HACKER Q&A
📣 nocyno

How do I find a career path?


I am a rising senior and CS major at a good STEM college, with a very good GPA. However, I feel lost about what I want to do with my life. I used to be passionate about CS but lost it after high school, but chose to keep going with it because it is lucrative and I am good at it. I interned in software development last summer and my experience confirmed my suspicion that I dislike CS and would find it really unpleasant to work a 9 to 5 job where my main task is programming.

I have resented CS and saw it as something I just had to do, and so have not done any research in college. I really only have 1 internship under my belt, but did not feel like I made a huge contribution where I was. My true passion languages, specifically Chinese (high level) and Japanese (basic conversations), and I want to try living in Japan (I am from the US).

I love languages, so I have considered studying NLP or machine translation, but honestly am not sure if that will lead to a job I still dislike given I do not like CS. I am looking into applying to grad school to have a competitive edge in a specialized CS field. The applications are this fall, and I feel like I do not have much to on my resume other than 1 internship, good grades, and a good GRE score.

I was thinking about applying to work at a company in Japan, like Microsoft Japan, etc. and work there for 1 or 2 years to get the experience of living there while doing things I could put on a resume to grad school, and find something I am interested in along the way. I do not know what my chances are of getting such a job there is, especially now with COVID.

My question is how should I go about finding a career path I will enjoy but also provide for me? Am I rushing into grad school? Should I work in Japan for 1 or 2 years (my favorite option), should I work for a company in the US, or should I do post-bach research?

Is anything I am saying even worth trying, or am I on the completely wrong path?

Thank you so much!

  👤 codingdave Accepted Answer ✓
Teaching English has always been an option for people in your position, especially with an interest in languages. It lets you go overseas, spend some time in another country, and as you said... explore a bit to determine what you really want. The people I know who did that right after college came back fired up and knowing what they wanted, because they saw different cultures and got to know different people and it brought clarity to their own experiences and helped them focus on what they loved. I can't promise the same, of course, but if you just need time to think while being somewhat productive, such things are an option. (You are also correct that COVID might stop that plan. Time will tell.)

I recommend you don't get a tech job overseas, though, because you will burn much of your energy on the job, and not have time to explore all the other directions life has to offer. If after 6 months, you have no more an idea of what to do vs. today, that is the time to get a more typical job and start building a resume.

It also may be worth talking to a career psychologist. I did that when I was finishing school, and he helped guide me towards the careers that I both had talent for and would find enjoyable. That was almost 30 years ago, and I still read that report on occasion when contemplating career moves.

👤 gcheong
If you want to live and work in Japan doing something other than CS but also something that could lead to connections for a future career, look into applying to the JET program. https://jetprogramusa.org . Alternatively there are some opportunities for grad students to do research in Japanese universities through exchange programs. Ultimately, there is no one direction or action you can take that is going to guarantee you'll land on a career path that you will find enjoyable so it's more important to just do something and adjust accordingly. You say you'd like to live in Japan - so go do it. Apply to the JET program, apply to companies that will send you there or look for companies that have internship opportunities there. Research exchange programs through your university. If all else fails, just go there and start looking around. There are many options.
👤 aus_sua
My advice to you would be that if you know that you are not going to like working as a programmer, then don't get into it. To support your passion for languages, try something different like analytics, implementation consultancy, client facing roles like business analysis etc. This will help in building your soft skills, which will eventually help you in other professions as well.
👤 muzani
This is a good time to take risks, because you'll still be able to recover from the failures. It seems like a hard time to get a job in the US, especially with any market corrections happening from COVID. If you can't get into Japan, there will probably be some good stuff in China and Southeast Asia if you're interested in Chinese. There has definitely been substantial research into languages in Asia, which I'm under NDA not to disclose.
👤 jborichevskiy
This has some good advice for working on cool/difficult things that don’t fit into traditional roles

https://guzey.com/personal/what-should-you-do-with-your-life...

👤 dyeje
I don't think you should write off software engineering as a career based on one internship. Companies vary wildly.
👤 tixocloud
I'd recommend joining new graduate programs that let you rotate in different fields so you get a flavour of what different business functions do. I'd also recommend joining a large consultancy where you can get a breadth of various work across different industries. Consultancies are terrible for work/life balance but you get exposure to all kinds of problems across all kinds of industries.

It may take you a while to find what you love but keep at it. You're still early and your career can take many directions at any time so don't feel like you have to choose what you want to do and stick with it. I started out in computer science, did software engineering, went into consulting, then analytics then worked in business focused on strategy, which then allowed me to become an executive leading ML teams.

👤 sushshshsh
If you don't have money and don't have experience, you should try to get those two things quickly.

If you do, you will find that it's much more thrilling to travel and meet interesting people than it is to chain yourself to an unrewarding career path.

Good luck!

👤 steve1820
Definitely travel to Japan! Do it while you're young.

You literally have your whole life ahead of you - 1 or 2 years in Japan will give you experiences you've never even thought about!

👤 ta17711771
You'll stumble across someone/something that will spark your interest.

Put yourself in places where you'll make such discoveries!

If you want to hear about a random niche industry (mine), drop an email address.