i am graduating high school in about three weeks.

[shoeless]

my plan currently is to attend community college for a couple years to get my general education out of the way for cheap.

but for the love of everything holy, i just can't figure out what i want to do with myself after that.

i've thought about going into nursing. it's a good field, high demand in this economy, but i am still very queasy when it comes to blood (i still close my eyes during the gorey parts of certain movies) and i have the tendency to become too attached to people, which is just tragic when they're dying left and right because it's a goddamn hospital. so maybe nursing isn't quite the right career for me?

i've also thought about teaching, maybe high school english or art because that's all i've ever been particularly good at, but teachers make such shit pay and i'm not sure i have the right instructive/directive personality for being a teacher. because if i did something like become a teacher, i'd want to be a good teacher goddammit, i can't half-ass things. but i'm just not sure if teaching is quite worth it.

my boyfriend wants to get a government job, which is incredibly vague by itself but i've thought about it, i've grown up in and around government institutions my entire life (military brat) and i have a pretty good understanding of the way american government works, but what sort of job in that field would really hold my interest? government jobs have good benefits, usually good pay, i just don't know where the hell i'd begin with something like that.

urghhhhh the post-highschool craze is just a bit too much for me sometimes. i want to have a clear path, what to do, what classes to take, where to go, etc, but it's impossible.

can anybody suggest to me something i could consider as a career choice in the future? information regarding the type of schooling required would be helpful but i can always do that research on my own too.

PLEASE AND THANKS!

 

[AlisaD]

Well, to tell you the truth, unless if you're aiming for an incredibly lucrative career (and you don't seem to be) all jobs come down to the same thing - You work for appx 8 hours a day, and then you go home, and feel that you're earning just a little bit less then you need. No matter how much you earn, you will most likely feel like you could use just a bit more.
This of course, is wrong. But true for most humans on the planet. So as long as you make enough to have a place to sleep and food on the table, it really makes no difference how much it is.
So what really matters is how you'll be spending those appx 8 hours a day. It is 8 hours. 8 HOURS. Of your day. That comes down to almost a half of your waking life. It is not something to be sold for a few dollars.

I guess what I'm saying is, try and think more about what you actually enjoy doing, even if it's not that lucrative (like teaching) rather then about what may help you make a bit more money. It's not enough money, and you'll spend it all on shiny trinkets anyway.

 

[shoeless]

makes sense, but the problem for me is, my actual fields of interest aren't very marketable (to the point where i wouldn't be making enough money for real, in many cases). art and writing. my brother has an english degree because he wants to be a writer, but all he's been able to do is find shitty jobs (like at a library, not as a librarian, just some dude who works there) and he is only able to support himself because his wife got a degree that is actually useful.

i suppose my aim was always to make enough money that i will be able to support my interests, and eventually a family. i'll paint and write in my spare time. and it's not that i don't have any interest in nursing/teaching/government, because i do; i'm just trying to be realistic about it, realistic about the economy, realistic about my future, because up to this point all my life i've only seen people fall because their lofty goals are just a little bit out of their reach.

 

[Architect]

Are you in Germany? From what I understand (worked over there for many years) once you pick a career you essentially are stuck with it the rest of your life, true? Oh I see - military brat. So you're not German but living there now?

If you really are an INTP I wouldn't recommend being a Nurse, and it's not that lucrative anyhow. Tons of people are going for it with the idea that 'it's a good job in a bad economy'. We have a Nurse friend and know the inside scoop, unless you really want to do it ...

I'd recommend teaching, the prospects look reasonable good going forward.

 

[shoeless]

military brat, stationed in germany, moving back to texas in august-septemberish.
also, i'm almost certainly not INTP, but i dunno, i don't rely on personality type when it comes to picking a career. i just know i like people, i'm fairly sociable (at least when i'm happy i am), and i like fuzzy things. me in a nutshell.

i'm actually quite interested to hear the "'inside scoop" on nursing, because nobody has ever told me anything besides "nurses are going to be in high demand!" and "you'll probably get sued". so yeah.

 

[EditorOne]

There's not really a rush. The two years in community college can be general courses while you wait for a pattern to emerge. Patience is a much overlooked virtue.
Additionally, when you do find something that interests you, pick a school that has professors who are heavily interactive with the real-world aspect of that field. If it's bio-engineering, for instance, find a school that has people doing real-world research for real-world companies, under contract or whatever. A much overlooked aspect of school is the ability to create a network of people who know you and can help steer you toward opportunity. A professor who actually knows people in his field in the real world is infinitely preferable to a professor who has had boundary issues with the ivory in his tower for the past 20 years. While you are more sociable than many of us, a lot of INTPs have an innate diffidence that keeps people in general at arms length. Not always a good thing.
In the same vein: At every school there's a group of people who will be leaders in the future, whether they are students or teachers. They won't necessarily be the most popular or the loudest, but they will be the most intense. Get into that group. I went to school with Donna Shalala at Syracuse; she was a doctoral candidate at the Maxwell School. Had I spent more time with her rather than just taking a course and seeing her on whatever picket line we had going during those tumultous days, I'd probably be riding around with Hillary Clinton right now putting my international relations major to some good use. Donna Shalala went on to be Bill Clinton's secretary of health and human services; other students from my class at Syracuse were part of his administration, in part through their contacts with her. (No regrets, I'm merely using myself as an example of how being INTP can blind you to some things.)
Get more than most people do out of their college experiences. It's not just picking up vocational skills. Be aware of the potential hidden in networking and contacts.

I'll put icing on that by noting something others in the older age group here can probably confirm: The best, most fun jobs don't go to people who merely fill out job applications. They go to people who have the contacts to let them know such jobs exist and can expedite the process by letting THEIR contacts know you exist and would be a wonderful match. It's not as stuffy as an arranged marriage, but think about it: Would you trust an important job to someone who merely submits a resume with a bunch of accomplishments that have to be checked to make sure they're real, or would you rather give it to someone vouched for by a professional colleague you trust? (You still have to have the resume, of course.) At the very least you get moved to the top of the pile for interviews. After that it's up to you.

Yeah, I know, you haven't even picked a field yet. I'm just giving you background to maybe help you structure what now looms before you like a vast plain of marshmallow fluff.

 

[digital angel]

Have you talked to nurses? You could learn alot and then make a decision for yourself.

My advice is to follow your interests. It sounds like you enjoy art and writing; is there anything else? What can you do with these interests? You could certainly enter into the teaching field.

I'm a tax attorney. I fell in love with the tax code.

 

[JoeJoe]

Being queasy about blood isn't necessarily a problem as a nurse once you've completed your education because you can go in a field such as rehab/neurology where people also don't die as much.

I myself am also graduating right now and at first I didn't know what I was supposed to do either. I have a number of interests but they seem to change from one month to the next.

Basically I was deciding between engineering, psychology, chemistry, neuroscience and computer science.

But then I realized that it doesn't really matter what I study as long as I have some talent in the field because chances are I'll change the subject before I'm finished or I'll be working in a completely different field later anyways.
So right now I'm planning on starting with computer science this fall because it's definitely a solid basis and it offers opportunities to combine with other fields.

 

[EditorOne]

Let's take the nurse thing a step further. When you get back stateside check with your local hospital and see if you can arrange to job shadow a nurse for a day. You will undoubtedly have to sign a waiver agreeing not to say anything about anybody's private stuff. They may be reluctant, because of all the privacy restrictions these days, to do it. If that's the case, then back up one step, contact the nearest place where nurses are educated in your area, tell them you're considering taking it up but have reservations and would like to job shadow a real nurse. They might have a leg up on how to get it done. Or what about right now, where you are? Is there a base hospital or anything?

Personally I wouldn't give it undue weight in your decision-making, you may find you can draw on your super INTP abilities and make it a nonissue. I was a very active volunteer firefighter for 19 years, went to lots of vehicle accidents with lots of blood and ugliness. Tuned it out like a troublesome emotion, focused on what needed to be done to get victims out of the wreck or put out the fire or stabilize things. It could be you'll find you've got that same ability to reach inside, although like a lot of other young INTPs perhaps you haven't developed it fully yet.

(Sometimes INTPs are relatively more effective in a scary crisis than other folks. I'd like to say that's an unqualified good thing, but I always remind myself of a parody of a Kipling poem: "If you can keep your head when all those around you are losing theirs, then, my son, you don't understand the problem." )