I'm 36 and I've been driving a school bus in Ohio for almost eight years.

I never planned to do this long-term. It was supposed to be a temporary job after I left retail, but I ended up liking the schedule, the benefits, and having my afternoons mostly free.

The actual driving is fine. I'm good at it. But lately I've realized the thing I genuinely enjoy about my job is something I only get to do occasionally.

Figuring out why our routes don't work.

Last year we had one route that was consistently running 10-15 minutes late. The routing software had us making a ridiculous left turn across a busy road during morning traffic, then doubling back through the same neighborhood we'd just left.

Everybody complained about it. Parents, drivers, the school office.

I started tracking the actual travel times for a couple of weeks and put together a spreadsheet comparing different stop sequences. I took it to our transportation supervisor, who reviewed it and eventually approved a revised route.

We cut about nine minutes off the morning run.

I was more excited about that stupid spreadsheet than I'd been about anything at work in years.

Since then I've started noticing things constantly.

Which routes overlap unnecessarily. Where a five-minute schedule change would prevent two buses from arriving at the same school entrance together. Which stops become a problem when there's construction. How changing one route affects three others.

Sometimes I'll spend half an hour after my shift looking at our route maps just because I want to figure something out.

A few weeks ago, another driver joked that I should just work in the office since I apparently enjoy making everyone's schedules.

And I realized he was probably right.

Here's my problem.

I have no degree beyond some community college credits. My resume basically says school bus driver, retail associate, and shift lead.

When I search for transportation planning jobs, I mostly find positions asking for bachelor's degrees in urban planning, engineering, GIS, or logistics.

When I search for dispatch jobs, they seem more focused on answering calls and dealing with problems as they happen. I can do that, but it's the actual planning and organizing that interests me.

I currently make around $39k a year with district benefits. I can't afford to go back to school full-time or take a huge pay cut. I'd love to get into something year-round with room to grow, ideally without starting completely over.

I'm decent with Excel, but I've never used any professional routing or GIS software. I only see the printed schedules and maps generated by our office.

I've thought about asking my supervisor if I could shadow whoever handles the routing software. I'm just worried about coming across like I think I know how to do their job better than they do.

I don't. I know there's a lot more involved than making a bus arrive nine minutes earlier.

But after eight years of thinking I didn't have any particular career interests, it's kind of strange to discover I actually enjoy solving a very specific type of problem.

I just don't know what that skill is called outside my current workplace.

Are there entry points into transportation routing, scheduling, or logistics for someone with practical experience but no relevant degree?

And if you've moved from driving or another frontline job into planning or operations, what did your first step actually look like?

I'd rather spend the next year learning something that builds on what I already know than throw money at a random certificate and hope for the best.

So, maybe this is a long shot, but I was hoping to get some advice. I'm wondering what sort of career path there is, if any, that closely mimics a military structure: schedule, discipline, being told what to do and when, all of that. I'm disqualified from the US military due to physical limitations, but I'd like something that feels similar. I've thought about law enforcement, but I don't think I'd like to be a cop, and I also have a small criminal history (DUI). Up until now, I've worked in construction, but the lack of structure/general work culture is really not working for me (see: DUI). I don't currently have a college degree, but it's something I'd be willing to work towards if need be.

Please be kind-I would really like to find something that works. I feel really untethered and unsure of where to go in life right now.

27k in student loan debt, homeless, no job, no savings, two SWE internships on my resume, useless cs bachelor's degree from 2025.

My parents kicked me out when I approached a year post graduation with no job. I wasn't getting any interviews, at all. I was working as a part time barista for $16/hour to bide my time but I abandoned that job when I was kicked out. I'm in a city where rents are 2000+ for closets.

My loans have obviously been defaulted on by now, I don't even have an active phone number for then to contact me with. No money.

I've been staggering, stumbling around gagging on nothing like a drug addict in the last week or so. I had a bike but someone broke the lock on it while I was sleeping outside one night.

Idk what I can do now. Ever since I was kicked out I haven't made any job applications. They never got me anywhere. I haven't eaten anything for almost 2 days. I'm too ashamed of myself.

This morning I had a thought to try diving into trash cans to collect plastic bottles for 5 cents each, but it'd cost too much energy and time to be worth it. I'm... idk. I'm sad. I don't want to wake up anymore.

What more can I even do? "More projects"? That has no value especially for literally anything outside of SWE jobs. There's nothing else.

​

Can someone in their late 20s or early 30s, without a college degree or an established career, still build a financially successful and comfortable life?

What are the realistic options these days? IT, vocational skills, government jobs, sales, entrepreneurship, or something else entirely?

With AI changing the job market and competition getting tougher, is going back to college worth it, or is it possible to succeed through skills and experience alone?

I'd love to hear from people who've been in this situation or know someone who has. How did things turn out for them? Were they able to build a good career, earn well, and achieve financial stability?

No overnight success stories or generic motivational quotes, please. Just honest experiences and real-world outcomes. 😅

Hi, im M/36 and i wanted to share my story in hopes it can inspire someone else, im not looking for anything but the opportunity to share. A few years ago, I found myself at a crossroads in my life.

I had a good career at a good company. I was good at what I did, I was moving up the corporate ladder, and from the outside, things probably looked pretty great. But if I was being honest with myself, I wasn't happy.

Anyone who knows me closely knows that I've struggled with my mental health for a long time. And although I had done everything I could to mend those broken parts of myself, there was still something missing. I couldn't find any real passion for the career I had built. And boy, did I try.

For most of my life, I've had one dream: to be a professional artist.

But the truth is, I was afraid. Afraid of failing at something I loved so much. Afraid of discovering that maybe I wasn't good enough. So instead, I always stayed on the fringe of that dream.

I created art as a hobby, and sometimes that hobby even made me a little money. But it was never about the money. It was about how creating made me feel. That feeling of bringing something to life, of getting lost in a project for hours, of making something that started as nothing more than an idea in my head. That's what truly lit me up. That's when I felt the most like myself.

Meanwhile, I was advancing in my career, climbing the corporate ladder, earning more money, and slowly getting caught up in all of it. I justified it by telling myself, "Well, at least I'll have more money to support my hobbies as an artist."

It sounded reasonable at the time.

But when I finally reached that crossroads, I realized something that really hurt.

It had been months since I had seriously created anything.

I felt like my job was slowly killing that creative part of me. Or, perhaps more accurately, I was allowing that part of myself to die.

And that realization caused me a lot of mental anguish.

I've always been a creative person. Creativity wasn't just something I did in my spare time; it was a huge part of who I was. It had even helped me succeed in my previous careers. Yet somehow, along the way, I had pushed it so far into the background that I barely recognized myself anymore.

Eventually, it all came crashing down.

I hit a wall. I was utterly depressed, and some of those dark thoughts from my past began creeping back in. Thankfully, I was able to see my doctor and take some time away from work.

For the first time in years, I had a real break from a demanding career that I had given so much of myself to.

The first couple of weeks were slow. Honestly, they were mostly about resting, recovering, and trying to find the energy to move forward.

I started meeting with a life coach, trying to reconnect with the person I used to be before I got so caught up in everything else.

And during that time, something happened.

I started drawing again.

Nothing crazy at first. Just picking up a pencil, creating things, and slowly rediscovering that feeling I had missed so much.

Little by little, my motivation started coming back. I began finding pieces of myself that I thought I had lost.

And as I started feeling more like myself again, I began asking some difficult questions.

What am I going to do to make sure this doesn't happen again?

The thought of returning to my job filled me with anxiety, sometimes even panic. I genuinely didn't know if I could go back.

But what was the alternative? Leave and find the same kind of job at another company? Start climbing that ladder all over again?

Would anything really change?

Then one day, I had a conversation with my sister that would end up changing the direction of my life.

She reminded me of something I had spent years trying to convince myself wasn't realistic.

"You've always wanted to be a 3D artist, working in movies and video games. You've tried going back to school twice over the last decade, but you never saw it through."

And that's when I asked myself a question.

What if this time, I actually saw it through?

What if I stopped being afraid of failing and actually gave myself a real chance?

Could I really achieve that dream I'd carried with me for most of my life?

This time, something felt different.

Maybe it was because I had reached a point where I felt like I had nothing left to lose. Maybe it was because I finally understood what continuing down the same path was costing me.

Whatever it was, I knew I couldn't keep doing what I had been doing.

So I took the leap.

I left behind a stable career, a good salary, and the comfort of something I knew I was good at.

And I enrolled in a two-year program to pursue my dream of becoming a 3D artist.

I'm not going to pretend those two years were always easy. There were challenges, frustrations, moments of doubt, and plenty of times when I questioned whether I was good enough.

But there was also something I hadn't felt in a very long time.

Passion.

I was genuinely excited to learn. I wanted to get better. I wanted to push myself creatively, improve my skills, and see just how far I could go.

Over those two years, I grew tremendously, not just as an artist, but as a person.

I realized that this was the kind of work that truly inspired me. And although it could be incredibly difficult at times, those challenges felt different. I was working toward something that actually meant something to me.

For the first time in a long time, I wasn't just working toward the next promotion or paycheck.

I was working toward a dream.

And eventually, after two years of hard work, long hours, and countless projects, I graduated at the top of my class.

Something I don't think the version of me from a few years ago would have ever believed possible.

And now, here I am.

In just a few days, I'll be starting my very first professional job in the 3D industry, working on an animated film.

Even writing those words feels a little surreal.

For so much of my life, this was something I dreamed about but never truly believed I could achieve. I spent years watching other people do the things I wanted to do, convincing myself that maybe it just wasn't meant for me.

But I finally gave myself a chance.

I know this is just the beginning. I have so much more to learn, so much room to grow, and I know there will be plenty of challenges ahead.

But this time, I'm looking forward to them.

I'm proud of how far I've come, not just professionally, but personally. I'm proud that I found the courage to walk away from something comfortable to pursue something that genuinely makes me happy.

And most of all, I'm proud that I finally followed through on a promise I had made to myself so many years ago.

I didn't give up on that dream. I just took a little longer to find the courage to chase it.

 hope his helps someone find thier path and just know its possible with time, no matter how old you are. Cheers. NTK

'm 27, and lately I've been thinking a lot about what I really want to do with my life.

I have many interests and ideas. Sometimes I feel excited about something and want to pursue it seriously, but after a few weeks or months, that excitement fades, and I start wondering whether I'm on the wrong path.

I want to build a life where I have both financial freedom and the freedom to do things I genuinely enjoy. I don't want to spend years chasing something just because it pays well, but at the same time, I understand that money and stability are important.

One thing I struggle with is figuring out the difference between something I genuinely love and something that just excites me temporarily. I also wonder whether people actually discover their passion or develop it by sticking with something long enough to become good at it.

For those of you who have figured this out, or are still figuring it out:

• How did you discover what you genuinely enjoy doing?
• Did you always know what you wanted, or did you find it through trial and error?
• How do you know when to keep pushing through difficulties versus when to move on to something else?
• If you could give your 27-year-old self one piece of advice, what would it be?

I'm not necessarily looking for someone to tell me what career to choose. I'd really appreciate hearing your personal experiences and what helped you find direction.

Thank you to anyone willing to share their story.

Hi all,

I’m struggling to decide which direction to take in life and would appreciate some honest advice.

A bit about me: I’m a 37-year-old single Turkish man with a background in business administration and finance. I speak Turkish and English and have around 8 years of experience in the humanitarian and development sector, which has been severely downsized, leaving very few job opportunities in my home country.

Financially, I have around €100,000 (roughly $110,000) in savings and total passive income of approximately €900 (roughly $1,000) per month, including rental income from the house I own.

I’m currently unemployed and living with my parents, trying to restart my life and build something more fulfilling. I feel behind in life. I want to become independent, find a partner, and either find work again or start a business. I also have adult ADHD, which makes decision-making and sticking with it really difficult. I know I’m not too old to start over, but I’m also not 20 anymore and can’t afford to experiment indefinitely and waste more years.

I have three options for where to settle and rebuild my life:

Turkey

I could stay where I am, start studying to become a Certified Public Accountant to improve my employability. The process involves an unpaid or low-paid 2 year internship and passing 8 major exams. The profession offers relatively stable career prospects, but it is often criticized for high stress, low pay, tight deadlines, and constantly changing regulations.

Turkey is also struggling with extreme inflation and political and social instability. Language courses are full of doctors, nurses, and engineers preparing to emigrate for a better life.

Would you still choose Turkey and pursue the accounting qualification, or would you look elsewhere?

Portugal

I obtained temporary residency through a passive-income visa and lived in Lisbon for about a year. I enjoyed the city, but returned to Turkey because of the high cost of living and uncertainty about what I wanted to do with my life.

Job opportunities are limited, mostly involving customer service and similar roles where I can use my language skills. Salaries often barely cover rent. However, I can support myself through passive income for a while, and working as an Uber driver is another option, although I haven’t mentally prepared myself for that yet!

I need to return to Portugal as soon as possible to preserve my residency, which I can apply to extend next year. The current citizenship timeline is at least 10 years.

Portugal is a nice place to live, and EU residency is an advantage, but I chose it mainly because I qualified for the visa rather than because of a particular attachment to the country.

Would preserving my residency and giving Portugal another try be worth it?

Albania

I lived in Albania for several years while studying at university and have the right to live there long-term. The cost of living is roughly half that of Portugal, but job opportunities are also limited. Many foreigners either start businesses or bring remote jobs with them.

Like Portugal, I could support myself through passive income while figuring things out. Albania is culturally and geographically closer to Turkey, and I feel familiar with the country. However, despite rapid development and its EU accession ambitions, its infrastructure and overall development lag behind Portugal and Turkey in several respects.

My savings would allow me to buy a small apartment there after renting for a while. I could also obtain citizenship in 7 years.

Would choosing Albania over Portugal be a rational decision in my situation?

Where would you choose, and why? Any focus on practical considerations that I might have overlooked?

Thanks for all the responses!

For entry level job?

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Submit Anon Here

I’m 29F, based in the UK, and I’m at a bit of a crossroads with my career. I’d really appreciate some genuine advice from people who’ve been in a similar position or successfully changed careers.

For the past few years, I’ve been running my own online fitness coaching business. It’s given me a lot of freedom, which I’m incredibly grateful for, but I’m completely burnt out with the business model.

It’s not necessarily the actual workload that’s exhausting me. It’s the constant pressure of social media, creating content, marketing myself, generating leads, selling, retaining clients and then having to replace them when they leave.

It’s like being on a hamster wheel that never stops.
The business can be doing well one month, but as soon as a couple of clients leave, I’m back to worrying about where the next ones are coming from.
And I’ve reached a point where I genuinely don’t want to do it anymore.

The problem is, I absolutely love the freedom of working online, managing my own schedule and being able to work from anywhere. I don’t want to give that up.

I’ve recently started exploring freelance video editing, particularly short-form content, because I’ve always enjoyed the creative side of running my business.
I’ve started learning, building a portfolio and reaching out to potential clients. But I’m already questioning whether I’m just going to end up recreating the same problems I have with coaching.

Constant outreach, finding clients, worrying about losing them, competing with thousands of other freelancers and never really knowing what I’m going to earn.

I’m also struggling with the confidence side of starting something completely new, especially when there are so many people who are already incredibly good at it.

My goal isn’t to become a millionaire or build some massive company.

I’d genuinely be happy earning a relatively consistent £2,000–£3,000 a month doing something remotely that gives me the freedom to travel, be creative and actually enjoy my life outside of work.

I’m absolutely willing to work hard, learn new skills and put time into building something. I’m not looking for easy money or some magical passive-income business.
I just want to build something that’s sustainable and doesn’t require me to be constantly selling myself online.

Right now, I feel quite lost. I’ve spent years building something that I no longer want, but I don’t know what direction to go in next.

I’d love to hear from people who:

Have transitioned from running a service-based business into something more sustainable.
Earn £2–3k+ monthly working remotely without needing to build a personal brand.
Work in video editing, content creation or another creative digital field.
Have found a way to build relatively predictable income without constantly chasing new clients.

**If you were starting again in 2026 with experience in running an online business, content creation, marketing, customer service and some basic video editing skills, what direction would you take?**

Would you continue pursuing video editing, look at remote employment, or explore a completely different business model?

I’m open to learning something entirely new if it makes sense.

I’d really appreciate practical advice rather than the usual “just start a business” suggestions.
Thanks in advance!

Am i the only young person who is ruined by this ai coming around ,im 23 , failed multiple buissness working a dead end job , so many careers which are now being replaced by Ai, or people are saying dont get into Ai has replaced it ...Ai is gonna replace it , what career can I actually get into , then you have the issue of your city doesn't have anything available... Just stuck doing a 9 to 5 standard retail job etc, I didn't go university went to college , now its like there no point of anything , 10 / 20 years ago you could dedicate your life to something and it would be okay, if i dedicate my life to what...? There is little information on how to get into actual careers or what to do, to get started , "Ask for help" there is no help, try yourself its very hard to get onto courses , " go and learn skills online" there is no guidance its very hard .

hello, I never post on Reddit and am usually always someone who reads different threads in hopes of getting some encouragement myself. But I feel like needed somewhere to release what I’m feeling and connect with someone’s who feeling the same way.

i’m currently in my bed waiting for my alarm to go off for the next day of work and im having so many realizations. One being that no matter what you will always be alone because you are you and no one can be you. Even in a room full of people, all the friends in the world or a spouse laying next to you in bed you can still feel alone because at the end of the day when it’s time to go to bed… you really are the only one living in your own world, body, mind.

My world has felt lonely. Deep down I‘ve been struggling with securing a full time job for myself and have been working only part time gifs since I graduated in 22’ and it seems like everyone else but me is getting their next opportunity. I’ve been having a crisis with my faith and spirituality and feel paralyzed from making the wrong decision when it comes to pursuing the “right” way of things. I feel overwhelmed by choice: choosing the right partner, living in the right city, saying/doing the right thing, etc., Sometimes I feel so paralyzed by everything I don’t move, but then I feel bad for not doing anything. That turns into the days melting into each other until time moves so fast it’s scary. I get mad at myself for not doing anything but when I try to make that change I want on my life it seems like it’s out of my control or ”not in the cards“ for me. I try my best to have a good attitude and be grateful for what I do have but it’s nights like these where the last remnants of positivity begin to break and shatter.

I feel stuck and i feel like sometimes nothing even matters sometimes, or what are we even doing here on earth…I don’t know it’s a lot of different emotions. But I wanted to drop this here just in case anyone can relate for feels the same way.

I’m not suicidal or anything but I don’t really want to do life anymore. I think 80% of that has to do with the fact that I feel stuck in my job that doesn’t make enough money, and I’m not using my pretty worthless degree.

I’ve been out of university since 2020 when COVID hit. Graduated with a BA in History with honours. I’ve had a couple of jobs before I landed into a retail job. Been in retail since 2022 and am still there currently. It doesn’t pay much, almost minimum wage. I got promoted but it only increased my wage by $1.50. It’s not a job I hate, I actually do love it, but in our economic reality I don’t think it’s feasible to hold onto it for so long. Even with the promotion I’ve been trying hard to find another job that pays more, but hundreds of applications months later and I still have not found something else.

And idk what to do with my life. I live with my parents, I have savings due to that, so I’m not crumbling under financial stress, but I have this unshakeable fear that one day I will be because I don’t make enough monthly income. When my parents pass away and all that stuff. I have a girlfriend, and because we both live with family I feel like I’m doing her a disservice by not having my own space but I can’t afford it. I have separate stresses about that, but that’s for another post. And my family hasn’t met my girlfriend yet so I’m afraid of bringing her over and having that interaction for the first time. Because if they don’t like her or she doesn’t like them, I’m still living under my parents’ roof so I have to mentally deal with that. If I lived by myself and made money I feel like I wouldn’t put this much care into that first meeting. I also feel like I don’t deserve her because I just feel that I’m not a stage at my life yet where I feel comfortable with myself and my finances but I truly love her.

Being in my situation makes me not want to do life anymore. I need more independence, and more importantly financial independence, away from my family. And having these thoughts makes me want to just stay home and do my hobbies. And that’s mainly due to finances. I feel like I’m stuck. I’m afraid to try new things, take risks, go back to school, etc. I was good in school but have extreme and very intense anxiety, specifically test anxiety. I’m currently seeing a psychologist to deal with all of these issues. But basically what I’m saying is if I were to die in an accident tomorrow I’d be completely okay with it because I wouldn’t have to endure the stress of my future anymore. And I know that there are people out there that have it much worse than I, but I just feel stuck. And it sucks because I feel like a better monthly income would solve… 65% of my problems maybe? But I’m just not sure where to go from here. I just feel like money can solve a lot of my problems but I don’t know where or how to get more and I’ve been trying.

I’m just tired. But at the same time I feel like I don’t deserve to be tired because I haven’t done much in my life besides work in retail. So that’s where I’m at. Just wanted to vent.

I sound extremely childish but its my anxiety causing me to behave and think like this. I was bullied most of my life, had a identity focused ex relationship that made me lose a significant chunk of my life and halted my growth, and had to deal with bipolar family members. also lost a chunk of my supportive family members in an accident. Moved abroad and facing racism and job crisis and whatnot. Everything is taking a toll on me. Laying down everything that caused me to become this desperate will take days so keeping it short. Please tell me how to keep going? I did bachelors and masters in IT. But I don't feel like I am skilled at all. And the constant upskilling is so tiring for tired folks like me with the added pressure of AI takeover lmao. I do have a decent amount of hobbies but getting started with them seems like a chore these days. Therapy is helping a bit I'd say

my last week of high school is next week. for this past year, I had dreams of being an emergency medical dispatcher for QAS. after researching into the career more, the negatives outweigh the positives. I feel so lost with what to do now. I had finally found a passion after being stuck, but now I feel like I’m back at square one. It feels as if everybody around me has their life planned out, which I know it’s necessarily true, just sucks to see.

I think I want a career in helping people. I’m terrible at math and science so I feel quite limited with options. I don’t even know what options are out there.

I’m so lost.

I’m trying to understand a pattern that seems to repeat across completely different parts of my life.

As a teenager, I dreamed of becoming a musician. I even started building my first electric guitar myself. I never finished it. I also never really became a guitarist in any meaningful sense.

I played bass while I was at university, but I don’t count that as much of an achievement. Decades later, I still couldn’t sit down and play you a simple blues properly.

And yet I’ve never stopped loving the guitar. I recently bought a 1984 Aria Pro. It’s lying a few feet away from me as I write this. I barely play it. Sometimes I hear someone make a guitar sound so good that the desire comes back immediately.

English is another version of the same story.

When I was in kindergarten, a teacher named Rosa Samoilovna taught us a little rhyme:

“Good morning, good morning, good morning to you…”

Then I started first grade with the same group of kids — and the same Rosa Samoilovna — and we learned the same rhyme again.

Years later, on my first year at university, I walked into English class and there she was again. I stood up and loudly recited that same little rhyme for the third time in my life. She laughed and eventually excused me from attending her classes.

It became almost symbolic.

English has always been important to me. I love blues music, and for that alone I had every reason to learn it. My sister speaks it fluently. Her daughters do. My own daughter does.

I still don’t.

Then there’s painting. I’ve carried an easel from country to country almost like some kind of sacred relic. The guitar travels with me too. They remain part of the image I have of myself, even when the actual practice is barely there.

Psychology followed almost exactly the same path.

At first I became curious about how psychological change actually works. I went to several local psychologists. Then I started reading popular authors who promised fast results. Eventually I decided that instead of just being a client or a reader, I wanted to understand the machinery behind it.

That led me through many years of studying different approaches outside the university system. Eventually I found the method that, to me, felt the cleanest and most elegant: Clean Language and Symbolic Modelling.

More recently, I even built a specialized GPT-based agent intended to act as a mirror and coach for me.

And now I may be repeating the same pattern again.

I aimed too high. I tried to make it do something close to what a skilled human facilitator can do. It can manage a coaching role using a clean approach and Clean Language reasonably well, but it cannot replace a live facilitator.

And because it cannot reach the impossible standard I originally imagined, I can already feel myself losing interest and wanting to abandon it.

This feels very familiar.

There was also design.

At one point I became fascinated by questions like:

How do they build ceilings like that?

How do they make those complex three-dimensional forms?

How are expensive custom kitchens actually made?

So I tried it.

It turned out I could do it. I became good at it. It paid well.

And then, once I understood how it worked, I lost interest.

That last example is what makes me wonder whether I’ve been misunderstanding myself for years.

Maybe my real drive is not actually to become the musician, master English, become the coach, become the designer, or build the perfect AI facilitator.

Maybe the thing that truly drives me is:

“I need to understand how this works.”

How music works.
How language works.
How design works.
How psychological change works.
How coaching and facilitation work.

Once I understand the underlying mechanism, something in me seems to say:

“Got it.”

And maybe, internally, the project is finished at that point — even though from the outside it looks like I abandoned another unfinished life.

That explanation feels strangely convincing to me.

If this really is my pattern, what kind of life path would actually fit someone like me?

Maybe I’ve spent decades trying to turn curiosity into professions, when curiosity itself is the constant.

I’m not only asking how to become more disciplined. I’m trying to understand what kind of work, role, or way of living could make use of this tendency to dive deeply into something, understand how it works, and then want to move on.

And there is one question I can’t answer for myself:

How do I tell the difference between finally recognizing the way I’m actually built — and simply inventing an elegant excuse for never following through?

What path would you look for if this were your pattern?

20M just turned 20 pursuing BSc In computer science from a tier 3 clg currently in the Second Year and idk what to do in my career as someone with ambition and dreams it's pretty sick to grow up in this age of AI , as idk tech world pays sick good but idk if I want and can do tech programming jobs for my life let alone jobs and schedule

i had recently started an online video editing agency where I was outreaching and got an editor in my team made a portfolio and then worked for a month then boom procrastination got me , and now it's gonna be 3-4 th month of the business with no client and editor left me as I am just busy procrastinating

thought of starting content creation but can't build the confidence for it

thinking of doing mba as being from mumbai makes it easier to do mba rather than cracking CAT we have CET with no negative marking but idk

the thing which really interests me is building businesses and startups, and related roles

idk few months I'll get done with my degree and idk what I will do , should i focus on learning programming and get to tech or should I focus on building different skills that can atleast get me 70-80k/month pay as i graduate

would love some advice!!

I’m 29F, based in the UK, and I’m at a bit of a crossroads with my career. I’d really appreciate some genuine advice from people who’ve been in a similar position or successfully changed careers.

For the past few years, I’ve been running my own online fitness coaching business. It’s given me a lot of freedom, which I’m incredibly grateful for, but I’m completely burnt out with the business model.

It’s not necessarily the actual workload that’s exhausting me. It’s the constant pressure of social media, creating content, marketing myself, generating leads, selling, retaining clients and then having to replace them when they leave.

It’s like being on a hamster wheel that never stops.
The business can be doing well one month, but as soon as a couple of clients leave, I’m back to worrying about where the next ones are coming from.
And I’ve reached a point where I genuinely don’t want to do it anymore.

The problem is, I absolutely love the freedom of working online, managing my own schedule and being able to work from anywhere. I don’t want to give that up.

I’ve recently started exploring freelance video editing, particularly short-form content, because I’ve always enjoyed the creative side of running my business.
I’ve started learning, building a portfolio and reaching out to potential clients. But I’m already questioning whether I’m just going to end up recreating the same problems I have with coaching.

Constant outreach, finding clients, worrying about losing them, competing with thousands of other freelancers and never really knowing what I’m going to earn.

I’m also struggling with the confidence side of starting something completely new, especially when there are so many people who are already incredibly good at it.

My goal isn’t to become a millionaire or build some massive company.

I’d genuinely be happy earning a relatively consistent £2,000–£3,000 a month doing something remotely that gives me the freedom to travel, be creative and actually enjoy my life outside of work.

I’m absolutely willing to work hard, learn new skills and put time into building something. I’m not looking for easy money or some magical passive-income business.
I just want to build something that’s sustainable and doesn’t require me to be constantly selling myself online.

Right now, I feel quite lost. I’ve spent years building something that I no longer want, but I don’t know what direction to go in next.

I’d love to hear from people who:

Have transitioned from running a service-based business into something more sustainable.
Earn £2–3k+ monthly working remotely without needing to build a personal brand.
Work in video editing, content creation or another creative digital field.
Have found a way to build relatively predictable income without constantly chasing new clients.

**If you were starting again in 2026 with experience in running an online business, content creation, marketing, customer service and some basic video editing skills, what direction would you take?**

Would you continue pursuing video editing, look at remote employment, or explore a completely different business model?

I’m open to learning something entirely new if it makes sense.

I’d really appreciate practical advice rather than the usual “just start a business” suggestions.
Thanks in advance!

Im looking into getting a pharmacy technician certificate to become a certified pharmacy technician. I would like to do hospital pharmacy. I’ve been working full-time in an administrative job for about five years now, , so pharmacy technician would be a pretty big transition for me, and so I want to get a realistic idea of what the job is actually like before committing to schooling.
Some things I wanted to know are:

Job satisfaction- Do you genuinely enjoy being a pharmacy technician? Does the work feel meaningful or fulfilling ?

Day-to-day tasks- What does a typical shift look like for you? How much of your day is spent filling prescriptions, preparing medications, interacting with patients, doing computer work, or handling other tasks?

Shift schedules and rotations- What hours do you typically work? Are shifts usually consistent, or do you rotate between days, evenings, weekends, and holidays? Are nights shifts very common?

Work-life balance: Do you find it manageable long-term? What are the biggest challenges or downsides of the job

I feel depressed. I have no money; I still live with my mom at 24... I don't really go out... all I know is that I don't just wanna work any job... I want something meaningful. I was thinking about getting into law enforcement or firefighting. Yesterday I made the decision to apply for the fire department in my city, so I'm just waiting now... Is anybody going through something similar, or is there anybody who might have an opinion on my situation?

I'm 21. I dropped out of school in 7th grade a year before covid. I live in Bangladesh. I currently have a web dev job but I don't think I can pass other interviews, as I such at solving problems in interviews, as a programmer I'm a novice.

I can still achieve secondary education via iGCSE, so I'm focusing on that. After that, I can do A levels in maths and physics, (in this system, we are able to choose subjects and have no mandatory ones), but learning those feels so difficult that I feel autistic. What goes through my mind is "Can I really pass A levels? The math seems so impossible". What happens after I do those? I can't pay for university, my family is poor too.

So my options are:
- Get good at programming so I can pass other interviews for software dev roles in case this job doesn't stay for years. May happen, but I don't know if I can get good enough at programming to pass interviews. I can definitely do the job through searching, YT vids and AI as I always have, but interviews require me to solve problems with programs, I suck at that so this gives me anxiety and no certainty about being a viable option.
- Do my O levels and try to pass A levels. Then apply for university with a scholarship. Considering my grades will be awful at A levels even if I somehow passed math and physics, I can't imagine a scholarship.

- Move to a different tech career. I've self hosted software using docker, coolify, hosted things on a raspberry pi for a client before. This is basic DevOps I think. Perhaps there paths for me that are not focused on programming, such as DevOps? In which case I can pass those interviews, but I don't know if thats factual.

Give any advice you've got

I'm 28M, and have been out of college for 6 years. I feel like I might be stuck in a dead-end industry. I just got married, we want to have kids, and I'm scared as hell. Life's getting so real.

I was certain for years that I wanted to be a TV News Reporter, but senior year of undergrad I realized I hated the field. Whoops. WIth a degree in broadcast journalism, I was able to get a job in radio, where I've been working ever since. I've done on-air work, news, promotions, videography and social media.

But the radio industry is in a tough place. Job prospects are not good and the pay is so damn low. Unless I can work my way into sales or management, I'll be making 36-60k for decades. That just can't cut it where we live. And what will the radio industry look like in ten, twenty years? Do I want to bank my future on that?

I also have had a content creation side project that's done modestly well, in the 180-300k follower range across platforms, but it's been so difficult to squeeze any money out of, and I'm worried about its long term viability. Will IG even be around in 10 years, in the way it is today?

My wife also works (for now) and we're doing ok, but kids will change everything. I'm also terrified at the state of the US job market and the future of our economy. I can't help but feel like I need to change something now or risk getting stuck where I am. I just want to provide for my family.

What should I do?

1. Go back to school? Law, business, computers, trades...
2. Go all-in on content creation?
3. Stay in radio, look for moves up in the industry?
4. Shift somewhere that could use my current skillset, e.g. marketing?
5. Something else?

Skills include writing, research, conducting interviews, communication, video and audio production. I consider myself fairly good with people, and I did well in school.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.