How do I decide between career paths?

I would highly recommend reaching out to professionals in the fields you are interested in to see if it's something you might like. You can ask them to grab coffee or see if you can shadow them at work to gain a better insight; most people are more than willing to help out if you explain why you're interested in their field.

From my personal experience, I wanted to be a doctor from an early age. In college, I majored in Human Biology and took the pre-med courses required for medical school. I was always very good at math and science, but organic chemistry was very challenging, and I barely got through it. More than half of college freshmen who are plan on becoming a doctor drop out of the pre-med program before they are seniors. As I got older, and neared the end of my college education, I realized that becoming a doctor was not right for me. Most of my peers were very passionate about medicine and the human body, but I realized that I didn't want to become a doctor for the right reasons (the main one being money). Once I graduated, I got a job in business and absolutely loved it. I wish I had discovered this passion earlier, but I never gave it a chance, since I was so focused on becoming a doctor.

Definitely explore early, since if you want to go into medicine, you will need to start taking pre-med courses your first year of college and throughout. Volunteering is a also a great way to discover your passions.

I agree with what others have said in terms of exploring possible career paths by talking to people, getting experience, etc. You are being very thoughtful to be concerned about this now, but college is a great (the BEST) time to explore these interests and possibilities! Take some classes in each and see what sticks. The great thing about being pre-med is that you can essentially major in anything (though it will be easiest to do something like Biology given the courseload), but you don't have to decide about med school right away. And even if you go that route, you can always go into business if you want (get an MBA later, maybe!).

Take it from me, I was pre-med for my first two years in college and then switched to business. It can be done! Explore with your eyes wide open. Pay attention to what grabs you, and what you're good at. Good luck!

My advice would be to not rush the decision. If you're planning to go to college, take courses related to both fields. Do internships related to both fields as well. I found that internships were very useful in helping me realize what I didn't want to do. An important deciding factor, in my opinion, is whether you like the kind of people who work in these two fields, and this is something that's hard to get a sense for without doing internships.

At the same time, while you might want to specialize in one of these fields over the next few years, it is very possible to combine these two interests down the line. You could be a nurse or doctor who is active on internal committees related to hospital management reform. You could work for (or start your own!) electronic medical records company.

This is an interesting question. Given what you have shared so far, it seems premature to talk about picking specific career paths. Your question refers to business and medicine -- those are huge fields with lots of interesting specific career paths within them. Here's why it's hard to pick a career path at this level: When you're picking a career path you want to consider factors like...

• Passion. Do you have a strong interest in one over the other?


• Likelihood of success. For example, are you good at science? If not, you might not make it through med school.


• Work environment. How do you envision spending your days? At a desk? On your feet? Working with your hands? Speaking in public? Each of these might to you off to the type of career you will enjoy. Job shadowing, internships, and site visits might give you an idea of what environments you like.


• Lifestyle and culture. What are the hours like? Is the culture one that suits you (for example: inclusive vs. individualistic? Fast paced vs. relaxed? Job security vs. Extreme meritocracy?)


• Compensation. Which one is most likely to afford you the income you require to be financial comfortable?

But within the fields of business and medicine there are going to be hundreds if not thousands of career paths to pick from. There could be dozens of options that will satisfy your needs! So don't worry! You don't need to know all the answers yet, or make any "final" decisions! What might make sense is for you to deeply explore both of your interests. If anyone asks you what your career aspirations are, it's okay to say that you are particularly interested in two fields (business and medicine) and are exploring those fields now in order to identify career paths that might be a good fit. (One exception here is if you're going for an interview, in which case it would not be wise to highlight your interests in other fields. Use your judgement!)

(I have significant experience in business but very little experience in medicine, so I don't know that I could make specific assessments comparing those two fields.)

Something else to consider would be the amount of schooling required for your ideal career. Generally business majors will get an undergraduate degree or masters degree than start working before potentially getting an MBA down the line. Many medical students aspiring to be doctors are in school for many consecutive years before entering the work force.

I would keep my options open and experiment. College is a great time to do this. When I started college, I majored in Aerospace Engineering but enjoyed programming as a hobby. As I progressed through the curriculum, I started to realize that I enjoyed programming much more, and added it as a second major in the middle of my junior year. I'm extremely glad that I stayed flexible.

What helped me narrow down my career paths was talking to different people in the fields I was interested in. After finding out their experiences I got a variety of internships to further immerse myself in those fields and get a good understanding of what each one was about.

<span style="background-color: transparent;">Collegeboard.org is a great resource for this! I poured through the pages of universities all over the U.S. when I was a senior in high school. Collegeboard was my go-to site! They put all of the information in one place and it is very easy to use. They even have various filters you can apply to see only colleges that have programs you are interested. To determine academic rigor, look at the admissions requirements, G.P.A. of past admitted applicants, SAT/ACT scores, class rank etc. This will give you an idea of what scores and grades you need to be accepted. However, don't be discouraged your application will be reviewed based on the full picture! College-board will help you get an idea of what is most important to the specific school you are applying to.</span>

This professional recommends the following next steps:

• <span style="background-color: transparent;">Chat with your Guidance Counselor</span>
• <span style="background-color: transparent;">Create a Collegeboard.org account</span>
• <span style="background-color: transparent;">Start using CollegeBoard as a resource to look up schools.</span>

I usually look at 3 things when making a decision of a career opportunity:
1. Do I have the ability to make an impact to the world in the direction that I want to?
2. Will I be surrounded with amazing people (defined by you) who will consistently raise the bar?
3. Will I be able to challenge myself and learn?

And keep in mind when answering these questions, it isn't just about the career/job itself. It is also about the location as well as the relationships.

Hope it helps!

Hello!

I went through the same when I was in high school, but the beauty of high school and especially college is figuring out what you want to do. Don't be afraid to try out a major and switch later on. The fear I hear most, is spending more time in college. However, if you extrapolate that, you'll lose even more time making a career change later on. The best way to view this is, even though you don't know what you want to do, knowing what you don't like, helps you figure out what you eventually will like.

Sincerely,
Brian

There is probably not a single answer for that. The process that I found useful included the following steps:

1) Listing my talents and skills
2) Listing my interests and passions
3) Listing my professional and personal goals for the next 1, 3, 5, 10 years
4) Having conversations with trusted and experienced mentors around the potential career paths that fit most of the elements in my lists
5) Having conversations with folks who pursued career paths that I'm debating between and seeing how their experiences match against my lists

Deciding between career paths is difficult. 1st questions would be why am I planning to change. You ought to have an eagle eye view of your next career change and the answer to the 1st question. Planning is the most important thing in this regard. The time you'll be dedicating to your current career and the time you'll be able to spend on next career. Also, make sure you have enough financial leverage in between switching the careers.

From my perspective, the easiest way to approach your decision is to consider how much time you want to spend taking science classes, in labs, and in school in general- because a career in medicine is heavy on all these things in terms of its requirements.

There are so many types of careers within business or medicine, so rather than trying to figure out which of those 2 is best for you, it may be better to find out what type of work you're best suited for. That is, do you enjoy working with people, or data, or things, or ideas? Try out a personality test (Myers-Briggs is a standard) just for fun:

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

and see what sort of work you'd enjoy on a map like this:

http://www.act.org/wwm/

For instance, if you end up liking People & Data, you can work in both business AND medicine. They aren't exclusive!

Hello,

Great question, What I suggest is find a position that will allow you to do something you love. To be honest when I graduated college in 2007 it was so hard to find a job and I really just took the first opportunity that came up when I was hired at Enterprise Rent A Car. Here I learned how to interact with customers and sales which has lead me to a career focused around service and sales.

For me, I know I love helping people so my current role in Customer Support fits what I like to do. Try to find a career that matches your skill sets and personality.

This is definitely a major life decision! I would approach this by thinking about combining your passion and skills. It is important to have passion, so you can enjoy what you do and skill helps you do your job well. If you were to ask yourself two questions:

1. How passionate am I about the two areas?


2. How much time can I dedicate to developing the required skills.

One final thought, what would I be happy doing for a very long time!

I was in a similar position a few years ago when I was deciding my major during my undergrad studies. I was deciding between medicine and engineering. What really helped me make my decision was to try to figure out where I wanted to see myself by the time I was around30. And I don't mean this only from a career perspective but more holistically. Factors I considered was:

1. Where I wanted to live and which career would be better if I were living in that location?


2. Was I okay being in school for a good part of my twenties or I wanted to start working?


3. Family factors: How long are you okay being dependent on your parents/living frugally vs being self sufficient, When would you want to get married? Would you be okay marrying even if you have not necessarily finished your studies.

Medical school is more intense and long drawn that getting a business/engineering degree. It's a great profession but you will probably be in your 30s by the time you feel accomplished where as with business/engineering you can reach a good stage in your career by late 20s. So assuming you are equally interested in both of the options you mentioned I would consider these other factors. But if you have a strong inclination for one over the other then just go for that.

Hope this helps.

Hi Rio,

What is it that you like to do? What are you passionate about? Align your passions with your study. Yes, I know. People will say, "Hey, you won't be able to make a living." Forget that. Find your passions and go for it.

I guarantee in that journey, you'll be able to find something that you love and that you can make a living.

Good luck!
Oliver