If I hated my chosen field I would work hard to discover what I had passion for before starting retraining. I’m not sure I would ask what others had passion for as it might not help me.
Yep, as someone who picked the wrong field once, you don't want to do that twice.
For sure. But it’s still interesting to hear what careers other people find appealing and why. It’s easy to get in a bubble in your own field and lack awareness of other possibilities.
It's interesting, but it doesn't tell you much unless you understand the rationale behind their choice.
My choice is ideal for me because it maximizes my transferable skills and knowledge. I have some classmates who are from totally different backgrounds and they are asking for a world of pain with this career choice.
If I were you...wait, I was you, I spent 2020 and 2021 figuring this out...okay, so *when* I was you, I opened my mind to E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G as a possible career option. Literally everything was on the table and then I pared back.
Clinical counselling was the most obvious choice because of my background and because it was originally my plan A before plan B took over. But even having a really obvious choice, I didn't jump to it.
I literally considered everything. Every person I talked to, I tried to understand their career, what they liked about it, what they didn't like, what an average day looked like, what success required, what success looked like, what failure looked like.
Every tv show I watched, I contemplated the professions and googled about the ones that seemed interesting.
I heard an ad on the radio that the government was going to fund education and apprenticeships for trades people and I considered if I wanted to do that. I even chatted last year with someone about becoming a whale watching tour guide...that I might still do actually.
You name it, I considered it, whether it had any relation to my previous education/experience or not, I asked myself when faced with any possible career if I would want to do that. Then if it looked interesting, I would contemplate if I wanted to do what it takes to get to that career.
Ultimately it came down to two very similar career paths, one easier, more flexible and more lucrative, the other more challenging and adventurous. I chose the more adventurous one but then changed my mind when some health stuff popped up and made it impossible.
So now I'm back to the most obvious option, but I'm absolutely solid on it as my best option because I've opened myself up to literally every single possibility.
Now, I could easily afford to take a leisurely 2 years to figure this out, and I had a lot of stuff going on in that time. You can put in a more focused effort and get this done a lot quicker, but you have to be proactive about it.
Read a ton, go talk to a career counsellor, go talk to a head hunter, find out what careers are even out there, what skills are in demand, what training you might want/enjoy.
Even if you have an obvious answer based on your background, still look at other options. Think as expansively as possibly. Give yourself a real chance to figure out what you might want to do.
I'm certainly happy I did.