How do you know what to do with your life?

I am going back to school next year. I am so wtf do I do with my life right now. I thought I wanted to be a psychologist and now I’m really not sure. I know med school will be hell and I don’t want to be up to my ass in debt after I graduate. I’m thinking about being a social worker because I think I would be really happy doing it. But you need 6 years of school for it and you only make 30,000 a year!!! I love to travel and I’m not sure I will be able to live off of that. So I was thinking about being a nurse. I would spend 4 years getting my BSN, join the peace corps for 2, work in an acute care setting for 1, and go to school for 2 more years to be a CRNA. Which pays over 100,000 a year. But I am scared after all that I will hate it. I heard that nurses are over worked and underappreciated and I don’t want to spend the rest of my life thinking damn it I should have been a psychologist.

Has anybody been at this point in their life? Where do you go from here? And if anybody has any of these jobs and has any insight into them I would love to hear about it.

When I looked at nursing school a couple of years back I found a number of programs that would accept my BA degree and I would only need a year plus or two to receive a RN. If you have a degree already (my assumption is based upon your participation in Americorps) why are you looking at four years.

In my early-30s I changed careers from retail management to technology. Now laid off in my mid-forties I am considering moving in to consulting same skills but no longer have a company to take care of or torture the hell out of me.

Between now and when you retire you will likely have had two or three different careers. So my advice is learn to learn and pick a profession that you like. Working only for money and not liking what you do sucks (sucks big time a lot it is suckier then you can believe).

So what do you you want to do?

If you want me to tell you what to do I say go into nursing it pays well and cannot be off-shored. If you want my advise it is to go in to nursing it pays well and cannot be off-shored.

I am going into social work, and I am only going to have to take 4 years of college.

Everyone has that moment in life of "what should I do?" Sometimes you find it early, sometimes it takes forever, but what you need to remember is you need to find something that your going to enjoy and make you happy...it's not all about the money.

I'm 31 years old, and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

I'm 25 and all I know is I want to own my own coffee shop. . .too broke to do it and I will no doubt be denied a loan. . .so, I don't know what to do with my life.

If you stay on here long enough MisterSatan will tell you what to do.

ModestyBlaise, I was hitting "REPLY" to your post to address things but for some reason, I am only getting this little gray swirly thing that never actually lets me reply.

Kind of ironic timing because I was talking to a lot of family yesterday and I ended up asking my cousin about your concerns. Anyway, my cousin is a CRNA and she loves it. You will have a great chance of being overworked if you work for a hospital but a minimal chance if you work for a private group. There is also locums work (kinda like temp work where you bill by the hour/day). You have far more options than you can imagine.

This was her starting package in SC: $115k salary with a $20k sign-on bonus for a 2 yr commitment. She later found out she could have gotten another $5-$10k tuition reimbursement because they were more desperate than they let on. Her schedule is working mon-fri 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. with every 3rd sat call (paid, O.T. of course).

I'm going to try and remember how she worded this correctly...she works for an anesthesiology group that services a hospital but for "bread and butter" surgeries. No head, trauma, or thoracic. She said if you were a nurse you'd know what that meant. She also said that everyone she knows who is actually employed by a hospital is totally burned out from how much overtime they end up working.

She also suggested a website for you to join: www.Gaswork.com She said that you don't need to go through a headhunter/recruiter as their fee will cut into your overall pay plan, and that you really don't need one with the demand anyway.

When I was in college, I had no clue what i wanted to do either. Every discipline had bits and pieces that i liked, but that was it. Eventually, I realized that what i really wanted to study was Human Sexuality. There are about 3 colleges that actually have degrees in that and they were all too far away for me to attend so I created one at the University in my town. It was incredibly satisfying. So, I guess my point is that you may not have to shove yourself into a pre-made degree if it doesnt seem right. Just another option. Good Luck!

People know what to do with their lives?
Huh.

I read the meridians of prophecy in the toilet every time I poop.

Dude, I just came her to post that, word-for-word.

Some people know for sure. My girlfriend knew what she wanted to do when she was in high school, but she picked a very specialized field whereby the only jobs are in exactly ONE city in the United States, they're never in great supply, and in bad economic times there are even less of them than normal.
So she's been applying for a year, has only gotten four interviews, and feels exceptionally frustrated.

My advice is to stick to your passions, but don't box yourself in with a very specialized field or profession. There's a shortage of nurses right now, yes, but that by no means implies that the shortage will last forever. I would say try to be as well rounded as you can and make a point to let your talents and skills dictate where you work and what you do, not just only what's printed on your diploma.

If you want to be rich, get an MBA. If you want to have fun, get an MFA.

Usually only takes a few days if you're particularly obnoxious, too.

You two don't honestly plan on growing up, do you?

What is this growing up you speak of?

...or it means that you're not at the right point in your life to get the job done. In 1992 I went to college, did okay for two semesters, then meandered and ended up dropping out as a suicidally depressed 21-year-old. I should have at least taken a full year off before even worrying about that shit.

Now, I've ripened to 34 years old, and I am about two quarters away from graduating on the dean's list. However, I did not change what I wanted/wished to do from now back to the time that I dropped out of school in '95.

Thistle, you're absolutely right, but life's opportunities have both effort requirements and timing requirements.

I don't want to grow up, i'm a Toys R Us kid....

Depends on what kind of social work you're into. There are plenty of opportunities for someone with a BSW, but if you want to do private counseling, you'll need an MSW, a couple years in the field and an LCSW (or whatever licensing your state requires) for insurance company reimbursement. There are some schools that offer a 5 year, accelerated MSW program - my former sister-in-law did that at Aldephi in NY, but my ex-wife did it in 7 because she worked full-time and went to school part time for her Masters.

He's right.

Now go make me something to eat.

i LoLed.