I (23M, American) feel completely paralyzed from a career perspective because I have no idea what the hell to do. If I choose the wrong degree program, I have to pay back all the debt with nothing to show for it. Even if I get a job, there’s no telling how long that will last. Everything keeps changing so fucking fast and it seems like any field I could go to college for could cease to be viable by the time I finish. On top of that, I have chronic health conditions to worry about that limit what I can even do. (Edit: Basically I have POTS and a neck injury, so it’s hard to do physical labor and I suffer from dizziness, brain fog, and fatigue from being up for an hour or so. I don’t know my exact limits yet, since the severity of my condition varies by day and there appear to be ways to partially recover from the fatigue without having to lay down.)
I think stuff like urban planning and designing walkable environments would be cool, but I’m not sure if that’s a viable path in 2027 and beyond. I also used to be interested in programming, but ever since AI and mass layoffs hit the scene, I’ve become disillusioned and stopped pursuing that path.
I used to feel like the world was stable and I could pick a career based on my passion and be fine. But ever since 2020, everything has felt increasingly more uncertain. The world seems to be losing its collective shit and that doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.
Is staking your sense of stability on your career the wrong way to think about this? Should I be trying to find close friends or some kind of supportive community that could act as a safety net? Or is everyone too hyperindividualist to look out for each other?
Basically I have POTS and a neck injury, so it’s hard to do physical labor and I suffer from dizziness, brain fog, and fatigue from being up for an hour or so. I don’t know my exact limits yet, since there appear to be ways to partially recover from the fatigue without having to lay down (salt water, compression socks, bouncing my legs).
Stay true to yourself and accept that you can’t win but you also don’t have to settle.
In the biggest picture it really is what you do now. Be mindful of the now. You can’t do anything about then. You might be able to have an effect on the next.
So make your now as better as you can and do whatever it takes to make the next the best it can be.
Do your self a favor and be honest with what you can and can’t do.
If you can, then you should do
If you can’t, then find the way that makes it so you can.
I believe in you friend. I can’t really explain how much you have against you but it’s nothing new. Make sure to figure out your priorities and set goals to make it happen while being ready to take advantage of options.
Opportunity and timing and the truth factors in life.
Make sure you take the opportunity when it comes. It will come and sometimes it comes with baggage or in the most inopportune moment
I’ve worked with many people who like stability, and those who embrace change. It really depends on one’s personality.
Problem is that the world of work has changed. There are very few guarantees any more. In that case you have to decide if you want something that appears stable on the surface, but can be rug-pulled in a hurry. Or if you just accept that everything will change and adjust your expectations and life plans.
The former allows you to go deep and acquire expertise in one area. The latter gives you breadth, but may mean you won’t get deep into a single field.
This might seem a bit abstract, but it really means one needs to do a gut check when planning a career.
A third option is to just wing it and see what comes along.
And SAVE. Save as much as you can. Having a savings to fall back on gives you stability in an otherwise unstable world. It’s not easy, especially early in your career, but you’ll be extremely grateful that your past self built up something that gives you peace of mind.
An important thing to note is that AI is actually not capable of replacing jobs. It can streamline some jobs in a limited capacity.
The perception that AI is replacing jobs is a lie that’s spread by both employers and AI companies for various reasons.
The AI companies want to spread it because it makes their products look better to employers. It’s just marketing for them.
Employers are claiming that AI is replacing jobs because they overhired during and after Covid lockdowns and the industry is correcting for the oversaturation now that the economy has gotten tighter. But layoffs from reduced profits looks really bad to shareholders, and the company wants to look good to keep the stock up. Because of thus, they’re trying to spin the narrative that AI’s increase in productivity let them reduce positions despite it not being true.
All that being said, the job market is tough. If you’re good at math, engineering is usually a good pick. There’s been a shortage of mechanical engineers in a lot of the US over the past decade. These are jobs that pay well, and if you’re competent and willing to move you shouldn’t have trouble finding a job. That being said, the areas with the biggest shortages tend to be rural, though they’re often still within 1hr of a city.
The big catch for engineering is that school is damned hard. For my degree, I consistently needed 18-20 credit hours of classes each semester to finish in 4 years. Between that, studying, work, and hobbies that can be a difficult proposition. Plus, you still need to have soft skills like communication. You’re going to have a harder time getting a job if you can’t hold a conversation.
I think stuff like urban planning and designing walkable environments would be cool, but I’m not sure if that’s a viable path in 2027 and beyond
Without knowing that much about the field, I would think that urban design should stick around long into the future. Those projects take decades to complete, and there’s always new cities and developments.
Even if the US is currently drinking the stupid juice when it comes to what makes a good city, either that will change soon or you can apply your skills to projects outside of the US
You can’t. Neither can any middle-aged person, nor old person.
I’m in my mid 40s and I dunno. I thought I had it. Now, my company that promised permanent remote work and confirmed my moving was fine, is trying to kill remote work. I live in very rural Japan and there aren’t many jobs out here. No US/Canada companies seem interested in working with a backend engineer on the other side of the world. I have back problems so there are also limits on what physical work I can do so something like construction is basically not an option. So, with my life more than half over, I might lose everything again. If I do, my life will just go to being completely over.
Some (possibly incomplete) thoughts:
I think stuff like urban planning and designing walkable environments would be cool, but I’m not sure if that’s a viable path in 2027 and beyond.
So you have the option of looking outside the country? Because there are definitely countries (especially in Europe) who are doing a lot on that direction, that might offer something interesting. Also, tuition will be lower almost everywhere outside the US, so you don’t put on nearly as much debt, for the case that it ends up being the “wrong” degree. Plus, your chronic health issues would likely be much better taken care of there.
I also used to be interested in programming, but ever since AI and mass layoffs hit the scene, I’ve become disillusioned and stopped pursuing that path.
Depending on your situation, you might still be able to learn programming and build your skill set by contributing to the open source works. With some luck, the AI bubble will burst and we’ll be somewhat back to something normal again, where “normal” programmers will be needed.
Is staking your sense of stability on your career the wrong way to think about this?
Generally, you don’t want all your eggs in one basket. Any one thing can break away. I had a job for quite a while which was great and a perfect source of stability, it even helped me through some really dark times. Then things changed and it’s no longer a stability anchor. If I staked my entire stability on that, I would have been a goner. Try to find stability on friends, family (if feasible), hobbies, etc. Of course, that’s much easier said than done, but that is generally the way you want to go.
This book was a great help to me.
“Discover What You Are Best At” by Linda Gail .
It’s a series of self tests you can finish in a day, and then the book lists the jobs that you might find appealing.
For example, a hair stylist and a nurse both need good people skills and good dexterity. Two totally different jobs with similar skill sets.
I found the book when I was abotu your age, and it gave me a push in the right direction
Join the union building trades my dude. Wake up early, make six figures, and get paid to be trained. We dont go into debt for education. We go into debt buying boats and shit.
Trades are fine but IMO if you have to use a union to make your income then the people at the top of the field are too much of an asshat to know that what they do is broken and causing people to need unions.
the people at the top of the field are too much of an asshat to know that what they do is broken and causing people to need unions
Isn’t that the case with almost every field?
Unless the people at the top have an incentive to keep the field healthy, they’re not going to bother to do it. That’s why regulations, regulatory boards, and unions are helpful
That is the perverse incentive of capitalism yes.
Not every field is prone to this perverse incentive and it depends on a per company level how bad it is at any given place, we can choose to get paid well and not need unions easily enough so I’d avoid supporting a company with the work I do for them if something got so bad that it needed a major regulating body to sprout up.
Maybe this is just me being privledged or something but I’ve never seen instances where a union was just automatically better and I’ve actually heard a handful of accounts where it was mostly wasteful so it seek very much like your mileage will vary.
Im sorry but I honestly don’t know what to recommend. I can say I changed my career when it did not work out in my late 20’s and that lasted awhile but now im unemployed in my 50’s and can’t really do that. I can’t move in with family and retrain and such. The one thing I can say is I have gotten more things out of academia than just jobs. I am very glad I was in a LAS program and took an elementary logic class. LAS gets a lot of flack and admitadely its not great at a large school with crazy large classrooms but having a good breadth of education outside of your field is valuable. That being said you mention your 23 which would suggest your passed that point. If not I would recommend doing as much cheap education like community college and searching as much as you can for scholarships to avoid the debt trap.
I thought having a government job was stable. I still have it but it’s getting harder everyday. TR ru.p is fucking up a career i spent 10 years of my life on.
Honestly? Take a small business accounting class and bone up on the tax code (which is more common sense than people think - I do my own taxes and have for decades… it’s pretty easy once you work it out) that relates to it and become a CPA.
THAT one will always be needed because people that run businesses often have the lousiest head when it comes to the numbers.
Done right, you won’t be in any situation that demands too much physicality so if your not as mobile as you’d want, you can stil work.
Man, I remember when I was 23, good times! Yeah, gonna be real things like work, school, and all that productive stuff won’t make you feel stable. I spent a lot of my time wondering about that phrase that happiness is what you make of it.
When I was like 19, I felt I had no path forward and my dumbass served 6 years in the US Army. I had a near death experience in Iraq when I got fucking blown up and you know what went through my head? Was it the incredible team meetings when I was an NCO, the great grades I had in school, the awesome days of work when I got a lot done? No, it was the time I spent with friends, getting so drunk I passed out in a field, going to gaming tournaments, bowling, and all that. So what’s gonna matter in the end isn’t going to be anythong ‘productive’ at all.
Work and school are oh so much fucking applesauce. And hell, making more friends does help with jobs. I got my job now, as a civilian, because of the friendships I made in the Army.
…I feel like I old man rambled. Yeah, get out there and make friends. Literally just talk to people. Out of nowhere. Hell yeah.
Meditation.
There was never any stability in the world, but in times such as these it becomes painfully apparent.
The only place of stability is within.
That ironically also leads to the highest stability without.
Certainty is an illusion. You’re looking for certainty in an uncertain universe, which is a red flag for anxiety disorders. Not diagnosing you, just a friendly notice.
You can’t live your life from the past. Planning ahead and charting your course is important, but then you need to actually get your head back on your shoulders and live your life. Sometimes there is no optimal solution, and you need to choose the “least bad” option and hope for the best.
Give yourself a little credit; you made it this far. Trust yourself that you’ll be able to pivot and survive, even if something goes wrong.
I’ve had severe Hyper-POTS for decades, and the most important skills I learnt was staying within my limits and adapting on the fly. What do you do if you have a flare at the office, what if you’re eating lunch with coworkers, etc. You can’t plan ahead for every contingency. Your condition will ambush you at the worst possible time, and you need to adapt.
If you ever need any POTS related advice, send me a DM. Happy to help or just vent. Also check out !chronicillness@lemmy.world
