How do we figure out what career path to pursue after college?

If you are a current student at any university, whether it be a City College, State, or other 4 year institution, my gut reaction is for you to visit your school's career center and make an appointment.
For those who would like my 2 cents, read on...

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Here are some questions that may help answer such a question:

1.  What would you do if you had ten million dollars right now?

You can list things you would purchase, trips you would take, and anything you can think of!Feel free to write freely on what you would do with the money or some of the money. Once you get most of your ideas out of your system, the next step is answering the following:

2. What would you do with the rest of the money?

Here's where you can be creative, such as: Investing in XYZ (you name it), building a center to help abused children, starting a business to help others ABC (you name it), etc. So in answering this question, you can learn more about yourself and what you truly care about.

Feel free to do a check in with these questions whenever you might feel stuck about what you want to do with your life if you had or even have unlimited funds!

In time, your passions will reveal itself.

<Again, you can always continue to ask yourself this question as a check-point in future years because the responses may change as you become exposed to more people, situations, and networks in your lifetime.>

Once you have your answers, you can start doing research on companies that match your visions.  You can set up informational interviews and speak to people who work at those specific industries and ask them how that particular business either started or even how to  intern at that job site..

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The following situation is featured in order to help those who may have more of an idea of what they want but also some struggles along the way. As promised, emails sent directly to me will never have identifying factors, such as names or names of the university (Note: Person was in their first year in college):

Today was a day where I definitely rethought all of my life choices and what path I want to go on. 

For a while I thought I wanted to be a consultant because of working with a team and learning a lot about different industries. However, I realized that's a bit of a fantasy and day to day is more just making powerpoints that look nice and researching shallowly and uninterestingly about the industry. I'm still interested because there are certainly pros but I guess I'm disappointed because I finally found something and I can't think of much that would make me happy. I think being a teacher would be fulfilling but I can't help but think I need to go for more competitive roles because if I don't go for it now then I can never get it as opposed to a teacher role. Also, I want to maybe start my own learning center or college counseling business but I'm scared that will make me work with a small group of people and I want to meet a significant other in the work field. I know that makes me sound kind of juvenile but I just wanted to be upfront with my life problems. I don't want to feel like I'd only like 3 jobs but honestly I don't know about much.

I'm not sure if knowing more types of careers would be helpful, but I admittedly have a very elementary school level of the many, many types of jobs out there and I really want to find something for me. The most disappointing part is I genuinely am interested in everything yet so many jobs seem so stressful or boring or not for me and I just want to find something I can see myself doing for a while.

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My response:

I will say that as a freshman, you don't have to decide today what path to go on in life!  It's great that you are already thinking about it so you can try to prepare early on.  It also sounds like you have a lot of interests which is good, but a great way to really know if you will like something is to try and shadow someone in that position or schedule informational interviews in companies that you've researched online to find out what a consultant does on a day to day basis, what steps they took to get there, and how you can prepare for such a position (beginning now or when you have time).

Since management consulting is not my area of expertise, you can always visit your school's Career Center and make an appointment with one of their counselors in the field you want to get into.  They usually are connected with companies and can also help assess what you would excel in.  You may also inquire within to see if there is an Alumni network that will allow you to shadow people in their current workplace.  

As for starting your own learning center or college counseling center, there are some steps to consider.  Once again, you may research ones that you are intrigued by and do your best to shadow or set up informational interviews with employers in those industry.  Take detailed notes and keep them with you for future reference.  

Or if there are no such existing centers, have you thought about perhaps reaching out to other students who may have similar interests?  Once you have enough students, try finding a club that are already networking with your dream careers. If not any exist, you may consider finding students with similar interest and work your way into forming a new club.  Feel free to look into your school's process on how to do so.  You may need to establish your own constitution.   As for meeting a significant other in your chosen field, it's definitely highly possible depending on the company's policies.  My advice is  not to stress too much about this part of your life because the greatest relationships manifest when you are happy,thriving, and in most cases when you aren't looking for one.  At least that's how it was in the late 90s and early 2000s.  Nowadays there are dating apps,so if you are open and actively looking, you don't have to wait for your workplace to find the person who you want to share your life with.

If anything, try not to let your fears stop you from getting all the information you need to make bigger decisions later in life.  Please also try not to be hard on yourself.  You should be proud you took a step in helping organize your thoughts/path in life.   Nothing is wrong with having many interests and I think you have plenty of time to figure out what you are most passionate about.  One helpful method when one is feeling overwhelmed is to write a list of your top 5 or top 10 interests.  Go down the list and take notes on each as I've mentioned above.  Once you know how to get to those points, you will most likely narrow down to your top 3.  From there, you will need to assess and evaluate which steps are most feasible for you to take considering your budget and time.  Before you know it, you may find your career unfolding in front of you.

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