Career Anxiety

[chai_tea]

I am fourteen years old and stricken with fear about my future. I do not understand how I could ever get job; whenever my mind wanders to this topic I want to break down in tears. I do quite well in school, but I wish I did better. I also have anxiety and mild depression.

I simply do not comprehend how I could possibly be the best out of hundreds of people to acquire a job. Even in non-competitive industries, it seems like getting a job will never be an option for me. Everyone I meet ssend to be better than me at everything.

Currently, I want to be a botanist or a Latin teacher, but that just does not seem to be an option for me, particularly because I am a poor science student.

Any advice would be appreciated, whether it pertains to how to get a job or refiguring my perception of careers. Thank you in advance, and I apologise for the negativity.

[romantic_thi3f]

Hey chai tea,

Welcome to the forums and thank you for being here. I'm really glad that you talked about what's on your mind and no worries about the negativity - that's kind of why the forums are here!

I completely get being afraid of the future and not feeling like you can get a job. I'm in my twenties now and I still have those fears! It's the hardest thing because there is always someone who is going to be better. There's also always someone who is going to be worse.

Given that you are 14, I'm guessing you're still in high school? What sort of training would you have to take if you were going to be a botanist or latin teacher? It sounds like getting a job is probably a little way away given that you'll need to do some extra study to qualify for these roles. The way I see it, that means there is so much time to learn more, brush up on your science (or find other ways to learn those things) and know that one day you can totally kick butt.

The other thing that I wanted to say is that I have some training in HR which includes all of the job recruiting. When people feel better and smarter than you, that's only a tiny bit of what it takes to get that role. All the rest is your personality and how you'd slide right into the team. So that means even if you can't quite wrap your head around some things, you can still get a job!