Perhaps the #1 questions I’ve been asked in the past week are “What happened?” and “What are you going to do now?” Prefaced with “I’m shocked!”
As good as the ‘shock’ comment feels, I don’t have many answers for the questions. Aside from the immediate ‘finish school’, I’m not entirely sure what I want to do next. Do I want to pursue a career in the field of social media ( if there even is such a thing)? Am I going to need more education? Should I be patient and trust that the right position will come along?
So, readers,I’m curious: how did you figure out what you wanted to do for a career? Are you there yet?
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Definitely not there yet. I have a degree in Hospitality & Tourism management and fell into a job in marketing with a hotel company. It was the fact that it was a hotel company that attracted me; the marketing was just incidental, but I fell in love with it. I learned about photography and being creative on the job and knew that’s what I wanted to do. But, unfortunately there were no promotions available in my department so I knew I would eventually have to leave. And that’s where I got completely derailed.
I quit to go work a hospitality consulting gig (um, not related to marketing. Why? Oh right because it paid $9k more and fell into my lap. It wasn’t worth it.) I hated it and then got laid off. My next job was the only one I could find in the crap economy last year, as a sales coordinator for a fire safety equipment startup. Can you say random? I just got laid off from that one on Friday.
I’m hoping the next one will get me back on track in marketing & communications. I’m worried that if I can’t find a job that’s a good fit this time, that I will have screwed with my resume too much for anyone to take me seriously in the field that I want.
This is something I struggle with all. the. time.
I think its good to be happy in your job/education for a (longish) period of time, but if you stay in the same place your whole life it’s easy to become complacent and (under)challenged.
Whenever I have :”whatthehellamidoingwithmylife” freakouts I usually call my 57-year-old father who always makes me feel better by saying “don’t worry, I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up either”.
You are certainly not alone, my dear.
I’m still trying to figure it out.