[Proud90sKid]

I am 22 and out of college. I decided not to do what I went to college for (few job prospects). I still don't know what I want to do in life. And to think I was supposed to have this figured out when I finished highschool? I just wasn't very ambitious about my future career in college- I guess I just thought it would sorta fall into place.

I want to do something that both makes a lot of money and requires math/analytical skills. Problem is that all these type of careers require you to invest a lot of time to "learn the trade" and build your resume(internships,etc)- without the guarantee of a job at the end. For example to get into one field I want to get into- I would need to take 2-3 field-specific exams (each requiring an expected 300 study hours). The exams are 1)Probability and 2) Financial Mathematics. These are hard exams from what I hear. There is still a large possibility of not being able to get the job at the end. I might hear something like "well taking these exams shows you have a dedication , but we are looking for people with internship experience". The problem is that you can't easily get internships after college. Obviously all that time going into prep for this is a large opportunity cost. I could be doing a lot of other things with that time. Yet all such careers that are good seem to require such an investment. For example , if i wanted to get into software development- I'd need to learn a lot more about programming to get myself up to speed with the people who were programming since middle school.

Seems like now I am out of college, I need to figure out something now , or I have a gap on my resume. I do have a job now, but it is nothing that would help my career prospects.