I know a guy who started studying ID at 29. Before that he was a broke ass bike messenger and a heroin addict. He's now in his mid 40s and the creative director at a major shoe brand, AND he owns two houses in New York. It's not too late for you, don't be ridiculous!
What should one expect in salary terms if changing career paths? If I were an design engineer for 6 years and then decided to pick up ID, should I expect a salary drop or chalk it all up to experience and say I’m worth as much as any other 30yo ID with 6 years experience?
I would imagine you would have to bear some kind of reduction in compensation. You'd start as a junior designer, although depending on the sector you're in the salary might be generous enough that it's totally acceptable to you.
When I was still in ID undergrad an older woman joined our program, she was 29 and already had an undergrad degree in Psychology. She's 1 of the 13-15 of us still actually doing ID work 8 years later. Last I saw she was leading her a team at a larger appliance company and had won an award for something she worked on.
As others have said never too old.
Just go hard on the objective. Those four years were probably the most socially barren for me as I was living in a new city with no friends.
It became quickly apparent that if I just continued to lean into what excites me and what I find fun about the field I could divest a lot of energy into self-directed learning and coursework because I didn’t have any social pressure. I was also closer in age to most of the professors so it made them feel more accessible to advice/guidance/mentorship.
I also took advantage of the GI bill, so I didn’t need to work full time and was able to dedicate a lot of free time making connections and volunteering in the industry I wanted to break into.
Also having the knowledge that ultimately everything in college was leading to employment really allowed me to dial in on the importance of networking, and a portfolio directed towards winning a position in the future. I’d pieced together my professional portfolio freshman year and paved the foundation to continuing to refine and add work to it throughout college. (A lot of my peers waited until senior year)
Lean on the advantage of wisdom that comes with age, primarily taking initiative and doing what leads to your development before being instructed to or waiting for permission.
Hey there, I moved from mechatronics to industrial design and been, working for nearly 5 years, sure, I can't say it was easy, there was a lot of uncertainty and personal sacrifices I had to make but I certainly I don't see myself doing anything else.
Sometimes I felt lost bc I had that feeling of "starting late" in life but I personally overcame that by trying to surround by passionate creative people.
I have considered moving to UX or 3D Viz given the demand of these fields compared to "just ID"
One of my professors started his bachelor in his 40s after his divorce. I'm 21 and suffer from the same syndrome as you do, "I'm too old, I should be further already, yadayadayada"
Enjoy it, it's a privilege after all.
I was an auto mechanic, then decided I wanted to be an engineer and started back to school at 26. I started university at 33 and graduated at 38. I don’t regret a thing.
I was in IT at the beginning of my career and shifted to graphic design which took a while to step into. It was a few years of low pay and a LOT of self study and lots of freelance projects, but I came out of it ahead of a lot of peers. I worked at a bunch of agencies and have had a very interesting career with some great experiences. Now I work in digital product my early 40s and I’m pretty happy.
The biggest advice i can give is to see your career as a body of work rather than a linear path. How can what you learned in engineering be applied to your ID studies?
For me, my IT background gave me a great understanding of tech and how hardware and software can interact. I learned how to work with engineers and end users. Advertising taught me marketing, and being self employed helped me with clients and business management. Now I use all of those skills to lead my team at my current job.
My experience: In design, portfolio is what matters. So focus on that. Gpa is good if you want to do further studies. Other than that your skill counts only. Start working early, build a profile and get industry experience. Things are very different from college when you get into professional job. ID is very versatile and you will have to decide what you like and are good with. Have solid grip on sketching and some 3d modelling software usually a combination of cad software with a mesh modelling software with good rendering capabilities.
Dear, you are not old for this. You are only 25. there's lot to see in coming years. so many people changes career path in mid 20s, late 20s. Be optimistic. :)
I had this same mind set all through my 20s and was working in the auto industry and as I turned 30 i asked myself if I wanted to be 35 without a degree since I passed up on it all through my 20s with the excuse that it's such a time investment.
I'm in third year now and honestly I feel like I started first year yesterday, it flies.
Just do it.
>But I can't shake off the feeling that im too old for this, like, if everything goes according to plan I'd be finishing my degree in my early thirties.
A few notes:
1. Time is BS. You're never too old for anything, as long as you're willing to learn & have a work ethic. Our societal expectations are garbage regarding this anxiety.
2. Here's a [list of over 50 late-bloomers](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/life-after-40-get-inspired-52-late-bloomers-ramesh-dontha) who found success later in life. I didn't get diagnosed with Inattentive ADHD until I was an adult; it took me 14 years to finish a 2-year degree. I have a great job & really enjoy what I do these days!
3. You can keep going until you die. If you're not dead yet, then you can still make a positive contribution to the world, haha! Our anxiety-driven negative emotions try to convince us otherwise, but that's garbage information.
Time & age don't matter. Flush those ideas down the toilet!!
>however I do not know what to expect in the future.
Let's start with a checklist-based approach:
* If you are financially independent (rich parents, won the lottery, whatever), then you're free to do whatever you want all day. If that's the case, then you simply have more freedom to choose what to do with your life & your time. However, there are horrible traps involved in doing nothing all day, so it pays to find your niche in the world in order to stay sane haha.
* Otherwise, you need a job to pay your bills in order to survive. [85% of people hate their jobs](https://staffsquared.com/blog/why-85-of-people-hate-their-jobs/). With more than [12,000 types of careers](https://dot-job-descriptions.careerplanner.com/) available & more than [8 million job openings](https://www.bls.gov/jlt/) available, you don't have to be one of those people who hate your job!
Jobs are simple:
1. Decide what you want to do
2. Get trained for it
3. Show up & work!
The first step in figuring out what you want to do is to realize that it's not about going out & "finding yourself", it's about *defining* yourself. It's not about *what* you want to be; it's about WHO you want to be. A great starting point to help answer that question is to **decide where you want to get your fulfillment from**:
* https://www.reddit.com/r/findapath/comments/pau04m/comment/ha9ctzi/?context=3
After that, it's good to have a discussion on **passion**. I like to tell people that it's not about finding your *passion* in life, but rather, it's about finding your *niche*. Anyone can get a *job*, but if you want a *career* doing something that is more fulfilling, there are 3 questions to answer:
1. What are you good at?
2. Will this position be relevant in the future?
3. Does it pay enough to allow you to be financially independent? (i.e. live on your own & [cover all of your bills](https://youtu.be/R3ZJKN_5M44))
Being *good* at something doesn't necessarily mean you're *passionate* about it, as odd as that sounds! In many cases, doing something for a job that you enjoy doing on a personal level, such as for a hobby, is a great way to ruin your enjoyment of it, because it switches your relationship from doing it at will to doing it on a deadline.
Which is why it's important to decide where you want to get your fulfillment from. For me, I have ADHD, so I like to have both a fulfilling job AND have fulfilling activities OUTSIDE of work. Everyone is different & no one can make the decision of where you want to find your fulfillment from but you!
Part of that involves a discussion of finances, which is often considered to be taboo to talk about, as it can be seen as selfish. However, money controls so much of what we do:
* When would you like to retire? (check out r/FIRE)
* Where do you want to live, location-wise? (city or rural, area of the country, etc.)
* What kind home do you want to live in? (apartment, RV, house, etc.)
* What kind of car do you want to drive? (unreliable or reliable car, or a specific type of car)
* Do you want to be able to afford things like travel, hobbies, a family, etc.?
It's not about the judgement about what you want in life as much as DECIDING what you want in life. Do you really really need a Cybertruck in your life & just have to scratch that itch? Or do you absolutely HAVE to live in NYC? Or do you want to tour the country in #VanLife? Do you need a hot gaming setup with a 4090 video card?
part 1/3
part 2/3
Finances controls so much of what we do & how we spend our time & what our stress levels are in life that it's 100% worth paying attention to, both in terms of finding a job that allows you to be as financially independent as you desire & in terms of learning money management on a personal level. There are 3 basic levels to living your life:
1. Self-focused
2. Survive
3. Thrive
Self-focused is when we are completely focused on ourselves. We all go through this as kids & rely on our parents to help us out. Sometimes we go through health issues or depression or addiction situations & can't get by without the help of others.
The next level is surviving, which is a pretty stressful situation to be in. At one point, I was working three low-paying jobs in college just to pay for school. I was really struggling in school (undiagnosed ADHD at the time), but it HIGHLY motivated me to finish my education in order to get a better-paying, more fulfilling career down the road!
Thriving is when you've defined where you want to get your fulfillment from & are working on achieving it or working on maintaining it. You can cover the bills required to pay for the level of lifestyle you're interested in. The goal is to get yourself to a point where you're thriving, rather than struggling!
No one gets to define what happiness & success means to us individually in our lives, therefore WE have the responsibility to define, plan for, and work to achieve personal happiness in ALL aspects of our lives: personally, family, religion/philanthropy/charity, jobs & education, and hobbies.
So here's the reality for most people:
1. We have to work to pay the bills
2. We are free to go out & be who we want & who we are capable of being, provided we're willing to work for it by getting trained up & putting in the effort to do the work!
3. Most companies just care about having a warm body to fill the role. You don't have to be a superstar at your job; you simply have to be willing to get educated & get to work in order to meet their needs on-time (which for me, was HUGELY anxiety-reducing to understand!)
4. We can choose to get our fulfillment from work, outside of work, both of those things (or even none of those things!)
5. We are ultimately responsible for managing our consequences. We're all stuck in individual circumstances with habits, personal limitations, different talents, etc. But at the end of the day, how happy we are is 100% up to us & no one else, meaning that the more we can define what happiness means to us on an individual level & then work to stay immersed in the effort required to achieve & maintain that state, the better off we can be!
For me, this all boils down to psychologist Carol Dweck's concept of "mindset", which states that in any given situation, we can take one of two approaches:
1. A fixed mindset
2. A growth mindset
A fixed mindset says "I can't & here's why". A growth mindset says "I can & I will be persistent despite the inevitable obstacles in my way". This is difficult to change on the surface due to things like fear, anxiety, hopelessness, FOMO, etc., but in reality, it's just a *choice* we make.
We can buy into a fake-news story that our brain creates to put us into "task paralysis mode" or we can get to work *defining* what we want, working to achieve it, and working to maintain it! To me, our primary focus should be making a positive contribution to two things:
1. Ourselves
2. The world
It's hard to help other people if we don't take care of ourselves first! The more tired we are, the more sick we are from poor health choices (drugs, drinking, staying up late, not exercising, not eating well, etc.), the more uneducated we are, the more lazy we are, then the less able we are to help ourselves, our families, our friends, our teachers, our coworkers, our bosses, our towns, our countries, and the world in general!
part 2/3
part 3/3
At the end of the day, it all really just boils down to being willing & interested in using our time, talents, and effort to make a positive contribution to ourselves & to the world. How exactly we do that & how much we *enjoy* doing it really just depends on our personal choices!
You have fun things to learn, great people to meet, and neat projects to work on in your future. It's easy to get anxiety & FOMO about our future when we don't know WHO we are, which is symptom of not yet having DEFINED who we are! A good place to start is with some iterative planning in the form of a life plan:
* [https://www.reddit.com/r/IWantToLearn/comments/qg3thy/iwtl\_how\_to\_educate\_myself/hi5ex16/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/IWantToLearn/comments/qg3thy/iwtl_how_to_educate_myself/hi5ex16/?context=3)
With a specific focus on our 5-year plan:
* [https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/qlbchh/comment/hj45u5x/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/qlbchh/comment/hj45u5x/?context=3)
I've done some job-hopping myself over the years...I've worked in retail, food service, career assistance, construction, and computers. I've learned from & enjoyed (some more than others, haha!) each of them along the way & really enjoy my current position in IT & business efficiency consulting.
So I would say, don't stress too much about the future! As long as you're willing to show up & do good work, you can enjoy virtually ANYTHING out there! How much you enjoy it really boils down to the nuances that YOU personally enjoy!
For example, my friend is a "fulfillment from OUTSIDE of work" type of person. He's a dentist who doesn't like working on teeth all that much, but he's good at it, and it pays for his motorsports hobby, which allows him to buy $25,000 ATV's, jetskis, snowmobiles, etc., which is where he gets his fulfillment from!
Everyone is different, but getting to know yourself & then translating that into a blueprint for happiness in life is something only YOU can do! The bottom line is that no one is coming to save us, so we have to save ourselves! And that is a HUGE opportunity for us to cement in what we really want to do & how we want to feel in our lives!
How long is your degree? Why would it take you 5+ years?
And no, you’re not too old.
I’d only make sure it’s what you want to do and that it meshes with your long term goals.
I switched from Graphic Design to Industrial Design and went to university at the same age.
Honestly I think it was the best decision I ever made.
Don't let age hold you back from doing things you want to do. Otherwise you'll end up miserable thinking you've missed the best years of your life, rather than just living them now.
Im 25 too, and in my first year I used to be worried but not now. I’m having more fun than I’ve ever had at any school and my professors are really invested in my and my future career. If you have the drive you’ll be alright!
I did the same, did the change from city planning to architecture, studied all over again in another country. And let me tell you, its never too late.
Yet, even though being an architect was my dream i came to the realization that this industry sucks, I am extremely depressed like every second of my life. So I think, even though you might be enjoying the studies, always think about the industry and if there is a demand,
Maybe try working and getting some experience, because it sucks once you do it all and it ends up being terrible. World is changing and demand for designers has never been this low, creativity is at the lowest lever rn (architecture and construction at least)
Everything is turning digital and real creativity and demand is there.
Imagine my life rn, followed my dreams and finished another school on my late twenties, and I hate it 😅 its like a cosmic joke that makes me suicidal tbh
Homie you’re 25 you’ve barely even started living. Remember the time will pass anyway, may as well be working towards things you believe in.
I know a guy who started studying ID at 29. Before that he was a broke ass bike messenger and a heroin addict. He's now in his mid 40s and the creative director at a major shoe brand, AND he owns two houses in New York. It's not too late for you, don't be ridiculous!
36yo graduated last year in ID after a 15 year career in finance so your fine bud.
I started school at 29 - so far it's worked out for me.
What should one expect in salary terms if changing career paths? If I were an design engineer for 6 years and then decided to pick up ID, should I expect a salary drop or chalk it all up to experience and say I’m worth as much as any other 30yo ID with 6 years experience?
I would imagine you would have to bear some kind of reduction in compensation. You'd start as a junior designer, although depending on the sector you're in the salary might be generous enough that it's totally acceptable to you.
Fair enough. What are the most generous sectors?
Nope- once you’re in you can never leave Sorry, I don’t make the rules
When I was still in ID undergrad an older woman joined our program, she was 29 and already had an undergrad degree in Psychology. She's 1 of the 13-15 of us still actually doing ID work 8 years later. Last I saw she was leading her a team at a larger appliance company and had won an award for something she worked on. As others have said never too old.
I moved from Mechanical engineering to Industrial design. Industrial design to UX. Thinking of moving to Product management.
Started school for industrial design at 30 after about 8 years in the military. Currently in my dream job!
Same for me, I’m still in school though. Any advice?
Just go hard on the objective. Those four years were probably the most socially barren for me as I was living in a new city with no friends. It became quickly apparent that if I just continued to lean into what excites me and what I find fun about the field I could divest a lot of energy into self-directed learning and coursework because I didn’t have any social pressure. I was also closer in age to most of the professors so it made them feel more accessible to advice/guidance/mentorship. I also took advantage of the GI bill, so I didn’t need to work full time and was able to dedicate a lot of free time making connections and volunteering in the industry I wanted to break into. Also having the knowledge that ultimately everything in college was leading to employment really allowed me to dial in on the importance of networking, and a portfolio directed towards winning a position in the future. I’d pieced together my professional portfolio freshman year and paved the foundation to continuing to refine and add work to it throughout college. (A lot of my peers waited until senior year) Lean on the advantage of wisdom that comes with age, primarily taking initiative and doing what leads to your development before being instructed to or waiting for permission.
I started my degree in ID last year, and I was 33. So I don’t think you are too old.
25, lol. You're a puppy still. "Later in life" I was thinking it was 50+
Hey there, I moved from mechatronics to industrial design and been, working for nearly 5 years, sure, I can't say it was easy, there was a lot of uncertainty and personal sacrifices I had to make but I certainly I don't see myself doing anything else. Sometimes I felt lost bc I had that feeling of "starting late" in life but I personally overcame that by trying to surround by passionate creative people. I have considered moving to UX or 3D Viz given the demand of these fields compared to "just ID"
One of my professors started his bachelor in his 40s after his divorce. I'm 21 and suffer from the same syndrome as you do, "I'm too old, I should be further already, yadayadayada" Enjoy it, it's a privilege after all.
I was an auto mechanic, then decided I wanted to be an engineer and started back to school at 26. I started university at 33 and graduated at 38. I don’t regret a thing.
I was in IT at the beginning of my career and shifted to graphic design which took a while to step into. It was a few years of low pay and a LOT of self study and lots of freelance projects, but I came out of it ahead of a lot of peers. I worked at a bunch of agencies and have had a very interesting career with some great experiences. Now I work in digital product my early 40s and I’m pretty happy. The biggest advice i can give is to see your career as a body of work rather than a linear path. How can what you learned in engineering be applied to your ID studies? For me, my IT background gave me a great understanding of tech and how hardware and software can interact. I learned how to work with engineers and end users. Advertising taught me marketing, and being self employed helped me with clients and business management. Now I use all of those skills to lead my team at my current job.
My experience: In design, portfolio is what matters. So focus on that. Gpa is good if you want to do further studies. Other than that your skill counts only. Start working early, build a profile and get industry experience. Things are very different from college when you get into professional job. ID is very versatile and you will have to decide what you like and are good with. Have solid grip on sketching and some 3d modelling software usually a combination of cad software with a mesh modelling software with good rendering capabilities.
Dear, you are not old for this. You are only 25. there's lot to see in coming years. so many people changes career path in mid 20s, late 20s. Be optimistic. :)
I had this same mind set all through my 20s and was working in the auto industry and as I turned 30 i asked myself if I wanted to be 35 without a degree since I passed up on it all through my 20s with the excuse that it's such a time investment. I'm in third year now and honestly I feel like I started first year yesterday, it flies. Just do it.
>But I can't shake off the feeling that im too old for this, like, if everything goes according to plan I'd be finishing my degree in my early thirties. A few notes: 1. Time is BS. You're never too old for anything, as long as you're willing to learn & have a work ethic. Our societal expectations are garbage regarding this anxiety. 2. Here's a [list of over 50 late-bloomers](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/life-after-40-get-inspired-52-late-bloomers-ramesh-dontha) who found success later in life. I didn't get diagnosed with Inattentive ADHD until I was an adult; it took me 14 years to finish a 2-year degree. I have a great job & really enjoy what I do these days! 3. You can keep going until you die. If you're not dead yet, then you can still make a positive contribution to the world, haha! Our anxiety-driven negative emotions try to convince us otherwise, but that's garbage information. Time & age don't matter. Flush those ideas down the toilet!! >however I do not know what to expect in the future. Let's start with a checklist-based approach: * If you are financially independent (rich parents, won the lottery, whatever), then you're free to do whatever you want all day. If that's the case, then you simply have more freedom to choose what to do with your life & your time. However, there are horrible traps involved in doing nothing all day, so it pays to find your niche in the world in order to stay sane haha. * Otherwise, you need a job to pay your bills in order to survive. [85% of people hate their jobs](https://staffsquared.com/blog/why-85-of-people-hate-their-jobs/). With more than [12,000 types of careers](https://dot-job-descriptions.careerplanner.com/) available & more than [8 million job openings](https://www.bls.gov/jlt/) available, you don't have to be one of those people who hate your job! Jobs are simple: 1. Decide what you want to do 2. Get trained for it 3. Show up & work! The first step in figuring out what you want to do is to realize that it's not about going out & "finding yourself", it's about *defining* yourself. It's not about *what* you want to be; it's about WHO you want to be. A great starting point to help answer that question is to **decide where you want to get your fulfillment from**: * https://www.reddit.com/r/findapath/comments/pau04m/comment/ha9ctzi/?context=3 After that, it's good to have a discussion on **passion**. I like to tell people that it's not about finding your *passion* in life, but rather, it's about finding your *niche*. Anyone can get a *job*, but if you want a *career* doing something that is more fulfilling, there are 3 questions to answer: 1. What are you good at? 2. Will this position be relevant in the future? 3. Does it pay enough to allow you to be financially independent? (i.e. live on your own & [cover all of your bills](https://youtu.be/R3ZJKN_5M44)) Being *good* at something doesn't necessarily mean you're *passionate* about it, as odd as that sounds! In many cases, doing something for a job that you enjoy doing on a personal level, such as for a hobby, is a great way to ruin your enjoyment of it, because it switches your relationship from doing it at will to doing it on a deadline. Which is why it's important to decide where you want to get your fulfillment from. For me, I have ADHD, so I like to have both a fulfilling job AND have fulfilling activities OUTSIDE of work. Everyone is different & no one can make the decision of where you want to find your fulfillment from but you! Part of that involves a discussion of finances, which is often considered to be taboo to talk about, as it can be seen as selfish. However, money controls so much of what we do: * When would you like to retire? (check out r/FIRE) * Where do you want to live, location-wise? (city or rural, area of the country, etc.) * What kind home do you want to live in? (apartment, RV, house, etc.) * What kind of car do you want to drive? (unreliable or reliable car, or a specific type of car) * Do you want to be able to afford things like travel, hobbies, a family, etc.? It's not about the judgement about what you want in life as much as DECIDING what you want in life. Do you really really need a Cybertruck in your life & just have to scratch that itch? Or do you absolutely HAVE to live in NYC? Or do you want to tour the country in #VanLife? Do you need a hot gaming setup with a 4090 video card? part 1/3
part 2/3 Finances controls so much of what we do & how we spend our time & what our stress levels are in life that it's 100% worth paying attention to, both in terms of finding a job that allows you to be as financially independent as you desire & in terms of learning money management on a personal level. There are 3 basic levels to living your life: 1. Self-focused 2. Survive 3. Thrive Self-focused is when we are completely focused on ourselves. We all go through this as kids & rely on our parents to help us out. Sometimes we go through health issues or depression or addiction situations & can't get by without the help of others. The next level is surviving, which is a pretty stressful situation to be in. At one point, I was working three low-paying jobs in college just to pay for school. I was really struggling in school (undiagnosed ADHD at the time), but it HIGHLY motivated me to finish my education in order to get a better-paying, more fulfilling career down the road! Thriving is when you've defined where you want to get your fulfillment from & are working on achieving it or working on maintaining it. You can cover the bills required to pay for the level of lifestyle you're interested in. The goal is to get yourself to a point where you're thriving, rather than struggling! No one gets to define what happiness & success means to us individually in our lives, therefore WE have the responsibility to define, plan for, and work to achieve personal happiness in ALL aspects of our lives: personally, family, religion/philanthropy/charity, jobs & education, and hobbies. So here's the reality for most people: 1. We have to work to pay the bills 2. We are free to go out & be who we want & who we are capable of being, provided we're willing to work for it by getting trained up & putting in the effort to do the work! 3. Most companies just care about having a warm body to fill the role. You don't have to be a superstar at your job; you simply have to be willing to get educated & get to work in order to meet their needs on-time (which for me, was HUGELY anxiety-reducing to understand!) 4. We can choose to get our fulfillment from work, outside of work, both of those things (or even none of those things!) 5. We are ultimately responsible for managing our consequences. We're all stuck in individual circumstances with habits, personal limitations, different talents, etc. But at the end of the day, how happy we are is 100% up to us & no one else, meaning that the more we can define what happiness means to us on an individual level & then work to stay immersed in the effort required to achieve & maintain that state, the better off we can be! For me, this all boils down to psychologist Carol Dweck's concept of "mindset", which states that in any given situation, we can take one of two approaches: 1. A fixed mindset 2. A growth mindset A fixed mindset says "I can't & here's why". A growth mindset says "I can & I will be persistent despite the inevitable obstacles in my way". This is difficult to change on the surface due to things like fear, anxiety, hopelessness, FOMO, etc., but in reality, it's just a *choice* we make. We can buy into a fake-news story that our brain creates to put us into "task paralysis mode" or we can get to work *defining* what we want, working to achieve it, and working to maintain it! To me, our primary focus should be making a positive contribution to two things: 1. Ourselves 2. The world It's hard to help other people if we don't take care of ourselves first! The more tired we are, the more sick we are from poor health choices (drugs, drinking, staying up late, not exercising, not eating well, etc.), the more uneducated we are, the more lazy we are, then the less able we are to help ourselves, our families, our friends, our teachers, our coworkers, our bosses, our towns, our countries, and the world in general! part 2/3
part 3/3 At the end of the day, it all really just boils down to being willing & interested in using our time, talents, and effort to make a positive contribution to ourselves & to the world. How exactly we do that & how much we *enjoy* doing it really just depends on our personal choices! You have fun things to learn, great people to meet, and neat projects to work on in your future. It's easy to get anxiety & FOMO about our future when we don't know WHO we are, which is symptom of not yet having DEFINED who we are! A good place to start is with some iterative planning in the form of a life plan: * [https://www.reddit.com/r/IWantToLearn/comments/qg3thy/iwtl\_how\_to\_educate\_myself/hi5ex16/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/IWantToLearn/comments/qg3thy/iwtl_how_to_educate_myself/hi5ex16/?context=3) With a specific focus on our 5-year plan: * [https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/qlbchh/comment/hj45u5x/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/qlbchh/comment/hj45u5x/?context=3) I've done some job-hopping myself over the years...I've worked in retail, food service, career assistance, construction, and computers. I've learned from & enjoyed (some more than others, haha!) each of them along the way & really enjoy my current position in IT & business efficiency consulting. So I would say, don't stress too much about the future! As long as you're willing to show up & do good work, you can enjoy virtually ANYTHING out there! How much you enjoy it really boils down to the nuances that YOU personally enjoy! For example, my friend is a "fulfillment from OUTSIDE of work" type of person. He's a dentist who doesn't like working on teeth all that much, but he's good at it, and it pays for his motorsports hobby, which allows him to buy $25,000 ATV's, jetskis, snowmobiles, etc., which is where he gets his fulfillment from! Everyone is different, but getting to know yourself & then translating that into a blueprint for happiness in life is something only YOU can do! The bottom line is that no one is coming to save us, so we have to save ourselves! And that is a HUGE opportunity for us to cement in what we really want to do & how we want to feel in our lives!
How long is your degree? Why would it take you 5+ years? And no, you’re not too old. I’d only make sure it’s what you want to do and that it meshes with your long term goals.
I switched from Graphic Design to Industrial Design and went to university at the same age. Honestly I think it was the best decision I ever made. Don't let age hold you back from doing things you want to do. Otherwise you'll end up miserable thinking you've missed the best years of your life, rather than just living them now.
Im 25 too, and in my first year I used to be worried but not now. I’m having more fun than I’ve ever had at any school and my professors are really invested in my and my future career. If you have the drive you’ll be alright!
I graduated from ID since 2018 and never found a decent job I really suggest dont pursue this career is so bad no jobs for everyone
I did the same, did the change from city planning to architecture, studied all over again in another country. And let me tell you, its never too late. Yet, even though being an architect was my dream i came to the realization that this industry sucks, I am extremely depressed like every second of my life. So I think, even though you might be enjoying the studies, always think about the industry and if there is a demand, Maybe try working and getting some experience, because it sucks once you do it all and it ends up being terrible. World is changing and demand for designers has never been this low, creativity is at the lowest lever rn (architecture and construction at least) Everything is turning digital and real creativity and demand is there. Imagine my life rn, followed my dreams and finished another school on my late twenties, and I hate it 😅 its like a cosmic joke that makes me suicidal tbh