<p>I got done watching the Steve Jobs movie a few days ago. I think I was the only one in the theater, but I thought it was rather good. I didn't read his biography yet, but it's taken me down some interesting avenues of thought. I'm heading into my senior year as an Applied Math/Statistics major with a minor in Physics. I have no idea what I want to do with my life still. Does it just hit people?</p>
<p>I came in as an eager freshman physics major. I quickly changed my major to mathematics and am sitting here my final year thinking "Well, what do I do now?" I never held a job because the hours could never work with my school schedule. I have applied to several part-time jobs out there this summer and heard one offer, but I couldn't make it work. I did get two offers for internships and am starting as an investment management intern for this fall so I'll be getting experience as a trader. I just for some reason don't like being motivated by money. It just feels wrong to me. I thought about law school, but I can't justify the costs. I thought about being a doctor or pharmacist, but I couldn't do it if I don't have my heart in it. I didn't want to be an engineer or a programmer. I don't seem to have a passion for anything anymore. I'll apply to graduate schools just in case I don't get a job to up my credentials, but I don't know what areas to apply in. I want to do something with my life, I want to be driven by something...and I read and see all these great people taking on the challenges of the world and conquering them. I see these people trying their hardest in school and they're so motivated to study I don't get how. Just seeing people chase their dreams, even if they don't reach them is amazing to me. It seems like I have no dreams other than to live long enough to have children and watch them grow up. I don't want to be a full-time dad. Is it that most of us become mediocre people with mediocre jobs? I feel like I'm floating through life a bit, but I want to contribute to the world so bad with something, but I'm not anywhere the type of guy who goes to other countries to feed people food. I just plain don't know what to do but that's just a huge ticket to the unemployment line. I guess I'm just waiting to be "hit" by something and seriously get my life started. I feel like I'll be able to get a job doing something meaningless to me, but it'll pay the bills. I hope this isn't what most people's existence is like. This is starting to feel like my own personal hell. I'm thinking of taking up an actuary job after graduation as an actuary student moving up the ranks just to have a job.</p>
<p>in a university environment there is a lot of talk about making the world better right. knowledge is good. learning is even better. social justice is important. poor people need help. and all this is true. it isn’t just talk! it’s true. but then how hard these things are to DO SOMETHING about when you get down to trying to make something happen. put aside also needing to find a way to pay the bills while doing that… it’s still hard. and when what you end up doing is NOT what you were taught and came to believe was meaningful, when after everything you’ve heard and read and thought you take a job FOR THE MONEY, and there’s no way seeing around that that’s what you’re doing, how sad is that. how mediocre. i think what you said is right, that most of us foolish enough to believe in (and not let go of) the idea that making some kind of difference is what matters DO become - to ourselves - mediocre people with mediocre jobs. but when the day arrives when we must resign ourselves to mediocrity and give up all hopes of ever escaping a life without the passion, purpose, and accomplishment we had hoped for, we have a choice! we don’t have to succumb to our own personal hell so fast! for example, before doing that, why not attempt suicide? what do you have to lose? and that can be interesting. psychiatric wards, mental hospitals, those are interesting places.</p>
<p>At different times for different people. For me, it happened at the end of my sophomore year as I was doing a research experience; I loved it and realized that this was what I wanted to do. But my husband is 28 years old and he still doesn’t really know what he wants to do yet. I have another friend who turned 29 today who is working a job he likes but is definitely not a long-term goal while he figures out his passion. Some people work their entire careers without ever feeling “Aha!” - they just move into what feels right for them at the time, and make a career out of that.</p>
<p>Don’t apply to graduate school if you don’t know what you want to do. Save your money for when you DO decide. Graduate school is job preparation. The best way to find out what you want to do is to do <em>something</em> and then figure out what you like and don’t like in that job. You move in increments towards what you really like.</p>
<p>Yes, most of us become average people with average jobs. That doesn’t mean that you can’t have tremendous impact. No one knows my high school math teacher, but he instilled in me a love for math I never had before. My high school English teacher isn’t famous, but she persuaded me to apply to college in the first place. That accountant who helps you do your taxes or the therapist who helps you get over a bad break-up aren’t famous, but they are having an impact on you that can change your life.</p>
<p>You can live a very fulfilled life and contribute to the world in a majority of ways that don’t involve being as famous as Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. And even investment bankers contribute something - the business world needs smart, ethical people who think of innovative ways to make money while not exploiting people. You could work in private equity and volunteer to help lowiincome people learn to invest, or do microfinance work, or do some work on making mortgages affordable for people with bad credit or something.</p>
<p>Being an actuary is supposedly one of the most rewarding jobs - financially and personally - but there are a lot of exams you have to pass and entry is competitive.</p>
I agree with this statement so much! I believe too many people are worried about finding their “dream career” and their “passion” that they forget that it is not a way of life. Some people have a passion that they pursue, others simply fall into the right place.</p>
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Sounds to me like this dream is dream enough. You don’t need your dream to be an engineer that makes $100k/yr. Your dream could be this – a good father, a family maker. You don’t even need to be a full-time dad because you could use your dream in wanting to raise a good family by finding some stable job to raise your family with.</p>
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Honestly, you can contribute to the world in SO many ways! I think doing something like Peace Corps is just on the extreme end of it. And you don’t need to be a doctor or a nurse to be making a difference… I think, for one, the smallest things (like raising good children that contribute to the world) is one of the biggest contribution you could make to society! You could even spend your free time volunteering for your local community. Little things matter.</p>
<p>I honestly think you’re overthinking this whole “career” and future thing, which I can understand. I don’t think what you want to do will ever “hit” you necessarily. There are a lot of people who are lost but end up falling into a place they feel comfortable in and stick with it. Hell, my stepdad graduated college with an engineering degree but decided to move up at his job (just a part-time casino position) and now he’s moved up to a very significant position, makes good money, and is good at what he does! He really wanted to work in either engineering or accounting, but he didn’t really have a “passion” for it and just kind of did what felt right. He has no regrets about it and is pretty good now.</p>