When did you know a career was either the perfect or the worst match for your personality?

I'm trying to give someone advice on choosing a career that will suit them better than the one they're in and hate. I wanted to get together a list of good questions for them to ask themselves so they can use the answers to compare options like "do you prefer to work sitting or moving around," "do you want to not work weekends" etc.

gramie ,

When I went into university to do chemical engineering, in 1981, I had never even touched a computer. I didn't know until I got there that you could even do computers as a career.

I graduated, and then volunteered as a teacher in Africa for 3 years. I came back to Canada, and then taught English in Japan for 3 years.

But after my first year of university, my family got a computer (a Commodore Vic 20, with 3.5 kB of memory) and I was obsessed from that woman onward.

Leaving Japan, I went back to school and did a diploma in computer science. Unlike chemical engineering, where I dutifully learned things that I was told I needed to learn, I was delighted to have the chance to learn about software, operating systems, databases, graphics, etc. The difference was astonishing, and I found it easy to maintain a GPA just under 4.0.

I have been working as a programmer for more than 25 years, and although it has been stressful at times, the joy is still there. I'm not an artist by any means, but I do feel like a craftsman, and I enjoy the opportunity to continue learning everyday.

CanadaPlus ,

Did you ever manage to leverage your chemical engineering qualifications in your new career?

gramie ,

In a sense, yes. If you are trying to get an international volunteer visa, most developing countries have no interest in more unskilled labor coming into their country. You need some kind of qualification, whether it's a degree or a carpenter's certification.

In the same way, to teach English in Japan you need a "Specialist in Humanities" visa. It's easy to get one, as long as you have a university degree.

A lot of the education and engineering seems to be about the area you are studying, like chemistry or electronics or buildings. But in fact, the most valuable part of it is learning problem-solving skills in the middle of all of those courses. In that sense, I still use my engineering education all the time. But not the degree itself.

Mikina ,

Ever since I played watchdogs and shadowrun, I wanted to work in cybersecurity, especially as a Red Teamer, which is literally Shadowrun - you run complex ops that have to break in, and steal stuff from largre banks without anyone but the management knowing about the test, with almost nothing being off-limits, as long as it doesn't cause some kind of damage.

Five years later, I do work as a Red Team Lead. Hpwever, our company was just scrambling to start doing RT since thats the buzzword now, and while we did have amazing pentesters, unfortunately pentesting and Red Teaming requires vastly different skills. Ypu never need to avoid EDRs, write malware with obscure low-level winapi, or even know what kind of IoC ajd detections will a command you run create, when you are doing a pentest.

But since no one knew better, and I love learning and researching new stuff, while also having Red Teaming romabticized, my interrest in it eventually led to me getting a Lead position for the barely scrambling team.

Mind you, I was barely out of being a junipr, with only three years of part time pentesting experience. It was NOT a good idea.

I quickly found out that RT is waaay harder and requires the best of the best from cybersec and maleare development. We didnt have that. Also, turns out that I love to learn now stuff and take on a challenge, but being a Lead also means you are drowning in paperwork and discussions with client, while also everyone from the team doesn't know what to do and turns to me about what should we do. Which I didn't know, and barely managed to keep learning it on my own. Our conpany didnt want to give us much time for learning outside of delivery, I was only working parttime, and I was slowly realizing that we don't have almost any of the skills we need.

We were doing kind of a good job, most of our engagement turned out pretty well, but it was atrocious.

Turns out, I'm not good at managing and planning projects, or leading people. I'm better just as a line member.

BugleFingers ,

The first time I ever set foot in a machine shop I was enamored by the machines. I also don't have to worry so much about customers or socializing. It's quiet socially, not so much decibel-y. Things are pretty straightforward and each machine sorta has it's own personality. You can totally tell when its being just a dick that day, but treat it right and your job is easy.

PiecePractical ,

Pretty similar here.
First time I saw a CNC mill run I was immediately hooked. I used to work as a field service tech for a CNC machine tool distributor and I can honestly say that I absolutely loved the work. You drop into some random factory, spend between 3hrs and a week fixing it and then probably never see the exact same issue again. It's mentally engaging but almost never tedious or repetitive. You can get stuck working late or even spending a night out of town with almost no notice but, I like things a bit unstructured so for me that wasn't a big deal.
Also, I'm problematically introverted so for me the field service gig was perfect. I got to work alone most of the time but I was also forced to interact with complete or relative strangers virtually every day which is good for me because if I can avoid people as much as I'd like, I get a little weird.

MedicPigBabySaver ,
@MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world avatar

I knew growing up that I wanted to be a Paramedic. Both Grandfathers were part time/volunteer firefighters. My older sister became an EMT. I loved the TV show: Emergency.

I became an Army medic and continued as a civilian. This coming December will be my 38th year in emergency medicine. I'm still on the road. We'll see how long I can last.

captain_aggravated ,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

I didn't have nightmares until becoming an aviation maintenance technician.

KeenFlame ,

Doing your hobby / passion as work is the natural response, but it is not quite right I discovered lately.

A hobby is and needs to be undemanding and you really risk ruining the fun. instead of giving energy it takes energy.

What is much much more important is your colleagues
They make and break every job

And if you want to choose careers, think about what type of person works there and the amount of communication

These things are much more important than if the work itself is fun

If you don't want lots of intense communication and discussion about creative topics, don't have a creative job. Like concept art or music. Have it as a hobby instead and do it for you.

I just love talking about game mechanics and player experiences in games, so my job as game designer is perfect. When I was a coder, it was fun but I didn't get to talk to people and it ruined my hobby to be honest, I very rarely code just for myself anymore because it feels like a chore.

Also, being talented is a thing. If you are talented at something, probably try to use that. It's a head start. If you really want to do something, you can learn it, but it is taxing and the energy can be used for more fun things if you think about it.

In the end you cannot really know how any job is before you try. The added bonus is that you get to see how different work is socially. Even in pure solitary work this matters more than you think, how it will feel to go there every day. If you are treated like a human. If you are respected etc.

RBWells ,

Well certainly not the career aptitude testing in high school, which put me in ministry (the religious kind), philosophy, or military.

I was a cashier at a bunch of places and kept ending up working in the back office, then developing ways to do the bookkeeping on the computer (this was so long ago they were using paper ledgers). I did accounting systems for years, but doing accounting now, with coworkers I like.

I would not call it a passion but an aptitude. And as my former boss says - so much better to have a job you don't love with great coworkers, than a job you enjoy with people you don't.

LittleBorat2 ,

This kind of test told me I should be a librarian. Needless to say I am not that today and it would have been too boring (as a career no less) .

People don't know shit and cannot tell you what is best for you. Even bosses and so on have no idea and you need to tell them what you would like to do for your development.

Shard ,

You know it when you go to work and it doesn't feel like work. It doesn't feel like an absolute drag to get out of bed.

I'm an HVAC engineer. I love my job, to me it's like spending all day solving logic puzzles or a detective mystery. I found I was pretty good at it about 6 months into the job, when I figured out a problem the senior techs couldn't. I enjoy being out and about instead of chained to a desk.

A job/career doesn't have to be a passion. Just something you don't dread everyday. My passion is in sports but somehow engineering was something I was good at, it felt satisfying fixing things. I'd never make my passion my job cause I know it would completely ruin it for me.

JoeDyrt57 ,

I can well imagine that is difficult to be passionate about some installation’s heating and cooling system. But problem solving IS something that many people are passionate about. Good distinction!

captainlezbian ,

I learned engineering and I were going to have the occasional personality conflict about the time I realized I’m an extroverted woman. Thankfully I’m a sarcastic asshole that thinks she’s the smartest person in the room so I can often recover from it

TonyOstrich ,

When not even my closest coworkers or boss could tell if I was working or screwing off because working on or doing research for my personal projects is indistinguishable from my work ones 😅

pastermil ,

Sounds fun! Count me in!

Daxtron2 ,

I worked at a fish market one summer. I started off doing cutting, skinning, moving shit around. First day I worked in the front-of-house was also my last day working there. Never doing something like that again.

eran_morad ,

When it started paying me handsomely.

cyberpunk007 ,

I didn't, I lucked out.

floppingfish ,

I used to work in the pharmaceutical industry and kept hitting layoffs. After the last layoff, I somehow reached a point of "F*** this" and went to a career counselor. They suggested I read " Do What You Are" by Tieger and Barron. That book helped me to figure out what was a good match for my personality, I switched careers and stayed with that job until I retired.

GuillaumeGus ,

And what was it?

MajorMajormajormajor ,

Internet shit poster. Had a steady job at the shit posting factory for 25 years.

floppingfish ,

I left accounting and became a programmer.

auzas_1337 ,
@auzas_1337@lemmy.zip avatar

I’ll try reading this, I could really do with a fresh perspective. Just commenting so I can find the thread later.

shinigamiookamiryuu ,

What social services is supposed to be would've been a dream come true. What it actually is these days is the opposite, an utter nightmare. I took a good look at their atrocities and gave it a hard pass.

protist , (edited )

"Social services" is painting with a broad fucking brush, my man. There are tons of orgs doing fantastic work in social services, it's not all bad.

Edit: What follows here is straight-up aneurysm posting. In conclusion, "social services are like diplomats, except instead of being international, they're top-down." Direct quote lmao

I work in social services and think it's great, and the people around me do great work, whether that was in homeless outreach or hospitals.

shinigamiookamiryuu ,

I am speaking of the American variety, specifically from the perspective of District 7. It's so rare to go somewhere where they aren't abusing power, for the very reason they've been made susceptible to that, that a generalized stance can be made and we can say there is a "grain" even if there are people who go against this grain. This is in fact historically established by design, Bill Clinton was said to be the US president the modern manifestation of social services began with, a part of his legacy he considers one of his whoopsadoodles. So it's not just some random series of broad remarks.

protist ,

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. I'm a social worker in the US, and there are a ton of jobs available to me, whether that's federal, state, or local government, healthcare, schools, nonprofits, and more. The character of the job depends heavily on the agency and specific department within which you work, and there's an incredibly wide variety. Pay is bad at some jobs and really good at others.

What is "District 7?" And who exactly is abusing their power?

shinigamiookamiryuu ,

If you don't know the nine districts, that's enough to suggest you aren't a social worker in the same sense.

protist ,

I'm sorry dude I've worked in social services in hospitals and local government for well over a decade now and have no idea what you're talking about, "the nine districts." You're a social worker if you have a social work license and work as a social worker, not if you work at one of "the nine districts," as you cryptically refer to what I can only assume is some portion of the federal government.

shinigamiookamiryuu ,

To not know would be like working in a company and not knowing your bases of operation, or like being a lawyer without having been to law school, so the assertions inspire either inexperience or skepticism. The actual social work institution (not just "working for society") has its management divided across the US into subregions that typically encompass a few states, and they encompass your jurisdiction. If you were a CPS agent (which is a social services subunit), for example, the absolute limit in which one could relocate children without needing to consult another level of power would be the edge of a district. Each district also varies in their expression of authority, and thus experiences with people are different in each, but generally this institution known for addressing issues of abuse and handling insurance changes is corrupt in America as well as nations unfortunate enough to have modeled their equivalent after the American system, the CPS in particular has thousands of examples of footage of them breaking into homes to take children who haven't even experienced abuse. If you consider yourself a social worker, I'd seriously suggest you look into who you're working for.

protist , (edited )

Are you a troll? There's not a shred of reality in anything you just wrote. The federal government has no role whatsoever in any CPS function, it's entirely a state-based system. This is also just completely made up:

The actual social work institution (not just "working for society") has its management divided across the US into subregions that typically encompass a few states

The social work profession doesn't have a singular "management," there are state licensing boards the same way there are for doctors and nurses. Licensed social workers work for literally thousands of different agencies and there are no "sub regions that typically encompass a few states." Even better, almost none of the CPS caseworkers in my state are social workers. Social work has basically nothing to do with CPS. Where did you learn any of this?! Try to learn it again

shinigamiookamiryuu ,

I never said anything about the federal government, but the districts do exist as described. The CPS not being connected to the realm of social services is the most misguided claim there. Doubt intensifies

protist , (edited )

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    shinigamiookamiryuu ,

    Do you have something against the usage of the DSS site of a local area to use as an example of one which proves my point about the CPS being one with social services? You are not using the term in the institutional sense if it's not specific to human resources, though I concede about one of the other parts, I mixed two of the maps up despite the same idea applying (I forgot the US district map and the state one were distinct). It is more or less similar to what I was saying.

    protist ,

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    shinigamiookamiryuu ,

    I have something against someone who has something against someone who says it's a nightmare (aside from all the other things I've given to back myself up already, not to mention being anecdotal to complain I'm merely being anecdotal when I'm not), it's called loads upon loads of distributed stories and footage by people from all across the nation. What it's like to work in an organization doesn't take away from the hardship of dealing with those who do that work, the latter is the very reason I turned down doing the work. It could use some reforming, no matter what positives can be made of it.

    protist ,

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    shinigamiookamiryuu ,

    Even though I mentioned there's a more "official" sense of the word at play?

    protist , (edited )

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    shinigamiookamiryuu ,

    In no non-broad definition is police going to be on there. I already clarified myself, everything else is just trying to ignore that, so no.

    protist ,

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    shinigamiookamiryuu ,

    I'll put it this way, when your one and only business card says "social worker" on it, that's how you know. No one who is into insurance is going to say "here, this is my one card, call me" and it has an extension of the local court's phone number on it.

    protist ,

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    shinigamiookamiryuu ,

    You already said that, to no change in effect. It is easily a straight enough answer if you have a card, or do you?

    protist ,

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    shinigamiookamiryuu ,

    Alright. I would say the best one is that they're like diplomats, except instead of being international, they're top-down.

    protist ,

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    shinigamiookamiryuu ,

    You asked, I answered, and nobody is making that up, unless you're not as you claim.

    protist ,

    "Social services are like diplomats, except instead of being international, they're top-down" is one of the dumbest things I've ever read. You absolutely made that up.

    shinigamiookamiryuu ,

    How so?

    philpo ,

    Same with healthcare. I am a paramedic by trade, was the youngest in my class, youngest commander, went to work around the world, from the European Alps to the African jungle to Australian outback.

    It was quite a journey.

    But sadly I had to recognise that I am not cut out of the wood that is required to survive in today's healthcare systems in industrial nations.
    It made me profoundly hate humans and even more sick humans. I dread every single day I still have to work with patients. Especially awake patients. I can't handle them anymore.
    Don't get me wrong. I am still giving 100%, sometimes more - and I don't judge,like some other colleagues do over the years. I don't care if you are a frequent flyer, a drunk or a murderer - I will give everything and be very nice to you. But inside me? I burn out.

    It's not that I can't work with the misery,with things I've seen. It's just that I can't work with people and the system they are part of anymore.I am now lucky enough to mostly be "off the road" in a cushy,self employed, desk job. But still, I can't fully leave healthcare,as I invested to much. And so I will torture myself again.

    In less than 5 hours my alarm clock is going off for another shift. And I am dreading the moment it will.

    Fuck.

    CanadaPlus ,

    So is it better in non-industrialised nations? I have a few guesses as to why that could be, but I don't know which if any are right.

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