Career help - I am a complete mess.

[JAVO]

To further confuse you, my degree is in psych, but I work with computers. (I'm omitting even more potentially career-confusing details. )

 

[Chloe]

. How about becoming an artist?

I would, but i doubt i have any artistic talent. Shocking, I know

.

Applied mathematics on the other hand has crossovers with engineering or science (including computer science). How much do you know about computer science or engineering? Programming and engineering is very much applying pre-established algorithms over and over again. There is both attention to detail and creativity required, but this usually has to do with the compromises involved, rather than, say, elegance of the problem. These fields can sometimes seem exciting as an outsider and potentially mundane as an insider (depending on your preferences).

its probably the bolded in my case, it seems all exciting because it is unknown and new. If i didnt learn from my many failures I would probably just go for it thinking how "that is it" because I feel drive, but it happened few times and everytime is the same - I am distracted by something new.
I know very little programming that I learned in HS.

I think it is a big mistake to concentrate on 'safety' or mix of science/math when choosing a career. What you need to consider is what those in the field actually do and whether you can put yourselves in those shoes. In terms of scientific fields, the papers that are written. In terms of engineering, the procedures that are followed to complete a project. Medicine has a huge range of possible niches in that regard, but you still have to waste a lot of time 'paying your dues' practising on the frontline until you can work towards those niches.
And so it goes for all the other possible careers.
Next, once you have narrowed down the list, you will need to ask people in those careers lots of questions. From the proportions of time spent on each aspect of their jobs, what frustrates them most about their job, to future career prospects. The only way you will really know what you are getting yourself into is by talking to real people in those fields. And that means that you will need to contact people who aren't on forums like this one. Don't get caught up on career questionnaires or career advisors either, nothing substitutes for talking to real people and putting yourself in their shoes.

If you have a month to decide, then you should be spending much of that time solving this question, rather than deciding prematurely.

Thanks for advices, I talked to few people who have careers in different fields of psychology - I am not smarter. Its because I fluctuate from being few months in mood "i wanb to help people, make a difference , blah blah" and between not caring AT ALL about that kind of things and just wanting something exciting, new, possibly where I can have power and dominance.



I was just approached by my mother today asking me if I am sure in my deciaion about psychology. Of course I lied and told her I was 100% sure to make her calm.

 

[Chloe]

To further confuse you, my degree is in psych, but I work with computers. (I'm omitting even more potentially career-confusing details. )

so do u have ms or bs in psychology? why u dont work in a field?
here it is very very rare to have only bs, maybe 1 in 200, probably the reason why most of them work in the field.



I was extremely excited and sure of my choice of psychology from septembar 2010 until 3-4 weeks ago. now when it is getting close I started to lose interest. I think this could be commitment issue...
like when I was in med school I wanted to quit and become a stewardess, travel... once i actually quitted I got really nostalgic of learning, missed books etc.

 

[redcheerio]

Somewhere in the thread you called yourself an NF, but you sound more like ENTP to me. If you are NF, I would guess hugely NP of some kind. I'm ENTP, and hugely NP, so can relate.

Most of us have the same problem of huge difficulties choosing a career because we just want to learn a little bit of everything, and as soon as we start getting good at something and knowledgeable, we become bored with it and want to move on to something else.

I would suggest looking for something that will give you lots of flexibility to work in different fields. For example, I'm an engineer getting bored with my field, but recently discovered that management consulting is a common second career for smart people who learn quickly, and it allows a lot of flexibility because you get to work in different fields. I never thought I would be interested in business, but it sounds exciting because they do a lot of strategic thinking, which is my favorite kind of thinking.

I've also discovered that a lot of things that seem boring at first are only boring at the basic level, but much more interesting at the higher levels, or more interesting when mixed with other disciplines. Another example of this phenomenon would be economics. I NEVER thought I'd find economics or statistics interesting, the basics seem like the most boring thing you could possibly do with math skills. But now that I've read books like Freakonomics, I realize that when you take it to a higher level and mix it with other disciplines, creativity, and independent thought and analysis, it actually becomes pretty fascinating, with potential for new discovery.

Another possibility that might work for you is computer programming, since it requires a lot of learning and skill, and can be applied to so many different fields. So you pick something that requires a lot of skill like that, but that also can be applied in many different ways, to help keep you from getting bored.

There may also be other solutions, but that's all I can think of for now. However, I think your latent genius probably lies in some kind of interdisciplinary studies. You may have to create your own career path.

Do it!

 

[skylights]

i am in the same position... everything in isolation is boring... it is only when things mix that it starts to get fun... freakonomics is excellent.

but no one takes interdisciplinary degrees seriously, not where i live anyway. creating your own career path is a good idea... but how...?

 

[redcheerio]

i am in the same position... everything in isolation is boring... it is only when things mix that it starts to get fun... freakonomics is excellent.

but no one takes interdisciplinary degrees seriously, not where i live anyway. creating your own career path is a good idea... but how...?

Yeah, it was cool, hey? If I'd read it in high school, I might have pursued some kind of similar mix of economics and statistics or something like that.

I agree about interdisciplinary degrees, unless it's a double major of some kind, but you don't necessarily have to go that route.

I really have no idea the best way to pull it off. Neither does anyone else, which is why it's not that common. I think it is becoming more common, though. It seems like people who have pulled it off didn't plan it that way, they kind of got lucky by just chasing their various interests and finding some unique way to combine them into something awesome that they loved.

I would guess that they usually go to school for one discipline, and then somehow pick up work experience and maybe on-the-job training for another, and then find a way to combine the two. Also some interdisciplinary fields take people with one background and trains them in the other. My (INTJ) husband is a good example of this - he works as a computational biologist, which means he writes computer programs that model genetic mutation. He studied statistics, maybe also computer programming, and learned about molecular biology on the job.

 

[kyuuei]

Hm. Have you considered teaching?? Having a talent in something may mean you could help others with it.. Psychology ties into that with the way people learn, and helping people in a way you're comfortable with and confident in could lead to something better... I'm not sure why you picked medicine, no one should ever go into medicine 'just because'..

Good luck with whatever you decide. I didnt read the rest of these comments before posting so sorry if this has been mentioned @_@

 

[Chloe]

I have 1 week left to decide. Not that I am smarter than 3 weeks ago... I didnt write nthis thread bc I was running away from thinking about this, I feel like with thinking and analysing i cant even figufe ou what is good for me; it is always different in practice than what you can get from analysing. After all, there is no right career for me because i dont want to "settle down". I wrote maybe 20% of careers I tried in the last few years in this thread.

I like redcheerios post, exactly the way ive been thinking for months before this after i really did good analysis about all this - definately interdisciplinary studies is what is most exciting for me.

I concluded (before) that psychology is the best choice for reason that I am attracted to changing systems, improving them, that is probably my only lasting passion. For example, I'd like to be a part of the team who reforms educational sector. After doing that for few years Id like o switch for somethig new, a new project. Economy was always very appealing to me, I can safely say I have business in my blood, but getting a degree in economics here is completely worthless because almost everybody gets one, its the worst degree, and also it is incomplete for me because i think "well what if i want to have some kind of socialscience career ?!"
this is why i thought psychology is the best because lately there is a lot of connection between psychology and business. Also, I could go to MS economics after a BS in psychology, and couldn vice versa (BS conomics -> MS psychology).
What repulse me from psychology is that I am not enthusiastic about helping people, that is nice thing o do but it looks boring to do ONLY that. It is too feelery and not enough space for action.

 

[redcheerio]

Cool! Have you talked to any career counselors?

It might be a good idea to pay to go to a professional career counselor in your city (if you have any $ saved up or if your parents are willing to pay), rather than the free one at your high school. The ones in the city see a lot more careers, and they deal with adults who switch careers, which is probably a lot more insightful than just shuffling high school students into standard career paths, with no accountability to worry about.

It sounds like you're looking at the degree options from all the right perspectives of what you can do with them in the future. Don't worry about whether you would use your degree the same way as most others would use it, just make sure that you can in fact use it the way YOU want to, and ideally, that it allows you the flexibility to choose from multiple options later on as you get a better idea of what you want to do.

Good luck!

Are you excited about going to uni? I sure as hell was when I got out of high school, uni was possibly the best time of my life :linedance:

(...aside from exam time )

 

[Octarine]

this is why i thought psychology is the best because lately there is a lot of connection between psychology and business.

Most of the fields of psychology has very little to do with business. The field you would be interested in is 'industrial psychology', which is also very competitive as it is one of the few psych fields that doesn't completely suck. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_psychology
By the way, whatever you choose, make sure you are into it - ask your profs for summer work or get internships after 2nd year etc as this could be the difference between securing one of the few cosy niche positions and a sucky job.