How did you figure out what you want to do?

[Fractral]

I've been bouncing between maths and physics for a long time. When both my physics teachers fell ill at the same time just before my exams I decided I had a better chance with maths. Got a pretty good AS grade, with good supporting grades and I'm waiting on offers right now. I've always been good at maths, so something that capitalizes on it was the natural thing to go for. Beyond that my intention is to go on for further education as far as I can. My tutor keeps trying to convince me to go into finance ('I earn XX thousand pounds a year...') but I have a suspicion that doing that leads to an untimely death.

 

[TakeyB0y2]

About a year ago I started working on a machinima series with my friend as a hobby; he did the writing and voice directing, I did the recording and editing. While working on this I discovered... I'm really good at video editing.

So now I'm planning on going to school in about a year or so to get a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science while minoring in film studies. I'm hoping to one day get into film/television post-production.

Captcha: "Make haste"... Thanks Captcha, but I REALLY don't want to feel rushed right now, thank you very much.

 

[Blue_vision]

It really is not as complex as it first appears. Decide what you want out of this life, and find out what you are capable of doing in order to achieve it.

In my case:
[snip]

Hah, my process of thinking was basically the exact same as this

That said, my path's been a lot less straightforward. I was extremely unmotivated in high school and got into a life sciences program at university (albeit more or less the life sciences program in the province, if not country) because medicine. After realizing my contempt for the biology courses I took in high school, I decided to go full out on social sciences in my first year. Halfway through, I realized that I was missing physical sciences, and I realized that engineering was a thing I could be really, really happy studying and applying later in my life. Unfortunately, my lack of any science education in first year meant I got rejected from the one engineering program I applied to. I settled with an economics-math degree for my second year studies, where I'm currently applying myself along with first year physics and chem courses. I've already got the marks to get into the school I want to, so I'm ready to settle into another 4 years of education (which is where I guess my advice becomes applicable.)

My motivation was that I wanted to do something that'd let me have a really positive impact on other people, where I could be as philanthropic as I wanted. My engagement in mathematics increased exponentially (hah) through high school and into university, and I've always really loved science. The kind of applications that really interested me; energy systems, transportation systems, economics, agriculture, and the like; gave me a good idea about what I would want to get out of my postsecondary education, and I realized that systems engineering and engineering mathematics were simply the highest common denominator for all the things I liked.

Having fully wasted a year of my life, and having wasted large parts of 4 years of my life, doing things that don't make me particularly happy, I will still say that it's not a bad thing to just be drifting. Keep an eye out for things that interest you, and in the meanwhile just go with the flow. Definitely, if there are any particular fields that interest you, go straight for those as much as you can. But don't feel bad for not knowing what you want to do right now.

My advice would be to take other people's expectations and ideas of what you should do with a grain of salt; don't think you should be doing something just because it's what others want you to do. But on the other hand, make sure you don't get locked into anything that doesn't motivate the hell out of you. It's always been my opinion that the most important thing in life is to do something you enjoy doing. If you don't know what that is, try and branch out. Take some online courses or read books about things you find interesting. Try some hands on stuff, talk to other people about what they like doing and what their life plans are. Or even take a leap of faith and just dive into something, if it doesn't put you at too much risk. And never think that it's too late to change paths and start doing the things that you like!

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I fucking didn't! I have no idea what I want to do all the while I'm watching my friends on Facebook and around me go on to better things. I know I wanted to work in the back instead of on the floor for my current job because of the last 5 or 6 years of customer service kinds of things I have done. I don't know what I want to do or indeed, what I can do and, enjoy doing. The only thing I knew leaving high school was that I didn't know what I wanted to do thus, didn't want to attend uni of any kind as I see it as a waste of money at the moment.

Spoiler: Whiny, Ranting, Self-loathing ahead

For whatever reason, people seem to expect a lot of me. Expect great things from me. "You're so talented", "You're so artistic", "You're going to do great things". Meanwhile, friends of mine who I went to school with are...no, it isn't friends plural, it's a friend. She just had a massive career boost and it hit me harder than I expected it to. She's basically living her dream and here I am completely unsure of what I even want to do with my life. I'm going to be 26 in a few months and I don't even know where step-one is! I've dabbled a bit when it comes to writing and still do as a hobby, I've dabbled a bit when it comes to drawing but I know I'm not at a level that would make me any money and although I've talked disjointedly about starting a Let's Play channel, the cost to set-up and maintain such a thing is currently beyond me. If I continue working a job I may be able to eventually afford it but then slowing down on the job front will keep me from paying for those other stupid fucking things that everybody has to pay for.
...
[sub][sub]I probably shouldn't compare myself and my life to that of a Japanese Pop Star...She goes by Tonkhai and recently released her first single but, I knew her in high school and, played some table-top RPGs with her and her family a few times. I miss the old days sometimes. I'm not going to say "I hate myself" but I convulsively think/say that from time to time anyway.[/sub][/sub]

 

[Reiper]

Good responses all, a lot of good advice and stories, I will see if I can give more detailed individual responses later.

I have been thinking a lot on what I want to do, and although I still have no clue, there is one thing that is really bugging me. Since I did relatively poorly in university (69% average), if I decide I want to do something later that involves any type of post-graduate work how do I overcome this?

It feels like a massive barrier, since I only have one semester left (two if you count the current one), any changes I can make to my average are minimal. Even if I got straight A's, it would probably only pull me into the low 70s.

Any thoughts on how something like that can be overcome?

 

[Ryleh]

I truly believed I was born to be an audio engineer or a musician but it turns out I'm terrible at both.
Though in pursuing this people identified that I'm good at photography and art, so now I do that because it beats working for other people.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

Double post. Crap.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

Played Mario Kart when I was roughly 10 or so and according to my parents I've wanted to make them ever since. My main strength being art I figured that I wanted to be a concept artist, but since going to a school for "interactive entertainment" I've expanded my capabilities across the entire art pipeline, so I can do my own modelling and texturing. It's very much an Australian precedent that you have to be a jack of all trades to an effective artist as opposed to America where everyone is specialised.

But Australia?s game industry is in the can, so me and a couple of other graduates have come together to form our own indie studio. We've almost got our first major title done for IOS and a personal project we started a couple of years ago that is slated to be finished next year. It's rough goings if you haven't worked in the industry before and haven't released Minecraft, but we're trying.

You also learn things like whilst it?s free to self publish on the Xbox One, you need a $7,000 licence to release on the PS4. Talk about stemming product quality.

 

[Artina89]

I have always wanted to be a scientist ever since I received my first science encyclopedia at the age of 5. My grandfather was an engineer and I would always bug him to teach me basic physics and engineering. In high school I found that I had an affinity for biology and chemistry, so when I got my GCSE's and A-levels, I started to read Biochemistry and biological chemistry at the university of Nottingham and graduated in 2011. Nowadays I work as a biochemist and I love my job, I am afraid that I can't really help you in your quandry other than to try new things, you may find enjoyment in the most unlikely of places. For example, a friend of mine studied environmental science at university, and ended up working as a health and safety inspector and she loves it, but if you asked her if she expected to work in that field, she would say that she is just as surprised as anyone that she ended up working in that field and is getting enjoyment out of it.

 

[Barbas]

I remember watching a TV show when I was a child in which the host would dedicate a few short minutes at the end of the programme to displaying some of the art viewers had sent in. He held up a simple painting of some stickmen in a field, delightedly proclaiming, "This was sent in by Jessica, aged nine!", and I remember thinking, "That's a shit painting, Jessica."

That was when I knew I wanted to be a bastard.

On a serious note, I have always enjoyed drawing and writing, sometimes painting, as long as it doesn't involve people looking over my shoulder. Machines fascinate me, especially computers, which is handy, because someday I'm really going to have to learn how they work and how to work with them.

 

[EHKOS]

Kinda at that bit and it's fucking terrifying. Then again I am handicapped by my mind...

Sitting tight in an apartment wondering what I should do. I guess I find the malfunction of Psychology fascinating so I might as well aim for Forensic Psychologist. Unfortunately they don't have real interviews with asylum patients available to the internet or general public, I'd love to hear some.

 

[generals3]

As per the title, how did you figure out what you wanted to do when you "grew up".

I am currently facing this quandary, but the problem for me is that I am "grown up". I am about to graduate from my undergrad, with an ever so useful arts degree that I didn't really love, and I still have no clue what I want to do.

Life has always been so structured, there has always been an obvious "next-step" and path to follow, be it school, summer jobs or university. Now though, I realize I am about to go "off-road", and it seems like a terrifying prospect.

I have one more semester of school and then I am done, just drifting with no clue how to proceed. I considered post-grad stuff, but I never took school seriously like an idiot, so my marks are mediocre. In addition I didn't even really do an undergrad I loved, so how could I trust myself to choose a profession or graduate program.

Anyway, I have rambled a bit, how did you figure it out? What can I do to figure it out?

Well I just followed what interested me and let life do the rest. I loved economics/finance and science so i studied the only thing which offered that, Commercial Engineering. (Probably doesn't exist in any other country)
And than when looking for a job I somehow ended up in IT but since i like computers and tech well what can i say, I like it. So it started with me pushing life and than life pushing me back. Ultimately it will lead you somewhere.

What actually confuses me is that you truly don't know where to go. I mean usually you must have some kind of idea of what you like and don't.

 

[Kennetic]

I definitely am not sure what I want to do in life. Thought I wanted to study engineering but found myself overwhelmed the moment I set foot in class. Then I dabbled around for two more semesters and realized that I wanted absolutely nothing to do with college and worked full time for 6 months. I was talking with a buddy of mine on New Years Eve and we decided to talk to an Army recruiter and the next thing I knew, I was off to basic then EOD school. I was good at EOD, but got cocky and neglected to study later in the course and it bit me and then I was off to medic school. I passed and deployed with an infantry company to Iraq. Now I work in a clinic and really don't care for the medical field. Despise it in fact. I want to work with my hands and do something more exciting. I plan on going back to school when my time in the military is done and I think that becoming a game warden (police of the forest, not video games)is a good way to go as I love nature and wish to preserve wildlife. Who knows, maybe criminal justice is a good start.

 

[Unsilenced]

I went into engineering because it pays decently and is a fairly productive line of work. I was pretty good at physics in high school, and figured engineering would let me do something useful and get paid for it.

Truth is most people aren't just born to do something. You get occasional prodigies, but most people just want to pay the bills and hopefully not drive themselves insane.

 

[irok]

Well, I grew up playing video games on the pc so at first I thought that should be my job, but then as I grew slightly older I didn't think there was a career in random pc nonsense so I turned to science and chemistry but I stuck with computer science and other such computer tinkering for a few more years and now I'm 8 months away from completing a bachelors in networking technology in a country who's second biggest export is outsourcing our IT professionals to other countries in a time where the industry wont stop going on the news saying we need more young people in IT, so apparently that worked out well.

I think my Gran described it best, find something you are amazing at effortlessly and hopefully that will earn you enough money to live off it and for the little it requires of me, I'm pretty good at what I do.

 

[Gomi500]

Im in the same boat with you kinda. I got a job at UPS and im staring it down to become a supervisor. Ive always had high marks in school and scored high in my ACTs. but i still hated it and just wanted to work. I think I know what I want to do. I want to be a MMA fighter. But i dont know. its like somthing is holding me back. sigh. Im just as confused as you are man.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I started writing my own stories early in grade school. I knew I wanted to become an author someday ever since Grade 6. In Grade 9 I had the chance to be part of a production team for a student leadership conference being hosted at my school and got to use the camera for two days straight. From that day on I knew I wanted to be behind a video camera.

Now I'm in film school and my passion for stories and for shooting them onto a screen are merging beautifully. I couldn't be more happy with my education.