I gave up on a study course after five years of hell and now I'm back at my parents' house and must make a big decision on what career to pursue and find a job asap. But I just can't decide, I can't picture myself in 5/10 years from now and can't even imagine what type of job I'd love, bc everything seems out fo reach and impossible, just like it felt when I was 20.
I'm from Italy, and I made my previous choice based on job perspectives here, now I'd like some perspective from abroad...
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business and economics This is a course in English, I also speak French and in an ideal world I would have studied foreign languages (but in reality, I would have found no job, here at least, or nothing promising). Studying economics in English would sort of fulfill that, I'd study other languages and strive to become an export manager with time. Other than that I could combine it, in THe future, with studies in cultural heritage, which would be my first choice if only I could live off of that. And find related jobs as I go.
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computer science. Never interested me that much, I had a basic programming course which wasn't that bad, I think I'd be able to do that... But I don't know if I'd really want that. I've thought about it bc I'm interested in data journalism, and I could combine it with data visualization, design, writing... But that's more like an interest, I don't think I'd like the actual careers I'd have access too... I don't even have that much knowledge on what possible jobs would be like.
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management engineering Again export or project manager. I'd prefer economics, but bc of my age this might give me slightly better chances of finding a job asap?
Of course the careers I mentioned require years of work and I'm willing to do that, the problem is I feel very confused, I'm afraid of wasting time bc of my age, maybe studying and not finding a job and also how can one know if a career is the right one for you? You first have to get there...
Any type of advice would be of great help, thank you in advance
First: stay strong, you got this.
If you're "not really" into CS, I would think long and hard before committing to it. While it's very useful to pick up a few basic skills, studying theoretical computer science is a whole different level. I'd suggest you look at the basics, start programming on some of the websites people have suggested in the comments and do a few small projects for yourself. Then at least you'll know, if you have fun programming and problem solving.
I studied computer science without knowing much about it when I started, and it was a good decision for me - however it wouldn't have been for everyone.
That's exactly what stops me: I had a course, it was C and Python programming and I did quite well but it was really basic. And if it hadn't been for what I was studying before, I would have never tried programming.
But new things are actually a good thing... For example what makes me consider computer science is the idea that later I might get into data science and maybe do something as a data journalist. But even if I think it's really cool, I don't know if I'll actually like doing it.
I was thinking I could combine it with something about design (single courses, self taught or whatever opportunity arises), and I even found out about this guy, Leonardo Nicoletti Just imagine being able to do that! What scares me is the actual doing, I'd like to get more into it but don't know how to try it out in the few months I have left. I think I could access further studies in Data Science even through Economics or Engineering but CS seemed like the "whole package"... Idk
If you're not fascinated by computers and you're not sure if you want to really dedicate your career to it, I'd really think twice about going into CS. If you want to get into programming/development, you can either do that by learning specific languages and building stuff, or study something technical that interests you.
Nowadays, programming is very much required in any STEM related fields if you want to keep up with the times. I myself have an Aerospace Master's degree but have been mostly doing software related things in my career and am now a data engineer at an aircraft manufacturer. None of my data science colleagues studied CS, neither did the data engineers that I work with.
Just one perspective. Don't give up, you've got this!