My best advice for overcoming the fear of being 18 and uncertain about what career path to take

You may be scared, but believe me: You are lucky…

The idea of working at a single company during our whole careers was still strong when I started my studies. My parents guided me on that thought, and my friend’s parents were aligned with that advice. So, I wanted to believe that was the way.

My mother even had a love story to support it.

That special day

My mother used to tell us the story of her uncle every year, reinforcing this idea of a life-long job.

On every aniversary (her aniversary) she remembered and repeated with happiness and proud, that her uncle had join the company the day she was born, and he was still working there.

Some years later, she had to change the end of the story to: “and he retired there after 50 years”.

It was terrific to see how happy she was and how she demonstrated her love for her uncle (even though he wasn’t at the hospital waiting for her). But something told me it was not for me.

It doesn’t make sense

Although everything conspired to make me think that my best option was to get a life-long job, I was terrified.

I didn’t fear the boredom of always doing the same job at the same place. I was totally fine about it. My problem was that, if I was going to decide my entire future, I should choose the perfect career.

And that was too much pressure.

How would an 18 years-old guy with no working experience and the only goal of having fun decide on what he will want to do when he is 55, and has 2 children and 1 grandchild?

To make matters worse, there are a zillion of careers and jobs to choose from. There is no perfect career.

I now realize it doesn’t make sense, but I didn’t have that clarity when I was younger. I felt I was staying behind when my mates started getting jobs after finishing school.

Getting late to the party

There I was, alone because even though I was interested in IT, I wasn’t still sure about my career path.

I had just graduated from high school when some of my peers started to work in IT. I envied them not only because I didn’t have a job but because I didn’t want to have one. I felt I didn’t know anything and was convinced I would fail.

So, I was experiencing 2 opposite thoughts driving me crazy: I wasn’t prepared to work, but I was also falling behind.

Once I joined my first big company as a trainee, I was 23. I felt old. But something gave me a light of hope: Other trainees were 28, 30, and even 32 years old.

Although right there I saw I was exaggerating, similar fears appeared every time I achieved a senior level in some technology. My internal voice shouted: “It’s becoming obsolete. I’ll lose this job, and no one will hire me”.

It’s incredible how we can tell us the same lies once and again.

I almost had it

When I got that job as a trainee at one of the big consultancy companies, I thought: “That’s it.”

But... Was that my life-long job? Naaa. I stayed there only for 3 years (which was an eternity). Other 9 people had joined that company on the same day I did, and only 2 were still there when I left.

My trainee-to-director dream fell apart right after joining that company. I then realized that I was not interested in competing for a promotion every day of my life. Not under those conditions. And it got worse as I escalated some positions.

My story

After my life-long job idea disintegrated, I saw the picture clearly. And this has been my career so far, not only changing companies but also roles and areas:

• 8 months on my first job.
• 3 years on the second
• 1 year as a manager
• 2 years as a developer, again
• 3 years in a new role
• 11 years working as a freelancer on different projects for different companies.

Many people my age and above tried to impede me from becoming a freelancer. The idea of renunciating to a fixed position scared everyone. I won’t tell you that I was 100% confident by the time, but today, I know it was the best decision in my professional life.

My advice

Are you afraid of having no experience or clarity about what path to follow?

Be cool about that.

Career-related choices are short-term decisions these days. Choosing what you want to do for the rest of your life when you are 18 was terrifying, but it’s not valid anymore. Today, career transitions are mandatory, limits are unclear, and the only long-term decision we need to make is always to be open to change.

We don’t choose our careers, but we build them.

• Experiment an area
• Keep what you like
• Discard what you don’t
• Iterate

After some years, you will look back and see the path you defined for yourself.

Best luck with that.