Hello to our readers – presumably high school and college students plus adults seeking to enter the workforce or alter their current career paths.
As you begin or continue your search for an interesting career to (eventually) support yourself financially, we recommend starting by first reviewing the list of all the career stories now prepared (see ALL CAREER STORIES), so you are not prematurely ruling out careers which seem uninteresting or for which you believe (or someone has told you) that you have no ability to be successful.
You should be the one person who makes your decisions (always subject to change) regarding what career path fits you best.
For examples of students receiving bad counseling but instead, trusting their own judgment and determination to succeed, see the following three career stories (the major category within ALL CAREER STORIES is listed first):
ANIMAL CARE – VETERINARIAN
MEDICINE – OBSTETRICS / GYNECOLOGY
REAL ESTATE – BROKER / BUSINESS OWNER
Modern school counselors are better educated and trained than the counselors within the above 3 examples, as noted within ALL CAREER STORIES – subcategory COMMENTARIES – SCHOOL COUNSELORS’ ADVICE – FOLLOW OR NOT?
You are invited to begin your serious quest by looking through ALL CAREER STORIES. These categories should be helpful but again, please do not limit your career search too early. For example, you may believe you have no ability or interest to get involved with ‘NUMBERS’, which would seem to eliminate careers in accounting, banking, economics, finance, science, and technology. But few careers involving some level of math comfort require mastery of complex math, such as ‘rocket science.’ Because math cannot be escaped in almost any career (including car dealers, landscapers, lawyers, police, social media, teachers, and trades) and personal life, everyone must know how to calculate costs to determine if a project should result in a net profit or loss. (See WRITERS – MATH & SCIENCE ANXIETY)
While you will see many career stories within the categories presently available, you will also note that many careers are not yet listed – because we haven’t yet found a storyteller for every career, but we didn’t want to wait to present a perfectly complete list. ALL CAREER STORIES demonstrate many similar journey themes, which will be reflected within future career stories as they are constantly added.
Please check back periodically to find new career stories added.
Enjoy your search!
Sincerely, the Advisory Panel
Some adults advised the Editor to make each career story very short because modern students won’t read beyond one screen on their smart phone. The Editor believes students are a lot smarter than some adults assume, so the stories within the ALL CAREER STORIES were not reduced but to satisfy the adults with the wrong opinions about today’s students, here are some (very) short career stories:
ARCHEOLOGIST – digs up old stuff
ATHLETE – paid to play games but signs autographs for free
EDUCATOR – tests you on what you didn’t study
ELECTRICIAN – knows how to play safely with wires
ENGINEER – drives trains or draws plans for new bridges
DENTIST – drills, fills and bills
DOCTOR – prescribes pills; may write an excuse for a school absence
INFLUENCER – demonstrates something to buy which you don’t need
LAWYER – you need to hire one to protect you from other lawyers
NURSE – tries to help you without getting sick herself or himself
PSYCHOLOGIST – tries to see what’s going on inside your head
SCIENTIST – looks at real small stuff through a microscope
TECHNOLOGY – makes stuff that shows up on your screen
VET – former soldier or wears a white coat to check on cats and dogs
ATTENTION STUDENTS! Prove wrong the adults who have no faith in your smarts and common sense by reading to the end of whatever career stories may interest you! (The more you read, the smarter you’ll be!) One favorite example of a student proving a counselor wrong: MEDICINE – OBSTETRICS / GYNECOLOGY (proceed to the main category MEDICINE and then click on OB / GYNECOLOGY)
Career stories on this website offer insights into individuals’ career paths, addressing their decision-making, skill acquisition, challenges faced, and eventual satisfaction. Many stories are anonymized to encourage honesty and to avoid distractions for readers. They remain accessible to the public for free and are regularly updated to reflect changing career landscapes. Targeted at students and adults entering or re-entering the workforce, these narratives aim to provide guidance without disclosing confidential information. The goal is to inspire individuals towards fulfilling and sustainable careers.
The Career Stories Library uses statistics as a guide for prioritizing which stories to add to the collection, aiming to provide examples representative of the population within each career category.
According to the latest (2020) U.S. Census, the self-identified ethnic composition of the U.S. consists of the following:
Hispanic / Latino 16.3 %
Black / African American 12.2 %
Asian 04.7 %
Two or more races 01.9 %
American Indian / Alaska Native 00.2 %
Hawaiians / Pacific Islanders 00.2 %
Sub-total ‘Minorities’ 35.5 %
White 64.5 %
Total all ethnicities / races 100.0 %
This Career Stories Library presents representative examples within each career category based on those census numbers as a ‘floor’ (minimum), not a ‘ceiling.’ (maximum).
For so-called ‘minorities’, that translates to a minimum 36% of the career stories. When this website was first launched with just over 400 career stories, the informal tally for minorities’ career stories was 44%.
Since ‘Females’ are 50.5 % of the (2020) U.S. population, our goal is to provide at least 51% of the career stories involving females. At first launch, the informal tally for females’ career stories was only 46%. (Thus, the value of monitoring statistics.)
Career stories involving men are found within the main category: ‘ALL CAREER STORIES’. The stories of those who self-identify as both male and minority are duplicated within the ALL category and within the MINORITIES’ subcategory.
Career stories involving female minorities are duplicated and counted within each of those separate subcategories.
Career stories of those who identify other than ‘female’ or ‘male’ (e.g. non-binary or transgender) will be included when such complete career information (including family background, childhood interests, education, why each career path was chosen, any challenges and career satisfaction) are available to the Editor.
To help readers find stories of someone within their ‘community’ of female or minority, this Library has separately organized and duplicated those stories within their separate subcategories. So, for example, a career story involving a minority female will be found in each of the three categories: ALL, FEMALES and MINORITIES.