What do you want to be when you grow up?
What do I want to be when I grow up?
I remember asking myself this when I was younger. In 4th grade, my answer was an astronomer. In 11th grade it was a music teacher. Now... I have grown up. And I still don't know what I want to be.
When you are you are younger, it's easy to picture an idealistic version of yourself at 21 years old with everything figured out. I always assumed that in my fourth year of college I would be preparing to graduate, incredibly skilled in one specialty of Software Engineering (some buzzword like Artificial Intelligence), and ready to dive immediately into a job at a big company like Google.
Alright, so here I am. I'm 21 years old, I'm not graduating this year, I'm taking a quarter off next year to travel (and hopefully teach!), and I honestly haven't found my passion in my field yet.
I've done web development since I started coding, but I think that I was so afraid of getting trapped in the web dev world that I never allowed myself to fully dive into that role. Because of this, I am still doing a lot with web dev, but I'm not nearly as good as I could have been at this point. And I'm okay with that, because it is true that I don't want to pigeon-hole myself into one thing for the rest of my career. Especially if I'm not passionate about what I'm working on.
That's something that I realized these last few months. I need to do work that I feel passionately about. It isn't enough for me go to work everyday just so I can support my hobbies away from the office. I want to feel drawn to my work every day, and I want to make a meaningful impact. I'm so worried that I won't end up feeling like I'm contributing actively to something that I care deeply about.
I think it's really important to assess career goals and life goals at the same time. I know the importance of security in a job and how it is needed for important things (like eating, living, etc.). But I also know that if I wake up ten years from now and I didn't ever end up traveling and working abroad then I think I would regret that. So, I need to keep something like that in mind when I assess my options for where I should take my career.
The job offer system is actually a little bit messed up. Most companies only give you a month or sometimes even only a few days to accept an offer before it expires. Which forces you to only evaluate the quantitative parts of differing offers. "Which offer pays more?" "What are their stock benefits?" "Do you get a 401 K?"
But no one asks "Do you believe in the company's values?" "Is what you are doing every day something that you will be passionate about enough to dive into deeply?" "Will you feel fulfilled in this job?" "Is this a step in the right direction for where you ultimately would like to end up in your career?"
Those are much more important questions to me. There are so many people in the world who don't even have the opportunity to get any sort of job. Which is why I try to never take any offer for granted, and I'm so grateful and appreciative of all the opportunities I have. So who am I to not try to find (or create) an opportunity that I feel fully passionate about. Then, I can enjoy working every day and put all of my effort and heart into the work that I do.
Could you imagine a world full of only passionate workers? Skyscrapers would get built in a day, technological problems would be solved exponentially, everyone would be so happy because they care about what they are doing. This world is not exactly possible... the reality is that most people don't get the opportunity to do what they love. Most people need to provide for themselves and others and can only choose what will help them do that the easiest way. But, I am just finishing up college. I have a skill set that is needed in the world and can also affect millions of people very easily. I know it's the time to create the opportunities that would allow me to be a passionate worker. Which is why making a decision for your job is something that needs more than a few weeks to decide on!
I'm going to be working for GoDaddy this summer. But after I graduate, who knows what I'll be doing? Maybe I'll work for a start up. Maybe I'll even create one. Maybe I'll work remotely and travel. Maybe I'll join the Peace Corps. Maybe I'll become a teacher. Maybe I'll get a PhD in machine learning or visual analytics.
In reality, I could end up anywhere. And I'll be happy with that - as long as I feel truly passionate about my job.
As always, thank you for reading.
I remember asking myself this when I was younger. In 4th grade, my answer was an astronomer. In 11th grade it was a music teacher. Now... I have grown up. And I still don't know what I want to be.
When you are you are younger, it's easy to picture an idealistic version of yourself at 21 years old with everything figured out. I always assumed that in my fourth year of college I would be preparing to graduate, incredibly skilled in one specialty of Software Engineering (some buzzword like Artificial Intelligence), and ready to dive immediately into a job at a big company like Google.
Alright, so here I am. I'm 21 years old, I'm not graduating this year, I'm taking a quarter off next year to travel (and hopefully teach!), and I honestly haven't found my passion in my field yet.
I've done web development since I started coding, but I think that I was so afraid of getting trapped in the web dev world that I never allowed myself to fully dive into that role. Because of this, I am still doing a lot with web dev, but I'm not nearly as good as I could have been at this point. And I'm okay with that, because it is true that I don't want to pigeon-hole myself into one thing for the rest of my career. Especially if I'm not passionate about what I'm working on.
That's something that I realized these last few months. I need to do work that I feel passionately about. It isn't enough for me go to work everyday just so I can support my hobbies away from the office. I want to feel drawn to my work every day, and I want to make a meaningful impact. I'm so worried that I won't end up feeling like I'm contributing actively to something that I care deeply about.
I think it's really important to assess career goals and life goals at the same time. I know the importance of security in a job and how it is needed for important things (like eating, living, etc.). But I also know that if I wake up ten years from now and I didn't ever end up traveling and working abroad then I think I would regret that. So, I need to keep something like that in mind when I assess my options for where I should take my career.
The job offer system is actually a little bit messed up. Most companies only give you a month or sometimes even only a few days to accept an offer before it expires. Which forces you to only evaluate the quantitative parts of differing offers. "Which offer pays more?" "What are their stock benefits?" "Do you get a 401 K?"
But no one asks "Do you believe in the company's values?" "Is what you are doing every day something that you will be passionate about enough to dive into deeply?" "Will you feel fulfilled in this job?" "Is this a step in the right direction for where you ultimately would like to end up in your career?"
Those are much more important questions to me. There are so many people in the world who don't even have the opportunity to get any sort of job. Which is why I try to never take any offer for granted, and I'm so grateful and appreciative of all the opportunities I have. So who am I to not try to find (or create) an opportunity that I feel fully passionate about. Then, I can enjoy working every day and put all of my effort and heart into the work that I do.
Could you imagine a world full of only passionate workers? Skyscrapers would get built in a day, technological problems would be solved exponentially, everyone would be so happy because they care about what they are doing. This world is not exactly possible... the reality is that most people don't get the opportunity to do what they love. Most people need to provide for themselves and others and can only choose what will help them do that the easiest way. But, I am just finishing up college. I have a skill set that is needed in the world and can also affect millions of people very easily. I know it's the time to create the opportunities that would allow me to be a passionate worker. Which is why making a decision for your job is something that needs more than a few weeks to decide on!
I'm going to be working for GoDaddy this summer. But after I graduate, who knows what I'll be doing? Maybe I'll work for a start up. Maybe I'll even create one. Maybe I'll work remotely and travel. Maybe I'll join the Peace Corps. Maybe I'll become a teacher. Maybe I'll get a PhD in machine learning or visual analytics.
In reality, I could end up anywhere. And I'll be happy with that - as long as I feel truly passionate about my job.
As always, thank you for reading.
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