How does one figure out what career path to take?
How does one figure out what career path to take?
So I'm in a bit of a pickle.
I need a job. I've worked before, but this time around I want to actually get my foot in the door for a career path that I feel best suited for. I'm sick of working retail, and feel I'd be a better fit elsewhere.
I just don't know where.
Growing up, it felt like anything I thought of would get immediately beat down by my parents. There were a few ideas, but of them, I can only remember journalism, with my father specifically telling me "anybody can be a journalist these days" in a dismissive tone, and that he expected me to come up with something better.
Data entry is something that's also been on my mind for a while now. It sounds like something I'd be down to try out, but I have no clue how to get my foot in the door for something like that, and if there's even any entry-level positions for that.
Another worry is that I don't have any experience with these positions, and that that fact combined with no post-secondary would essentially be walking into a brick wall.
I'm not even completely sure about pursuing these options, like the worst case scenario for me would be getting accepted for something new only to immediately discover I'm a terrible fit and back at step one in finding new work while stuck at a job that quite literally drains my will to live like previous positions of mine did.
How can I at least get some semblance of an idea as to whether or not something will be a good fit for me? I'm fine working a job, I've done so without issue before, I just don't want to find myself in a work position that kills my mental well-being again.
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Try out anything that interests you, but understand that being a generalist may make it harder to land jobs. Second the "data entry is dead", but if you get the chance, take it! The role teaches you attention to detail, proper typing (different than programming typing), speed, and multitasking. That's basically where I've been stuck after workplace injury took away my trade, and now it's disappearing along with most administrative/accounting roles I know how to do. If you're just starting out on a career path, check out https://80000hours.org/. The theory is that you'll work 80,000 hours in your life, may as well make it count because just following your passion isn't necessarily fuel enough. There's several books on my "to read" shelf similar to this; "The Good Enough Job" is about the only one I can remember off the top of my head though.