What type of career is best for me? I really can't figure it out?

Go to your college career center and tell them what you told us. They can give you a battery of career assessment tests to test your aptitude and liking for various careers.

I never went to college but in all my noticing of friends in and out of college, at least 80% of them changed their major and/or career path several times throughout their stay as a collegiate student.

Don’t fret… You still have time to figure it out.

#3 and #4 are your problems friend. You can want, but honestly most people don’t make that much…. especially right out of college. Your degree does not automatically make you a brain surgeon.

Also don’t expect to find a job and stick to it..while you might always use your degree in one form or another, you will change professions several times through out your life.

I know what you are going through…. I went to university because I thought it was the logical next step from High School… but It really isn’t…. If you don’t know what you want it is some times best to take a year off and read and experience life… I changed my major 17 times and went nuts trying to pick a career… now I just watch educational t.v. and read library books….and I’m happy… I make 15,000 a year and I live with my mom in her basement…I’m surrounded by my old textbooks and some new ones and I still don’t know what I want to do… Science, Arts, Politics, humor…. I can’t choose… and I don’t have too…. I just have to live for today and appreciate what I have… I hope it helps…. P.S. I’ve taken all the tests too and none of them helped… and most career councilors can’t help you until you know what you want.

I’m thinking Library Science would be a good major for you. You can get a description of it here.

And like some of the others have said, don’t expect to make a lot of money right out of college doing ANY job. Jobs are hard to come by right now, but library science sounds like it fits with your personality and talents. If you think you might be interested in something like this, talk to your career counselor and make a special trip to the school library and your town’s public library and make an appointment to speak to one of the librarians about their job and training. Besides just regular libraries, most museums and other types of busineses such as law offices utilize librarians.

I immediately thought about Librarian, too.

I agree with the suggestion to take some career and personality tests at your career center. I would suggest the MBTI- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test and the CISS – Campbell Interest and Skill Survey or the SII – Strong Interest Inventory. I took those and spent a few days in the career center reading books about various career paths and I was able to figure something out. Also, you should talk things over with your family and friends, or maybe a professor you respect. Tell them your thoughts and ask for suggestions. That should help. You could also think about taking some intro classes next semester to majors that you’re thinking about. If this is your first semester, you still have time to figure things out.

If you become proficient in a language, eventually you can make excellent money translating publications and books. You translate from the foreign language back to your mother tongue. You can also do well writing books and magasine articles (you spend a lot of time alone in front of a computer), but the big money doesn’t come fast.

The point of a bachelor degree is to get exposure to the buffet of choices. You learn to be a generalist and, somewhere along the way, you may stumble over a class that leaves no doubt in your mind that THIS is the field for you.

I agree with all of the recommendations to talk to an advisor and do a career assessment. There is also a book that helped me called the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). Most big libraries will have it and I think it may also be available online these days. You can look up just about any job in the universe and see what education is required, what a typical day will be like, how much money you might expect (at entry level and over your career). You can also see related jobs. I just spent hours browsing it and stumbled over the world of public health which is a perfect fit for me. I might have found this field in time, but the DOT let me day dream all the possibilities.

Just found the DOT online

First, you will most likely not make $50,000 right out of college with a four year degree and no work experience.

Regardless of what you think you are going to be doing, you will probably not end up doing that, and if you do, you will probably have a career change after a few years of working.

It’s important to do volunteer work, and internships to expose you to working and different occupations. You do seem to possess some good self-knowledge; the fact that you’re an introvert would seem to preclude jobs related to sales, or a lot of client smoozing. Start with family, neighbors and family friends, and ask them about the work they do, what they like/don’t like about it, and ask them what occupation they’ve heard about that they never would have thought about.

Don’t take any time off. At least not before you get your bachelor degree. Seriously. I decided to take time off to clear my head, and 12 years later, finally went back and it was way more difficult waiting, as life seems to conspire against me every chance it gets. Just go to the guidance counselor, unless yours isn’t worth a darn,then you could always find one of those online tests that tell you what kind of career would best fit you, or you could look at the website of your favorite school and browse through their programs, gleeming ideas as to what looks good. Sounds to me like maybe you might make a good editor. Why don’t you check into some English programs? I’m pretty introverted, but I am doing alright.

Dude, this might sound odd, but try looking into Library Science. Librarians at Universities make bank. Even the ones at my Community College start at like 60–70,000 and the ones that have been there for 20+ years make 6 figures.

You have to have a Masters degree (MLS), but when you’re an undergrad you can pretty much major in anything.
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if you’re not interested in that, I would just like to say that I’ve had those same feelings for about 5 years of my college experience, so much that it has held me back from graduating. For the longest time I held to the idea that I should major in something that I simply “loved” to do (Creative Writing and Art), but now I’m realizing that I don’t want the pressure of a job taking away my love of these things. I could only truly enjoy them if they were hobbies. It came down to me doing lots of research. -I think I almost posted a question on fluther “what should I do with my life???” I almost wanted someone to TELL me what to do. And that’s when it hit me. I thought what could I do that the economy, my country, really needs?

I’m not talking about being a soldier (however that could be an option if you wanted).I looked at all kinds of professions that were “needed” or will be needed in the near future, and eventually I realized that I was interested in some of the jobs and duties these professions had. Anyway, I can’t tell you what I ended up deciding because that might jinx it (if you know what I mean). I’ll be back in that horrible cycle, getting excited then depressed and blaaahh. That wouldn’t be any good.

Cheers

If you don’t care what field you work in I would suggest you look for a field that suits your needs and do the research. Furthermore, look for a field that has future potentials also.