<p>I've just been having serious trouble finding what I want to do with my life. I feel really clueless and I'm already in my 3rd year now. I'm doing environmental studies at a liberal arts college and i like the subject but i feel like its mainly because its really easy for me and i get by. But i really don't see any future with the subject, i definitely cant see myself becoming a teacher or anything. And i obviously want to have a good, steady career to support my life with and enjoy the luxuries of life so it's just been very conflicting in my head. And my parents want me to go to graduate school but i have no idea what i would study.
Please provide me with some feedback. Thanks</p>
<p>don’t worry too much, most people aren’t 100% sure - i mean unless someone is getting a specific degree like in architecture or something, everything’s pretty open-ended. definitely don’t go to graduate school unless you actually want to and have a clear goal in mind…don’t go because you’re not sure what kind of job you want. </p>
<p>most people get jobs unrelated to what they major in. you might end up in science journalism, or working as a policy analyst for some firm trying to be more environmentally aware…or working for non-profit…or whatever. I don’t know, i can’t tell you what you’re interested in but don’t stress too much at this point. Go to your colleges’ Career Center or whatever and talk to some advisors. they might be able to help you get an internship in whatever field you like (once you figure that out)</p>
<p>I do to an extent… I mean, the most specific is I’d be interested in becoming a law enforcement officer. I’m also doing AFROTC, so yeah I’d love to commission into the Air Force… being a pilot or ABM is my dream job, but I’d like intel as well.</p>
<p>Right now I’m an undecided major but I’m looking at Supply Chain Management… I don’t love math so I couldn’t do engineering, I find the hard sciences interesting but not enough to take such difficult, in-depth courses… and accounting looks boring as hell.</p>
<p>Honestly dude/lady, what kind of job do you see yourself in? Do you want a typical 9 to 5, knowing what the next day’s gonna bring? Do you want something more unconventional?</p>
<p>I had an idea of what I wanted to do when I was a senior in high school, but that idea somewhat transformed as I began college. I think the main reason people have an identity crisis about what the want to major in or what kind of career they want to have is because they don’t know how to manage their expectations.</p>
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<p>Definitely important to consider, but not the starting point I would recommend.</p>
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<p>I wish I could yell this from the top of a mountain so that all college students could hear. If you don’t know what you want to do…well maybe it’s because you haven’t searched enough? Try an internship or doing research in something that sounds remotely interesting, if it turns out to not be your cup of tea then leave and try something else.</p>
<p>If you don’t know where to start, take out a piece of paper and writing down your core competencies. You might have some talent that you don’t even realize is valuable. If you don’t know what I mean, here are some examples:</p>
<ul>
<li>quantitative ability</li>
<li>leadership</li>
<li>ability to sell your ideas</li>
<li>written communication</li>
<li>verbal communication</li>
<li>creativity</li>
<li>public speaking/presentations</li>
<li>technical skill (programming, software, lab experience, etc.)</li>
</ul>
<p>Next, construct an abstract idea for the type of job/work environment you would like to work in. Do you want to work on long-term projects that might last 6 months to a year or more? Do you want short-term smaller projects, or simply to be superficially involved by providing expertise or a skill, but not get too involved.</p>
<p>From here you can ball-park at least the type of job you want to do, then you can work on putting yourself in the position to actually try out some of these jobs.</p>
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<p>I don’t want to rain on your parade, but I hope that you don’t think that a bachelors degree in environmental studies is going to land you a 100,000k+ job straight out of school (most likely never). Nor will it qualify you in any way to make any real decisions about environmental policy. What it does do is show employers two things.</p>
<ol>
<li> You are at least somewhat interested in environmental studies.</li>
<li> You have the drive and work ethic shown in your GPA, and that you had the commitment to finish a bachelors degree.</li>
</ol>
<p>The rest is up to you to sell yourself as an applicant. Finding the right field isn’t like falling in love, and neither is passion. You don’t wake up one day and have a passion for something. I sense passion is what you’re looking for, but you can’t feel passion for a subject of field without studying or doing it all the time and developing a love for the process.</p>
<p>I’m set to graduate next semester and I haven’t the slightest clue what I want to do. I really try not to worry about that anymore. I know, at least for me, it’s hard though because college provides constant reminders of ‘finding your career’ and whatnot. </p>
<p>I say just role with the punches.</p>
<p>I want to know how the **** anybody knows what they want to do. You haven’t done yet, have you? (Unless you worked in Toys R Us in HS and that’s what you want to do…) People are so sure of what they want to do in college, and then graduate, get their first job, and have a rude awakening. I think many of those people talking about what they want to do with the rest of their lives fail to realize that they will change over time. In the past few years, my interests have changed more than once. I suspect they will change again. I cannot pretend to know what I want to do. Sure, I can think about myself (but every time I try it I get different results), take career tests (which all tell me diametrically opposed things), and research careers, but I won’t know till I do it. So when I graduate, I’ll try to do whatever I am interested in at that time, and just roll with the punches (as Woofles said- BTW, Woofles, good luck in your last four biology courses).</p>
<p>The finding what you love thing is way overrated. It’s not gonna happen for most of us like that. Just get through college, then start working, and eventually, some time before you’re 75 years old, you’ll probably have it figured out. Life is about learning as you go. </p>
<p>Maybe I’m wrong, I don’t know. I know that I did put much effort into figuring out myself and my future, and got nowhere, so I gave up. If that’s bad, well, I guess we’ll be in the same boat- maybe we’ll work in the same McDonalds! See ya there!</p>
<p>BTW, Euler, I don’t want to be nitpciky, but here goes:</p>
<p>Judging by your username, you’re probably into math, so you might want to notice that 100,000k is one hundred million dollars. That’s a lot. Did you mean 100k, or 100,000?? LOL</p>
<p>I obviously meant $100,000,000.</p>
<p>thanks for the advice everyone. i guess all i can really do is keep trying different stuff out. i have taken a wide range of courses so i do know what i don’t like which is good i guess. anyways best of luck to everyone else!</p>