A Test Drive For Your Life
Considering the fact that some 80% of people report being dissatisfied with their work and most 18-year-olds have no idea what they want to do for the rest of their lives, I propose taking careers for a test drive.
Let me give you some practical examples before you borrow money to earn a degree for a career that you might not enjoy.
Thinking of Teaching?
You could/should try:
- working at a summer day camp; or
- in the childcare room of your local fitness center; or
- volunteering at your church’s vacation bible school;
- tutoring.
The idea is to experience large chunks of time with biggish groups of kids (or a kid), preferably of different ages.
Even if you already know that you love kids, acquiring hands-on skills of managing different temperaments simultaneously and understanding how certain conditions trigger different behaviors (read: meltdowns) is invaluable experience. If you end up studying education, it will put all the child development theory into context (or you’ll realize it’s totally irrelevant to the modern classroom).
If you’re already rolling your eyes and thinking “Ugh, I would hate that, I didn’t say I wanted to be a babysitter!”, maybe teaching isn’t your thang. Aren’t you glad you figured that out before you strapped on a pair of “copper handcuffs”?
Considering health care as a profession?
If you think you might want to be a doctor, a nurse or some other professional in the health care field:
- consider a job as an aid or as a facilities worker at a nursing home;
- volunteer at a local hospital or get a paying job in the hospital cafeteria;
- provide assistance to a person caring for an elderly person or a child with special needs.
If you haven’t dealt with human excretions (skin, puss, fluids, vomit, blood) and exclamations (screams, groans, demands) when people are sick or in pain, you should before you order those scrubs.
Even if none of those things phases you, getting to know people in the field will give you an idea of the lifestyle, demands, challenges, perks and politics of various positions.
Sweeping the floor in the hospital cafeteria as a group of docs or techs are discussing their work could be enlightening. Yes, I’m suggesting you eavesdrop or sit down with them and ask if they had to do it all over again, would they?
Helping to care for an individual outside of an institutional setting will give you an idea of the unique challenges that caregivers face that aren’t addressed by the health care/health insurance industry.
Journalist/Reporter/Copywriter
Do I really have to spell it out for you? Start blogging….YESTERDAY!
With the ease of use of platforms and tools there’s no excuse for anyone who thinks they want to write as a career NOT to start right now.
You likely have a camera, word processor, google machine, microphone and a video camera in your pocket.
Think you might want to be a reporter? Tap the microphone app on your smartphone and start interviewing people. Upload the interview to a computer, edit with free software and put it out there.
There’s no reason that you can’t start writing articles and stories to publish on your own blog or right here on Medium. You can submit to major or minor news publications. Who cares if they’re not picked up?
Start your own Youtube channel. The idea isn’t to get famous, but to practice and to create a consistent body of work. Dive into research. You might even learn something relevant.
Plenty of young writers contribute regularly to The Huffington Post and other mainstream publications.
If you want to try copywriting, try split-testing different headlines on Craigslist. List something with different headlines and see which one gets more responses. Try changing the description. It’s good practice and you’ll probably earn some cash on crap you don’t want.
Social Media/Website Design
Small businesses, including restaurants, doctor’s offices, beauty salons and insurance agencies, to name just a few, need basic websites but don’t usually have the time to learn or the funds to pay top-dollar.
Build your own website for practice and familiarity with the tools and start knocking on doors to offer a basic website for free or cheap to small businesses. You’ll learn something every time you login and since most small businesses don’t have a stellar online presence, you won’t likely f**k anything up.
Experiment with retargeting pixels and creative exploitation of trends on different platforms (like custom geofilters on snapchat or the Pokemon Go craze).
Even though social media is easier to jump into than a full-on website, Most small business owners don’t have the time to learn or keep up. Make them an offer they can’t refuse by negotiating a low fee or a commission based on business that you can prove result directly from your efforts (custom links, etc). Check out how this guy earned $300 in the first week of the Pokemon Go craze just by consulting with one small business owner. HINT: He explains EXACTLY how he did it. Step-by-step.
You get the idea. I could write a book about other things you could do to test drive different careers but you would never read it.
You’re probably wondering how you can support yourself while trying things out. Let’s be honest, if you’re younger than 30, you probably still live at home. If your parents refuse to continue to support you because you are choosing not to go to college right away, this is the time to learn how to wait tables or tend bar. It’s the best way to make a quick $100+ cash in a shift if you find the right place. Three shifts a week can easily cover your expenses if you watch your spending and jam yourself into an apartment with a few other people.
