Did you go for something that you always wanted to pursue ? or did you go for career that fit your strength ? etc
Mine fit my strengths. I applied for a job that I had never heard of–prospect research–and all I knew is that it required research and writing skills, which I had. It wasn’t until I was in the interview that I found out what the job title even meant! So I lucked into something that I ended up loving.
I fell into an industry because it had a job and I needed a job. Once in the job, I realized what that it was an industry that had high paying jobs in certain areas. Through a combo of hard work and luck and having the right strengths, I was able to work myself into one of those positions. It wasn’t something I thought about in college.
Not sure I did. Chose medicine over grad school for security, didn’t feel creative enough for research. Made course choices that were compatible with being premed but didn’t actively pursue it until junior year. A fellow chemistry major college friend who went the PhD route and I had the discussion about maybe we each should have gone the other’s route several years ago- in our 50’s. Women in both fields faced problems, btw. Chose my major because I liked it even though others would have been easier- did Honors and well enough but compared myself to top ten school people.
Can do the mental exercise of what if… may have never met anyone to marry, no son… I can pick so many pivotal points that could have changed things.
College sweetheart (now DH) recommended his English major girlfriend for a technical writing position he learned about during his interview for a job at a tech company. I’ve been in IT ever since, but my talents lie elsewhere. Maybe in retirement I’ll redeem myself.
It seems like I have to try different jobs and see what my strengths are and what I like but that’s kind of difficult for me considering my situation but I seem to like outdoors and around people.
There is no one “right” career.
There are careers that work out OK, and there are careers that don’t. And sometimes you have to switch in midstream.
At 24, I got a job that seemed perfect for me – on paper. It was an ideal match for my qualifications and it had a lot of potential for advancement.
It was a disaster. I only lasted about six months in the job. I was terrible at the work, and I hated it there. I was lucky that they found an excuse to lay me off because it meant that I got severance pay. If the company had waited a little longer, they could have gotten rid of me for free because I would have quit.
I found a job doing something entirely different, and I’ve been doing that kind of work ever since, both in full-time jobs and as a freelancer while I was raising my children. I never anticipated this, and I certainly never saw myself working in this field. I just stumbled into it, and it worked out OK.
Is it the “right” career for me? I don’t know. Is it an OK career? Yes.
Management style, the people I work with, the kind of clients I deal with…the whole work climate… have played a major role in my satisfaction in various jobs, much more than the job description, perse. That has surprised me.
Chemistry/pharma research was something I wanted to pursue AND it fit my strengths. I love the intellectual rigor and the problem-solving skills required in research. I like a job that requires a nimble brain and a “good set of hands.” Plus, I seem to like the types of people I find in lab – quirky, friendly, agreeable (and not nearly the misanthropes and social misfits you often hear about.)
I started out in the lab but was forced to find a completely different career when my company closed my research site. I stayed in that next job for seven long years. I didn’t realize how much I had missed chemistry until I started working in lab again last year!
I fell into it. I had offers from Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and BCG in mgt consulting and got an offer from a consumer products company that promised a higher salary and less travel so honestly that’s why I took it. I was to be the sole breadwinner for a while as H was in med school. It was all wrapped up by Jan of my senior year.
I’m the kind who could have enjoyed a lot of different careers. Nothing magical about one.
When I was in 11th grade, an uncle of mine who was a college professor was advising me on what colleges to apply to. This remark by him at the time stunned me: “You can look forward to going to school for the next 10 years.” TEN years? I hadn’t thought a lot about what profession I might pursue. Law maybe?
What my uncle was preparing me for was a long college career. And he prove to be right, as I went from my BA into a PhD program that added another 6 years til I completed the degree. Although I had applied for and was admitted to some very fine law schools (Berkeley, Chicago, Stanford), I chose an academic career.
In a sense I never left college. I became a college professor. Uncle L, you were right!!!
I’ve had several careers so far. Some were very cool, some, not so much. I have to say the parenting career has been the most challenging so far. I’m looking forward to graduating college (at 48) in two years so my part time job right now (commissioned artwork) can shift into higher gear when the girls go off to college.
My husband would like to switch gears and teach computer science at the college level someday (probably the day the girls graduate college).
We are weird that we consider careers to be things that are plural. I don’t know if there’s such a thing as a “right” career. There were definitely “right now” careers, though.
I was trained for something else and spent several years doing something else. But people kept asking me to do this! 
So in a sense, my right career found me.
In a job after undergraduate school, I had the opportunity to work with people in a variety of professions similar to the one I have. One of these professionals strongly encouraged me (and my husband) to continue our education and we found a way to make graduate school a reality. It just evolved from there. The degrees allow entry into certain levels/types of jobs, but it is often on the job that you really learn skills, and these skills can and often take you in different career directions.
Young people seem to have such a black and white step by step ideas about careers, but it really tends to be a lot more fluid than that. Certain professions require certain degrees, but what you end up doing after those credentials are earned can vary quite a bit.
I think college might not be for me but people keep encouraging me to pursue it simply because I have a big opportunity to attend college for “free”. Are there any good paying careers that don’t require me to take chemistry, biology, or math ?
Fundraising, for one.
I resisted a teaching career for decades: it was too traditionally “female”, didn’t pay enough, wasn’t respected enough, etc. I majored in a heavily male-dominated discipline and was expecting to enjoy my “minority” status in job opportunities. That happened, but I didn’t really like what I was doing.
Then came kids and volunteering and knowing many teachers. Many people over the years urged me to try it…uh-uh, not for me, I’m smarter than that…
I love it! Its much harder than I imagined -I’m physically and mentally exhausted many days, but oh so rewarding.
This is a great thread. I came to my profession in a round-about way, but I love what I do and I’m pretty darn good at it.
I majored in biology because I liked it (I also liked chemistry) but was very unaware of career opportunities in general. I became a medical technologist, which was not the right career for me. I decided to pursue an MBA and found that I would need to take a few business classes first…and fell in love with accounting. It just all made sense to me so I became a CPA. I have worked in corporate finance for a number of years at different companies and really enjoy it.
My advice is that you learn as much as possible about types of work that people do. Talk to adults about their jobs. Read about careers and jobs. There are so many things out there that you may not be aware of.
I would not advise anybody to follow my route. It was long, while rewarding at the end. I had to change my career in my mid 30s after working as EE for 11 years. I did not like it at all, simply was not my thing. So, after 11 years of trying, I said, enough is enough, went back to school and switched to CS, which I wanted to do all along and it worked out beautifully for me. I had many very satisfying jobs, enjoyed them immensely, appreciated everyone of my places of employment more than anybody else as I had an experience of feeling like “a fish out of the water”. I would say, do not wait for that long, if you feel dissatisfied, switch to something else, it was all worth it in my case!