What do you want to do with your life?, careers Options

[CandyPop]

I have no idea on what career I want to do. I am not really good at anything. I have to figure out what I want to do now because i'm starting college this fall. When ever I take those surveys to find out what careers best fit you, my results always include that I am more of a creative person. The only problem, is that most jobs today seem like they don't pay much for being creative unless you are REALLY good. I am mediocre when it comes to web designing, drawing, and writing stories. I'm no good.

I did want to be a psychiatrist but I stink at talking to people. I get very nervous around people I don't know. And I am thinking about becoming an accountant but I am horrible at math and critical thinking.

I just finished taking a skills test, and my results were horrible. They said that I could be a maid, or a restaurant waitress. That just took a large toll of my self-esteem. =( When people siad that I am smart, they were lying...

I just don't know what to do. I really don't want to just pick any career and end up hating it. I want a career that I know that i'll like.


If you ever were in my position, what did you do to figure out what career fits you the best?

[tokyo-rose]

lol usually when people write more than a paragraph it becomes tl;dr for most people.

this is important... the sticking with it part. that's the problem with me. there's a lot of things i like or want to do but i'm too lazy to stick with it when the going gets tough.

I know, but that's why I broke my reply up into multiple parts. I know that my eyes kind of glaze over and/or I start to skim when a long chunk of text isn't separated into paragraphs.

There must be one interest/passion you have that you'd be willing to fight through and make a career out of. I have a lot of interests (e.g., reading, writing, helping people with problems/just listening to them vent, certain practices of law, and photography) and have considered copyediting, publishing, counseling/therapy, and photojournalism as possible careers, but I know that copyediting and writing are what I'm best at, so I've narrowed my job choices down to what is realistic for me and that I really don't think I'll ever tire of: book copyediting/publishing or paralegal/lawyer. I remember your saying that you don't think you're cut out to be a doctor and wanted to switch over from premed, but that you don't know what else you could do since you don't have a strong enough portfolio of artwork?

=( I'm sorry that I didn't reply to your post first. I only got to read half of it because I had to go somewhere. I do appreciate that you have took the time to write that for me. I 'm not that kind of person to overlook things like that. Thank you very much.

I'd love to, but like I said, i'm not that great. And I don't know where or how I could improve. I tried taking art at my school, and the teacher wasn't that great so I didn't learn anything. And I took web design this year, and all we learned was how to use Dreamweaver. My teacher didn't feel like teaching us HTML or CSS. But I did learn how to use Flash.

It's okay, at least now I know you read it. You're welcome, and I hope you can find something you can make a career out of.

A lot of people have natural talent for things that are marketable, but even more people have things they're just okay at and have to work to improve their skills for. Was that just a general art class you took? Because if so, that and your web design course sound like they were limited in what you learned in them. Your teacher is just lazy and shouldn't be allowed to teach if s/he didn't want to teach you those important elements of design, wth. Bad, uncaring instructors can often discourage students from doing what they like or wanting to learn more, so don't let this one teacher tell you what you can't do or sell you short.