How We Pick Careers
I recently tried to lay down some older brother logic to my younger brother. I told him that before I started working, I hadn't really thought through what each individual day would look like. It sounds stupid. Like really stupid. How could you not think about what a day would like in your future career? The thing is, I've talked to many others who did the same thing. Friends in med school don't realize how hectic an ER doctor's life really is until they get into the hospital. They didn't think about how most days they'll only have enough time to eat cliff bars for dinner. I didn't realize that I was going to ruin my eye sight because I'm looking at a screen 10 hours a day (I also didn't realize how lucky I was to pick an industry where remote work is possible and productive). The point is, we generally think more about the idea of the career we pick than we actually have to do to have that job.
[[Tim Urban]] has a great article about this.
What this leads to is people picking careers they don't like. They liked the idea, but they don't actually like the life you need to lead in order to do that career. We need more awareness in our career choice process.
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