Did you change your career goals?

Question

I was wondering if anybody here changed your career goals while attending college? Did you have your mind set on one career and all of the sudden your interest change and started pursuing another career? If so, what career did you want to pursue and then what did it change to? What caused this change of mind? Was it a class you took? How do you know for sure when you have found your calling? Feel free to say anything else concerning this matter. Thanks in advance!!
I am pursuing a Master's in School Psychology.

Answer 1

From the time I was 15 years old I wanted to be a High School Band & Choir teacher.

I learned a ton of different instruments in Jr. High through High School (B flat clarinet, bass clarinet, alto clarinet, contrabass clarinet, A flat clarinet - I know, a lot of clarinets-, saxaphone, french horn, trumpet, oboe, basoon, flute, and piano.) I was in every musical I could get my hands on, often landing lead roles. I was a madrigal, and my senior year, head madrigal, I was in chamber choir, I did solo and ensemble....EVERYTHING to do with music I did.

I went the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point and spent one semester in the program. EVERYTHING I had ever LOVED about music flew out the window. We had to pull notes from the air, sing a capella with no starting note, do hours and hours a day of piano music. While I expected this, I didn't expect to be so horrible at it. I struggled. What was the final cut is there was only one spot open in the music program when I auditioned that Spring, and I wound up not making the cut. I was devistated.

I spent a semester at a local tech school just taking general courses so I could decide what to do with my life. Then I sort of had a life changing event.

One night at work I was opening a gallon can of ketchup when the can opener slipped and I cut my left thumb clear to the bone. I severed the tendon, nerves and knicked an artery. I spent the next two weeks bawling 'cause of the impossibility of playing a single instrument.

Then I started therapy. Occupational Therapy. Upper body, hands, reconstruction of your life therapy. They gave me back my music.

I was hooked. I got an associates degree at Madison Area Technical College in two years (thanks to all those generals I had taken) and have been a Pediatric Occupational Therapy Assistant.

I work with children who have autism, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, etc. I teach them how to write, how to get stronger, colors, numbers, how to use a fork, how to wash dishes, how to cook...how to dress....the list goes on and on.

Most wonderful moment of my life? Cutting my thumb. Why? 'Cause I wouldn't be where I am today...and I love where I am.

Answer 2

Yes I did change career goals during college. I first enjoyed Classics and Philosophy and then switched to Medicine.

I don't believe in 'a calling' anymore. I have allowed my beliefs do be trampled on in many of my classes. I have learned things about the way the world operates, and I have decided to conform my professional life to the path that would be most beneficial to me overall, not most pleasing for now. (Because my interests will change again and again through life)

Ultimately, even if I found a job I love, someday I won't love it anymore... So then where am I? At a job I hate, not properly supporting my family, not feeling very important, and being upset with my life. I'm glad I made the change for medicine. This should be a win, win, win career path.

Sure, through medical school I'll have no life, and as an intern I'll be dead most of the time... but I can find a way to survive... I am expecting the worst, preparing my mind for the battle... If it's all a matter of will power and mind games, the ball is in my court, I choose not to let myself, my family, and others down.

Answer 3

I did change my career goals. When i was 21 i graduated college with an Accounting Major. When i had my first baby at age 24 i was completely fascinated with the idea of childbirth and everything involving it.
I am currently 28 with three little girls, 4, 2, and 2, and am pregnant with my 4th. I am a stay at home mom and i attend night school to eventually be an OBGYN.
I think it is my calling because i have a natural ability with babies and children that a lot of other people lack. I have a lot of paitence and can handle crying and not knowing the cause, while a lot of other people wish babies could just talk.
You'll know when you are being "called" when you couldnt give a crap about your other degree in my case!

Answer 4

Of course I have and I probably still will. I had an idea at first, but I mainly started going to college to see if anything sparked my interest. I used to want to be a teacher, but now I'm considering journalism or English. I could still go back to teaching though. Mainly it was the classes I've taken through high school and some college that have made me see what I like, but what I can do well at. I'm not good at math so I try to stay clear of anything that would have me do that for a career! Hopefully I can graduate with a degree with something I enjoy. I don't know if I'll know what my calling is until I start doing something related. Once i get into the field I hope to take all the opportunities I get and be very open to anything new. They could lead me to my destiny. Good luck with the masters!!

Answer 5

Ya know...it is a fact that about 90% of people do not go into the field that they studied in college. I had a very difficult time figuring out what my major would be. Finally, I chose advertising, but I waffled a million times. I stuck with it though, did an internship with Delta Airlines and worked at an ad agency for a year. For the past 8 yrs. I have been in IT sales. The bottom line is "do what you love". I can not emphasize that enough. Understand what you really, really, really, really, really love, and do that. You will be so much more successful in this area than any other. There is a great quote that says "Find what makes you come alive and go do that, because that's what the world needs...people who have come alive." It is not easy finding that sometimes, but I guarantee it will save you many years of aimless searching if you put some real solid work into it. Good luck... I truly wish for you that you take this advice.

Answer 6

I had no idea what I wanted to do at the end of my high school days. Our school counselor wasn't very helpful if you weren't a val or sal. So I decided that I would become an accountant because they make a lot of money and I was pretty good at math. Great reasons, huh?! Plus, I think I had a crush on this guy and that's what he was going to major in also. So I took almost a full year of accounting and then it was time for me to take tax accounting 1 and tax accounting 2......BLAH! I hated the class and didn't care for the condescending way the professor taught his class. So I changed my major to a general business degree.
Now I work for a non-profit and among other various jobs, I handle their financials. The greatest thing about it is we send it all to an accounting firm after I do it and they catch any mistakes that I have made. They also handle all of the end of the year and tax stuff that I didn't want to do in the first place! So, I'm pretty happy!
I actually fell into this job. I was fired from a job, the only one I've ever been fired from, and after looking for a parttime job, a lady at our church said that the YMCA was hiring parttime. I thought sure...anything is great right now! I worked hard and ended up being a pool supervisor and swim lesson instructor/supervisor. I absolutely love working for the YMCA. They don't pay as well as other places, but all my past experiences helped me to fit very well into my current position.
Hope all this helps! Have a wonderful evening!

Answer 7

I wanted to be a physical therapist. My first semester I took a few classes and didn't do well. So I explored my options and took a few different classes in sociology, criminal justice, social work and political science. I ended up by chance majoring in Political Science. Why, because I passed most of my classes with a As and Bs. After a while I got so sick of college I was ready to get outta there. I had no idea what I was gonna do with my degree. After graduation I worked part time for a few months. Then I was unemployed for a long time before I got a job as a pre-school teacher for 4 months. After that I had a job as a Family Service Worker. It didn't take long for me to realize my favorite job in the world was working in the college library. I did that for three of my four years part time on a work study grant. I hated college and dreaded going back. I had to face facts that I need a master's degree in order to pursue my goal of becoming a Librarian. After being out of school for almost 6 years I'm going back for my master's degree which will take me 2 years to complete. If really enjoy doing something you like don't give up on it cause college or anything is route you have to take to get there. It's better to have a career you love then one you hate.

Answer 8

I am 42, I worked for 20 years in the food service industry ~ a very tough job!!! I entered college, beginning in the business program, switching to the fashion program, one that I love, but would be impossible where I live with a family, and finally switched to the EDU k-8 program. I love children and my daughter's friends always look to me as their 2nd mom, I believe this is why I chose this field. I love this program and will graduate on 4/29/2007 with over 200 credits. What a waste of time and money. I know a lot though! I love college and cannot wait to go back for my masters degree.

Answer 9

All my life, I was expected to become a lawyer (as my family put it, "...or at least work for one"). I was put into these hardcore, British-style think tank schools for gifted kids and started studying Latin in third grade and Law in fifth. This continued until I graduated from high school and started pre-law at University. I did two years of that, then I was disabled in an unbelievably bad car accident and dropped out. I had reconstructive surgeries to deal with, psychological trauma, and in the midst of it all I had a complete hysterectomy for endometriosis, and a divorce that left me on my own with two kids, all by the time I was 28. I spent ten years trying to figure out what to do with my life, staying home with the kids, volunteering at the animal shelter, looking after my friends' pets when they got sick, raising animals of my own, and then one day I decided that I was already doing what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and I decided to become an Animal Health Technologist (veterinary nurse). I am going to school for that now. If that works out and I want to take it to the next level, I will go to veterinary school.

I don't know if I have found my calling, but I do know that this choice sits well with me at this time in my life. I love animals and have a great interest in learning about them. I thought that my academic life was the only constant, and that everything else was always changing, but there was another constant - all my life, I was never without animals around me (pets, livestock and wild). I care about their physical and psychological health, because I have learned how it feels to suddenly have both destroyed. I can use the study skills I already have to do this. The hardest thing to learn is *how to learn* - if you know how to be a student, then career choices cease to be a matter of ability to handle the schooling involved, and become more a matter of aptitude. So I tell my kids, "learn how to learn fist, then figure out what you want to do", and I let them know that whatever they choose to do is ok with me, and I think that's important.

I think that I would have ended up being really unhappy as a lawyer. Although it's been rough and life is still difficult, I am glad that things turned out the way they did, because I feel optomistic about the future now rather than resigned to it. I look forward to the day now, and the time flies because I'm doing what I love...if that ever changes, I'll do something else!

Answer 10

Not while I was in school I didn't. I just recently went through a time where I wasn't feeling satisfied with what I do(I'm a professional floral designer) and decided that i'm going to give up that career and become a homesteader with a goat dairy. I've lived in the country my whole life and never feel as rewarded working at the shop for a whole day as I do working in the garden for just an hour. I'm going to become as self sufficient as possible and use my land to support me and itself

Answer 11

The problem I had was keeping up with the work load when at college. I could understand it and take it in, but keeping up with the demands of the course is where I lost out. It resulted in me changing course.
I started again with another course and this time I coped much better. I had passed all exams. to date and then financially things crashed on me, because of circumstances that were outside my control. This resulted in my college work coming to a halt for a time.
I went back to the working world and while out there I got a nice little job offer. Making the story simple and short, I took it and switched to night studying with the college. This meant starting again on a different course.

Based on my experiences, I feel it's worth taking the following factors into consideration:
Your finances.
Your likes and dislikes - are you happy with what you are doing.
Your physical and mental potentials - can you cope with the work load.
Employment prospects.

Since I started back studying it was ten years later when I final achieved my goal and got a degree. The previous studies were a benefit to me.