I ended up falling into a computer related major when my first choice became problematic due to the failings of my high school curriculum and the policies at the college left me in a kind of purgatory.
After graduation I put my resume online and waited about 8-12 months until someone called me about a contract job. That lasted a couple months, then I got another call. I’ve been working at that 2nd call for 20 years.
I still don’t know what I want to do. I’ve thought about quitting or completely changing careers almost everyday, but nothing really calls to me.
Considering I mostly left things up to chance, things worked out fairly well when I look at it objectively.
I’ve worked with other people who have had dozens of careers for one reason or another. You don’t necessarily need something that will work out for 40 years, especially if you have a personality that likes some variety. You just need something that works for you right now.
I have learned that there is no straight career path. Your best bet is to have a large group of friends and acquainted, and keep in touch with all of them. They will present you with opportunities all the time, if you're open to them. I was interested in machining after decades in IT, and I got a job making gears. It was really rewarding, but the pay and commute sucked. I still miss it, even though I got yeeted out of the work force with Long Covid.
Don't wait to do the things you enjoy, take photos, write stories, visit with friends now, while they're all still here. Work is what you do to pay for your life, not the other way around.
My biggest regret is not keeping a journal. I really appreciate the huge number of photos I took between 1997 and about 2016, recording my life with abandon. Now I'm mostly too tired to do anything sustained.
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Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota
by James Wright
Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,
Asleep on the black trunk,
Blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
To my right,
In a field of sunlight between two pines,
The droppings of last year’s horses
Blaze up into golden stones.
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.
I have wasted my life.Essentially, you pick a path that in this moment a) you feel like doing, b) you have access to, and c) aligns sufficiently with your values, expectations and life needs. You can be very strategic about it, or you can wing it, there are no correct answers.
Then when you get older and are in a different place in life, chances are you become ready for something new, and then you go do that.
Careers and goals don't need to be forever, change is guaranteed and "life" is an awfully long time to decide on when you're young.
Eady because you derive that directly from your hierarchy of values.
Hard because you can’t just “decide” what your hierarchy of values is. There is a significant transcendental part to it that critically depends on other people, on your environment, even God.
This is why many stuck in a limbo of analyzing and rationality justifying their goals.
So eventually all people do the same thing - they just pick whatever their intuition tells them from available options. That’s the framework.
As the saying goes: predictions are hard, especially about the future.
There are a bunch of psychology based tests you can take to help decide on general career paths. I remember taking one 20 years ago. It had questions like: Do you enjoy working on your own. Does fame get you excited. Writing out direction cause you anxiety. Surprise surprise Software Engineer... Just what I love doing.
When I finished school, I had a lot of biology major friends, who were real passionate about biology. At the time they could only get low paying jobs in a human waste water plant. They envied me for being smart to choose CS, they thought I did it for the money, not realizing it was passion, and I could have had the same problem they did.
Likewise When I was laid off, about half of the other who were laid off, claimed 'Oh thank God. I have always hated programming stuff'.
Once again, it is a balance. Very few get the best of both worlds.
Personal goals are mostly bullshit too. You’re not in control of life. Maybe it’ll look that way for a while but it can be taken away in a second.
Probably the only life goal you really need is to be happy after you figure out what that means.
What matters after death? What matters before it?
Avoiding death is impractical. The lifehack is to propagate a bit of your life forwards, i.e. children. Make sure they end up with all the advantage you can give them. Many can't do this, so the other trick is to propagate similar cells - family, humanity, earth creatures.
I'm a believer in occasionalism though. The philosophy/theology takes a few years to click, but in the end I think all that matters is patience and perseverance.
Patience for the trials and temptations of life. Perseverance is the struggle. Some call it a journey, but I think the anime Berserk captures it perfectly. To struggle as if you're branded for death and all odds are stacked against you.
If you believe in a judgement day, then these virtues will be rewarded. If you do not, then throwing yourself into whatever gets in your way is a more enjoyable way of living life than being passive. And in engineering terms, if you channel a lot of energy somewhere, something happens.
Some people think aiming at goals is the most important thing you can do. Sam Altman is one of those people. You can spend a lifetime aiming and still miss.
Your other priority should be to find people you enjoy working with. Finding people you enjoy being around. If you get stuck with toxic people who drain your energy or make you feel bad at the end of every day, you need to move to another job or even new city. Stay away from very negative people and don't get pulled into online cynicism spirals (Reddit, Twitter, even HN are full of this). Gravitate toward people who are happy in their own lives and spend less time with people (or internet comments) from people who are unhappy.
Don't get attached to an idea that there's one perfect career for you. Learn to enjoy doing work with people you like to be around and you will find that you can be happy doing a lot of different things.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" John Lennon