I honestly don't know what I can do with my narrow skillset.
Get some real-world experience. I kept learning new skills "on the job". That's how I vastly expanded my skillset: saw problems, researched solutions, fixed the problems. Based on a cursory glance at your post history, your main problem seems to be that you think too much.
I honestly don't know what I can do with my narrow skillset.
academia
Why narrow anything? You don't need to be an expert in any one thing. In fact, Brené Brown notes that the most wholehearted and happy people don't limit themselves to one thing, but have several different things.
I know a lot of things about a lot of areas. But I am am expert in none, even if I am better at it than experts in some of the fields.
I would suggest finding something you wouldn't mind working at for a job, but then keeping your options open and develop hobbies in other areas.
You could do a few good exercises as well:
1. What do you like? Write a list of everything you like doing or would like to do. See how you can incorporate these into your life through career or hobbies.
2. Find your life purpose exercise. First, clear your mind be finding an peaceful spot without distractions. Then take a few minutes to meditate or just breathe and be still. Then start writing what you feel your life purpose is, without thinking about it. Keep writing, until you have a list.
You might need to refine the list a little, and repeat the exercise, but eventually you will write something that feels correct, or closer to correct. Then repeat it some more.
You should eventually get a solid mission statement for your life. Build your career around it.
If you ever feel stuck, revisit the exercise.
I honestly don't know what I can do with my narrow skillset.
I'm infamously socially inept and disorganized, but I always tested very well. There is even a trope in popular culture regarding my troubles:[MENTION=18694]Magic Qwan[/MENTION]: for being a good student, you learn:
Time-management/prioritizing
How to deal with authority figures in a somewhat productive/efficient manner
How to figure out what others want from you/follow criteria, rules
How to work at least somewhat efficiently in groups
How to be organized
How to present ideas effectively
These are all good skills to have to use as a launching pad for other things.
being a student =/= working in academia
No, but it can mean you know a decent a bit about how academia works and a solid chunk of information in a given field. I would hate being a researcher, but not every professor researches. Some just teach. Granted, it's not the easiest thing in the world to get into, but it's a thing.
Words
Did I say that it would make students experts in this and qualified to teach a subject just by being a student? Um no. Where do you see that in my comment? But it is quite likely that in their time as a student, they might gain some understanding of the background behind what it means to teach. Maybe the average frat guy-type student that drinks his way through college wouldn't know anything about anything, but many students will probably have some sort of knowledge of some of the system before the graduate.
Being a teaching assistant at my university has shown me a bit about the behind the scenes of the professor running the course, the politics behind teaching their, etc. Does that mean that I know enough to be the professor? Of course not. But I know a fuckton more about teaching my particular subject at a university than I do about becoming a politician, building a house, writing a program in a computer language, etc.
What you're saying: "I've studied something about something so that makes me more qualified to teach it because I have some idea about where to start". Well, duh.
You mentioned becoming a professor and not doing research and that it's "a thing" even if it is not easy, and what I'm saying is that the gap between studying something at the undergraduate level and becoming a professor to teach is the equivalent of starting at the same place and becoming a politician/building a house/everything else that you're NOT trained to do. By all means, TA away. But it is NOT a career path. Which is what the OP was asking for directions in.
1. OK, this is where I have a problem - throwing out "any direction" and asking why it's "totally unhelpful". There are a million different possibilities in the world, I could as easily suggest working starbucks because "many graduates do that" and ask why that's completely unhelpful.1. If the OP wants to have literally any direction, then it's something to at least casually glance at. I don't see why the suggestion was seen as totally unhelpful.
2. That isn't entirely what I meant. That is part of it yes, but I'm saying that as a student, many of us gain some understanding of the academic system in addition to base knowledge on a subject.
?? Not every professor has a PhD if you're trying to imply that they do. Many have master's degrees, which are typically 2 year degrees. Obviously there is more to it than that, but it doesn't necessarily take a lifetime.
Why they hell would I be saying that a teaching assistant is a career path? That's nonsensical. I was merely indicating how I gained some more knowledge of the system behind academia.