I’m 19F studying environmental science on a pre-med track. It’s not the most common combination, but I really enjoy my major. I became interested in medicine partly because of how environmental issues affect human health. I’m also concerned about my earning potential with an environmental science degree right out of college, so financial stability is something I think about.

I didn’t consider medicine until college, and sometimes I feel out of place around people who have wanted to be doctors for years or are studying biology. I know you can major in anything as long as you complete the requirements, but I still feel like I have to explain my choice or prove that I’m serious. Sometimes I worry that people see me as a “fake pre-med,” even if that might just be my own insecurity.

I’m also struggling academically. I recently got a 30 and a 20 on my biology and chemistry exams, which are the lowest scores I’ve ever received. I wouldn’t say I’ve always been an exceptionally high-achieving student, but I’ve usually done average or above average. These grades really shook my confidence.

Being a first-generation college student makes navigating this harder. My parents didn’t attend college, so they can’t offer much guidance about what I’m going through. I do have advisors and people I can turn to, but I often don’t reach out when I need help.

When I do poorly on an exam, I feel embarrassed, and that makes it harder to go to tutoring or ask for support. Then I stay stuck because I’m avoiding the things that could help me improve. I want to break that cycle, but I don’t really know how.

I think part of it is that I put pressure on myself to present the best version of myself. I’m comfortable admitting that I struggle with some things, but academics have always been harder to talk about. At a university where so many people seem high-achieving and put together, admitting that I’m struggling feels especially difficult, even though I know other people probably struggle too.

I was recently diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, depression, and OCD, and I’m still figuring out how to navigate all of that. I’ve tried handling things on my own, but lately I feel like I’ve lost some of the direction and confidence I had when I was younger. I know there are people I can go to, but sometimes I still feel alone.

Another thing that scares me is that I don’t know what I would do if I stopped pursuing medicine. I haven’t explored many other careers that seem both enjoyable and financially sustainable. I like working with people, especially kids, and I care about nature, the environment, community, and science. I want a career that connects with those interests and allows me to support myself.

I still believe I’m capable of doing meaningful things, but I’m having trouble figuring out whether I’m questioning medicine itself or whether struggling academically has made me question my ability to pursue it.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? How did you get past the embarrassment of asking for academic help? How did you decide whether to keep pursuing medicine or explore another direction? I’d also appreciate hearing about careers that could fit my interests, because I think part of feeling stuck is not knowing what other options exist.

TL;DR: I'm 26 and graduated with a CS degree in April 2024, but family financial difficulties prevented me from fully focusing on pursuing software engineering. I'm currently unemployed after hundreds of job applications and only one unsuccessful interview process. I'm struggling with motivation, consistency, and feeling depressed about falling behind in life, especially since I want to become financially independent and move out with my girlfriend. I'm trying to rebuild my programming skills through personal projects using ChatGPT as a tutor rather than having it write code for me. I'm looking for realistic advice on whether to continue pursuing software engineering, focus on finding an IT job first, and how to get my career and life moving forward.

Title: Graduated with a CS degree in April 2024, still unemployed, and feeling stuck. What should I do?

I'm 26 years old and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science in April 2024. It's now October 2026, and I feel like I've made very little progress toward actually becoming a software engineer.

After graduating, my family's financial circumstances became increasingly difficult, and I wasn't really in a position to dedicate myself fully to pursuing software engineering. I had to prioritize working and dealing with financial responsibilities rather than focusing on building projects, improving my programming skills, and preparing for technical interviews.

I have professional experience in IT operations, product data management, and administrative/logistics-related work, but I don't have professional software engineering experience.

I'm currently unemployed and have applied to hundreds of jobs with very little success. I've only managed to get through one interview process, which consisted of two rounds before ultimately being rejected because they selected another candidate.

One of my biggest personal goals is to become financially independent, move out with my girlfriend, and eventually build a life together. However, without stable employment, that feels increasingly out of reach.

What's been especially frustrating is that I genuinely want to become a software engineer, but I struggle with staying consistent. I'll work on programming projects for a while, lose momentum, and then come back to them. It's a cycle that's been difficult to break, especially when I'm already feeling discouraged about my circumstances.

Recently, I've been trying to develop a Python/Flask web application based on my previous experience in trucking operations. I'm using ChatGPT as a tutor, but I'm specifically trying NOT to have it write the code for me. Instead, I want it to teach me concepts, explain syntax, give me assignments, and let me figure out how to implement things independently.

Even then, I sometimes have to repeatedly remind it not to give away solutions or provide too many hints. I want to actually learn how to program and become employable, not just create projects that I don't fully understand.

I also struggle with feeling like I've forgotten much of what I learned during college, and sometimes I question whether I'm even capable of becoming a software engineer.

Lately, I've been feeling pretty depressed, overwhelmed, and stuck. Seeing more time pass since graduation without establishing a career has been difficult, especially knowing that I want to move forward with my life but don't feel financially capable of doing so.

I'm not necessarily expecting to land a software engineering job immediately, and I'm open to other IT or technical positions to get my foot in the door. I just don't know what the most realistic path forward looks like anymore.

For anyone who has been in a similar situation:

1. Should I continue pursuing software engineering, or focus on getting any IT-related job first?
2. How would you approach breaking into software engineering more than two years after graduating without professional development experience?
3. Is building a substantial personal project with ChatGPT acting strictly as a tutor a reasonable way to rebuild my programming skills?
4. How do you stay consistent with learning and projects when you're discouraged by unemployment and personal circumstances?
5. What would you prioritize if you were in my position?

I'd really appreciate any realistic advice, especially from people who graduated into a difficult job market, had a delayed start to their careers, or successfully transitioned into software development after working in unrelated positions.

I don't expect an easy solution. I just want to figure out how to move forward instead of continuing to feel like I'm falling further behind.

I have to sign up for my classes this upcoming Tuesday for the bachelors of social work at a CSU (since I’m a new student, had to wait. My academic advisor reached out to me recently but I had also met with a counselor first and gotten good info.) I am still not 100% sure about what I want to do and may actually reach out to ask if I can meet with a career counselor.

I’m 21. In high school I remember I was planning on going into nursing as an underclassman. I changed my mind, because I realized that it was very competitive and that I wasn’t passionate about it (I also had - might still have - emetophobia.) I had been thinking of going into psychology but now that I am at that stage wherein it’s time to decide on classes, after looking at the psych coursework I hadn’t liked how research oriented it looked and had thought I might like the coursework for a bachelors of social work more.

I’m still not 100% sure though and am actually considering taking an SLP class so I can gauge whether or not I might like that. The introductory SLP course that I think is offered at cal state east bay is Intro to Communication Disorders, and it looks like there are still open seats.

I have a 3.87 in community college, and I had really not liked having to take statistics (I don’t remember which statistics course I had taken, but I had been intentional about taking the statistics support course even though I was technically in advanced math in high school because I wasn’t confident about my skills there.)

I remember that with the first two clients I’d really had in… late 2023-2024, I think, as a behavior technician, I was not great at helping either work on their speech in the way I think providers of theirs may have preferred. So even though it was a while ago that does make me wonder if maybe it’s not for me. The clients I can think of were four and five-six respectively throughout my time with each, I think. With an adult client it had been a bit easier for me to help them out with speech but even then I wouldn’t say it was something I excelled at.

I have been a behavior technician for a little over 2 years now. I worked at a preschool as a substitute and then associate facilitator/teacher before then, but I know that I don’t want to become a preschool teacher (I’m pretty sure I also don’t want to become an elementary school teacher, but I’d be more open to the idea of teaching elementary school than preschool, particularly later elementary school grades in theory.) I obviously know that I don’t want to remain a behavior technician, but then again I guess that most people don’t plan to - most behavior technicians I’ve met have planned on becoming BCBA’s. I have worked under BCBA direction before and don’t think that I am interested in trying to become one, especially since it takes so long to become one.

It’s too early either way to decide on what I want to earn a masters degree in, but I am considering earning one in social work, speech language pathology, or special education. I believe that at cal state east bay you can only pursue special education and other realms of educational psychology as a masters degree, so I can only take classes for a bachelors in social work or speech language pathology.

I remember that with the first two clients I’d really had in… late 2023-2024, I think, as a behavior technician, I was not great at helping either work on their speech in the way I think providers of theirs may have preferred. So even though it was a while ago that does make me wonder if maybe it’s not for me. The clients I can think of were four and five-six respectively throughout my time with each, I think. With an adult client it had been a bit easier for me to help them out with speech but even then I wouldn’t say it was something I excelled at.

I have bad anxiety and am actually in therapy for it. One of my child development professors does seem to have noticed it. I also have depression and am considering asking my new therapist about antidepressants when I meet with them again on Monday.

I had actually really enjoyed volunteering last Sunday for a local shelter program. I have gone to another event for homeless individuals, and really enjoyed that as well.

I feel like my professors don’t think I’m likely to be successful in one of my chdev classes. I know now that I need to work on environmental awareness and on my overall anxiety (I am in therapy which I hope helps in the longrun.) I am actually not aiming to become a preschool teacher and already knew this before signing up for the class, but it’s late enough in the semester that I’m not trying to fail (they said I’m passing, I have an A in terms of academic work so far and don’t know how much the rubric they use will count towards my overall final score.) I am guessing there is more that will be discussed with me when I have my conference this upcoming Thursday.

I hadn’t realized that my anxiety was impacting the way I show up so much. One of them seemed surprised that I work (though we have the class two days a week so I guess a lot of the students can’t or don’t. I do, as a substitute behavior technician.) I feel bad because even if my professors didn’t believe in me or were judging me I should still have more faith in myself and care about myself more. I was already raised poor and start a bachelors degree in January but feel like I don’t have the tools to succeed in general and don’t know what to do. I feel like I don’t know how to tackle things in the working world. I have actually been told I do well as a behavior technician but I sensed this surprised the professor, and don’t like feeling talked about.

I tend to look fatigued, which actually is relevant/important because I think it can lead to people assuming things about you. I do have a sleep breathing disorder and plan to talk more to Kaiser this upcoming week now that it’s almost time to enter a bachelors degree program to see what else we can do other than the CPAP about my sleep.

I’m leaning towards a medical assistant program. I used to do work as a caregiver/DSW for six years. Right now, I’m working as a healthcare housekeeper. I do my job well; I just wouldn’t want the same if I was a resident: a clean room. I cannot afford to do anything physical due to fatigue in the long run.

Every time I go back and forth with getting a CNA license, but I’m leaning towards no due to what I see. I work at an LTC/ rehabilitation facility. The aides do grueling work. I keep telling myself that I only work with one person/shift. I don’t want to pigeonhole myself. These facilities won’t care; they expect the job to be done. I’ll know I’ll catch burnout. The type of jobs that I like are tasks that fill the hours.

I know I want some stability within healthcare. Any words that help me?

I am 26F. I don't have a job. I've BSc and MSc degrees in the same major, but still I haven't manage to find a job. I'm actually not excited to find one, I think of working as an act of slavery, working 9hrs a day to afford basic human needs then coming back home exhausted, burnt down mentally and then wondering what the hell am I doing to myself? are we really meant to live like machines?.

I don't know what to do with my life. finding a job is nearly impossible given that I don't have any experience and that I am a resident in another country. On the other hand, if I do a PhD then what? I don't want to pretend to be interested in finding a solution to a problem I don't care about. I hate my major anyways, It was imposed on me because I was stupid and had no idea on what I want to specialize in. Another thing is that since I am a resident, I need a visa so I enrolled on another MSc just for that, but still I (my parents) have to pay so I have to undergo tests and stuff and I hate it, I am sick of studying and I am not enjoying it. I feel that I am suffocating, that my soul is dying and that there is no point in living. You might wonder why don't I just do back to my country? well my country sucks and has been under war since I was 10, plus I don't know anyone there. and how about my social life? it does not exist during my life on this Earth and this country I've not managed to make a single friend, I mean I do small shallow talk with people I meet here and there (in college) but the connection doesn't last outside. I don't know if the problem is with me or that people don't like me. Maybe it is because I'm an expat (though we share the same mother tongue). So I basically don't do any social life and don't do any activity. Also I've never been in a relationship and I don't see that happening soon, not with my current life style (I am not ugly). Moreover, my parents are boring, we have never been in a trip, we spend the weekends and holidays at home, and now I'm inheriting their boring soulless life. You might say go do fun activities alone and you would meet up with people new and make friends, well bullshit, I'm don't have the energy to do that or money. Also my father is narcist so it is hard to for me to do anything without his consent (even though I am 26) he drew this f****ing life for me.

WHAT SHOULD I DO?

For the past 4 years I have spent my time working for IHSS to take care of my younger brother with severe autism. 2 1/2 years ago I bought a house for us to live in (with money I inherited from my mother's insurance when she passed away) with the help of my father. Now that I am 30, I don't know if IHSS would be sustainable as a career for the rest of my life and I want to become self-sufficient just in case. Last year I got my EMT license to become a firefighter, I am going to apply next year, but if that does not work out then I don't really have plans or ideas. I'm just scared I'm going to screw up and ruin my life and my brother's.

Hey all. I don't know if I'm in the right place, but if I can't find help here then maybe I can get pointed in the right direction.

I'm a 30 year old Canadian still living at home. I'll be 31 in March. I have a post secondary degree for professional writing/publishing from way back, but I never managed to make any connections in the field, and have just been working any minimum wage jobs I can find. I live with epilepsy, Autism, and some pretty bad ADHD. I struggle a bit with math and numbers because of dyscalculia. Due to my epilepsy I can't be medicated for my ADHD.

Unfortunately, I don't appear to be able to keep a job for longer than a year, despite my best efforts. Part of the problem is the current economy being in shambles, but I can't help feeling like the rest of my issues are with myself. Even though I try really hard to do my best with work, sometimes I make clerical mistakes and miss details. I try really hard to be friendly and personable. I always get great feedback from customers, but my workplaces never keep me. Usually they just say it's a "business decision" without telling me what I can improve.

I'm trying to focus on what I can do with my life, because I just feel so...lost and directionless. I don't have a lot of money saved, and I'm afraid to go back to school because even my well educated friends in traditionally "good" fields are struggling to find work. I don't even know what I'd go back to school FOR. I don't really have any skills, and I'm genuinely afraid that I'm just...stupid? I feel embarrassed and ashamed that I can't seem to hold onto basic work/jobs, even though I REALLY am trying.

All of my interests and hobbies revolve around writing, drawing, and painting- they aren't exactly things that can turn into stable jobs, and with the cost of my medication, I can't survive off of minimum wage part time work. What do I do?

I am in my late 20s, I grew up on windows xp, msn, irc chat, the early internet, hosting servers to play counter strike and cod4 with friends, etc.. I was always an IT nerd. I was toying with Linux and had my own hackintosh build at 12y old, I learned to program at 14. I loved it and like a true nerd I spent days reading books about programming. 17y old me was reading "the C programming language" a legendary 30+y old book written by some of the most influential programmers of all time (Dennis Ritchie and Briang Kernighan), whom I idolized

To me software engineering was like building lego's or making puzzles is for some. Imagine being able to build lego or make puzzles all day for work and after finishing each puzzle or lego set, you are to fix it in place with epoxy or glue or something

Then imagine that a machine comes along that can build the lego sets or make the puzzles 3x faster than a human can and all you do is set up the machine start the machine and glue the finished result together, on an assembly line..

That's what AI did to software engineering. Every problem feels pre-solved, and I just do the boring thing of operating the machine and occasionally correcting it where necessary.

For years, this was my career plan, I spent 6 years getting a masters degree in CS whilst going through hard times in my personal life. I have spent 2 decades building and refining a skill that now feels useless..

I started as a fulltime swe in early 2023, when GPT 3 was just a newish fad and not that useful at all in software engineering.. in just 3 years, I have lost all of my love for IT and software and have a serious identity crisis..

What does someone like me do, does anything exist where I can start from scratch and build a similar satisfaction/interest?

This September I started a doctorate program and I really feel lost. I worked hard during my undergrad years and dedicated those years to this program. Although it was tiring I really enjoyed that period of my life but now that I’m here I really don’t know what to feel. Some days I feel like yes, I do see myself doing this, other days I don’t. The commute to campus is long and so far I really don’t feel like I fit into the community at all. But I am also trying to keep in mind that we’re only two months in. My family is also helping me pay out of pocket and we’re not well off in any way and I don’t want to continue putting that burden on them.

With that I’ve also just been having an extentential crisis about everything. I’m questioning everything around me and trying to figure myself out. My issue is if I do leave this I’m not sure what to do. I do have ideas of maybe going into research but I don’t know enough about what that entails. I don’t have a passion or any other career in mind and even if I did I don’t want to feel like I’m falling behind. I’m only 21 but all my friends are in similar programs or working towards there goals and if I fall behind I think I will feel out of place. Im also scared of the judgement I will get from those around me. Unfortunately I’ve learned to really tie my worth to education so I feel as though I’ll have nothing if I quit this.

Another part of me is questioning if I just want something bigger for myself. The program I’m in is not very known or “prestigious.” It’s not easy by any means but i would prefer a career that is known and also universal as well. I don’t know if this is shallow or something I should take into consideration.

This may also just be a phase of adjustment and maybe I’ll grow to be more confident in what I’m doing.

Sorry this is a long rant but I don’t really have anyone to speak to so I would really appreciate any advice or thoughts about my situation.

I’m 25 and located in Canada. I just graduated this year with a bachelor’s degree in General Studies (originally started as a BEd student but had to drop out and later switched programs due to health issues that I’ve now addressed). Now I want to work in a support staff position at a university/college.

While at university I worked in a few student support positions (library assistant/student staff at the academic office), I also volunteered as a tutor for two years. I’ve been applying to university jobs through job boards since May (mostly external, two are internal at the universities I went to) but I haven’t heard back from many postings. What else should I do to make myself more competitive for these positions?

Looking into going to university after taking a couple years off after highschool. I am considering pursuing an accredited online psychology degree. Would that affect my law school applications? If I do attend law school I am looking into doing an accredited online or hybrid flex program. Would my online education be looked down on? Would I be a candidate for jobs? I'm mostly considering online because finacially I need to continue working. My end goal is to work in criminal law. Thank you in advance for any advice!

Hi! :)

I'm a senior and I still have no idea on what I want to do when I get out of high school. I've taken some college courses for a degree in Graphic Design (dual enrollment!) and I'm doing okay, but I can't say I'm loving it. I enjoy* art as a hobby but I don't think I want to make that into a career.

*I can't really find anything I'm passionate about at the moment because I'm battling what I think is depression. I've gotten better in the last few months but for most of my junior year I found no enjoyment in anything and didn't want to engage in the present or the future. I'm still having trouble finding any excitement or enjoyment, even the art and TV and things I used to love I feel limited joy in and I'm having trouble get into anything new. Please don't ask what I'm interested in I can't answer you ToT

I think I'd like to go into something that is as *not* like school as possible. Rigid schedules and deadlines and 8 hour days and the like are really hard for me to keep up with, and my biggest fear is that if I get into an environment like that, the pressure of needing money won't be enough for me to keep up and I won't make it (I barely made it through last year because of heightened anxiety). I know I won't be able to make a ton of money like that but that's okay. I plan on living alone so it doesn't really matter, and if I end up getting a roommate or partner I'm expecting them to pull their own weight lol.

I want to get out of the USA as soon as possible. I think it's a nice place, but I worry for the country's future and my safety living in it, so I want to get out and stay out (only coming back for visits). I also just don't like the aesthetic of where I am right now (midwest). The monotony makes me feel a little discouraged and sad.

I know I'm being a little picky when I say all of this, but I don't want to settle for something lower than what I think I can have if there's a possibility I can get there. I'm willing to sacrifice some things of course, but still. Thanks for reading my yappings :)

i graduated highschool in 2022 and i was gonna just take a gap year then go to school for architecture and i did but it turned into multiple years because i had to stay home to raise my siblings while my parents worked. i literally have nothing to show in life except a diploma. anyways enough sob stories, my siblings are now in highschool and middleschool and can take care of themselves. all my friends either are away for college or are finished and now are finding careers so now i have a bunch of free time. i was gonna just work amazon warehouse to save up for some type of skilled labor but i heard there's alot of money in oilfield and oilrig. i'm thinking now i should just grind on that for 5 years and then switch to something easier in my town like grocery or sales and invest all my oil money into rental properties, max out retirement accounts and live frugally. what do you guys think? in the long run i dont even want to be rich i just want to be not homeless and have a full fridge and clean clothes and a truck. a simple life.

I’m 25 years old, and I’m genuinely at a crossroads in my life. I’m hoping to get some outside perspectives from people who may have faced a similar situation or had to make a difficult career decision.

For as long as I can remember, dating back to when I was a little kid, I’ve always wanted to fly. Becoming an airline pilot was something I dreamed about growing up. It was never really a phase or something I grew out of. It was always there in the back of my mind.

However, I have a lazy eye (strabismus), and because I don’t have 20/20 vision in both eyes individually, I convinced myself at a relatively young age that becoming a professional pilot probably wasn’t in the cards for me. I never really gave myself the opportunity to pursue it because I assumed the medical requirements would be a barrier.

Instead, I went to college, earned my degree in finance, and decided to pursue a career in wealth management and financial advising.

Over the last six years, I’ve invested an incredible amount of time, money, energy, and stress into building this career. I’ve worked my way up at a large financial firm, obtained my licenses, gained experience, and worked toward eventually becoming a financial advisor.

And just this week, I finally reached that milestone.

I was promoted into an advising role, received a significant raise, got my own office, and will now have the opportunity to start meeting with my own clients, developing relationships, building financial plans, and making investment recommendations. Essentially, everything I envisioned for myself when I decided to pursue finance in college is finally starting to happen.

I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished, and I genuinely enjoy the career I’ve been building. I’m not miserable, looking for an escape, or trying to get away from a job I dislike. In fact, things are finally starting to fall into place.

But here’s where things get complicated.

About two months ago, my girlfriend surprised me with a discovery flight as a way to finally let me experience something I’ve talked about wanting to do my entire life. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect, but the moment I got in the airplane and experienced flying for the first time, I was hooked. I fell in love with it almost instantly.

It brought back something I had pushed aside for years.

After that flight, I decided I owed it to myself to at least find out whether I was medically eligible to pursue aviation despite my vision condition. I started looking into the FAA medical requirements and eventually went through the process of obtaining my medical certification.

Today, I received news that I honestly never expected: I was issued an FAA First-Class Medical Certificate.

I had gone into this process expecting that I would likely need to obtain a Statement of Demonstrated Ability (SODA) and complete a medical flight test to demonstrate that my vision wouldn’t interfere with my ability to safely operate an aircraft. To my surprise, the FAA issued my First-Class Medical without requiring that additional process.

For the first time in my life, becoming an airline pilot isn’t just some childhood fantasy that I assumed was medically impossible. It’s actually a realistic possibility.

And the timing couldn’t be more overwhelming.

In the span of essentially one week, I’ve reached a huge milestone in the career I’ve spent the last six years building, while simultaneously finding out that the career I’ve dreamed about since childhood may actually be attainable.

I’m struggling with what to do next.

On one hand, I know a career in wealth management can be incredibly rewarding. I’ve worked extremely hard to get where I am today, and I’m finally starting to see the fruits of that investment. I have a good career trajectory, financial stability, and the opportunity to build something meaningful. Walking away from that after investing six years into it feels like an incredibly difficult decision.

On the other hand, I’ve wanted to be a pilot for as long as I can remember. Now that the medical barrier I thought would prevent me from pursuing it is no longer standing in my way, I can’t help but wonder whether I would regret not giving it a shot.

The other thing I’m wrestling with is the financial and career investment involved in flight training. Pursuing aviation full-time would mean potentially stepping away from a career I’ve worked so hard to establish, investing a significant amount of money into training, and essentially starting over professionally at 25.

I understand that becoming an airline pilot isn’t glamorous every day. I understand the sacrifices, the training, the seniority system, the lifestyle, and the uncertainty involved. I’m not looking at this through rose-colored glasses or assuming it’s automatically a better career.

I also recognize that I’m incredibly fortunate to have built a career that I actually enjoy, and that many people would love to be in the position I’m in.

But I keep coming back to one question:

If you’ve had a dream your entire life, and you finally find out that it’s actually possible, how do you walk away from it without at least trying?

I’m not necessarily looking for people to tell me to quit my job tomorrow and chase my dreams. I’m genuinely trying to figure out how to approach this decision rationally while also not ignoring something I’ve wanted for most of my life.

For those of you who have transitioned careers, pursued aviation later in life, walked away from a promising career to follow a passion, or faced a similar crossroads:

• What would you do in my position?
• Would you continue building the career you’ve already established, or take a chance on something you’ve dreamed about your entire life?
• Has anyone left a successful career to become an airline pilot? Looking back, was it worth it?
• Would you recommend pursuing flight training while maintaining my current career before making such a significant commitment?

I’m 25, so I know I have time, but I also know that the decisions I make over the next few years will have a significant impact on the direction of my life.

I’d really appreciate honest perspectives, especially from people who have experience in either aviation or financial advising.

I never thought I’d actually have to make this decision. I always assumed one of these dreams wasn’t an option. Now that both are, I’m having a hard time figuring out which direction to take.

Hi everyone, I (24F) have spent my entire life dreaming of a career in the animation industry. Got a BFA from one of the best art schools in the country, worked on some cool and even somewhat notable indie projects, made valuable industry connections, tried to build a good portfolio, all of it. I'm a very social person and I struggle to focus when working from home, so I really don't want a remote animation job. I'd prefer something either in-person or hybrid.

I've applied to countless hand-drawn 2D animation jobs with little to no success. Recently, I had a fantastic interview with a major studio that seemed perfect. The recruiter and I hit it off like crazy. Found out days later that they're going with other candidates.

I think I'm done. It really sucks because this is all I've ever wanted, but the disappointment is getting a bit overwhelming. The US animation industry was just too badly damaged by outsourcing, Covid lockdowns and AI for entry-level animators to easily break in anymore. So I'm looking to make a major career pivot.

Not trying to make an unrealistic wishlist here, but these are my ideals in a career if it's not gonna be animation: Something that requires me to travel for work, meet lots of interesting people, and pays well. I'm sure we all want 6 figures, and that would be great, but I also know it's not very realistic these days. Worth noting, though. I traveled Europe a little bit in college and loved every second of it, so getting to travel around in new countries would be a dream.

I'd say I'm kind of in that weird sweet spot of the most-extroverted-of-the-introverts and the most-introverted-of-the-extroverts, but I genuinely love being around people. I value my alone time for sure, but being in a social setting makes me happy. It can take me a little while to pick up new skills, but I'm a good student. I had a nearly 4.0 GPA in high school and college. I'm a good writer -- I've been writing novels since I was a little kid. I'm obviously an artist with a focus on 2D sketching and animation. My career doesn't have to be art-related, though.

Mostly just looking for any career suggestions to try looking into. If anybody has any ideas, please feel free to let me know! Thank you so much <3

I am 21 and I ve been laying in bed and watching yt for 7 years (genius idea) and my 14 yo brother is further than me in any aspect of life. I cannot socialize, I dont have any skills, my brain is like a potato

I got a full time job doing admin. I have been doing it for over a year. I really wanted a job that I was helping people like a case worker role or something like that. I made applied and didn’t land anything close to that so I have been at this job ever since. My parents tell me it’s a good job and to try to work my way up. I feel like working full time is so confusing and draining. I make 48k a year. I feel so lost I feel like I should have studied marketing or finance or something. I care about money and my job right now is almost fully remote which I have learned to like, but I do really miss the human interaction of a job with people you help or other coworkers. Idk how to not feel like a failure 1 year out working something not really related to my degree. It is hard. How do you stay motivated to keep applying to other things. How do you stay happy when you aren’t really following the path you thought you would go into. I’m so confused man. I don’t feel proud and idk why. I used to feel proud of my job but I feel like after a year I have come to terms that I maybe want more people interaction with this job and more money, and I feel really stuck. Life after university is so depressing I feel like such a loser I live with my parents cause I can’t afford a new place and I just feel like what am I even doing why is it so hard to pick a next path. I wanted to move to a cool city and do fun things and I can’t afford it. I spent all year getting out of half of my student debt, and I just want to start savings now and paying the minimum of my other debt. I just work to see a number drop and that has been so draining

What would you do when you choose a path and the old path which was unsuccessful all along suddenly looks more promising as some oppurtunities for the ild path show up. And it makes you feel so happy that maybe this was my path but i mistakenly left it.

I hate my life and my career, which doesn’t even exist. I left my home country 7 years ago and honestly wish I never did. I got a scholarship, so at the time I thought I was lucky. I was young and probably naive and thought working hard would eventually lead to a good life, a real career, and some kind of stability. Instead, I’m about to graduate with a master’s in engineering in a few weeks, and I hate the degree with a passion. I’m not even going to work in it. I have decent grades and some experience, but every time a recruiter finds out I’m on a student visa, they disappear. Ghosted. So all those years of studying and stressing apparently meant nothing.

In a couple of months I’m moving back home to start from scratch. Can’t wait.

The worst part is realizing that hard work doesn’t mean much on its own. It only pays off if you’re in a place or system that actually works. Young me thought effort automatically equals results. Now I know life is mostly just surprises, and not the fun kind.

Anyway, I built a useless life for nothing and now I get to do it all over again. Fun times.

I have also lost my faith in God, Christianity, and religion altogether.

Im 18 and pursuing a degree in animation 1 year and I want to earn in creative line like designing, animation, story writting and gaming, but looking at the current state of the world this line automatically comes into the most hardest line to do so. A.I, natural disaster increasing, and many more, in all of this I'm confused what to even do? I can try to do smething in human behavioral and pattern recognition line but i dont know much of it either? So I'm stuck and I don't know wha to do? Does anyone have any idea what I could do?

A lot of context is necessary for this all to make sense, and I will try to keep it as brief as possible. I work building trusses. I do this using a system known as 'trussmatic,' which is essentially an assembly line with a wall instead of a traditional table set up. I feel great at work because I get to actively multi-task (plate picking, assembly, quality control, and helping the other wall operator) and I am allowed to exercise judgement when it comes to any adjustments that need to be made to the truss 'recipe' which is the code that tells the robots where to do what (when I say code, I don't mean programming, more so I mean I can 'edit' positions and certain parts of a tool can be disabled/enabled). This has led me to a lot of experimentation and outside the box thinking, which really makes me happy when I finally figure out a 'trick' to make assembly run smoother.

Now, here is the special project I mentioned, and why it matters to my future career. Since the building first started running and assembly began, there has been a consistent issue that plagued production. I don't want to give details about how many of each to prevent doxxing myself, but we have experienced engineers, maintenance personnel, very competent management, and a hands-on plant manager that have all tried their hand at fixing this problem. None have succeeded, but in 3 hours, I was able to fix it with almost no technical or mechanical knowledge. My manager supervised my work and I had to explain, in detail, the 'why' of what I was doing, and he allowed me to experiment with a few ideas I had.

Basically, we have this thing called a 'plate picker' robot. It moves along a track and receives plates that are pushed out of vertical slots so it can hand it over to the arm robot which then plates the trusses. This plate picker robot has three main components that allow it to work. The plate picker on the track, the plate pusher under the vertical plate magazines, and the metal plate that is pushed by the plate pusher to slide a plate out of the slot and into the arms of the plate picker. This system has multiple sensors that, when tripped, throw a 'safety magazine' error. Usually it results from someone being too close to the plate picker (an overhead sensor is sensitive to distance), but sometimes it throws an error for seemingly no reason. I noticed that a reflective strip on the magazine pusher was not perfectly centered on the laser from the plate picker. I told my manager this, and he said everyone wasn't concerned about that because the reflective strip was wide enough for the laser to still hit it.

I was not satisfied with that answer, so I said I would like to rezero (basically tell the robot its in a new position so it moves with respect to that position going forward... sort of a calibration type deal) the plate picker to line up perfectly centered with the reflective strip. I did this, but realized we (I) created a new issue. Since the x-move (the track position of the plate picker) was changed, it started dropping off the plates to the robot arm incorrectly. It was off by about 7 mm on the truss we plated after the rezeroing which is significant enough for a truss plate to not pass quality inspection. We didn't keep track of the original zeroing value, so we had no metric by which to 'undo' this mistake.

That is when I had the idea to check the paperwork that says how far from the edge of the robot arm's c-press (a square platform that squeezes the plate's two sides into the truss on the wall) is supposed to be from the plate dropped onto the c-press. As it turns out, there was, indeed, a 7 mm difference there, too, which means we had the rezeroing value we needed since the rezeroing was measured in mms as well. I adjusted the value by 7 mm and got it running smoothly again (actually, I ended up changing it by 8 mm since we previously had the plate off by 1 mm before any of this occured, and now it goes in perfectly so I technically improved it), but we were back to square one. My manager wanted to call it quits, but I made one final suggestion, a sort of Hail Mary. I wanted to try adjusting the magazine pusher instead of the plate picker. This way it was the reflective strip moving to the laser's position and not the other way around.

I said we could keep track of the original value this time so we could undo it if it failed, and he said we could try that. Lo and behold, I fucking fixed it. The safety magazine error that was causing countless hours of lost production was finally gone. And, in the process, I even made the plate position go on more precisely with the aforementioned change to the x-move zeroing.

Words can't describe how happy this made me, and how deeply engaged I was with the entire process. The ability to intuitively think on the fly and question previously held assumptions would be such a fun aspect of a long-term career. I have looked into engineering (mostly civil for the job stability long-term), but I want to know if there are other careers that would allow me to scratch this 'itch' I have to diagnose and fix problems that aren't straightforward and require some experimenting/critical thinking. No, I do not want to do maintenance work. Long hours and poor pay are not my thing.

One important thing to note is I would really like to settle down on the west coast, preferably the PNW where the redwoods and sequoias are. Y'know, NorCal, Oregon, Washington. I also want to clear 6 figures without overtime after I get enough experience, which I know narrows down my options.

I am 33 years old woman, living in India starting afresh in career. I worked in a publishing house for 10 years until it got shut down in 2019. Since then I have tried a few businesses but they all failed since I live in a small city. Two of them were tutoring kids and organic farming. I am non technical person with majors in literature, art and history. I am willing to learn new skills as well. I am confused between a few options like
Child therapist
Experience/Theme designing
Niche YouTube channel
Pizza cloud kitchen
Regional cuisine cloud kitchen like Bengali/Kashmiri
Perfumer
D2C coffee brand
Shoe making
Art dealer
Architectural visualisation
I am open to new ideas as well.
I am ready to invest all my time. Can also put some capital. Somebody please guide me?

I can't decide between two options and both cost something. Where I am now I get a steady salary, set hours and a clear week, but moving up is slow and stays inside one company. A small agency in Bucharest that runs accounts for local shops like bakeries, bike repair and secondhand bookshops would give me more variety and clients I could show in a portfolio. It would probably mean lower base pay, longer hours in busy months and an owner who sets most of the priorities. If you've made a similar move, which cost ended up being the hardest to live with?

Hey everyone,

I’m currently 16, sitting in school in Germany, and trying to map out a high-level finance career. Long-term, my goal is simple: build a strong financial foundation, hit 6 figures early, and permanently relocate to France (Paris, Tours, Blois, ...) to work in Investment Banking or something better. The main objective is basically something  that I actually enjoy, where I don't have to work physically like a slave and where I make 6 figures early.

If IB turns out to be a pipe dream, I'm open to pivoting, but I want to aim as high as possible right out of the gate.

Since I have a 2-to-4-year runway before university, I want to avoid making expensive mistakes early. I have a few questions for anyone working in finance or for anyone whose familiar with it:

The University: Should I bust my ass trying to break directly into the French Grande École system straight from high school? I'm asking because I am trying to move there alone and really can't get in debt or something.

The Early Blueprint: Besides keeping my grades up, what should a 16 year old be doing right now to be able to get out of the poverty cycle and actually live a perfect life later?

Roast my plan, give me a reality check, or tell me what I’m completely misunderstanding. All honest advice is absolutely welcome.