Career Advice Redux

[dutchdisease]

Ah, the career advice thread, cornerstone of any INTP's existential crisis. Time for me to continue this tradition. Okay everyone, here is my brief (not really) backstory/problem. Much like many of you I have found myself dealing with a lot of difficulty in deciding what the hell kind of direction I am going to take the rest of my life. I currently attend college for some business program that I mostly just picked out because a path that was recommended to me didn't work out. I really wasn't ready to make a decision at that time. Anyway now I am in my college's business program and it is ok... but really I don't know what the hell i'm going to do after I get the degree (note this is a 2 year college). I have considered a couple options that would allow me to transfer over my degree pretty easily such as finance or supply chain management. Each of these has their benefits most of which are monetary and decent employment prospects.

The thing is I worry what kind of life these will leave me with. I have always had a fear of being trapped in some career I don't like. Even my previous jobs which I knew would exist only temporarily put a great deal of fear in me because I looked at the people there and saw their lives going absolutely nowhere. In a few years they would be in exactly the same place with a few years knocked off their lives. I am becoming somewhat hypersensitive to the time I have left on this earth. (Darn went off on a bit of a tangent).

Another Career path I have considered is getting a PHD in economics then going off to work for some government agency. This gets to be a bit more unrealistic as economists's are not in high demand. I did the calculations and if i'm right they make up .01% of America's current labor force. This path would also be much more financially stressful and I am fearful of embarking on anything to big when considering the financial ramifications it could have on my family. This however is probably what I would currently consider the best outcome.

I have not completely drowned out the possibilities of other career paths but it become increasingly difficult as credits I took begin to lose value. For example paths such as computer science, geology, and other stem fields might be worth looking into but I would likely take too big of a hit when it comes to credits to justify these choices. I really don't know how much I should be focusing on money early on in my life and if I should first try to make a decent sum before going out and following the things I really want out of life or if I should just jump straight into what I want and hope for the best.

In the past I have wanted to be just about everything. There is even a chronological order in my head (probably missing some):
1. geologist
2. astronomer
3. psychologist
4. stock broker
5. financial analyst/advisor
6. journalist
7. Economist

Anyone who has thoughts (Architect?) I would greatly appreciate them posting them. Sorry if this isn't exactly clear as to what I am asking.

 

[EditorOne]

Plan on starting your own business. Working for other people, especially when you inevitably find yourself at the mercy of an ESXJ asshat supervisor, really, really sucks and will inject poison into your psyche. All the business courses will support you as an entrepreneur and you can spend your time eyeballing product and process opportunities instead of careers.

If I had it to do over again, that is what I'd do. It comes with its own set of problems, but looking back, those problems seem preferable to the ones I had trying to play well with others who were in charge and were complete idiots, self-aggrandizing exploiters of my good nature, or emotionally self-indulgent tyrants.

But don't let me put you off: I hear there are good companies out there. On the other hand, one good company I joined, that kept me in journalism, subsequently got bought first by Dow Jones and then by Rupert Murdoch, whereupon everyone above me in the management chain decided they had to look and sound and act like they imagined Rupert would look, sound and act if they wanted to advance. That was an INTP hell that aged me twice as fast as normal.