17 Dec 2019

Not keen to read this one? Have a listen instead...

If you’re searching for career advice on the web, you’re not gonna struggle to find an opinion or two.

Looking for a bit of direction in your life is nothing new and there are a lot of people out there willing to chuck in their two cents to try and help out… From life coaches, to inspirational quotes, to personality tests that tell you what career you were made to do; there’s an abundance of resources out there that claim to have all the answers.

The reason there are so many resources out there, competing to persuade you of their version of what your life should look like, is that having uncertainty about your life is very, very common. Everyone reaches a point in their life where they feel a bit lost and a bit insecure about their future.

Everyone.

I know that usually, when you have a question, you can find the answer almost immediately on the internet. So, when you start to ask the big questions like what to do as a career, ol’ Google seems like a logical place to start. But you probably won’t find any answers there. What you will find is vague information and a blanket approach to advice that won’t really apply to you and your individual situation.

So, where do I find the answers?

The truth is that there is no ‘correct’ answer. Nobody’s going to be able to tell you what you want to do… except for yourself.

I know it sounds cliché, but you’re gonna have to look within for this one. And if we had to give you one piece of career advice, it’s this:

Chase your passions.

It’s another cliché, we know. But this one is there for a reason. Chase your passions. Whatever it is that you love to do – find a way to keep doing it and don’t feel obligated to do anything else.

If you’re top of the class at physics, but what you really enjoy doing is drawing, then look at graphic design, or an Arts degree. If you got an ATAR of 99, but you only needed a 70 to get into the course of your dreams, then do the course of your dreams! Don’t feel obligated to do a ‘better’ course, or a ‘harder’ one just because you can. Hell, maybe you wanna be an electrician and don’t even need your ATAR.

Your ATAR isn’t going to waste if you don’t use it. It’s your life that’s going to waste if you use your ATAR to get yourself into a future you don’t want.

And if your ATAR wasn’t high enough for your dream course, then it’s not the end of the road for you. There are countless other ways to get into uni, or into the industry you want. You might not even need to go to uni; get yourself job or an internship and work your way from the ground up.

Chase your passions. And if you don’t know what your passion is yet, then either:

1. Try stuff out

If there’s really nothing out there that interests you, then start trying stuff. Try everything.

Try stuff that sounds horrible to you. Try coding, try carpentry, try auctioneering. Try sales, try videography, try javelin. Enrol in a short course, ask ya mates’ parents if you can follow them around work for a day. Read some books about different industries. Keep searching until you find the thing that sticks in your mind.

Have a look around the Year13 website and see if anything tickles your fancy. Hate to brag, but we tend to think our website is actually quite handy for this kind of stuff.

Or—

2. Stop kidding yourself

You DO know what you passion is. I know it can be scary to admit it to people – it can be scary just admitting it to yourself! But deep down, there’s probably something that’s always fascinated you. Something that you could happily do for hours or days on end without even noticing the time fly by.

 

Standing at a crossroads and deciding where to go is tough, and it’s scary. But if someone else makes this decision for you, it’s a recipe for disaster. That’s why our biggest piece of advice is to do what you want, chase what you love and make decisions for you and no one else.