7 WRONG Ways to Decide Your Life’s Career
It’s that time of year again when a new crop of ambitious young folk will be graduating from high school and heading off into their glorious futures by selecting the exact wrong career for themselves.
We all want nothing more than to have that perfect career that makes us feel like life is the equivalent of skipping through a summer field, with flowers in bloom all around and the golden sunshine on your face (this is a fictional world where there are no bugs in that summer field). Most of us instead end up with a career like that miserable camping trip where it rained the whole time, you were freezing and tired and hungry non-stop, and, oh yes, there were lots and lots of nasty, crawling, dirty bugs.
Reportedly, over half of American workers hate their jobs. Only 45% of Americans report being “satisfied” with their jobs. (Frankly, if being “satisfied” means happy I’ll go shoot myself in the head right now.) Has this dearth of people in happy careers stopped succeeding generations from going through the same completely wrong process leading to the same terribly wrong decision? No. No, it hasn’t. I’m not breaking any sound barriers here – I’m not going to tell you how to pick the right career – but here are 7 common, and completely wrong, ways people make career decisions that may lead to the TWENTY YEAR camping trip from hell.
1. Based on Your High School Aptitude Test
We’ve all taken them. God help the children who actually take those test results seriously and make their career decision because of them. When I took the test I was told I should be a construction worker or a military general. At the time I was a 5 ft. 4, 120 pound, 17-year-old girl who loved reading classic literature and history. Yeah, that seems right.
But the test said I would love it!
Most school aptitude tests are a combination personality test and interests and hobbies survey. If you’re lucky they’ll throw in an IQ test so you can find out you are too dumb to follow your dreams or too smart to pick something you enjoy.
The problem with these tests is mankind hasn’t figured out how to crack the code of a human being’s unique complexity with a 50-point questionnaire. The information from these tests may not be a bad place to start, but there are many, many other factors to consider; for example, oh, I don’t know, would you actually enjoy being in the military?
um. I know a college major puppeteer. he’s very good at what he does. which is not puppetry, now.
good advice.
Then there’s the advice from family and friends route, as in:
Also not recommended.
I was wondered whether he meant industry or people.
I’m 48. I followed my passion, and it was a rough go. It took me 14 years after college to get to an ordinary middle-class life. I had that for about 10 years and then it was threatened when my industry died. Still, I’m doing all right.
The question of a career one of the toughest anyone can make. The problem I have with these seven reasons (I don’t disagree with any of them) is this: They’re all about the “decider.”
That’s exactly NOT how careers work. What works is what you can do that other people will pay you for. And what people will pay you for is usually what other people can’t do, or what they won’t do.
A career is also a decision made within the context of your future. Do you want a spouse, three children, and a white picket fence? Is family crucial for you? Then guess what? If you bring home the bacon and that first model train set to them, you’ll probably find what you do pretty satisfying.
Your job happiness depends a lot on your values. Don’t work at something that violates them. Don’t work with people who violate them. Do you take pride in a job well done? You’ll find something. A career is just one way to manifest those values.
It’s not like you’re going to win at life. You may, for a while. But life gets everyone, there’s always something to complain about, and always some small victory right there if you seek it out.
Do you follow your passion? Go ahead. Do you go for the money because your real passion is your family? Go ahead. Can you find something to live out your desire for a job well-done? You will — it’s everywhere. Even in the DMV, you can make people smile.
If I were giving advice to some making a career decision, I would suggest basic principles:
1. Build skills. Whatever you learn, whatever skill, will NEVER hurt you. Especially if you learn to transfer them.
2. Develop the habit of being thoughtful. Make people feel good to interact with you.
3. Learn to spot what others need. I saved my career one day when one day I blurted out to a customer — you can’t tell me there’s something on your desk that you’re avoiding and you’d pay me X dollars an hour to do.
4. Avoid debt as much as possible. Pay as you go. Don’t go to college unless you know exactly why you’re there and exactly what you want to learn there. Also, even though you’re 18 or so, you may have a good idea already what you want.
5. You’re going to need to make some money; otherwise, by your mid-30s, you’re really going to be sick of being broke. To do that, you’re simply going to have to do what others cannot or will not do. There is a lot of stuff like that in the world.
6. You build a reputation by doing one good job after another. Develop a reputation for keeping your word.
7. You will make mistakes. Learn from them. You will suffer. It’s the human condition. Your friends and family will listen.
8. Remember, stuff is just stuff. Stuff can remove unhappiness (e.g., a roof over your head) and money can take the pressure away of not having money. But that’s all. Every piece of stuff is something you will have to box, move and maintain. You’re its slave, not the other way around.
9. Ideally, and it’s just ideally, you’re best chance of happiness in a career is doing something that allows you to act out your love of being alive. “To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in a hour.”
Life’s hard, and it’s supposed to be. The rewards are alleged to be eternal. That’s your real retirement package. So the most important thing is how you love others.
Yeah, I’m getting philosophical. There have been some deaths recently among my family and friends, and I’ve been clearing out a lot of stuff. The stuff tells a story. Sometimes it’s beautiful; sometimes, not.
Thank you for your generous insight Bill. I’ve been out of the military for the past year and I have been grappling with what happiness is for me and what career best suits my lifestyle this entire time. I think your post may have just turned on the light bulb in my attic, so to speak.
Excellent advice, IB Bill.
excellent. excellent. I feel privileged to have read it. thank you.
Excellent advice. I remember our “career workshop” as a senior in college spouting off all that nonsense about “follow your bliss” and pursuing crap that makes you happy. Nobody bothers to tell you you have to find something that someone will pay you to do.
Reading this, I had to check I WASN’T Bill. I’m not. And my path was a LITTLE more complicated. I took route 2. Then messed everything up by changing countries and finding out my degree was virtually useless here. I still tried to take route two, while following my passion in the evenings. The passion was writing. Took me ten years to break in (in short stories.) Another five to a middle class income. And now the field is upside down. But I’m doing all right. Actually better than ever.
Some notes: even when I broke into writing, I tried/was pushed to follow advice 2. “Write what is selling” in this case. It sorta kind of worked (I wasn’t unemployed.) But it wasn’t until I convinced someone to publish what I REALLY wanted to write — Space Opera — that I started doing well. Mind you, “convincing” involved building enough cred with the house that they’d do it to indulge me. The success surprised them too.
So, why do I tell people to have a backup career and to follow their passion around the edges? Well… because without it and a supportive husband, we’d have starved when the kids were little. OTOH might I have got where I am much faster without it? I might.
I’d add to Bill’s advice one little thing, “If lack of security is going to drive you insane and your career doesn’t offer it, DO have a backup, so you aren’t nuts by the time you make it.”
I absolutely love my work. I enjoy my life too. I like my work, my family, my home and my pets. Even when life has been tough, I’ve had that. The career has been rough as heck. BUT I love what I do, and I love how I live. In the end, what other success is there?
When I was in college I considered going into ethics, because it was one of those things I’m really passionate about. Then I tried to figure out how one makes a living at ethics, and discovered there wasn’t a whole lot of careers for ethicists, so I ended up staying with engineering. Then I discovered just how much ethics has to be involved in day to day engineering decisions…
IB Bill,
I happened across this a couple of days after you wrote it, but I hope that you venture back here for some reason, so that you will see my thanks. I really appreciate that you took the time to write it. I believe it’s one of the wisest and most plain-spoken pieces on the subject that I’ve ever read. My kids are entering high school, and as I become acutely aware of the growing disconnect between the value of a college education and the cost, it’s difficult to find the right words to help gently guide them in the decisions they (and I) will have to make in the years ahead. Your words will find a place in our conversations. Thank you.
Ah, the treasure we (sometimes) find in the comments!
Best Regards
Gordon
IB Bill, Your advice and insights are 100 times as useful as Sunny’s. Thanks for that.
would you look into expanding this into a book or pamphlet in e-book form? or even real book form? It sounds exactly like the sort of classic that one would give to a high-school graduate.
really. there’s only so many ways to forward a blog-post. But- a nice book with a nice cover, and not too scary big- for a high school graduate? or college grad? or drifting mid-twenty somethings?
please.
Best post I’ve read in a long time. Thanks.
IB Bill, become a guidance counselor IMMEDIATELY!!
Also make some podcasts and write a cool little ebook outlining these guidelines and add some detail.
Then put it on amazon and facebook and Twitter etc and wait.
Oh, I forgot – very wise, and something from which many lost people would
benefit.
Lets not forget that it’s OK to have more than one career in a lifetime. I started off caring for people in a nursing home (at 17), later fixed airplanes in the USAF and then got a BS in Computer Science and work in the insurance industry. My hobbies now are flying and volunteering as an EMT in my community.
Your career doesn’t have to be like your Dad’s. Mine came and went 5 days a week in the same job for many years. Changing wasn’t really an option for him. If you stick to the policy of not going into debt and living well within your means, you can change careers and not freak out about your lifestyle.
That’s exactly my thought. There’s this implication that choosing a career is a singular, permanent thing. It can change, sometimes subtly, sometimes radically. The key is for that change to be something you consciously choose.
I’m on my third career, and like Bill I’m 48. My first 7 post-college years I was an engineer. Hit the wall on my skills/interests and decided to get an MBA to broaden my horizons. Post-MBA I went into product marketing. Dot-com bust came and forced a change. Some contract work that paid the bills led to my current position as an analytics director in the hotel industry. And I’m seriously working toward a fourth as a speaker/author on analytics.
Some of these choices were more conscious than others. Each one was fun, interesting, and intellectually and financially rewarding. But when they stopped being fun and interesting, I wasn’t afraid to consider making a change. I took stock of what I was good at, what new skills I had developed, and explored how that mapped into a new/modified career path.
I like this post too.
I’ve been ill for a long time, with some underlying stuff, and have not been able to work.
But, having the Internet has been helpful. I’ve been able to keep up with world affairs (which frankly are so scary I may never leave the house again!), find new blogs and info and keep up with a few tech changes here and there.
It’s not the best kind of life – being sick is crap. But being able to find relevant info, and find find potential interests online that may become potential careers; that carries me through.
Instant research capabilities is great!
I would add “Based on what your friends do.”
I am constantly hearing from my kids “But Dad, all the other kids get to!” or “But Dad, all my friends are going!” or “But Dad, I’ll be the only one whose parents won’t let me go!” Ignore all of that and instruct your kids to likewise ignore career paths taken by their friends, and that they instead need to find the right career path for themselves. Their career path and that of their friends may or may not be the same.
Sad that even educated people’s idea of what math is, is that it’s what accountants do. Like saying that “literature” is what file clerks do, since obviously they use _letters_.
Ya, I don’t get the “like math be an accountant” thing. My wife is a CPA and the math she does is simple addition and subtraction. I’m an electrical engineer and I’m not sure I’d classify addition and subtraction as real math…
Others have made the comment to avoid debt, and live within your means. This really is key. No matter what choices you make, if you have no debt you have the freedom to make changes. Debt is a killer. Don’t go into debt to get an education, don’t buy that car that you believe will impress the girls (it doesn’t), and for God’s sake don’t rack up debt eating out.
My wife and I always preached live a simple life with our 2 daughters. Our oldest was always pushing the envelope. She actually took out student loans to cover eating out in college because she didn’t like dorm food. She’s now been out of school for 7-8 years and still paying for the meals she ate 10 years ago. Really, really stupid…
You have to be in a place / country / district / town / where what you do is actually in demand. If it isn’t, MOVE. No good being “the best” if they don’t want what you’ve got.
You have to be in sync with the times. If you are too far ahead of the trend, you might not be able to get people to pay (you) for what you are capable of doing.
Find a specialty and become good at it. BS usually baffles brains.
I think there is one huge assumption in all this; there is a dream job for everyone. I’m not so sure that’s true.
All good advice, especially IB Bill’s contribution.
To this I would add that sometimes you need to relegate the stuff you love to do most to a hobby. For example, someone who loves to hunt might dream of becoming a guide some day. But being a guide is really very different from hunting.
Do you like astronomy? Perhaps the thing to do is to get a job to support your habit. Becoming a professional astronomer is very difficult, very competitive, and jobs are very scarce.
Pursuing your passion does not mean that it must be your professional goal.
So true. My daughter is an astronomer, finishing her PhD and starting her work with NASA just before turning 30. And while she enjoys space weather (the practical astronomy she is paid to do), she told me a few years ago she misses the stars. I think someday, when she can afford a backyard, she will again stand in the cold with a telescope, but with her own child.
It’s been my experience that the quickest way to kill your love of a hobby is to turn it into a job that you must depend on for your livelihood. What was once fun when done at your own pace becomes a burden when faced with deadlines driven by bills and the demands of others. And with few exceptions there are always others, with their own agendas and significant, sometimes critical, input to the business aspect of your vocation.
I agree. Nothing will kill your “passion” faster than turning it into a job — and a career is just a fancy name for a job or series of jobs.
Nobody really knows — before trying it out — what sort of job will make him or her happy. Look at Obama — he thought being president was basically the same as being an Illinois state legislator only with more power and publicity. He expected there to be very little real work, to have a strong political machine doing all the heavy lifting, and to spend most of his time dealing with lobbyists mostly dumber than him who were always willing to expound on what a great job he was doing. Now he knows different and is probably miserable.
That reminds me, here’s an 8th tip when choosing a career. Never, ever decide to run for president.
I was never a Beatles fan and don’t like their music but one thing I agree with John Lennon on is that “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” I majored in Chemistry, got my first job out of college in marketing for a chemicals company. I and enjoyed the learning experience and the people I worked with, accepted better job offers from a number of companies and in my forties decided that I really wanted to work in finance. Today I own my own investment firm, am past retirement age and will probably work until they carry me out. I get pleasure out of helping people, there is no heavy lifting, it’s intellectually stimulating, and I am even writing a book on it. The people who followed their passion like the Lennon or Rush Limbaugh and were tremendously successful are fortunate. But keep in mind that their personal lives are often not the same as their professional lives. It’s important if you want to be happy in the end to keep those lives balanced.
Since you never tried the military career, it’s pretty ridiculous for you to say it couldn’t possibly have worked for you. For all you know, it could have been the most fulfilling career imaginable, something that at this point in your life you could look back on and say, “I sure am glad I did what that test told me to do.” But you’ll never know because you were (and still are) too close-minded to try it.
Ben you are right. There were times when I was working in corporate America I thought it would be better if it was run like a military organization. Clear hierarchy, clear objectives, and where I could bark orders at people without them filing complaints. Can you imagine a soldier going to HR to complain that his Sargent wasn’t friendly or PC enough? Maybe I would have made a good General after all. I’m pretty sure I could clean up that mess in Afghanistan. Give me two weeks and I could do it. Do they let you get mani/pedi’s in the service?
Spoken like someone who has never been in the military (no offense). The Military is not the bastion of efficiency as it is depicted in the movies. The military’s answer to everything is to throw more man-hours at a problem, whether or not it makes any sense. You have never lived until you have over 3 years of training under your belt as a nuclear operator and have to interact with someone in charge of you that doesn’t understand how an evaporator works.
You don’t know government waste until you experience the joys of a shipyard overhaul.
Some handy career tips:
If the career involves wearing a hairnet or a uniform shirt with your name on it, you should probably have a backup plan.
If the job pays minimum wage but still requires an MBA, you should probably have a backup plan.
If it’s a senior management job working for a family owned business, you should probably have a backup plan.
If it’s a job working for a company about to be acquired, even if they promise that “everybody’s job is safe”, you should probably have a backup plan.
If you’re 50 and making a good buck, but your peer group consists of recently hired 20-year olds, you should probably have a backup plan.
If the job requires you to use your own car, you should probably have a backup plan.
If the job depends on government grants, you should probably have a backup plan.
If the job involves reporting to a 20 year old, you should probably have a backup plan.
If the job involves agriculture and requires fluency in Spanish, you should probably have a backup plan.
If the job depends on an elected Democrat staying in office, you should probably have a backup plan.
8. Based on a few trite and hackneyed points you read on-line.
Do some research. You might find, for example, if you hate math, accounting might just be your alley since, other than basic arithmetic, accountants really don’t live a world of mathematics at all.
Just realizing that you don’t know squat about most careers at 18 or 19 is quite liberating. I mean, it opens your eyes. Ben said it well.
People in general would prefer to do what they like, and they like what they’re good at. Independent contracting aside, these are not ascertainable or quantifiable propositions, but conclusions arrived at only over time in context of diverse practical experience.
Mistaking training for education is a kiss-of-death. The point is not what you do, but evolving a career reflecting aptitudes and competitive preferences. Philosophers call this “seeking the good life, well-lived.”
Given character, intelligence, integrity [big ifs], it’s easy enough to support oneself in comfort. But ambition demands more. We studied History, not as rote chronology but to discern characteristics of human nature over millennia in radically diverse milieus. Very educational.
Having been terrible at math in school, we’re now running a high-performance hedge fund applying an original, proprietary math/statistical algorithm based on crypto-intelligence techniques. No “aptitude test” would ever flag that outcome, but it’s what I wanted without even knowing it. Hola!
So true. Education is a lifetime experience, never stop learning.
“Following a passion” is a terrible idea and terrible advice. Passion is one of the many words the meaning of which has become redefined in contemporary useage. Passion is an unreasoning emotion that has gotten a huge number of folks into a huge number of bad and stupid situations. Extreme individual success, as experienced by Limbaugh or (ugh) Lennon or Jobs, is not a sound basis for determining a life path, but more like buying a Powerball ticket.
As a kid, I was an avid amateur naturalist and loved the outdoors (still do), but for a career? No. I also liked figuring out and fixing broken things. I went to medical school, had a wonderfully satisfying career trying, and often succeeding, to fix “broken” (seriously ill) patients, and only in mid-career figured out I was actually a naturalist, but of the human species instead of snail darters, etc.
Dr Tom,
So you were a naturalist after all! That’s exactly what I am suggesting…something about the things you love can be the key to something else that becomes your career. Not that you should go catch butterflies for a living, but that you love the science of nature, which you then combined with enjoying fixing stuff. That’s fantastic! You did it right! A perfect integration of your values!
Please do not poo poo passion for the youngsters (or the oldsters) or for yourself for that matter! There is no reason a passion career cannot be rational. Emotions come from ideas. No passions need go unexamined. There’s nothing inherently irrational about feelings at all. It’s the ideas behind them that can be crazy. So what I would say to someone who has a passion and wants to figure out a way to make a living at is…THINK!
There is lots of good advice in the comments. My own experience has been that that there are some basics to this:
Always be honest. Fulfill commitments. You will develop credibility, which is crucial in any job, career or business.
There’s a difference between a job and a career. A job is a means to an end, while a career can be an end in itself. Example: If you want to live in a particular place, you will need a job there to enable that. If you want a career, you may have to live places you might otherwise not chose (this is changing due to technology, but still generally true).
You don’t have to love what you do, but don’t keep doing something you hate; you’ll just make yourself and those around you miserable.
People say that money doesn’t matter, but it does…up to a point. As others have noted, if you’re living paycheck to paycheck in your 40′s, you’re not going to be happy, but once you’ve reached a certain income that satisfies your basic needs and wants, more money won’t make you any happier.
“Life is what happens to you while you’re making plans”. I couldn’t agree more. You have to be prepared for the fact that very little in your life will turn out as you planned or expected…..and that how you react to this fact will largely determine what level of happiness you will enjoy. I have a card that I carry with me (everyday for about 30 years now) that says “10% of life is what happens to you; 90% of life is how you react to it”. Words to live by.
I slipped into my college major because I wasn’t physically strong and I took the easy courses. I ended up teaching in a community college, and people tell my my knowledge was rare and helpful–not just the “I took it because it was easy” stuff. I ended up teaching remedial English and found I could raise student scores very quickly by the method I slipped into, based on my high school Latin, which was the best course I took in high school My son loved Latin and studied it seven years in junior and senior high school (private school, of course). So my career just evolved from what I could do easily and the educational experiences I had had “by accident”. And I had a great career although ended too soon by illness. I didn’t make much money though.
It took me 83 years to figure out what I what to be when I grow up — the highest paid coach in the NFL.
Einstein started as a patent clerk. He had a passion for science but he had to support himself somehow. The idea that you should “follow your dream” might obscure the fact that you should find a way to support yourself while doing it.
IB Bill’s comments were fantastic. I would add one piece of advice. That is, strive for excellence in whatever it is you do. There is virtue in hardwork. Not only does it improve your reputation, it is a skill in itself. You will not always have jobs you like or want to do but you will have to do them anyway. The problem with a lot of people is that they want to start at the top. What I mean by that is that people don’t want to do the jobs that get you to the top. Which was another great piece of advice from IB Bill, you will get paid to do the things others don’t want to do or can’t do. These are called opportunities. Anyway, strive to be the best at what you do and you will get more opportunities that are not always apparent at first.
This can help even in small ways in building a reputation.
Even if you don’t know what to do, if you do something well or get good feedback on what you are doing, it’s worth noting and developing for when you you decide to follow a particular path.
Even attitude helps, I think. That post above that said to “have a backup plan”. can’t always have one that works, but savings in the bank can help a lot!
My high school aptitude test suggested I should be a park ranger. Some days I wish I had done that.
In the many clever and insightful comments above, I notice that one attribute of more successful, happier Americans has yet to be mentioned. That’s not too surprising, as it’s an easy one to overlook.
The attribute I have in mind is mobility.
There are several kinds of mobility. All of them are valuable:
– Geographical mobility: Try to avoid decisions that will tie you down firmly to one locale. The most beloved of homelands can turn hostile faster than you can imagine. Ask anyone of European Jewish ancestry.
– Occupational mobility: Most of us have more than one skill that others will pay for. Keeping that “second arrow in the quiver” sharp and ready-to-hand could be the saving factor in many situations.
– Intellectual mobility: Getting locked in to a particular approach to…well, to anything can keep you from seeing opportunities and dangers soon enough to capitalize on the former and avert the latter.
– Emotional mobility: This is the Ace kicker to all other personal assets. There’s no such thing as a life without setbacks, disappointments, and grief. All these things have their hour, their appropriate responses, and their necessary adjustments. But any of them can become an inescapable wallow that prevents you from going on. Cultivating the ability to tell yourself “And this, too, shall pass away” even in the depths of profoundest sorrow is essential to dealing with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune…and bad decisions…and betrayals by loved ones…and the BLEEP!ing natural laws that punish bonehead moves like drawing to an inside straight or betting the pot at Acey-Deucy.
An old friend of mine has said on more than one occasion that until you have no idea where your next meal will come from, your life is a game. There’s no game in which mobility is anything but a valuable asset.
Ok, here’s how you do it. First, make your life all about consumption. Consume, consume, consume. Pretty soon your appetites and habits will be such that your desires cannot possibly be sated and the consumption will come impulsively and compulsively without thought. Closely following, absorbing and purchasing all the latest fads and trends will get you started on this quite nicely.
Next, and this will flow quite easily from your obsessive need to consume, be as selfish and self-centered as you possibly can. I mean, get while the getting’s good and even when it’s not so good. Don’t help or share with other people because that will detract from what you can get. Of course selfishness and self-centeredness are highly inclusive terms that permit deceiving, harassing and disappointing others if that serves to get what you want.
Now, once you’ve got the consumption lifestyle and sociopathic selfishness mastered, the litigation business is probably the most lucrative and satisfying career you can get into. Of course this doesn’t mean spend a fortune and the better part of a decade on college and law school. Be serious. I’m talking about claims. Are you a female who had sex with a man? File charges for rape. The criminal penalties are so high he won’t possibly risk taking the case to a jury and he’ll cop a plea. Then you can sue him and if he is, say, a football player or some other high profile person, there will surely be other potential defendants with deep pockets. Are you a member of a protected class and employed? Well then you’ve obviously been harassed at some point and the government might even bring your case for you. Cha-ching! Have you been hurt by a totally useful and safe product while using it for something it was never intended? Cha-ching! I could go on all day here. It would be easier for you to simply contact the American Trial Lawyers Association or the EEOC. If you are the age of a traditional college student then you have lived long enough to have been victimized by now. One of the helpful and zealous members of ATLA, the EEOC and/or their state analogs can advise how you may have an exciting future in this thriving litigation industry. (Helpful tip: business dress may be required for your deposition and court hearings, which is a potential barrier to entry. Your lawyer can front you the money, but don’t go blabbing to the state Bar ethics commission.)
Definitely build marketable skills and try to use them. But if that is time consuming and bothersome for you, then simply whine a lot about how unfair it is that others can do stuff and you can’t. There are government officials and community activists eager to take your petulant (and hopefully high-pitched) whining and convert it into federal legislation to make your life easier, and if they can’t do that then maybe they can bully some industry into giving you free education, low interest loans guaranteed by a government entity, or some other benefit that most other people have to work for.
Yes, bad things happen to people. That is why we have tort lawyers and the EEOC. If something bad happens to you, tort lawyers and/or government employment law enforcers will make it very lucrative for you to turn those lemons into the sweetest of lemonades you ever tasted.
Avoid debt. But if avoiding debt gets in the way of your consumption then it is bad advice in your case. You can always discharge the debt in bankruptcy or make the creditors chase you until they decide you’re not worth it. If possible, set the creditors up to violate some fair debt collection practices statute (or lie about how they violated it). This will put creditors on the defensive and allow you to expand your career in the litigation business.
Yes you need money, and you will get tired of being broke. That’s what parents and other family are for. The first approach with parents is to explain a great opportunity and con them into “loaning” you the seed money. Once you’ve pissed that money away you can then work a guilt angle, explaining to them that your life is a miserable wreck because of them. If you have children, the guilt angle works extremely well on grandparents (be sure to tell how your kids are suffering). This may motivate them to give you money without even the whole “loan” pretense. You can work both of these angles on all siblings, cousins, etc., with whom you have so much as a speaking relationship. This is only a temporary career, though, because even your family will soon disallow from even entering their homes.
The most important thing about your career is that it allow you time to do drugs, play your acoustic guitar, play hoops at the playground with your friends, or simply hang out on the corner with large beer or a bottle of lemon vodka. You’ve seen those scam ads for “Make $$$ At Home.” Don’t get conned by those, man. Get those tort lawyers, government agencies and community activists working for you, and that is the career of the future.
Plastics. Pfff. Right.
Now you tell me.
Well, a variation of these tactics worked for the Obamas!!!
Sponsorship, affirmative action, academic pressure groups, white guilt, a fawning social structure, community activism, the works.
They did have to turn up for work though
IB Bill’s comments were excellent. The only thing I would add (or emphasize) is that satisfaction comes from within. Whatever you do, find something positive about it to enjoy… even if it is only enjoyment from doing a job well. Accept the negative for what it is, and it will have less impact on your life.
So basically you’ve eliminated all possible reasons for making a career choice at all…
Good Grief. You people.
Call us back when you have a map, compass and a rudder.
It takes, on average, close to 10,000 hours or something like 10 or 11 years to become extremely skilled at something, or extremely knowledgeable about it. That’s the average from several different studies and what-not. Some it may be less and for a few, much less. Same for the other end of the bell curve here.
Look at those, only a few years older than you, and have something like fame, or some recognition in what they do. Now step back, and look at their entire lives. Many an overnight success spend years, if not a decade learning and honing their skills.
Bill Gates “played” with computers from an early age, as did Steve Jobs with electronics. Many an actor in their mid-to late 20s started in theater and dramatics as kids. Same for many other professions and trades. It started “early.”
That’s not to say you can’t excel later in life, a famous painter, nicknames “Grandma” Moses started painting as a way to decorate her growing family’s sparse house when she was a young farm wife and mother. She received recognition in her 70s when most people “retire.” That was over 50 years to hone her talents.
Teachers and instructors spend many years on your side of the desk, before standing up in front of the classroom. In any occupation, career or job, there is a period of learning the basic skills to do the required tasks. But the tasks are not the end, only the beginning.
I find it funny that with actual unemployment in double digits that people still throw around phrases like “do what you love” and “dream job”.
Better advice: Quit thinking that your career is your life. In fact, quit thinking about careers in general. You are not meant to find your fulfillment in a job. If you’re a man, think, “What can I do, which would be a decent thing to do, which actually needs to be done, and which I can do with some real skill, so as to help me support a wife and children?” Then do it. Your life is not your job.