this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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I gave up on a study course after five years of hell and now I'm back at my parents' house and must make a big decision on what career to pursue and find a job asap. But I just can't decide, I can't picture myself in 5/10 years from now and can't even imagine what type of job I'd love, bc everything seems out fo reach and impossible, just like it felt when I was 20.

I'm from Italy, and I made my previous choice based on job perspectives here, now I'd like some perspective from abroad...

  • business and economics This is a course in English, I also speak French and in an ideal world I would have studied foreign languages (but in reality, I would have found no job, here at least, or nothing promising). Studying economics in English would sort of fulfill that, I'd study other languages and strive to become an export manager with time. Other than that I could combine it, in THe future, with studies in cultural heritage, which would be my first choice if only I could live off of that. And find related jobs as I go.

  • computer science. Never interested me that much, I had a basic programming course which wasn't that bad, I think I'd be able to do that... But I don't know if I'd really want that. I've thought about it bc I'm interested in data journalism, and I could combine it with data visualization, design, writing... But that's more like an interest, I don't think I'd like the actual careers I'd have access too... I don't even have that much knowledge on what possible jobs would be like.

  • management engineering Again export or project manager. I'd prefer economics, but bc of my age this might give me slightly better chances of finding a job asap?

Of course the careers I mentioned require years of work and I'm willing to do that, the problem is I feel very confused, I'm afraid of wasting time bc of my age, maybe studying and not finding a job and also how can one know if a career is the right one for you? You first have to get there...

Any type of advice would be of great help, thank you in advance

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

Which of the majors you are considering pays the best?

Which has the most available jobs?

Which has the most flexibility?

And which of those three answers above matters the most to you?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Normally engineering and computer science pay the most.

All three open various different job positions, but, in my case, the problem is age.

To me business and economics sounds like the more flexible one, but that's not always a good thing cause being less "specialized" can mean lower value, at least for some job positions...

What matters most to me is finding a job first, and then being able of moving from there. Example:

  • computer science I'd be able to find something, but I'm not sure I'd have what it takes to build a fulfilling career in that field.

And still everytime I choose to not opt for it I think "how do I know, it's not like they prepared me for this choice, I might actually love it" so I go back to these questions and others a thousand times a day :) And never pick anything.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago
  • computer science I'd be able to find something, but I'm not sure I'd have what it takes to build a fulfilling career in that field.

Cool. You might like to check out:

https://programming.dev/c/cs_career_questions

We talk a lot and careers in computer science over there.

What matters most to me is finding a job first, and then being able of moving from there.

Outside of the last three years of insane belief by CEOs that AI will solve everything (it didn't), CS has been a great field for job placement.

We are in a period where it's hard to get first jobs, right now.

Moving from computer science to other fields can be a great path. I went from programming to Cybersecurity, myself.

My warning to anyone considering it though:

At first, programming is about 60% staring at the screen frustrated and confused.

But after gettingreally good at it, programming can be as much as 98% staring at the screen, frustrated and confused. But at least it's frustrated by really interesting problems, by that point.