What do you want to do when you grow up?

[DCDave]

The other day I was thinking about how I sort of just ended up where I am in life right now and it's not necessarily where I want to be but I don't actively dislike it and I was wondering where other people actually want to be in life and whether or not they're going there.

Like, I am pretty sure I'd rather be running a farm/restaurant/catering company that barely made profits in some tiny town than doing business development for a tech start-up.

Anyone else have thoughts?

[silentsigh89]

I know what I think I want to be and am on the right path for getting there, but I do have moments of fear when I realize that there is no way for me to know if I will like it at all. And if I don't? Well, my options will be relatively limited!

[Antero]

Things are working out so far.

[Em]

I got off on a bad start 'cause for some reason I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, and then for some other reason kept pursuing that despite it being a bad idea, but then I stumbled into something I rather like (nonprofit fundraising) and am doing okay with that. I love New York City and don't think I'll be leaving any time soon but sometimes I wish I weren't "stuck" here as I am. Maybe after I get many years of experience under my belt doing what I'm doing--if I keep doing it, that is--and have a better job outlook I'll move somewhere more low key.

Really, if I could do it all over again I have ... no idea what I'd do. Sometimes I say I wish I'd gone into medicine, since I've always been fascinated by it, but I don't know if that's idle talk or an actual regret.

[bethany_m]

I studied environmental planning and policy as an undergrad and started working with land trusts.  I was sure I had found my calling.  I got my first job out of college at a land trust and...it was awful! I hated it and it didn't really work out. So then I worked on the 2004 presidential campaign (for American's Coming Together) which was a crazy experience.  I got offered a labor organizing position in Chicago, but decided to stay in Maine.  I got a job working for a community foundation and stuck with that for the next 6+ years.  I built up an odd set of skills.  Now I am going to do project management and database development for a new company.

Definitely feel like I couldn't have planned this.  I'm going to turn 30 this year, so I guess there is still plenty of time for things to go wrong.  But yeah, I am not unhappy, I have a bunch of new opportunities and things are good. 

[Anne the Man]

I want to be a combination of Tina Fey, Jon Stewart, Nina Power and Pete Townshend.

But really, I think I want to write. I want to do bits of this book I had an idea for (an exploration and defence of polyamory for the purpose of greater social cohesion/happiness), and that may still be viable. I need money for field research though . This job I have atm may lead to writing opportunities, but ultimately I don't really want to churn out articles at a fast rate but really work on developing a comprehensive project. We'll see. I would love to be able to entertain somehow, I think, but I'm not sure exactly how.

[alex]

I think I want to be a historian when I grow up. I can probably still become one.

[YojimboMonkey]

I'm pretty much grown up to the point where I'm past any reasonable chance of a career change. Unless I win the lottery in which case I'm opening a goddamn brewery

[peacocks]

My mom went back to college in her 40's and graduated when she was 58, the same year I graduated and the same year she retired from her other job which I grew up watching her hate. She always wanted to be a history teacher. She has been subbing for a few years building connections and is sending out her resumes to schools this summer so she can do what she always wanted. She's 61, so I don't think it's ever too late.

I wanted to work in a wildlife rehab center. Now I want to make community gardens and urban farms while at the same time doing wetland studies. I now work at a small consulting company that has kind of given me opportunities for both. Pretty sweet. I do wish sometimes I could drop everything and just volunteer at an urban farm in Chicago, New Orleans, or San Francisco but I got bills to pay. I also think long and hard every once in a while about graduate school. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[heather marie]

I wanted to be a teacher but when I started studying education realized that it wasn't for me. I moved on to social work and women's studies and got a job straight outta college that I love so I guess I got lucky. One of my best friends does IT work for a defense contractor and is miserable, but she makes great $ whereas I just get by. As much as I love my job, it sucks knowing she could pay my student loans off in 3-5 years with her salary.

[elpollodiablo]

Been giving this a lot of thought recently as I consider whether or not to go for the PhD. While it'd be immensely gratifying, it'd also be costly and perhaps irresponsible and not all that practical in terms of improving my actual real-ass life situation. My resume is fairly stacked, actually, and looks better with a master's, but I've yet to make any real money professionally and haven't found anything in the real world that I liked anywhere near so much as academia. I've toyed with the idea of doing an associate's in hospitality management because with that and my experience I could essentially go anywhere in the country and make ~$50-60K/yr starting out, but the work would be degrading. Have also considered trying to parlay the small trucking co. work I did in the Bronx into something equivalent--I met a dude at a party recently who's an account rep at a local craft beer distributor, and as he was describing the company I realized the operation is a lot like what they had going at the biodiesel outfit. That would probably be tolerable, and decently-compensated.

Overall though I'm glad to have some options, along with the one to work my ass off and try to do the academic thing. Ideally I guess I'd like to have the PhD but not be wedded to the academic job market, somehow. Or win the lottery and start a brewery.

[peacocks]

I've always thought this, but peeps on here are super smart and talented.

[Bernard]

I still don't really know, but I'm not in a huge rush. I think maybe I am not a do one thing kind of person.

[Maaik]

I fell sideways into this radio gig having never considered working in public radio before.  Luckily, it seems to be a perfect fit for my talents and temperament (though it's likely never gonna pay much).  Before this, I was studying to be a recording engineer and before that I was working sorta in theater and writing before that.  I'm lucky to have a job that I'm hoping to turn into a career plus a bunch of extracurricular stuff to keep me otherwise occupied.

I think that's pretty important--like, I don't know if I'd want the band to be my job or for producing this writing series to be my job, but both are things I really like doing and socially and networking-wise, everything kind of feeds into each other.

[FreddyKnuckles]

I'm an unemployed JD.  Probably explains my BADittude.

[davy]

I kick myself almost daily for not realizing right off that I wanted to work in libraries. It seems so obvious in retrospect.

My first major was journalism, but when I realized that journalism is a lot of writing about things I don't care about and talking to people I don't want to talk to, I escaped in a hurry. Still a freshman, I changed my major to English because at that time, I was really falling in love with books -- discovering the joys of literature and writing my first stories, etc. It was a good decision; I really enjoyed being an English major. Creative writing became my main squeeze as a junior, and since I was trying to be practical about things, I decided that I'd be an editor when I grew up. The year after graduating, I secured an internship at The Georgia Review and decided to get my MFA in creative writing.

When I got to grad school, I signed up as an intern at The Colorado Review and felt like I was really on my way. Then I discovered writer's block. It was crippling. I couldn't write. School was expensive. I didn't have any income. I ended up dropping out of grad school after just two semesters. (It was around that time I started posting here).

Within another year, my ex-wife and I would be back in Georgia, but before we left Colorado, I completed my work-study program with the Fort Collins Public Library. At first I was doing menial things and not getting much out of it, but I really admired my supervisor (a collection development librarian) and envied her job. By the time I left, I'd moved onto bigger projects and felt as if I'd actually done some important things for the library and the community.  

Unfortunately, that's when I entered the dark ages. I'd failed to break into the creative writing game, both as a writer and as an editor, so that dream was over. It was a sobering realization. I didn't know what else to do. I worked as a contractor for my dad and his associates in the forestry business. It was tough, physical work, the pay was low, and there simply weren't enough opportunities. So I took a job as a real estate appraiser and hated every second of it. Then I got back into retail and hated it too, but not very much. Somewhere in there, a friend of mine left a paraprofessional position at a middle school library and recommended I think about applying for it. I did, and got the job. The pay was abysmal, and entirely unsustainable, but in the 6 months I worked there, I found my calling and decided to go back to school for a library degree. I was helping people -- all the time -- do things I was already pretty good at! I was putting books in the hands of kids! I was teaching them how to study, how to read for pleasure, how to organize their thoughts, how to use the resources at their disposal and GET THINGS DONE. It was great. I had to leave because I had a baby in the house and working two jobs for not enough money simply wasn't working. I took a job selling furniture for a couple years, started taking evening classes toward my MLIS, and volunteered at the local public library.

I got my first part-time library job a few months before I'd graduated, and a second, higher-paying, almost full-time job less than a year after that. Now, I'm in line for another promotion, and this one would be 100% full-time with benefits, and I'd be making a higher wage than I ever could've imagined so soon after finishing my masters.

Happy to be where I'm at, but always, always a little furious at myself for wasting so much time and money.

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

wow. thanks davy, i loved reading that, cause i'm kinda where you were at in the first paragraph.

so, i've always wanted to do creative writing, but because a) i hate writing essays and b) there's no undergrad major in creative writing (only english literature), i decided to go to university and get a BSc, majoring in the thing i don't enjoy, but find insanely easy - computer science. i'm also minoring in japanese.

i'm 19 now, and second year. i went into this year with only A+s, and decided to indulge - i applied for a limited entry (12 students) short fiction course, and got accepted. i just handed in my final portfolio for that course today, with a whole lot more confidence and skill than i started with, and heaps of motivation to keep writing.

at the same time, i've been trucking along with computer science and japanese, and still have another year and a half before i get my degree. i've lost any trace of enthusiasm for either subject, but i know i'll be able to pass, and can at least spend some of my free time trying to write, so i guess i'll stick with it.

i also work full time at an internet service provider, and have just joined the army reserve, so there's that.

what am i doing with my life, lptj?

[clare]

Wow, timely thread...

I've never really known what I wanted to be (I think I kind of assumed that I was never going to reach adulthood, so there wasn't much point dreaming). I fell into childcare at the age of 15 and stayed there for 15 years, only stopping to have my own child. I did half of an arts degree at uni, with politics and linguistics as my majors, but I wasn't a very good student. Essays and deadlines freak me out. In between I also did some library work, just reshelving really, and since then, worked in retail for a small business, which was a lot of fun actually, despite the craziness of my boss and some coworkers.

Baby#2 put an end to that, and I'm starting to think about what I'll do next, but I really don't know. I guess stories like Peacok's mother's are good for me to hear, that it isn't too late at 41 (almost 42) but because I never had those childhood dreams, I don't know.

[dumbfish]

Sounds like lots of people are working for someone when they'd rather be working for themselves. Maybe I'm weird, but I have no desire to do that. I do not have an entrepreneurial bone in my body. Having final responsibility for a whole business-- from employees to admin to customer relations-- just seems crushingly stressful. Bad fit for my personality, I guess.
I'll take my limited but well-defined role in academia, thanks.

[Maaik]

I'm with you dumbfish.  I took a Music Studio Business class and the one thing it taught me was that I am simply not a person who should ever go into business for himself.

I like my boss, he's a good guy who periodically reminds me how much my work is appreciated.

I'm also with Davy in that I started hella late in my schooling to actually figure out what I wanted to do.  I was in and out of school for seven years.  I really wish I could get that back.

[mixed cats]

I just want to make stuff.

[hannah]

I'm in Russia right now—my first day with honest-to-goodness Internet access since I arrived—and pretty much every other hour I wonder what the hell I think I'm doing. But I suppose that's less about my career and more about, you know, my psyche, my soul, what-have-you.

Anyhow, after college I tried my hand at Hollywood, and it was terrible. Then I had a series of odd jobs, punctuated by unemployment: data entry, research assistant for one crazy person, research assistant for a different crazy person. I also took an improv comedy class but had to quit halfway through because I was too depressed to show up.

So I applied to graduate school. I got into graduate school.

So I'm in graduate school. I don't mind making not very much money, I do like spending time learning about things and writing about things and making stuff. So this is OK with me.

But before I die, I'd like to give comedy one more chance—stand-up comedy this time, not improv. Not, like, as a career. Like as a "what if?" thing. Just 'cuz.

[Bernard]

L6L9, do you actively dislike comp sci? Are you a decent programmer? Because if you could hang with it long enough to get a bit of experience, it's the kind of skill that makes a lot of other things possible. Aaron is able to support all three of us while I have and care for a baby and go to school. I don't know if that sounds like a big deal, but it's kind of huge for us, since we both really wanted a parent at home with her full-time until she's preschool age. If there isn't now, there may be some comparable situation in your life later -- may you will want to travel, or work from home, or work only part time so you can pursue other things without starving -- and programmers worth their salt still find their skills are portable and relatively well-paying considering it's not a crushing high-stress job.

I'm not saying do what you hate and the money will follow, I'm just saying that there can be more than one path to a dream and the path that doesn't involve worrying about how you're going to afford health care is a lot more pleasant than the other one.

[elpollodiablo]

I wish I'd had like, any mathematical aptitude at all. I'd've probably taken a CS degree at 22 and been living it up in the lower-upper-middle class.

[mixed cats]

Bernard's post is very similar to what's happening at my house.. Bill was a biology major at first but switched to CS early on*, got a programming job, and then got an MS. He's very good at programming but does not enjoy it much anymore, and regrets switching majors and getting an MS. He's been at the same job for ten years now, and has a lot of leeway to work from home (though his office is five minutes from our house).
Like, his boss said it was OK to work from home for a week each time we got a new cat.
All of that breathing room allowed him to start his mastering business, and now he's doing hundreds of records a year.
All of this recently rolled into the discussion of what we'd have to do for me to quit my job and make stuff full time, even if I don't start out earning as much as I make at my day job. Hello gratitude city.

*I assume this was a decision influenced by his parents, given their opinions about lucrative careers