How did you choose your career path?

[gshoemate]

I feel like I am stuck in time. I just don't know what to do with myself. I am a stay at home mommy but I have a great part time job that I do from home. But I feel like I was meant to do more, I just don't know what.

I never went to college. I was supposed to join the Air Force after graduation but I moved to the city and was able to get out of the Air Force. I have worked many differant jobs....fast food, cashier, many positions at a large bank from customer service to Programmer trainee, accounting office at Wal-Mart and currently I write reports for legal software. But I don't see myself doing this for the long haul.

I feel like there is more out there for me but I just don't know what. How do you know what is a good career path. How do you know that you won't spend 4 years in college to get a degree in and when you finally get it, your not interested in it anymore. I am so confused. I don't even know where to start. Any suggestions anyone can give....I would love to hear them.

 

[Disney Doll]

Pretty much from the time I was a kid, I always knew I wanted to be a nurse.

 

[oogieboogie]

I kind of fell into the job. I kinda knew I wanted to work in marketing but I didn't know I would be managing a customer database. Since I worked in a 3 person marketing department and I was the only one with a good computer experience, I was hired to manage the customer database, which I still do now in a different job.

I like what I do, so I think this is a perfect fit for me, so I think I'll make a career out of it.

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

I'm kinda in the same boat. I'm a stay at home mommy. Been one since I left college so I've never had a career. We started young because we were warned I would have trouble having kids... which I did and I'm unable to have anymore. So I sure wouldn't change that, but I am starting to feel very restless. I worked a part time job on and off last year in retail until we moved and greatly enjoyed meeting new friends who weren't stay at home moms just like me, but didn't care for the work so much. Now I want something a little more permanent and fulfilling, but I don't have any clue what. And I'm afraid that if I took a big leap into a full time career I'd just want to be home with my kids. I think I'd love to be a travel agent... but no clue how to get started on that.

 

[goin2disneyagain]

I'm still trying to figure this out myself. I keep changing my mind on a "career."

 

[caitycaity]

How do you know that you won't spend 4 years in college to get a degree in and when you finally get it, your not interested in it anymore.

this happened to me. i knew that i wasn't interested in a career in my college major before i graduated. but my degree was a social science degree, and i knew i could get a generic entry level job in a wide range of places with a social science degree.

so i started looking at a lot of job listings. i worked part time at a place so i could pay the bills while i looked for a job that sounded interesting. i ended up taking a job that sounded interesting and paid well, but had nothing to do with my college degree. they just wanted someone who had a degree. luckily, i really enjoyed what i ended up doing. i've decided that i don't like exactly what i'm doing, so i'm going to get my master's so that i can have more options within my field.

for me, it's been an evolution (to use a touchy word around here tonight ). i think you just have to start somewhere and keep refining things until you are doing what makes you happy.

 

[TigerBear]

I haven't read it but I have heard good things about a book called What Color is Your Parachute?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_1/002-8748865-5494426?v=glance&s=books

Good luck to you!

 

[Mr.MouseFan]

I just figured out what I want for a career not too long ago. My love of planning trips and traveling to WDW helped me realize <sp?> that I wanted to work in the travel industry. And so, this past week, I signed up for online classes to become a travel agent. Wo0 Ho0!

 

[chrissyk]

I always knew that I wanted to be an engineer. I just wanted to be a different flavor of engineer than what I ended up being. That was my dad's choice unfortunately (he was paying for my degree), but I don't really have any regrets in retrospect. I ended up liking my engineering jobs just fine.

Now I want to be a high-school math teacher, so I'm working to get into FL's accelerated certification program (Time to Teach). I figure that I had a good career as an engineer in my 20's, and now I can afford to take a lower-paying job where I can share my experiences with kids who might not have considered math/science oriented careers

 

[Danauk]

I knew from aged 8 that I wanted to study music and become a teacher. I slightly changed my mind at university though and decided to teach 7 - 11 year olds instead of 11 - 18. But I still teach music as well as lots of other subjects.

 

[Strawberry Lemonade]

I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Psychology (everyone's favorite useless degree) and sort of fell into my current position. I was working in the childcare field and one of the parents asked me to work for her. I took the job and now edit & write communications for a small company (writing is a passion of mine, but there was no way I wanted to major in English).

I also answer mental health hotlines for this company so I can't say I don't use my degree!

 

[crz4mm2]

I did hair for a few years after high school (my mom didn't want me to work in a factory, and I couldn't afford college, so that was the only other option). I went to work at a Podiatrist's office and loved the office surgery so went to college to be a nurse. Ended up in Labor and Delivery and hated turning over the patient at the end of labor for the doc to do the delivery so went back to school to be a midwife.
I used to say there were two things I NEVER wanted to do: teach and be a nurse.... Now I do both

 

[brerrabbit]

"Life is what happens while your planning your future". I kind of feel like that quote describes my career. In HS in Houston on the southeast side of town lots of the kids I grew up with had dads that worked at the refineries and chemical plants. They made good money and I as well as a lot of my friends always thought we would finish HS and go to work in the plants. Well lo and behold my senior year I get a scholarship to go to college. I figure great, four years to party and then off to the plants. Well once again in my senior year of college I look around and everyone on campus at U of H are going to on campus interviews. So I figure why not and go to a few. In March of 1982 I find myself working in downtown Houston for Tenneco in the Gas Pipeline Division. One thing leads to another and after tours of duty at Enron (the evil empire) another pass through Tenneco and several other energy trading companies I find myself without a job and in an industry that has shrunk about 80%. I get a finance job with another major oil company and now 22 years after my first job I am content to just do a good job, collect a good paycheck and enjoy life with my family. Not anything I ever planned for.