The Right Career

[LeonSK]

This has nothing to do with girls really.

Three years into my job, I'm about to quit although it's fairly well paid job (close to 6 figure)... It's getting boring.

I want to figure out what career suits me the best. Any suggestions?

 

[Thundernuts]

Find something you can do. Something you enjoy doing. And something that allows you to live comfortable. At least that's what I believe.

 

[skinnyguy]

I was in your situation 6 years ago. Great paying job, but hated my life.

I had to look deep down inside to see what my talents are. Ultimately, I ended up getting my Master's and now I'm in the career I'll be in for the rest of my life.

Go with what you are good at because this will both make you happy and lead to success.

 

[GS750]

Become a firefighter. Chicks love firefighters. Admit it, when you were a kid you would have given your arm to ride on that firetruck.

 

[escaleraroyal]

I suggest to be a programmer. High pay job (6 figures) and lots of nerdy chicks!

 

[El Payaso]

What do you do now?

 

[narcissist]

What would you do if money wasn't an issue?

Whatever that is. Do it. Life is to short to care about money. You live then you die.

Do something you LOVE doing.

Even if it pays sh1t.

You will be more happy doing what you love for free, then you would if you did something you hate for money.

Watch this alan watts video. Its extremely enlightening. Its like 3 minutes and it should answer your question pretty well.

"Better to live a short life, doing what you love doing, than to live a long life spent in a miserable way"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ7Y1-0bNeQ

 

[LeonSK]

What do you do now?

I'm working at an entry level position in financial industry.

 

[LeonSK]

What would you do if money wasn't an issue?

Whatever that is. Do it. Life is to short to care about money. You live then you die.

Do something you LOVE doing.

Even if it pays sh1t.

You will be more happy doing what you love for free, then you would if you did something you hate for money.

Watch this alan watts video. Its extremely enlightening. Its like 3 minutes and it should answer your question pretty well.

"Better to live a short life, doing what you love doing, than to live a long life spent in a miserable way"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ7Y1-0bNeQ

It's really good stuff. Thanks, narcissist!

 

[user43770]

Some books that may help:

StrengthsFinder 2.0

What Color Is Your Parachute?

 

[Bible_Belt]

fairly well paid job (close to 6 figure)...entry level position in financial industry.

I am trying to make sense of that. Do you have an Ivy League degree and work in NYC?

 

[speed dawg]

2 great posts here IMO:

I was in your situation 6 years ago. Great paying job, but hated my life.

I had to look deep down inside to see what my talents are. Ultimately, I ended up getting my Master's and now I'm in the career I'll be in for the rest of my life.

Go with what you are good at because this will both make you happy and lead to success.

and

Keep working your job but sock enough money away to where you can live comfortably for a year or two.

Find your "on-the-side" passion.

No sense in giving up a near-100k-per-year job. I'm all for doing what you love to do, but chances are, if you love doing it, it won't pay as well.

The USA is full of teachers and personal trainers making 35k a year.

I guess it's up to you, OP, to see how badly you want out of your situation. I would recommend Espi's advice, since you're making GREAT money. Have to have money to live life, remember that.

I just went through this sort of deal too. I'm in the middle of looking deep within myself to identify my true talents too. I'm getting there, slowly but surely. I just made some lists indicating what I enjoy doing, then made some lists of what I think I'm good at, read some self-help books (7 Habits of Highly Effective People was the most recent). I took some test to find out my 'gifts'. Now I'm in the process of just looking at them all, identifying how they cross correlate, then just getting out there and trying things on the side.

I am determined to turn some hobby that I enjoy doing AND that I'm good at, into something lucrative.

 

[Colossus]

I have a different take than the whole "follow your dreams" farce.

This is a fluffy platitude we are told from the time we are kids. Yeah, it sounds great on paper and it's great if you are the 1 in 100,000 people who genuinely loves their job, but that's not reality. Reality is making enough money so you aren't living a miserable existence being poor. Yeah, I know, working at a job you hate is equally miserable, but in a different way. A soul-draining, angry, resentful kind of way. I know art majors who "followed their dreams" and now make jack sh!t in some peripherally-related job and are unhappy to boot. Ok, I dont know any currently, but I have. I also know physicians and PAs who followed their dreams, make good $$$, and now are looking for a way out.

My take on jobs is this: I do not know one single person who is 100% happy with their job. Jobs aren't exactly abundant these days either, especially jobs that pay close to or over $100k/year. And chances are, doing what you truly LOVE to do won't translate into a good income or lifestyle. And oftentimes doing what you love to do for work ends up taking the luster out of that activity. So what are you to do?

Well, money doesn't buy happiness, but it does buy freedom. And freedom, in the right hands, can translate to happiness. So I would find a job that you can tolerate and dont completely hate, and save up as much money as possible. Then, when or if you find that special thing that really gives you a boner everyday, you have the security and the means to start someplace rather than just dream. Working is part pragmatism and part opportunism. There are probably millions of people in the US who want to start their own business, but never will because they never prepare. Or they cant prepare. You are in a good situation where you make enough money to save quite a bit and then make a move a little later in life. That's essentially my plan. I dont love my career, but it pays well, has a fair amount of professional respect, and an extremely high employment rate. So I suck it up each day and save as much as I can. I live for my evenings and weekends. Yeah that kinda sucks and it's not really what I envisioned when I started college. But what else am I to do? "Follow my dreams" and be a weed farmer who is dirt poor and bankrupt? No way. Recognize a good thing when you have it. Save and plan and prepare and when the time is right you can jump ship.

 

[LeonSK]

fairly well paid job (close to 6 figure)...entry level position in financial industry.

I am trying to make sense of that. Do you have an Ivy League degree and work in NYC?

A top school not in Ivy League; not in NYC but I might move there.

 

[narcissist]

I have a different take than the whole "follow your dreams" farce.

This is a fluffy platitude we are told from the time we are kids. Yeah, it sounds great on paper and it's great if you are the 1 in 100,000 people who genuinely loves their job, but that's not reality. Reality is making enough money so you aren't living a miserable existence being poor. Yeah, I know, working at a job you hate is equally miserable, but in a different way. A soul-draining, angry, resentful kind of way. I know art majors who "followed their dreams" and now make jack sh!t in some peripherally-related job and are unhappy to boot. Ok, I dont know any currently, but I have. I also know physicians and PAs who followed their dreams, make good $$$, and now are looking for a way out.

My take on jobs is this: I do not know one single person who is 100% happy with their job. Jobs aren't exactly abundant these days either, especially jobs that pay close to or over $100k/year. And chances are, doing what you truly LOVE to do won't translate into a good income or lifestyle. And oftentimes doing what you love to do for work ends up taking the luster out of that activity. So what are you to do?

Well, money doesn't buy happiness, but it does buy freedom. And freedom, in the right hands, can translate to happiness. So I would find a job that you can tolerate and dont completely hate, and save up as much money as possible. Then, when or if you find that special thing that really gives you a boner everyday, you have the security and the means to start someplace rather than just dream. Working is part pragmatism and part opportunism. There are probably millions of people in the US who want to start their own business, but never will because they never prepare. Or they cant prepare. You are in a good situation where you make enough money to save quite a bit and then make a move a little later in life. That's essentially my plan. I dont love my career, but it pays well, has a fair amount of professional respect, and an extremely high employment rate. So I suck it up each day and save as much as I can. I live for my evenings and weekends. Yeah that kinda sucks and it's not really what I envisioned when I started college. But what else am I to do? "Follow my dreams" and be a weed farmer who is dirt poor and bankrupt? No way. Recognize a good thing when you have it. Save and plan and prepare and when the time is right you can jump ship.

I see what you are saying.

I just find it absolutely amazing how society is built in a way where if you follow your dreams you are most likely going to end up unhappy because you wont be able to perpetuate basic needs, but conversely if you pursue a job you MAY have the opportunity to have the freedom to pursue your happiness, nonetheless you still have to toil away 45 hours a week in something that is in most cases to proliferate the self interest of those in higher position finally reaching the top, those whom run society, yet even these people arent happy. These people are perpetually looking for more and more money and more and more power, never EVER satisfied with what they have.

It is clear the problem does NOT lie in whether YOU should follow your dreams or if you should get a high paying job in order to have the "freedom" to pursue your dreams more fruitfully. The problem OBVIOUSLY lies in how society is perpetuated. Society itself doesnt give a sh1t whether I am happy or whether you Colossus is happy. it only cares about the cogs in the machine of society proliferating its purpose, which is to generate and concentrate as much goddamn money, profit and power into the hands of a very few.

The problem is how society is geared to perpetuate greed. Thus exploiting people like me and you, in which if we do pursue our dreams we better be that 1 in 100000 or else well end up homeless, in poverty, with sh1tty water, and no food, panhandling other unhappy souls for 10 cents to buy a fvcking hotdog. While the 1% buy 100 different sports cars, yachts, and houses they dont even use.

The world needs to be reformatted. At the end of the day we are apes on a ball floating through space and the fact that there is a super concentrated group of people who get EVERYTHING they want, for being greedy, envious, competitive creeps, and the other 99% of people are exploited by the rich who knowingly cast the 99%'s happiness for their own profit is completely fvcked. No?

 

[Ronaldo7]

Stick to what you are doing.

It's better to drown your sorrows/unhappiness in a Bugatti rather than be happy in a cardboard box.

It's all about having a large bank account. You have the ability to do what you please. Need a vacation to Ibiza to relax? Check. Want to party away during the summer in St. Tropez? Check. Want to take a year to travel the world? Check.

Doing something that you like/love won't always give you the ability to enjoy the pleasures of life. The world doesn't move around that hippy "Be happy, chase your dreams and love everyone" ****. The real world moves around the money. Money does indeed make the world go round.

 

[narcissist]

Stick to what you are doing.

It's better to drown your sorrows/unhappiness in a Bugatti rather than be happy in a cardboard box.

It's all about having a large bank account. You have the ability to do what you please. Need a vacation to Ibiza to relax? Check. Want to party away during the summer in St. Tropez? Check. Want to take a year to travel the world? Check.

Doing something that you like/love won't always give you the ability to enjoy the pleasures of life. The world doesn't move around that hippy "Be happy, chase your dreams and love everyone" ****. The real world moves around the money. Money does indeed make the world go round.

This is whats wrong with the world.

While you take your trip to ibiza recognize that because you are out to get as much money as possible for YOURSELF you are proliferating other people whom are in poverty.

How can you enjoy the pleasures of life, such that the way that you obtained those pleasures was by the deficit of other humans, putting them in a sh1tty position?

That IS the definition of profit - making a deficit for others.

Dont you care about others? Dont you care that 4000 hungry children die per hour? Sure you can live it up, but just because you dont think about others whom live in sh1tty conditions doesnt mean it doesnt exist.

Fvck competition, we should all work in common interests.

Sure you can drive your Bugatti around but that sh1t ain't coming with you when you die.

Help others and be the best you can be. That is the best way to live. Greed is not.

You say this is how the world is so adapt.

I say fvck that. I would rather die trying to change a bullsh1t system that is run upon exploitation of others then submit to it.

Western civilization.. so flawed

 

[user43770]

This is whats wrong with the world.

While you take your trip to ibiza recognize that because you are out to get as much money as possible for YOURSELF you are proliferating other people whom are in poverty.

How can you enjoy the pleasures of life, such that the way that you obtained those pleasures was by the deficit of other humans, putting them in a sh1tty position?

That IS the definition of profit - making a deficit for others.

Dont you care about others? Dont you care that 4000 hungry children die per hour? Sure you can live it up, but just because you dont think about others whom live in sh1tty conditions doesnt mean it doesnt exist.

Fvck competition, we should all work in common interests.

Sure you can drive your Bugatti around but that sh1t ain't coming with you when you die.

Help others and be the best you can be. That is the best way to live. Greed is not.

You say this is how the world is so adapt.

I say fvck that. I would rather die trying to change a bullsh1t system that is run upon exploitation of others then submit to it.

Western civilization.. so flawed

Western civilization is flawed? Western civilization has brought more wealth to the world than any civilization before it; it has increased the standard of living for billions of people.

You speak of the deficit of others, and how they're in a sh1tty position: the poor people in countries that have embraced capitalism live better than kings and queens used to. You're on the internet, in what I'm guessing is a home with central heating and air, and you're complaining about Western civilization?

There's no free lunch in this world (unless you live in Western civilization). Somebody has to create the wealth that allows such a luxurious standard of living. You have to produce something; you have to provide some type of value to society. The majority of people in Western countries used to do that, but not anymore. These days, the majority wants somebody else to do something for them. Look where we're headed now.

Everyone is looking out for themselves. It's been that way since the dawn of time. You're looking out for yourself by suggesting that others give their wealth to the poor; it makes you feel good about yourself to be generous. You're being selfish by telling others that they should live in a way that you see fit.

 

[narcissist]

Western civilization is flawed? Western civilization has brought more wealth to the world than any civilization before it; it has increased the standard of living for billions of people.

You speak of the deficit of others, and how they're in a sh1tty position: the poor people in countries that have embraced capitalism live better than kings and queens used to. You're on the internet, in what I'm guessing is a home with central heating and air, and you're complaining about Western civilization?

There's no free lunch in this world (unless you live in Western civilization). Somebody has to create the wealth that allows such a luxurious standard of living. You have to produce something; you have to provide some type of value to society. The majority of people in Western countries used to do that, but not anymore. These days, the majority wants somebody else to do something for them. Look where we're headed now.

Everyone is looking out for themselves. It's been that way since the dawn of time. You're looking out for yourself by suggesting that others give their wealth to the poor; it makes you feel good about yourself to be generous. You're being selfish by telling others that they should live in a way that you see fit.

Im being selfish because I want a society that makes sure EVERY HUMAN BEING in the world has water, shelter, food, education, and basic health care. How could you even argue that?

 

[user43770]

Im being selfish because I want a society that makes sure EVERY HUMAN BEING in the world has water, shelter, food, education, and basic health care. How could you even argue that?

Because it's impossible for everyone on earth to have those things. In order for that to happen, there would have to be a lot of people willing to work. You would need people to make sure that the water is drinkable, people to provide building materials, people to build homes, people to cultivate food, people to teach, and people to nurse the sick. All of these things take hard work and experience. That's people spending their finite life working to produce something.

We all have finite lives; each of us has a certain day that we will die. Think about that: you have a set number of days on this earth. That makes time our most valuable commodity. You can choose to spend that time (the most precious thing you have) however you'd like. Some people choose to spend their time working, knowing that they need to barter for certain goods in order to survive (water, shelter, food, education, and basic health care). This is how the world works: you provide some type of value and you barter with others who provide a different type of value. It's economics at its base. Things don't appear out of thin air. Someone has to create them. We can't all be philanthropists. Someone has to do the dirty work.

It's only in the past century that you could rely on the state to provide these "basic needs." And they do it on the backs of their populus - people who are spending their finite life working.

There are many people on this planet who are content sitting around all day and doing nothing. They add no value. In ancient times, they would just die - survival of the fittest - but now, they are subsidized by the state; they are subsidized by those who choose to work. Those who choose to spend their finite life creating something.

You want to talk about flawed? Me, too - every time I leave the fvcking house.

Welcome to planet earth.