Tuesday, September 15, 2015

On Finding a Career Path You Know You Will Love

By Jenn Mori, Toppel Peer Advisor

Here’s the thing – finding something you like and liking it for a decent amount of time isn’t as easy as you think for some people, myself included. I arrived in Miami with an intense desire to study physics, quantum mechanics, all those hard-core, highly theoretical, math-based fields. Now, several years later, I can only see myself doing game or software development or anthropology fieldwork after college and it’s not even that I stopped liking physics (despite taking PHY205).

I just realized: I can’t possibly see myself in the job environment that a degree in physics would lead to or taking a good 7+ years learning only quantum physics and related topics to even get to that job. I understood I only really chose that because everyone else was, I was pretty good at it, and I knew I could get great pay.

That’s what you need to keep in mind as you’re looking towards the future – Can you see yourself loving this a few years down the road? And it’s okay if you end up switching career paths somewhere during those years; people change, so do interests and the most you can do is predict.

The thing is, whether you know what you want to do later in life or not, keep your mind open and be able to understand yourself, what you’re good at, and what you really want from a job.

Below is a motivational Ted Talk I found recently on this topic that I believe more people should see. The first few minutes applies mainly to those who already in the midst of their career, but even college students – especially college students – can find something to take from the other 14 minutes where he helps to motivate you to how you can fine and stay on the track of doing what you love. 

Enjoy it!

If you want more definite help on what you should major in/what you should do after college, you can find several career surveys on the Toppel Website, under Online Resources.


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