Discover Your Ideal Career: A Guide to Finding Fulfillment and Purpose

[kant]

Well, i made this thread in the hope that i might find some inspiration for a carreer. I am not sure what i like. I have subjects that i am passionated about like philosophy, c.s math and physics. I can t imagine choosing anyone of the before mentioned subject, and do it for the rest of my life. There are two things i think i want in a career 1) something that allows me to learn new stuff, and use my brain. 2) I want to help people, or know that i am helping other people in the stuff that i do.

 

[oedipa maas]

I feel very much the same as you do - with all these doors that are open to me, how can I choose to specialize in just one field? I think the answer is that if you are truly passionate about many different areas you will find an unconventional way to combine your interests. I'll let you know what that is when I figure it out myself!

I can't tell from your thread how far along in your education you are... if you're a high school student going to university will provide lots of opportunities to do volunteer work and explore academic fields that you think are interesting.

A few "obvious" suggestions:

1. Medical physics - lots of math, image processing and physics. A little bit of anatomy and chemistry too. And you get to develop tools that help people.
2. Teaching - my high school physics teacher had an M.A. in philosophy. He was excellent - one of the best. TAing as a grad student is a good way to find out if you enjoy teaching.
3. Science journalism - lots of the general-interest journals look for staff with PhDs. There are quite a few B.Sc's in regular print and radio too.
4. Perpetual graduate student - get paid to learn stuff! What a scam!
5. Random engineering stuff: I have a friend who started a company which builds electric bicycles. I have another friend who designs prosthetic limbs.

Have you heard of an organization called "Engineers Without Borders"? You might be able to volunteer your way into a dream job you didn't know existed.

PS - It's really nice to read a thread by somebody who isn't just trying to beautify their college application.

 

[CraigD]

I think you may want to look into design engineering. Just find the right field for you, but the nice part about design engineering is that there is a lot that goes into it, from the math and engineering skills to the philosophy of why something should be a certian way. What I would suggest if your in college is find a different industry to intern in every year, and wander the engineering and physics buildings looking at every paper stuck to the walls. There are always interesting student or research projects going on to try out.

CraigD, AMInstP
www.cymek.com

 

[symbolipoint]

Kant,

Have you considered studying one or more foreign languages? Have you thought about Linguistics? Linguistics often uses many ideas from the sciences. If you are concerned with helping people, maybe something involving language or linguistics is for you. Maybe teach a language, or help people develop language skills. On the scientific side, some linguists rely on applications of acoustics, Mathematics, computer programming, anatomy, knowledge of the brain, psychology.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

well, i think that if you choose physics and maths, then basically each day you'll learn something new.
and maths and physics are the essentials of any scientific/engineering discpline, and if you learn it you also gain the critical thinking, so you could also learn philosophy.