<p>How do I decide what I want to be in the future? I've thought long and hard about what I would like to do, but nothing clicks..What should I do?</p>
<p>what year are you?</p>
<p>2016, you? </p>
<p>(I’m an old professor.) You’re a sophomore, then. Fortunately you have a lot of time. The best thing you can do right now is focus on your studies. The second best thing is to quit thinking and start doing: get involved with a number of different activities at school and outside school. Volunteer at a nursing home or library or food kitchen. Take a small job, 5 or 10 hours a week. Join the kids on the yearbook or newspaper or quiz show team or LGBT alliance or rugby or squash team. Don’t wait til next semester. Start a few of these now. Get a summer job; maybe two. Learn all you can about the job and the people. Look again at the club fairs at the beginning of autumn semester. Get used to talking to adults and letting them get to know you. Work in retail is good for this; so are positions of responsibility in your school. Ask the adults what they’ve done in their lives in addition to what they do now. I’m going to let you in on a little secret: people LOVE to talk about themselves, so ask them questions that get them going and they’ll forget all about you. Go to your guidance counselor NOW and sit down with him or her to talk about opportunities. The GC may give you a personality test that might help. Above all, be the squeaky wheel, and always be polite because you never know who will be a help to you. Come back and see us after you have your SAT/ACT score.</p>
<p>Fortunately, our school has a very easy curriculum so right now I have a 4.8 GPA (straight A’s) But even though I can do well in my courses, I still don’t know what I really like doing with my life haha. I’m on the soccer team and my friend and I run the chess club together. I’ve volunteered at a hospital and a summer camp last summer and it was a great experience. Unfortunately, I’m not old enough to work yet as much as I want to. I also practice my flute during leisure time and swim. What are club fairs? I enjoy talking to my elders but sometimes I feel as if that’s not what normal students do haha. I took the PSAT and got a 173, is it a good score? And I just took the practice ACT score today and the scores should come in soon. Thank you so much for your advice. 
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<p>I decided what I wanted to do by volunteering, doing internships and talking to people. Literally everything that seemed interesting to me, I did it for at least a little while. I’m getting a PhD with the goal of becoming a health researcher, and I discovered I loved research when I volunteered with a professor for a few hours a week as a research assistant. I started talking to her about careers in the field and she recommended an undergraduate research fellowship program sponsored by the NIMH, and I got into that and loved it even more.</p>
<p>So - find a part-time job, do a summer internship, do “informational interviews” (make 30-minute appointments with people who do things you find fascinating and ask them about their work), join some student organizations and volunteer. I really agree with jkeil911 - people LOVE to talk about themselves and most people are pretty amenable to discussing their careers. I once talked with someone who did a bunch of informational interviews with people he didn’t know; he cold-called them and just asked if they were willing to give 20-30 minutes of their time, and 90% of them said yes. They really wanted to help someone looking for info and are usually flattered that someone is interested in them.</p>
<p>Once you go to college, your college will have a career center - most career centers not just help students find internships and jobs but also have a series of tests you can take, plus counselors and workshops that help you identify your strengths and likes and suggest jobs for you.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that it’s an iterative process. It’s not like you’ll wake up one day and be like “I want to be a _____!” I mean, maybe you will, but for most people they do a series of things. After college they take a job that sounds interesting and they realize what they like and don’t like, so they move on to another job that has more of the good and less of the bad. Then maybe they decide they want to do something else, but they need a degree, so they go to grad school and then move into that something else. Then they want to do administration…see what I mean? It’s estimated that people will have on average seven careers during their working life, so don’t feel like you have to have it all figured out at 18!</p>
<p>What are informational interviews? But what if I never find what I like doing? The world sounds intimidating. </p>
<p>Ha, it can be a bit intimidating at first! But you’re not alone. Very few people even in their late 20s know exactly what they want to do. I’m 27 and it’s just beginning to crystallize for me, and I’m still not totally sure.</p>
<p>An informational interview is an interview you set up with a person who has a job you’re interested in. You ask for 20-30 minutes of their time, and you ask them questions about their job duties - what do you like most about your job? Least? Describe a day in the life. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What advice would you give for someone like me who wants to get to where you are? Can you recommend anyone else that I can talk to like this, or some resources for me to read? It’s not an opportunity to try to find a job (so don’t ask them about openings or internships), and the unspoken rule is that you don’t ask about their salary.</p>
<p>You’ll find something eventually. Most people do. You may never find something that makes you jump out of bed in the morning and race to work, but I find that very few people do. They do find something they enjoy and look forward to, but most people I know would rather stay at home in bed and watch TV or read a good book than go to work, ha!</p>
<p>How do you find someone that wants to give an informational interview? Oh, I’ve been really busy the past months and now I don’t have a lot of things to do. I should be happy that I finished everything right? Noo…it actually feels weird to sit and watch a movie. I guess I like being productive, it’s a weird feeling. </p>
<p>Start with the basics. Do you want a job where you’ll be sitting at a desk much of the day or one that keeps you moving? Do you prefer working with people or with objects or at a computer? Lab work or hands on? Do you want something in the sciences or something in business or construction and design? For applying to colleges, as long as you have a generalized idea of the field that you’d be most interested in, you’ll be fine. You can further discern a specific major once you start college classes.</p>
<p>And the average college student switches majors three times.</p>
<p>Oh, well, right now I am pretty active so I like moving. I like socializing with people; they’re interesting. Lab work and hands on both sound good. </p>