Dear Society: I need more time!!

Veronique

Hi! I don’t comment a lot, but I’ve been reading your blog since the beginning and I thought this was a subject I had to respond to. I am also a gradute student in psychology (but in I/O), and I think that what makes this profession really great is the vast variety of jobs we can have. We don’t have to hold the same job at the same place for the rest of our lives. You don’t have to choose right now what ou want to do for the rest of your lives. You can work for the first 5 years in a high school, then move to an elemntary school when you want some change. When you’re tired of that, you can go to a hospital or open your private practice, or combine two of these. Basically you have all the choices that are opened for you, and you can decide to do what you want based upon what you want right now for the forseeable future. I think that’s the exciting part of psychology. Since there are so many possibilities and subjects of interest, you will probably never be bored with your job. You can also always have somw sort of additional training to become more specialised in a specific field (eg ADHD) and work as an expert in this field.
Anyway, I juste wanted to let you know my opinion! Obvisouly, this is biased by what I want in my career and may not meet what you want, but it’s still something to think about 🙂

Kelsey

I don’t have an answer for you or even a very helpful comment about deciding what you want to do for a career, however I do know exactly how you feel. It was a great post for me to read today because I’m feeling the same way about my “professional” life. It made me feel so much better just knowing that I’m not the only one that feels this way. So I just wanted to comment and hopefully you will feel better knowing you are far from alone.

Laura

I think I could eat naan every day of my life and not get sick of it!

I remember thinking that my post-graduation life would be one long string of happy hours and fun after-work activities that I never had time to do in college. Apparently balance is a little harder than that.

You are definitely not alone in the “what do I want to do with my life?” question. I think Davidson placed a strong emphasis on vocation, too (or maybe I just hung out with those people?), which is good in that it makes you think about how you can best contribute to the world, but tricky when you’re still not sure what that contribution will be/what it will look like.

I always thought that my vocation/life calling/whatever you want to call it would jump out at me right after graduation and then I’d be set for the rest of my career. So far, I’m still waiting for that to happen 🙂

I’d definitely be interested in hearing more of your job searching, what-do-I-want-to-do-with-my-life thoughts, though!

Ju

I have no real advice for you on your job situation, just wanted to say that I loved the last picture with Matt holding the baby…Hugs to you for today, and your future…
Judy

Kathy @ newlywedindc

Don’t stress! I know, easier said than done. 😉 But as the previous comments state, you are definitely not alone. Many, many, many of us go through the same thing in the post-college years. I graduated with a liberal arts degree, spent two years working and living in a series of odd places to figure out what I wanted, then got my masters. But even since getting my masters it has been a “process” of figuring out what to do, partly because my field, like yours, is broad and there are a lot of different directions one can go in (I’m a city planner). I used to wish I was one of those people who just knew what they wanted and could have a straightforward career, like a nurse or something, but now I’m happy with lots of different interests and options in life. And as someone else said, your first job doesn’t define your whole career! You can do something for a few years and then if you don’t like it, switch to a different type of employer or specialty within psych. Easier said than done, but just hang in there!

Kerry

I am 36, and I’ve never had that moment of clarity when I said “Oh yes, THIS is what I want to do for the rest of my life.” The rest of my life is a long time!

But I have had career successes, and times when I’ve learned a lot, and various mentors, and all of these experiences add up. My advice is not to focus on your whole life, but pick something that sounds interesting and will help you build skills that are transferrable. I think you really need to try different things to decide what’s a good fit.

Best of luck!

Stephanie S.

I agree with your dad– you should use this blog as a platform to discuss some of the feelings you’re having. Not only do many of us share your feeings, but it really sets your blog apart, too 😉

I am 27, have a masters degree, engaged… and am scared, too! Sometimes I feel as though everything is unfolding as it should and sometimes I feel as though I’m clueless, unprepared, not accomplishing enough, not having enough fun, everything!

I have decided that this is all normal. (At least for those who are thoughtful. It does sometimes amaze me that some people never even think about these things!) The fact is that most of us are going to be working well into our sixties or seventies. Our careers are going to be forty or fifty years long, and I’m pretty confident that at 65 we won’t be doing the same thing we were at 25. Each job or experience is part of the journey.

As for fun– I’m still working on that, too. I really make an effort to not get beaten down by work and make the effort to come out. A lot of times I find that if I force myself up and off the couch, I’m glad I went. Also, making plans in advance helps– tickets to a concert or reservations to a restaurant help get me excited to go.

Keep writing– and thinking– about these things!

Amanda(RunningOnCoffee)

I took a year between undergrad and grad, which only confirmed my interest in pursuing school psych. I’m in my second year of working as a school psychologist at an elementary school, and I really like it.

I think part of it is just seeing what kinds of jobs are even available when you graduate. Here in NJ the market was a little saturated when I graduated, and I just applied to anything that was posted…high school, middle school, vo-tech, elementary school (luckily I got some experience at all levels). I took any interviews offered to me, and went with what I perceived to be the best offer. I didn’t set out to find a job in an elementary school, it just worked out that way.

I agree with Veronique- I’m not too concerned about getting bored with my job. I know that this is what I’m doing for now, and right now I like it, but if I get bored, I can switch to a different grade level, a different type of district… later on I could pursue teaching school psych (not so interested right now, but maybe after I have more experience) or you can always pursue becoming a supervisor/director (SO not interested in dealing with all the legal shenanigans!). I figure I will deal with other options when/if I tire of this one!

brined

I definitely hear you. I wonder the same thing most days, especially since I am choosing to go to law school at a time when virtually everyone is telling me not to go. But I work at a law firm now and I like it most of the time, so I’m sticking with the decision. The one thing that always keeps me going is this great piece of advice a mentor offered me:

“Don’t worry about making the wrong decision. Just take advantage of opportunites as they present themseleves and have the confidence to know that you’ll be ok whatever the decision.”

I thought I would share it since it always calms me down when I get nervous about taking the next steps in life.

Thanks for this post and I love reading you and your sister’s blogs! Fun fact: I realized from your holiday posts that your boyfriend and I went to high school together. Small world!

– Bri

Elizabeth

I’ve never commented either on here, but have been following since the beginning. I got my bachelors and then decided to take time off and see where life takes me, see if anything really grabs at me and IF I want to go back to school for further education. At one point I started studying for the GRE, then realized a few weeks into it that I had NO idea why I was going back to school. My point is… it might not have changed anything if you did take the year off. You prolonged the time where you are in the big world without school by your side, but the feelings are all the same and you’ll go through them. 🙂

School has been over for over two years for me and I still don’t really know what I want to do with my life. When I get down on myself I always remind myself that my dad was on a specific career path. At 31 he decided to go back to school to do what he always wanted to do. He spent the next 8 years going to veterinary school, followed by a surgical residency all while he had two kids. Once he was finished with school he moved his family across the country for his new job. He is extremely successful, a young 56 year old and working hard. He is beyond happy he made that decision, but I always look at him as my dad, it seems normal that he was in school until I was 9 years old. So I remind myself of that when I get down and stress about not knowing what my niche is.

And this got loonnnnnnng. hehe

Best of luck girl!! And go Duke – my dad is a Dukey 🙂