I need help for an intelligent young lady in my life.
I’m talking about a complete Flibbertygibbet! She’s extremely intelligent, has a BA in Psychology, yet went into Finance [more money] and now is feeling completely and utterly lost! She is addicted to Web-career counseling, i.e typing into google: what do I do with my life
What do I tell this person?
I need anecdotes from people who can shed some light on how to figure out what to do with your life. What did you go to college for and what are you doing now.
How did you figure out what you wanted to do after you went into something you are not so sure about? Who has made a career change jump?
The person I know is struggling with how to figure out what she wants to do…Any Advice? She likes: Healing Arts, Reiki, Animals, spiritual stuff, she loves to teach and advise people.
Problem is she is very good at what she does now, and could make quite a bit of money doing it, but it’s not what is in her core…
When I got tired of working retail and decided to get serious about doing something else with my life, I visited a career counselor. This forced some evaluation of my strengths and weaknesses, some real evalution of what I wanted to do with my life, and then I went to grad school and got the relevant degree. (At the present moment, I’m not employed in my new chosen field because I’m still struggling with the realities that everyone wants people with experience, which I don’t have. I’m getting interviews, I just don’t have a full-time job in my new field).
If I were you, I would encourage your friend to look for volunteer activities that involve some of her interests that she’s not using in her job. Then she will get experience which should help if and when she decides to make a switch, and she will get an opportunity to say “I love Reiki, but I don’t want to do it 40 hours a week”. (Or I love Reiki, but I can’t earn enough money to live the lifestyle I’m accustomed to doing that).
I did it the stupidest way possible, but it all worked out. I hated my job, felt like I was going nowhere, and the hate for the job was seeping into everything else about my life. A friend had recently made a career change, and was absurdly happy. We were out (at Taste of Dallas, for you Dallasites), and I was bitching (again) about my nowhere job and nothing life. He started to talk to me about it, very seriously, but every time he’d get to the really serious counseling part, these Hare Krishnas would come parading down the street; their chanting would drown him out, so we’d move on to another part of the Taste. But again, every time he’d start to talk to me, the Hare Krishnas would show up.
For whatever reason, I decided that it was critical that I listen to what he was trying to tell me, and damn the Hare Krishnas! So we finally found a quiet spot, and he told me that he thought I should go to law school. Because of the interference, and running away from the Hare Krishnas and all (and my general immaturity), I ascribed an importance to his words that, in retrospect, may have been too much. But I figured, why not?
So the Hare Krishnas had a pretty good hand in my current profession. But it’s worked out, and I think that a lot of the credit has to be given to my friend, who knew me well enough to suggest something that fits who I am. (It didn’t hurt that he was currently working at a law firm and surrounded by lawyers. He knew whereof he spoke.)
So, about eight months later, I quit my job, got rid of most of my stuff, and moved halfway across the country to a city where I knew no one to start law school. And then moved halfway across the country again to take a job in LA. (I have family here, though, so it wasn’t an unknown quantity.) But I’m pretty risk averse; the thought of doing that again scares me to death.
I don’t know that I have any advice for your friend, except that sometimes doing something utterly new and unthinkable can be just what you need. And beware the golden handcuffs.
I’m a Chem Eng, specialty Organic. When I finished college, unemployment in Spain was officially 24% without counting people who’d graduated college less than two years prior. The actual figure should have been around 30%. Having found out that if I went to America and became a TA on Chemistry I’d get paid enough to live on while working towards an additional degree, I “hopped over the pond”. For 4 years, I was a researcher, first in a university and later in a pharmaceutical company. I got an MS in Computational Chemistry (Quantum Chemistry).
Then, first change: my employers wanted me to go illegal. I wasn’t interested. Something about wanting to be able to see my father (who had cancer at the time) before he died, and about being able to come and go as I want and not jump skyhigh anytime I see a cop… yes, I know, I’m too picky and squeamish
So, I packed up and went home. Where people still tell me things like “you can’t be an engineer, you’re a girl!” “you’re a girl, girls aren’t good with computers” and “how are we going to get a girl in Production?” (through the door, dumbass). The computers thing, I heard it for the last time last September. Amazing: I’m 38, I have two friends my age who are grandmothers, but when I’m looking for a job I’m a girl. Engineer and Researcher not being girly jobs (Researcher is, but only if you’re a Biologist), I became a Quality Lab Tech and Quality Systems Specialist (that stands for “I’m amazingly good at paperwork and at KISS”).
One day I had a message in my machine. It was the Factory Manager, sounding worried and asking that I come see her “at the earliest convenient time”. :eek: After not having a heart attack, I changed clothes the fastest I ever have and went to see her. Turns out my second career change was a-callin’. The company was going to change all the computer systems; the factory had to provide one person from each department to help decide how the new systems were going to be set up and learn them and make sure our data went over all right and teach the rest of our workers how to use the new system. This implied going to London for a week “next month” and then there would be a very long meeting in Strasbourg, and the lab manager hates to travel, so why don’t we send Nava?
The manager was sounding apologetic (she doesn’t like to travel either) and I was telling myself “ok, she’s prepared the speech very carefully, let her finish before you jump on the table yelling YAY and dancing.” I accepted and did such a good job for my factory and the other factories in the same group that I was offered a job doing the same for the other factories in the company.
Since then I’ve been “between projects” (that’s prettyspeak for unemployed) twice; both times I’ve looked at jobs in “computer program installations” and in “quality” but I’m told that I’m too experienced for lab tech, not experienced enough for lab manager, and wonderfully experienced for telling lab managers how to do their jobs. So, I tell lab managers how to do their jobs
Like I said, completely unintentional… but this second one wouldn’t have come along if I hadn’t had the right skills. Your friend needs to decide whether she really wants to change or not. If she doesn’t, then she’ll stop feeling the need to look at the greener grass elsewhere. If she does, then she needs to find out “change to what”. What can she do? Not just the skills she’s using in her current job and the ones she’s got degrees on, ALL her skills. Interpersonal, organizational, language. What can she not do? What does she hate doing? Then look at jobs that seem “greener grass” from where she’s sitting. What skills do they require? What income level will they provide at first? And after a while if everything goes well? What will the hours and the job security be like?
This isn’t about me (although I could tell a riveting tale about my switch from studying math to biology).
In my dad’s high school yearbook, he put that he wanted to become a math teacher. But he ended up becoming a computer programmer/engineer and did that for a while. Around when I was born, he decided that he really did want to become a teacher. My mom’s a teacher too so I think he had some idea of what he was getting into. He went back to school get a teaching credential and is still teaching. Even now that I don’t go to the high school he teaches at, whenever I call him up, I get to hear all the stories about what he did in statistics today, or what funny thing johnny sophomore said in geometry.
Thanks everyone, these are great. She is such a promising young gal (28) her Dad and I have been lifelong friends, I wish I could give her some advice that would work…
My parents told me I had to get a doctoral level degree so I did. I moved 1/2 way across the country to go to school and then all the way across (from Boston) for my first job.
But now I’m thinking of going into finance!! I work in securities and I meet a lot of people in banking-a lot of them have slipped me their cards and told me to keep in touch. My only concern is that I’ve been out of touch with quantitative crap for years (like the age of 18). Plus, I’m not sure I want more education. If I could audit a few classes in an MBA school I’d do that, just for more background and understanding.
We’ll see I guess. I’m almost 28 myself-if in the next year I still feel like staying in law I’ll stick to it for life…otherwise I may be jumping to banking.
The nice thing about some degrees like law is that they’re very flexible.
Richard Bolles’ What Color Is Your Parachute, which first came out 30 years ago and is updated annually, provides an excellent blueprint for soul-searching. It’s also full of useful tips, for people who just want help finding a job.
When my husband was laid-off last year, his employer paid for the services of an outplacement firm. I swear, they used the exact same program that’s in Bolles’ book.
Personally, my best experiences have come from just doing exactly what it is I want to do, regardless of how well it’s “supposed” to work.
anu-la1979, if it’s any help, take into account that half of Lilbro’s courses were legal things. His school offers a “double BS” (one of the first in Spain) for Business Management and Law, which only carries about 20% more credits than taking only one of the two majors. Depending on which kind of Finance job it was, you could take it up in no time, I’m sure. You may already know more about “being able to decipher audit requirements” and SOX than many MBAs fresh out of school.
He’s started a degree in Politics and was pleasantly surprised to find out he may get waivers in as much as 75% of the required courses. Apparently he’s got his eye set on a posting as Consejero de Economía y Hacienda (something like the state level Secretary of the Treasury).
I don’t know how useful my example will be, but here goes.
I didn’t have any advice before going to University, so found myself on a course I didn’t enjoy, which didn’t lead to any career I fancied.
So I went to a company who asked me lots of questions. We soon agreed that I wanted an indoor job, involving calculation and working independently.
Thus I dropped out of University, became a computer programmer, then much later switched to teaching it.
After 14 solid years, I decided to take a job in chess :eek: , because I really enjoyed all aspects of the game.
However the company turned out to be a bunch of wallies, so I left.
I went back to teaching, but then got head-hunted for a decent job in chess and I’m still doing that 17 years later.
I think you need to balance income with job satisfaction.
Sorry to mention it, but this alternative stuff doesn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny. I realise there’s a market for it, but if you want a sound career…
I know it’s a logical jump-especially since so many people in my field have gone on to work for Deutsche and big banks…but I just like saying “I’m a lawyer!” with exclamation point added and a giggle at the end.
No, in all seriousness, what’s hampering the move is that I have 2 legal licenses, which I spent a LOT (like in the realm of thousands) of money obtaining (the Feds don’t shell out for those) and I may have to obtain 2 more since I will probably be moving for personal reasons and if I go into the private sector I’m going to have to be licensed in the state that I’m likely to move to…
Essentially I feel really guilty not continuing on as a lawyer when I’ve spent so much money on it already…it feels wasted to go into something when I could have taken an M.A. in finance instead of drifting into the J.D…
Perhaps you could tell her that “what do I do with my life?” covers an awfully long time, and maybe she should look at a shorter timeframe. Since nothing is certain, nothing need be forever, and she should go into whatever strikes her fancy (barring any fields requiring any professional qualifications she doesn’t have, such as a medical degree). If she doesn’t end up liking it, she can leave it. And she should be flexible and prepared for anything–and that “anything” may be good or bad. This may not be what she wants to hear, but let me share my story, and my advice may make more sense:
When I finished my degree, I cast about for a job. I settled on technical writing. I was involved in the high-tech field–it was the early 80s, the IBM PC had just come out, and anybody who could was designing and building computers, operating systems, and the like. The field needed people who could organize information and write manuals on how to use these wonderful new machines. The money was good, the field was exploding, and it looked like a bright future.
But it had a dark side. Each time a company I worked for “had a bad year” (translation: when its revenues did not double), it “restructured” or “rightsized” in an effort to mitigate future damage. In other words, it laid off people. Generally, these people were not the engineers who designed the technology, but rather, those who filled other roles: customer service people, factory workers, and–yep–technical writers. I could usually land on my feet after such events, but the same thing would happen again eventually. Even when I worked in the IT department of a nonprofit charity, a recession hit, and donations dried up. Layoff time again.
At these times, if nothing presented itself immediately, I’d just take whatever offered itself until I could find something in the tech writing field. And so, I also found myself working retail, working in warehouses and factories, driving a truck, and engaged in other such jobs. I punched my card and carried my lunchbucket and did my time on the night shift. Often, the money wasn’t what I had been earning at technical writing, but it paid the rent and kept food on the table. The good point was that I learned a few interesting and fun skills: among others, I learned how to operate a forklift, how to operate an injection molding machine, and how to drive an 18-wheeler. And some of these skills made it easier for me to get another similar job the next time a high-tech company I ended up at decided to restructure.
That’s why I’d say to your friend that nothing lasts forever; or needs to last forever, if she doesn’t want it to. I had a few nasty surprises, and some things didn’t turn out exactly as I wanted them to, but I managed. All of my experiences, from producing fine manuals to sweeping warehouse floors, were valuable. But flexibility is key, I think, and while it sounds trite, a setback can be an opportunity in disguise. When else would somebody like me get the chance to learn how to drive a truck? Which, perhaps unsurprisingly for those who know me, I found that I really enjoyed.
Note that I did eventually tire of technical writing. There was very little more I could do in the field–I had written, designed, and edited all kinds of manuals, online help, and so on. What else could I do? So after twenty-plus years, I decided to go back to school and get a law degree. Nothing need last forever indeed, and a choice made in your twenties doesn’t have to constrain you when you’re in your forties.
I pretty much always have a tab open in my browser with “what should I do with my life” google results… currently it’s the academic curriculum for a Mechanical Engineering program.
Do you know why that’s funny?
I’m a biochemist. Not a chemist - because I hated math!
I have an honours BSc in biochemistry, I have worked for 3 years as an analytical chemist in the pharmaceutical industry, I’ve looked around at the rest of the industry and have seen NOTHING that appeals to me in the least in terms of long-term career development. Seriously, either I spend the next 40 years doing exactly what I do now in the lab , or it’s shuffle mountains of paperwork around submitting documents for lot after lot after lot of the same bloody product.
No thanks.
So. Engineering, right? Why?
The jewellery.
My husband has one of those nifty Iron Rings and I’ve decided that I want one too.
I like planes and trains and transportation in general. I also have a very big interest in safety (aka common sense) and it seems that a lot of safety-related jobs actually need engineering backgrounds. I’m not 100% certain, but it sure as hell sounds like it’ll be more fun than yet another potency assay on the same product I tested last month (only the lot # is different… really).
My mom wants me to be a teacher. Apparently there is a huge demand for science/math teachers. Who knows?
and I’m still doing that 17 years later.