Career advice

[Stick]

I think I must be one of the most confused people on this planet right now.

Ever since I've started to consider my career options in Year 10, I have changed my mind a thousand times. Every single time I think I've found my future career, I become really clingy to it before I realise something important and then change my mind. So I'm starting to distance myself from careers at this stage and I'm going to let my academic pursuits determine where I end up.

To be true to myself and to my interests, I will probably aim for a Science degree when it comes to putting in preferences to VTAC. I enjoy my maths and science so this seems a logical decision to make. I have very little doubt that I will change my mind on this. I'm just afraid that I will still not have made a decision by the time the course is over. I don't want to be one of those indecisive people for the rest of my life.

Looking at the possible majors in a Science degree, I seem to gravitate towards the life sciences. It might seem obvious to then jump at the options like medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy, optometry or pharmacy, but I'm not really sure on any of them. I think I'm more interested in the science behind these things, rather than the clinical side to the professions themselves. While I'm sure these sorts of careers are highly rewarding for those that work in them, I feel like I'd prefer a more positive working environment, rather than working with sick people. That being said, I'm not very keen on research or becoming a lab technician either. My extended family always thought I'd become a vet, but again I'm not too sure on the practical side of things. I need a job with some sort of human interaction though.

So if I do a Bachelor of Science with some sort of life science major, where could that lead me to? I guess I've become so involved with enjoying learning that I have not focussed on my future working life. Perhaps some of your ideas could point me in the right direction.

[paulsterio]

My advice is not to worry, you won't have to have a job for quite a while after you graduate, so my advice is to pursue what you love learning about before it is too late. Once you get a job in a field, once you have a family and once you have other things to worry about in life, you'll find that you'll never have the opportunity to learn widely like you once did.

Anyways, to answer your specific question, the obvious path after your undergraduate degree would probably be either to go straight into the work force or to pursue further education. If you go straight into the workforce, you'll probably be looking at a lab technician or something like that. If you pursue further education, you can become whatever you want, a doctor, any health science sort of field, an engineer, a teacher, an academic...etc.

[Stick]

From what I've said so far, are there any careers that sound right for me?

[pi]

My advice is to organise as much work experience as you can for the summer break. All of the careers you've mentioned would probably be happy to take in a student for a week (or less) in the holidays. That'll give you a feel for what each is actually like which will help

[ninwa]

Can I check if I've understood you correctly?

Career in the life sciences (I assume this means like biology, psychology etc?)
- Academic (rather than practical/clinical) but not research/lab work
- Needs interaction with non-sick humans (rather than animals)

So the only thing I can really think of is going into academia and perhaps lecturing/teaching. However, that would also require research work to be done

[Stick]

Yeah, it's a weird combo at this stage and I'll probably compromise somewhere in the future. If you look at the life sciences majors, I'd probably pursue Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

[paulsterio]

Yeah, it's a weird combo at this stage and I'll probably compromise somewhere in the future. If you look at the life sciences majors, I'd probably pursue Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

So, now that you mention Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, would you like to tell me more about those fields. What exactly is Biochemistry and Molecular Biology to you?

[Soul_Khan]

It's perfectly normal to be confused about what you want to do in the future, they're are people out there who are in Uni who are still unsure of what they want to be, personally this whole thing about getting into a job that you're gonna be stuck with for the rest of your life is nonsensical since we are living in a age where career mobility is becoming the norm and where changing between careers and industries isn't as far-fetched as it used to be. Given what your interests and the fact that you are unsure, I would recommend doing a Bachelor of Science, picking subjects which you like and then aim for a high GPA once you finish the course you can decide on what postgraduate courses/careers you are interested in and try to get into them. Or perhaps do a Bachelor of Science double degree with another field that you're interested in, so if you don't like the other field you can always go back to doing the general Science degree.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about choosing a career - just focus on your VCE atm, the fact of the matter is you may not decide till a year from now, maybe even 4-5 years from now, you never know to be honest. Which is why doing a generalist degree like Arts or Science is helpful when your unsure about what you want to be, since they're very broad.

The most helpful career advice that anyone can give you is to choose something which you are interested in and something which you love, which you could see yourself doing for the rest of your life or until you get bored and decide to change careers.

Goodluck!