I despise the word career. It keeps me up at night, distracts me in all my classes, ruins my gym sessions, and has even invaded my writing—hence the reason for this article.
I am now in the fourth year of my undergraduate degree, and the pressure is on. With grad school application deadlines around the corner and my bank account screaming for me to GET A JOB, the thought of career has been nauseating. My brain keeps stirring with the same haunting question: once I graduate, what am I going to do for the rest of my life?
I have scrolled through the depths of Reddit and even taken several career quizzes, but I still haven’t had any luck. I have prayed for a sign, a fairy godmother, anything, to guide me in the right direction, or better yet, to tell me the answer!
But, no. No such magical entity exists, nor will it ever. In truth, I know the answer lies within myself—I just have to find it. So, I do my digging. In addition to Reddit and online quizzes, I ask every adult I know for advice. What do you do for a living, and do you like it? Not to pry or be rude or anything, but do you feel well-compensated for your work? In other words, do you make a lot of money?
What doesn’t help is being suffocated by the surround sound of success. Every day, thousands of LinkedIn posts prompt me to congratulate someone on their new job. And I, feeling obligated to oblige, comment, “Congratulations!” To make matters worse, after one quick check of their profile, it’s clear that this job has been their goal since day one of university. I hate this app!
Because then there’s me—the one who’s changed her path too many times. I went from studying Environmental Science to Biology to Life Sciences to taking a year off to pursue acting and writing to now finishing up my degree in English and Cultural Studies (talk about a run-on sentence). I have explored not only left and right but every angle, every corner of my brain! And how has that left me? Confused, with too many passions.
However, this doesn’t have to be a bad thing!
While my time digging didn’t necessarily give me the career-related answers I was begging for, I did consume plenty of valuable insight that has since shifted my perspective. My mentality has slowly begun to mend; no longer am I afraid of the future––I’m excited for it. Below, I have listed four pieces of impactful advice I have recently received.
- The first piece was from my colleague. He reminded me to enjoy the process of the entire career journey. As simple as it sounds, it’s true; when we take things day by day, we will become more in tune with our minds, and the answers we long for will start to appear.
- Next, a former manager of mine gifted me with her brilliant perspective: we cannot measure our own success by looking at how someone else defines it. By this, she urges us to stray away from the feeling of envy. For example, someone driving an expensive car is not any more ‘successful’ than we are. As unique individuals, we have our own strengths, weaknesses, pressures, passions, and goals. Therefore, how is it fair that we compare ourselves or our definitions of success to others?
- My mom reminded me of the significance of resetting, such as taking time off school or deleting social media. How can our minds work when we remove ourselves from these pressures? Having executed both of her suggestions, I gained an incredible amount of clarity about myself and my future.
- Lastly, my boyfriend taught me about the falsity of ‘time limits.’ Goals can be longitudinal; things can take time. For example, his aunt started her PhD in her 50s! Incredible! From this, I have gathered that, for one, our goals do not have to be instantaneous; new dreams or passions can develop over time, and how you start your career does not have to be how you finish it.
I no longer hate the word “career.” We aren’t necessarily besties yet, but we are acquaintances (it’s a slow-burning relationship). Now, career is something I look forward to, something I am excited to explore.