important, its the work experience and motivation and money that you'll want later that are important. Plan on working there through a month or two before college (tell them you're planning on staying for a few years before college in the interview - it'll help a LOT).
Make sure you show up on time, do your job well, and try to find small things to take pride in. You're going to need it - After 2 months you'll want to quit, and again at 6 months - push through that, grit your teeth and work harder.
While working, you'll be blown away by how much free time you have. 40 hours a week sounds like a lot, until you realize you used to spend 60-70 hours a week doing school things. You can use this time for anything, but I recommend you use it to figure out what you enjoy doing. If there isn't anything you excel at, its probably because you haven't put in enough effort. That sounds condescending, but from the sound of how your grades are and changed at whim, it sounds like you're just having trouble motivating yourself. So try all sorts of different shit. If you enjoy physics, try teaching yourself advanced physics, and establish a good relationship with your HS physics teacher so you can come back and talk to him to make sure you're getting it. If you like programming, teach yourself C - and not just the basic stuff. Continue to learn Japanese - thats a cool language. The point is, try a lot of different things, and figure out what you like. You have time now that you aren't in school.
But keep your job, no matter how much you hate it, keep working for at least 8 months. Theres no substitute for work experience, and especially experience motivating yourself to do things you don't enjoy, particularly when you get to college and no one is telling you to work/go to class.
Do more research into different degrees, and particularly into what careers those degrees can lead to.
I just graduated high school and I was having the same problem. The most common choice for most people in college is undecided (at least for a lot of colleges). For the most part your freshmen year in college will have the same class no matter what you decide to major in (everyone needs math, science, writing/language, etc.) so not knowing what you want to do isn't blocking you from anything.
The first thing you should do is eliminate things you don't want to do (it seems like you want to be a teacher so I'd ask a teacher what how they got into it and maybe look at some of the local colleges websites and see how they explain and what you would need to take).
The next thing I'd think about is what you can do to make yourself look better to colleges/employers. Knowing Japanese probably won't help in any job you get atm but saying you know Japanese looks good (most people associate knowing multiple languages with a higher intelligence). Maybe look into different programs/activities that you would want to get involved with. If you take the extra year in HS then be sure to be involved, in American universities having a lot of extra-circulars (i.e. sports, volunteering, various clubs) along with various personal achievements/skills (grades, difficulty of classes, knowing Japanese =p) make you more noticeable. If the job market for teaching isn't to good but you think you want to do it then go for it but you have to go in knowing you need to do your best.
tl;dr- Make the most out of what you can control while thinking about what you want to do. Your life isn't going to crash and burn because you don't know what you want to do yet, just make sure you avoid something you absolutely can't stand.
I wish I had any kind of advice, but the simple fact is, you are only going to be iun 12th grade you have 3 full years still to decide. (i say three cause u can do nothing but school GE requirements till your 3rd year)
I am a Senior in college graduating this year, and i still have no idea what I want to do with my life.
I am getting a degree in english...cause... ya idk how it happened I just had a lot of english classes when it was time for me to focus on a major and take only those classes... =/ maybe I should be asking for advice in this thread.
current thoughts- teach english abroad for couple years til i figure it out. work in the family business till i figure something out start my own small business. (i know this sounds retarded.. but i come from a family of entrepreneurs, so i would have plenty of advice/help/funding) Teach at my old school (they have already told me I could get a job teaching english as soon as i have my credentials) tho i really dont want to teach...cause they are poor and idk why i wasted 4 years in college to be poor...(ok not poor poor like living on the streets and talking to the sidewalk poor..but not incredibly wealthy either...very middle/lower class)
But anyways, maybe you should just figure out what you DONT want to do. Then figure out what you would LIKE to do Then figure out something realistic you can do to make a living.
all the jobs i want or kinda excite me seem unrealistic, and i'd incur the wrath of my parents if i followed them... Like a rockstar or pro athelete, jet fighter pilot, astronaunt etc... And i'd really like to be a pro gamer, i have no idea what that entails as i currently suck at sc2 as it is, but i don't have time to practise right now with school and such. It seems really fun travelling and playing games as a living. But alas, that is but a mere dream, so yeah, i'm in the same boat as you OP
I don't know how deeply you've thought about this but I suggest taking a trip by yourself in nature and doing some psychedelic drugs, that'll honestly help unless you're retarded. I guess that's not articulating much but I'm a firm believer that shrooms can have therapeutic effects and even help you discover universal order and what you want to do in life.
As a college student, I was conflicted by two philosophical schools of thought: hedonism and asceticism. The partying life of college was intense and sometimes, I thought that I was taking the gift of education that society gave me in vein. My parents were immigrants who sacrificed a lot to bring me where I am today after all. But, I thought that in order to fulfill my obligations to society, I couldn't do something self-gratifying. That simply was not true. I realized that a career should be self-fulfilling and contributing to society in a positive manner.
Anyways, personally I know that I want to discover truths for society and not do things that cause divisiveness. As charismatic as I may think I am, becoming a politician would only bring more divisiveness in humanity, so that just was not the career for me.
I think your aspiration to become a high school teacher is too low to be honest. Do something that you have a passion for! Look at all these pro-gamers and what they are doing,
Just keep doing what you're doing. There's really no pressure of choosing even when you first start college, a lot of people are like that. It'll come naturally when the time is right for you to decide what you want to do. In the meantime just keep studying and learning what you can about anything and everything you enjoy.
On July 02 2011 17:03 ieatkids5 wrote: You wanna be a teacher even though you don't like kids? That's kind of odd, don't you think?
My advice would be don't think about it too much for now, since you've still got a lot of time before you actually need to decide. If you force yourself to pick something now, you'll probably end up changing anyways.
Looks like you don't like kids either D:
Edit: Oh yeah, to the OP, as many people have said, having no fricken clue as to what you want to do is really common among HS kids and University students (I would know, I have been like this forever and am halfway through my first year at uni). The best thing I can suggest is to just go with your interests (I was interested in languages so I continued that), even if you can't see a clear outcome after uni. So many people completely change where they think they'll end up once they actually start uni and get out there.
Don't be like me and stress too much when it seems like everyone else has it all figured out (trust me, they most likely don't) and go with your interests. You seem like a pretty smart guy, so you should be able to achieve well in whatever you're interested in.
On July 02 2011 17:41 Ghin wrote: Get a job over the summer, a job where you have to talk to people. This will give you a perspective on what a career is.
Oh yeah and this, so much. For instance, I got a job at a supermarket and you see all my coworkers and the people who have been there for years and you think, "fuck this, I'm gonna study like an absolute boss so I don't have to do this shit for the rest of my life". Getting jobs can really open your eyes to things that you just really DO NOT want to do or, if you're lucky, things you really want to do.
start looking at popular media for a concept of what you want to be. This doesn't necessarily mean you should aspire to be a singer or an actor. What I mean is, as you watch TV or movies or whatever find someone you find to be particularly badass in some field you find interesting. Then make a mental note of it.
For example, if i had done something like this in High school I would have (I think) made the following list:
- House. I wish I could be a baller like House. Maybe i should study for med school. - The Social Network. Those coders doing the drinking/coding contest. That looks badass. - Billy Beane in the soon to come Moneyball. Sabremetrics is just economics + sports. - Einstein. GUy was a big baller.
Basically try to find ballers. Way more productive than trying to visualize yourself doing mundane stuff. Visualize yourself being awesome, then take the strenuous road through the mundane and mediocre until you come close to reaching it.
I think about it in 2 ways: One, go the path where you want to make a lot of money and accept a field that has good returns (regardless if you like it or not). Hopefully you will eventually learn to cope with it as the money is too good. The second path is to choose something you truly like, and stick with that regardless of the $$$. This path could be risky as you might not get the job you truly want for what you are interested in...or the returns might not be enough to make the living you want to live. Honestly, if you want to get a job that you are interested in your best bet is to take as many general educational classes in university as possible and broaden your knowledge. You should attend all the career centers or events or whatever your future university provides as they are a good way to get in touch with the different occupations. -Good Luck
3) Follow your dreams wherever they take you. Even if you have less money there, you will be happier for sure. No doubt about it.
Follow all the links at the end of the test and read everything. Its really accurate if you can answer all the questions the way you actually feel them. There are several webs that gives you job recommendations based on your results. Don't follow exactly the specific recommendations, just look at the overall idea that they give you.
Most people go through that shit. The best advice I can think of is to just graduate next year and take a year off working part time. In that year, especially if you -don't- work, you will learn a lot more about yourself than if you do the "victory lap" in highschool. Most people do that so they can play more sports and generally stay a kid for longer.
University is a grown up decision though and the faster you close out highschool the quicker you'll grow up.
Not only do people not know what they want to do in high school, they're really not supposed to. High school is such a poor indicator of the real world (college is too) - odds are what you pursue first is not what you'll be doing down the line.
The best thing you can do is get involved with jobs and activities that aren't directly involved with classes. Pursue your hobbies, visit people in professions that you're interested in (friends, family, whoever) and see what they do. Force yourself to practice what a real job is - learning about the theory in class does little to help you get a clear picture.
I was in a similar situation to you. I liked reading, so I planned on a major and career in journalism. Took an AP Chemistry class my senior year in high school, found out I was good at it, started majoring in chemistry "just because". Did a minor in computer science because I liked it. While I was in college I worked for 2 years in a organic chemistry lab doing undergraduate research. It was cool, but I couldn't see myself working in 1. academia, and 2. in a lab. Decided to turn my computer science minor into a second major. I like games (obviously), so I started doing game development: map-making, making little games on XNA, final senior project was an iPhone game.
Now I'm in my 2nd year in graduate school for computer science, and I got a job as lead developer for a new game company in Seattle.
TL;DR
Point is, you shouldn't be worried that you don't know where you're headed at this point. Don't focus on what you're good at, focus on what you want to be good at. Do actual work when you can. You'll learn to love some work you never thought would be cool - and learn to hate some work you loved to learn about.
a couple of problems that I don't think ppl have mentioned so far (not advice just stuff that should also be considered):
1) some people simply wants to do nothing productive, or rather they purely want to consume things [make sure you don't turn into one of those]
2) what you want to do isn't necessarily something innate to you, some unexpected life experience down the road can cause you to gain a passion for something [it could be something pretty random, like a girl leaving you for a rich guy, it might give you a passion for working to become rich etc etc] also, thinking about an activity is not the same as experiencing it, something might only seem uninteresting to you if you just imagine it in your head, where as if you were to do it, it would feel completely different.
EPT
