Career Help!

[cici5467]

Hi guys, I was hoping that some of you may be able to give me some career suggestions that are practical and match my personality type? I have been to multiple career counselors and have learned a lot about myself but can't quite pin down something that I am truly passionate about. Thank you so much in advance.

Some facts about me:

 

I enjoy work that has structure and clearly defined rules. I take comfort in closure and therefore like to see the results of my work on a daily basis. Fields such as therapy/research may be too drawn out for me.

 

Although I am introverted, I need to be interacting with people everyday, otherwise I will go crazy. I hate small talk but love the idea of counselling and process managing people which, in part, drew me to the medical industry.

 

I need to be able to rationalize meaning in my work.

 

I am a highly sensitive person so executive level positions where a high degree of conflict may arise may not be ideal for me. I also hate managers who micromanage.

 

Respect, salary, job security etc. are also very important. It would be nice to enter into a profession where great skill is required so that I would have valuable skills to offer.

[displayname]

I think that you'll need to provide more detail on your education and training to get specific help.  What fields have you worked in thus far? What did you study, (or what are you studying), during your undergrad years? Are you wanting/willing to pursue further education or training? From the information you gave, I could think of dozens of careers -- but you seem to want to pursue something in counseling.  What recommendations did you receive from the career counselors?

[juilletmercredi]

This could describe dozens of careers and jobs.

Two things. One, you don't have to find something you are "truly passionate" about. You just need to find something that you are reasonably content to do for money that you don't hate and doesn't make you dread getting out of bed every day. Alison Green, of "Ask a Manager," has an excellent post on why you shouldn't follow your passion. The short story is that few people get paid to do something that they are truly passionate about; but then again, most people don't really need that to be happy. Much of work happiness comes from the environment and the people you work with.

Two, I think there's this pervasive idea out there that the way careers work is that you find something you're passionate about in college/grad school and then you walk out with a job in that field and live happily ever. Reality is much messier than that, and many people find out what makes them happy by incrementally moving closer to it. So maybe their first job they like okay but really there is one big thing they hate, so they move to another position after 2 years that doesn't have that big thing they hate. But maybe it's missing something they really love to do, so they move onto job 3, which has that thing. But then ah, after 4 years at job 3 they realize that they really want to manage people now, so they go to job 4. And so on. You don't have to know what you are "passionate" about or even what you truly like right now; what you have to do is find a job that sounds appealing and try it out. If you hate it, you can always move on to something else!

As a side note, research doesn't have to be too drawn out. I had that dilemma, too - I love research but I also love structure and quick results. I took a position doing research in business (specifically, UX research in technology) and this suits my needs very well. I see the results of my research in 2-3 weeks, and see the application of those results within a few weeks after that. It's an amazing feeling seeing my research touch products that millions of people will use.

Might you be interested in genetic counseling? Another thing that comes to mind is consulting, which hits all the points - salary, respect, interaction, results, meaning. Whether you have a micromanaging manager is kind of luck of the draw, but that's unlikely with a consulting career. Software engineering is another career field that fits, but without knowing your background - don't know if you would like it. (And no, software engineers don't sit behind closed doors and code all day. Some of their day is taken up by that, but the job can actually be very interactive, especially if you're on an agile team. I talk to software developers all the time.)