You need to figure out:

• What you like
• What you’re good at (or can become good at with training/a degree)
• What people will pay you to do

If you like something, you’re good at it, and people will pay you to do it, that’s a career. Stick with it your entire life.

If you’re good at something and people will pay you to do it but you don’t like it, that’s a job. Work it to pay the bills, but don’t be afraid to jump ship as soon as something better comes along.

If you like something and are good at it but no one will pay you to do it, that’s a hobby. You’ll need to supplement that with a job to get by.

If you like something and people will pay you for it but you’re not good at it, fake it ‘till you make it and hope no one notices.

If you only like something, you can git gud or find something else. If you are good at something but don’t like it and it doesn’t pay, stop doing it. If you can get paid but you don’t like it and can’t do it, don’t waste your time pursuing it.

Obviously, if something is no to all 3 then it’s not for you.

I always liked the idea of going to a college that had a program with a work term so you can see if you like it and also get some experience. I would say talk to some people in areas that you are interested in and see if you find any jobs you may look doing.

For me the best way for finding out what job I wanted out of highschool was turning 27. Out of highschool, I thought I wanted to become a teacher. That didn’t work out, so I did some years (12) of various blue collar jobs, got married, had children. In the meantime I kept searching for my passion. Eventually I found it in programming. I spend a good 4 years tinkering with it until I eventually decided to go back to school. Now I’m finally loving my job and I’m again back in school trying to get my master.

Obviously, making more than minimum wage is ideal in life. As long as you’re doing that, your career choice doesn’t have to be something you love more than free Saturdays.

The biggest thing for that to become true is to learn how to save and limit spending. If you make 200k and spend 195k on luxury car leases and other crap, you’re doing the same as a person who makes 45k and spends 40k. Yes the person “making more” has those things, but they’re just as beholden to their job as the 2nd person, and stuff doesn’t make you happy in the end.

On Reddit, I’d normally point ppl to /r/financialindependence but here there is [email protected] which isn’t as active.

This is a major failing of the school system.

The best I can recommend is that you try out jobs now – but maybe skip anything ‘fake’ like online courses unless you think they prepare you for what’s in the next sentence. Go find people professionally doing a thing you might like, and try to work with them, somehow. Internships, volunteer work, organizing events, etc. File paperwork and make coffee, if that means you get to see the work actually being done.

Barring that, do the thing yourself if possible. Publish the results. All code goes on public repositories, all stories should be submitted to magazines or literature groups. All songs written must be sung in public. Get certified for CPR and first aid if considering medicine, and volunteer using it. Get an amateur radio license and build a radio. Look at jobs on a freelancing platform, and just do them on your own to build a portfolio (maybe actually apply for the jobs, once you have a portfolio). Not every type of job can be tried out this way, but many can.

You’re going to get rejected a lot, you can’t just show up with a resume and demand a job (people who claim this works are weird). People who create and do nothing will mock you sometimes. A lot of jobs want young people ‘out of sight and in school’ too. However, this kind of disappointment happens to all of us at some point anyway, so may as well get it over with.

If you’re lucky, you’ve got a few years between the age of say 14 and 19 where you’re not expected to support yourself financially but your brain works as well as it’s ever going to. While it’s useful to get good grades while you’re in school (although they are useless afterward), I think it’s a mistake to focus on that at the expense of actually trying to do things. A college degree is too big of an investment of time and money to go into blind.

If you’re in a situation where you do have to support yourself or your family before finishing school, then the necessities of life obviously take precedent. I won’t pretend I have a good solution to that difficult situation.

You want the job that is offered to you, pays good, and won’t feel like hell every day. This job may or may not be related to your field of study, but you better study something useful if you want to be taken seriously.

Stop thinking that you can pick and choose, sometimes you can, sometimes you can’t. Some people can, most people can’t.

Actually that is the biggest question I ask myself. I’m almost done with my master but I’m not sure if I wanna become a teacher anymore. After graduating I will try some different jobs and see how I feel about it. I think it’s important that you have some kind of fun / fulfillment at work, otherwise I couldn’t bare doing it (maybe a ADHD kinda stuff). If you can don’t be afraid of exploring your options and look into jobs that aren’t related to your education. I wish you the best of luck finding your way in life. Important is that you are happy and doing it for yourself imho.

Well, I would say first, don’t be afraid that you’ll pick the wrong thing. Keep an open mind and research and try different things. Like some others have said, generally avoid the idea of picking something you love, unless that is something that has a good demand/supply ratio of workers. Otherwise you’ll be competing with other people who love the same thing, in a race to the bottom in terms of both money and work conditions.

Here are a few things that could help:

There are probably many online articles and websites that provide additional/updated ideas and resources.

Your local public library should have a section with books on the topic of choosing a career. Ask your librarian for help.

If you’re still in high school, find out if they offer aptitude testing and other career counseling. If not, check your local community college to find out if they do. Another option that’s less accessible (price and distance) but that you may find worthwhile is the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation (https://www.jocrf.org/)

Disclaimer: some of this advice is a little United-States focused, but you should be able to generalize it to many other countries.

While Mike Rowe is kind of a piece of shit, he did say one right thing: “Stop looking for the “right” career, and start looking for a job. Any job. Forget about what you like. Focus on what’s available. Get yourself hired. Show up early. Stay late. Volunteer for the scut work. Become indispensable. You can always quit later, and be no worse off than you are today. But don’t waste another year looking for a career that doesn’t exist.”

There is no perfect job. There are jobs you make perfect for you. If the job you are in prevents that, you move on. Never wait too long for a promotion, as you can promote yourself by having the strength and will to find that promotion at a different company.

It’s not wrong to start with whatever / at random. Once you gain some experience you can decide whether to pursue or try something else.

For me it came naturally from my interests and learned capabilities.

You can ask about and try out different jobs to get a bit of insight and more data points for making a decision. Even if you won’t have a definite favorite you may find things you consider undesired or desirable for you.

Trades are a good option if you like figuring things out and if owning your own business sounds good to you. There’s tradeoffs to that, but we’re always going to need more welders, plumbers, HVAC, electricians.

Try to find out as much as you can about what the job/career is actually like, ask people who are in that field, if you can try to get some experience as an intern.

The worst thing you can do is focus on a major without considering what the actual work will be like once you graduate. Even if you love studying a topic, the actual work may be much less fun in practice.

Try to get some part-time experience of your own as you can, even at sub-entry level/intern levels it should help you know better what kinds of jobs you would enjoy full time. It’s often hard to envision a job without having some exposure to the field.

I always liked computers, so I got an entry level job in IT.

Just followed my passion tbh.

My advice is just pick a broad direction and try to optimize for not limiting your options.

When I was 18 I liked math and science so I went to school for engineering. Did I want to be an engineer? I had no idea at the time. But I figured the first couple years were mostly math and science courses anyway so if something else caught my attention (computer science, chemistry, etc) I could narrow my focus when the time came.

If you don’t plan to go to college, that’s cool too. My advice in that case would still be not to limit yourself. Pick something in your broad interest area that challenges you and has a clear path of advancement (certifications, etc). If you don’t like it after a few years find something else. Just make sure with whatever you pick the growth path is pretty clear and at least somewhat in your control.

There’s a lot of advice here to work for money and that it’s a fool’s errand to “follow your dreams”. This is the same advice I got twenty years ago when I was 18. I followed it. That path led to money but I’m not sure it precisely led to a life of fulfillment or contentment. I often wish I’d spent more of my early twenties taking more risks and chasing more dreams. You’re only young once, and age accumulates life baggage (e.g., bills , mortgage , life partner, maybe kids) that discourages risk taking. Don’t forget to take a risk every now and then, you might end up surprising yourself.

Don’t worry too much about getting ‘locked in’ to a job, you can always do a career change, it’s a lot easier than you think.