Careers are strange

Careers are strange. In a way, you are asked to decide what you will do for the rest of your life. But you are not considered an adult in most countries. Yet here you are, on the crossroads, of not two but multiple lanes, where you have to pick and it becomes your go-to thing for the rest of your life. This is strange. Why are we deciding so early? And even more strangely, why are we sticking to the decision? Why are we required to stick with one career our whole life?

But once we choose, it is not just that we are stuck within the same field, we might even be stuck in the niche of that field that we picked! One of my engineering professors used to work at a car company. He told us the various stories of amazing designs and he always tried to give us a dose of reality, but us wide-eyed with stars in our eyes always ignored the subtext (at least I did). He mentioned that some of the technology that goes into these cars is so complex that you can spend your whole engineering career designing a car handle. Imagine waking up everyday, getting dressed, getting into a car by pulling the handle to open the door, and then pull another handle to open the door to the manufacturing facility and then working on another handle that hasn't changed that much since last year. Maybe for some folks, that is intellectually challenging and interesting and gives them meaning in the form of work. But for me, I would not be satisfied by this.

And so this is my solution to the age-old problem - what major should I pursue? What does x, y, z do all day in their job? I hope this helps someone find the right career or at least point them in a direction that is in line with who they are.