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Comments

• exixx@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’m in my 60s for reference.

  There’s nothing that you need to be doing from my perspective. See if there’s a few classes related to your hobbies or interests that you feel like taking. If not, don’t. There’s nothing at all wrong with taking the time to figure yourself out, taking a couple interesting classes to further your own interests might help that. Maybe take a part time job somewhere just to meet people. If you don’t like it, quit. Maybe read the book one of the other posters mentioned to figure out what you’d be good at, see if any of that sounds interesting. At your age, you have lots of time, take it

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• Contramuffin@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I find that high school really doesn’t expose you to many of the most interesting fields and careers out there, and the subjects that it does expose to you are typically taught at a very basic, foundational level. To put it simply, I strongly believe that you and many other people in your situation don’t know what they’re passionate about because they don’t even know it exists.

  I think it’s the fault of the school system for not working harder to show the intricacies of actual careers, but for now, we just have to deal with what we’re given.

  We can try guessing what sorts of things you may like if you tell us a bit more about yourself. What sorts of things are you passionate about (ie, hobbies, obsessions, interests, favorite subject in school), and why do you feel passionate about it?

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• untakenusername@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  make some money to save for when you get some dreams and ambitions

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• AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’ve discussed work/careers with a lot of people around your age over the years. Here’s what I end up saying - it’s broader than your specific situation, but includes it:

  • If there’s something that you’re so passionate about that you’ll do it as an unpaid hobby, you might as well take a shot at making money from it. If it’s something like art or music, where there’s a huge amount of competition and only a tiny percentage are able to sustain themselves from it, you should have a Plan B, and set yourself some guidelines for long you’ll try it, but you might as well give your a go if it’s a passion.

  • If there’s nothing you’re super passionate about, but a number of things you enjoy, you should take some time to look into what a career in each of those things is like. What are the hours, what is the typical pay, etc. Pick the one that fits with a lifestyle that clicks with you.

  • If you don’t have anything from either of the two above, do you have any skills or aptitudes that are sellable? For instance, if you’re good at math, you might be a good fit for accounting. If you’re good with your hands, you might consider a trade skill like plumbing or mechanic. You funny have to be passionate about those things to have a good job doing them.

  • If you have zero from any of the above, look for a job that wouldn’t suck after some years. A business that’s willing to take untrained people, doesn’t chew them up and spit them out, and that has room for advancement so that you have some possibility of increasing pay over your career.

  There are lots of big chain retail stores that will take people right out of high school, but for many of them their model is to train you up quickly, load you up with responsibility, promote you if you work out well, and then within a couple years start cutting your hours to drive you away because they can get a new high school kid for cheaper.

  There are lots and lots of jobs and businesses that just suck, and you want to position yourself to not be in them. Most people don’t have something they’ve always wanted to do and are super passionate about. It’s fine to have a job vs a career, but you don’t want to find yourself at 40 slaving away at a shitty job for little pay, wishing you’d gotten a degree in one thing or another so you could be working fewer hours for more pay. And I’m not saying it’s all about money, but lack of a living wage is a real problem for a lot of people.

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• Impromptu2599@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I would suggest still going to school and get a generalized degree like business administration or something similar. This will give some me time to find that passion, but will also give you a starting point. After you gain some experience in something, what you got a degree in seldom matters in my experience. As you get out and experience me things in life you hopefully will find that passion or passions that you want to turn into your career. Don’t worry if what you are passionate about changes either, that is just you maturing.

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• Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’m not really passionate about anything.

  That’s nothing to blame. Many young people need a year more or a few before they know what to do with their lives.

  My suggestion is to donate a year of your time to charity. You are going to gain lots of valuable experience, and see some parts of society that you could not have seen otherwise.

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  • Deifyed@lemmy.ml ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That is also a sign of depression. Not saying OP has it, but might be worth talking the time to exclude it

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• Coreidan@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  If you aren’t dead set on a career choice then university will be a waste of your time and money.

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• Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  In my experience it’s important to spend enough time away from escapism. That includes basically all forms of entertainment where you’re not creating anything yourself. Especially social media. I’m 29 now and my own maturing process only kicked off a few years ago when I stopped distracting myself with other people’s ideas and started listening to what’s going on inside of me. Maybe you don’t know what you’re passionate about because you haven’t haf enough first hand experience. It’s not something that reveals itself to you without some trial and error.

  Also you don’t need to figure out a career that will suit you for the rest of your life. Just find something that seems doable and kinda interesting for like the next 5-6 years. People fine tune their careers all the time or even do something entirely new after a while. No need to put more pressure on yourself than the decision actually requires.

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• ClanOfTheOcho@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  “Get paid doing something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life!” Yeah, it sounds great, and a small handful of people accomplish it. For most people, this advice will just ruin what they love by turning it into a job. My advice is to find something you don’t mind doing and it can pay the bills. I work with computers. I don’t love working with computers, but it’s fine, I like it. My hobbies get to continue being things I enjoy doing after work. I don’t recommend finding a passion to inspire you to work (or study, assuming you would plan to study something that would turn into a job qualification). Instead, find something that you merely like well enough but there is a demand for in the job market, and then use that to fund your future passions, long term goals, and some emergency savings.

  Btw, I don’t think your attitudes are unusual for your age. Large percentages of students begin university as undeclared majors and/or aimlessly switch their declared major many times over. And if homemaking really is your thing, consider taking classes and looking at majors that focus on cooking, nutrition, interior design, art, personal (or even business) finance.

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• MissJinx@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Here is the thing, it’s all about the future.

  Do.you think.I’m passionate about my work? hell no, but can I support myself without work?.No

  If your dad dies tomorrow, can you keep your lifestyle? If not you have to finding something you loathe the least to support yourself in the future. How will.you live when ypu’re 40/50?

  If you are wealthy and if you dad dies you got money to.support yourself forever, then my dude just fuck all this shit. Very little people work for plesure, we work because we need. If you don’t need don’t do.it.

  Jusr remember that 20 years from now for you to get a job.people will demand 20 years experience from you.

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• Alabaster_Mango@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Hello! I also have little drive or ambition compared to the standard portrayal in popular media. Lots of people act like what you’re “supposed to do” is keep grinding, push for promotions, be a type A or whatever. Nuts to that I say.

  Back when I graduated high school I didn’t know what to do either. I come from a small small town, and I’m good at math, so everyone said to become an engineer as that’s what all the “smart people” do. The schooling sucked for me, and I didn’t really want to pursue the kind of career that an engineer would have. I ended up flunking out of the first year. That killed my mental health and self worth. I do not recommend.

  What worked for me (but maybe not everyone) was to find topics I found interesting, and see what kind of jobs are available in those areas. I ended up going for electronics engineering technology (a technologist is kinda like a diet engineer) because I think it’s cool stuff, it was a shorter two year course, and there are a reasonable number of employers in my area who are hiring. I’ll probably never be “rich”, but I make enough money to not worry about food or housing, and I have time for my hobbies on the side.

  My biggest takeaway from my career so far is to not fall for “grind culture”, and to maintain a separation of your work and life. Do not make your job your whole identity. I’ve seen plenty of grinders burn out and hate their jobs/lives. I’ve also seen people who want to change careers, but they’re so caught up in their work that they don’t have the time or energy to change.

  If you’re unsure of what to do, shoot for something that will make you comfortable. Reasonable average pay, decent employment opportunities, and good work/life balance. Once you have that you can do some more soul searching over the next few years. Not everyone knows what they want to do at 20. The rest of your life is a long time, so don’t feel like you have to set it in stone now.

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• aberrate_junior_beatnik@midwest.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Go find a successful and ambitious person to fall in love with, marry, and be a happy male housewife.

  Fun fact: the word husband comes from house-bond, i.e. homeowner. So “house-husband” is in a sense redundant.

  Alternatively, find a job you are at least decent at and can tolerate. You don’t need to love your job and be passionate about it to be happy.

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• scytale@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  You mentioned you have hobbies and you travel. Maybe see if you can find a career path from those? I know there’s the risk of ruining a hobby by doing it for a living, but it might be worth a shot since you don’t have anything else in mind at the moment.

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• riskable@programming.dev ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Ah, so cute. Here’s what you need to do: Find what you like to do, then pick a realistic career path that you think you could do and do that instead. I highly recommend picking a career that lets you work from home. That way, you can skip the commute, do your laundry, and face existential dread at the same time; it’s better for the environment 👍

  Comfort and happiness are what happens after work. You have to work to attain it! It’s the capitalist dream.

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• Please_Do_Not@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  If you like food/eating, consider culinary courses and see if you like it as a discipline (just one example).

  I was in a very similar boat for years, and then I realized that at least 50% of the issue wasn’t not having an interest, it was failing to see the massive variety of jobs out there and how some can relate to sources of joy I already appreciate. And I was assuming that if I wanted to follow a passion, I had to be the best at it and ready/excited to do a bunch of unrelated things to get to the top.

  Pursuing a passion doesn’t mean starting a business, being the best at something, or achieving a goal you’ve had since 1st grade. It might be realizing that you like going to the beach a lot, and then seeing if town hall is hiring for Parks and Rec groundskeepers. Maybe it turns out you love the community garden plots you end up working on, too.

  Last note, it may be that you have to try a few jobs in order to find out what you do and don’t like about each, and therefore what you’re looking for in your ultimate career. This is another good reason to lower the stakes on your choice–it’ll be just as helpful to figure out what you don’t want to do with the first few experiments, and it may leave you with a constellation of job characteristics that point you in a specific direction. You find out you love spreadsheets and finding patterns in data, awesome, they need you anywhere. You find out you hate it and want to work completely offline? There’s a massive shortage of trade workers. All info is good info here, and remember it’s never too late for a pivot. Good luck!

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• Waldelfe@feddit.org ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Try out things. What you like to do isn’t always just something you always dreamed about. Finding a job you’re good at will make you like it. That doesn’t have to e something connected to a school subject. I was always very organized and I found out that I like working in project management. Had you told me in school about this job I’d probably have said it sounds boring. But I tried it by chance and it’s actually very satisfying because I get to plan and organize.

  You’ll never know if you don’t try. Get an entry level job, even if you don’t like it you might find out that you like certain aspects of it and get a better idea of what you like in a job.

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  • Reyali@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Adding onto this, there are way more jobs than you likely even realize or will learn about. Figuring out what you enjoy and are good at might help you figure that out, but sometimes you just need to get out there and start trying things. You may still not know just from college.

    I had never heard of one of the jobs I ended up getting (Business Analyst) and it introduced me to the career I’m in now: Product Management.

    Product Management requires me to communicate with folks of wildly different backgrounds (end users, software developers, designers, business execs, etc.) and I need to both understand their needs plus help them understand the same things as each other. To do so, I need to understand people and context and basically translate information through a those lenses. I also look at data and a wide array of opportunities then evaluate their priority. It’s a job that uses my natural talents and it’s genuinely fun for me.

    But I had no idea the role even existed until I was two years out of college and into the workforce, and still had little clue what the role actually did for two years after that.

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• Norgoroth@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Most people aren’t passionate about their careers unfortunately. I would start with volunteering at different places, it’s very fulfilling and might give you a sense of purpose. I volunteer at an animal shelter occasionally with labor oriented stuff (unloading trucks, sorting pet food for distribution, etc.). Don’t even interact with the animals much hut I live helping them. Years back when I had free time I would volunteer more consistently with an after school program for disadvantaged kids. Once in a while I volunteer for beach and river cleanup. All very fulfilling honestly. All full time jobs associated with them. Not well paying but that’s not why people do it and sounds like you aren’t hurting for money.

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• spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The best thing about college is that for the most part a degree is a degree and only a few fields require one specific to that occupation. So if something seems interesting enough to complete the degree it will be useful for a lot of other fields too.

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• givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Don’t do what you’re passionate for as a living. Eventually you just start to hate it. At best become disillusioned with it.

  Do what you’re competent at that will make the most money. That will (hopefully) give you the free time and resources to do what you enjoy as a hobby.

  Your first year focus on the “gen ed” requirements that are required for every degree, a couple of intro classes in what you think will be a good fit that should count as electives even if not your major.

  Every Dept wants as many students as possible. So you can usually find professors willing to talk about their field and more importantly other students.

  Lots of people are “undeclared majors” officially their first year even, but you can still declare and easily switch.

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• Dagwood222@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Go get this book.

  “Discover What You Are Best At” by Linda Gail. It’s a series of self tests you can do in half a day, followed by a long list of jobs that use your particular skills.

  I got the book when I was on worker’s comp after an industrial accident. It pointed me at a job I’d never even considered. Turns out I really liked that job. It let me use my brains and paid a decent salary.

  Think of it this way. A nurse and a hair stylist both need good people skills and dexterity. Two totally different types of work, but the same skill set.

  If you have a job that lets you wake up on a rainy Monday and not hate going to work, you’ve solved most of your problems.

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  • otacon239@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    This was me, but with taking the test. I worked in customer service for nearly a decade when I switched to managing to entire inbound customer workflow for a small business.

    Sometimes you can do more than you think you could.

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  • hohoho@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    archive.org/details/discoverwhatyour00gale/…/1up?…

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    • Dagwood222@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      You kids and yio

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    • arin@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Ty, is there any modern guides ?

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• Lembot_0002@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Go to the factory. Feel how it is to toil the days off. That’ll push you to think harder. You’re too comfortable now and just have no immediate reason to change anything.

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  • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    This is the same brain rot as thinking that hitting your kids will motivate them.

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  • orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Hard work is not an embarrassing or negative thing. Factory workers should not be shamed. We’re all trying to get by.

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    • Asafum@feddit.nl ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I think it’s more of an underpay issue. I’m in a factory too and “topping out” here is like a hair away from what minimum wage should be. It’s disgusting what they look to pay.

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  • 134340@sopuli.xyz ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    [deleted]

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    • Guidy@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Because after twenty years of it your body will be wrecked.

      I work in IT and have multiple coworkers who actually work physically harder than I do (in their roles vs. mine) in their 60s. One is 65.

      Got lots of 65 year old factory or construction workers, do ya? And I’m talking about laborers, not supervisors etc.

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    • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Why?

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  • Alabaster_Mango@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That is a heckin’ weird mindset to me. Comfortable people can still have passions and drive. You don’t need to suffer to want something different. Plus, some people like working hard labor jobs, are they wrong to do so?

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    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Comfortable people can still have passions and drive.

      Sure, but OP is comfortable and is citing their lack of passions and drive as a problem they want advice for. They’re asking for confirmation that its okay to have no passions/drives or for actions that will change that.

      You don’t need to suffer to want something different.

      Where @Lembot_0002@lemm.ee is going here is that some temporary suffering may underscore with OP that they want something different than suffering which may act as motivation for them to choose a path to continue their easy lifestyle instead.

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    • Lembot_0002@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      So what is wrong with my advice? If he likes factory work – he’ll get the real taste of it. If not – it would be a stimulus to find something better.

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