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Is it okay to graduate and still be undecided on your career choice?

I am in 11th grade and really want to do something medical but I don't want to wait to late to determine my career path. #career #medicine #undecided #college #career-choice

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Priya’s Answer

Hi Lauryn! It's completely okay =). I had so many careers I was contemplating in high school and went in thinking I would do a medical field job as per the desires of my family. I majored in Psychology and minored in Biology and learned I loved Psychology and did NOT want to go into a medical field job personally once I joined a medical careers club in college. I was very panicked that I discovered this in sophomore year of college and did career counseling, as well as sampled other classes and asked people studying different fields to get more of an idea. I was able to decide on a field in my junior year I believe and then narrowed it down to the specific field before graduating my senior year! I ended up in my appropriate Master's program just fine and even now I am exploring other careers I would also like to participate in! There is definitely a lot of pressure in High School to have things figured out, but life just does not work that way for everyone! College is a great place to explore other classes and fields and opportunities. If you have an idea where you want to go, that is great! If not, that is also just fine and you have the opportunities in college to take and explore! You can ask your school advisor what major is a good starting place for your field of interest and then explore more once there. Or you can pick one that sounds interesting to you and see where you go from there (it may surprise you!) You will have an academic advisor that would hopefully help guide you as you explore in college, too. Good luck in your career(s)!
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Judi’s Answer

Absolutely! You do not need to know exactly what you want to do the rest of your life while still in high school! But it definitely helps that you have narrowed it down to the medical industry. I highly suggest you volunteer across different jobs if you are thinking of anything related to patient care. And there are so many other areas to research: medical services, medical sales, device manufacturing, healthcare software, medical communications, healthcare supplies, teaching and so many more - all vastly different flavors of the medical industry. Take the time to learn about them as you progress in your education. Not all career choices require a specific degree to enter the field and be successful - they just require a degree! For example I’ve had software engineers on my team that had degrees in mechanical engineering, another in history. My sister is a successful Vice President for health plan compliance and her degree is elementary education! But they all have college degrees.

Also, know it is very common to change your career path in your lifetime (sometimes more than once!). Just make sure you keep moving forward with your education and enjoy yourself as you learn! Good luck!
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Gloria’s Answer

Hi Lauryn,

You are one of many people who have this question. It is hard to know what you want to do when the world is filled with jobs that you may not have heard of. You mentioned medicine, so I feel like you might have an interest there. You may want to really think on how you would like to be engaged in medicine - medical doctor, pharmacist, therapist? And you need to look at what skills and interests that you already have. Think about what you love to do and what you are already good at. Think about the skills that you already have and look for jobs that have those skills. For example, my greatest passion is telling stories and the skills related to that are written and verbal communication. I was telling stories before I could write my own name. I tried to do jobs that didn't play to my strength and passion - telling stories and those really felt like work. Now I get to tell stories - in the form of training and I have fun every day.

It can take some time to figure out what you want to do. If you are are already college bound, maybe start with a very broad major like Liberal Arts, which will expose you to a lot of different careers. And then maybe during that program, you learn about something like Art Therapy ( which is health and wellness job) or Marketing. In other words, it is a medical technique. Once you get excited about something, you can then change your major (if you need to), and take a deeper dive into a particular topic.

What an exciting time for you, exploring the possibilities of what you can do.
Gloria
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Francisco’s Answer

Hi Lauryn,

Excellent question. Yes, it is okay, in fact it is perfectly normal. Many students aren't 100% sure about their career path upon graduation, some of them even go ahead and change majors during college. I personally changed from wanting to do psychology to engineering at the end of my junior year of high school.

Depending on how drastic the change you make it might be more difficult to change majors, but if is within the same area you'll realize it is quite simple as similar majors share similar coursework, as well as there are some classes that are common core, therefore every major has to take some of the same classes, which you could focus on until to decide on a specific major.

Nevertheless, I would recommend you do some research, and maybe find some general major like biology or chemistry, and you can start there. If you decide to go into something more specific you can always move into that major, or maybe you realize you prefer to finish a general degree and then do a masters on something more specific, or do some kind of program to get a special certification, or any of the multiple ways people concentrate into different fields.

Overall, it is perfectly normal not to be sure about your career path just now, there's plenty of options and you will have many opportunities to change course, but it is still important you continue to do research and ask yourself what you want your career to be like, what are your goals, and what kind of life style you want, and base your decision on that.

Hope this helps answer your question. Best of luck!
Thank you comment icon Great advice Ifrecak Isoclair Miller
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Roman’s Answer

100% it is okay to be undecided when you graduate. Honestly, it's a little ridiculous to make such a commitment when you're so young and haven't experienced the world at all. Not saying that this is the best route, but I happened to be in a similar situation when I was your age and ended joining the military. The military provided me the opportunity to travel all across the world (2 overseas duty stations, 2 deployments), meet all sorts of new people I never would have met, and gave me an opportunity to find myself and what I really wanted to do in life. I ended up getting out, going to school for free using the GI Bill, and entering a career I never thought I'd be in when I was 17. It may not be the most conventional approach to a career, but it was the right approach for me.
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Vivan’s Answer

I do believe it is completely okay especially given that even those who know that they want to end up taking pre-med classes. I would meet with your college counselor since there are many paths you can do down from majoring in biology and doing your pre-med classes or joining a Health Sciences program that may not require you to go to medical school later. Just make sure that the classes you take can accrue towards this direction if you later choose to go down this path. Good luck!
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Dawn’s Answer

Absolutely! Some don't know right away, the perfect job finds you. That is what happened for me! You may also think you want to do something and change your mind. You may find the perfect job was something you have never thought of before be open and don't be afraid to ask questions, try new things, or change your path.
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Gopi’s Answer

ABSOLUTELY!!

It is OK to do that. Career that is connected with your Passion is long lasting rewarding thing. Take your time, try new things, keep learning and have hands on experience/internship. Wish you good luck in finding right passionate career path.
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Ashley’s Answer

Oh honey, it’s perfectly okay. Not everyone goes the same path in life. When I was your age I still had no idea what I wanted to do and honestly I don’t think high schoolers should really know until they start taking classes in college and really feel out what they’d like. After high school, I went to community college and from there I was able to transfer to a University. You can also go directly to a University as an undeclared major and by your sophomore year you will be able to declare a major! Good luck, don’t stress!
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