The good old "guess and check" method is really the only option for most people. It's unfortunate that if you guess wrong you could ruin your life, but that's the way our society is structured, at least in the USA. I'm about 15 years into a web-dev career that has worked out well so far, but is very likely going to be eaten by AI over the next 15 years. I have no idea what I'm going to do if that happens.

As the saying goes: predictions are hard, especially about the future.

As someone in their late-30s, I'll let you know when I figure out what I want to do with my life.

I have heard, but have not read, 'What color is my parachute' is a great book for that.

There are a bunch of psychology based tests you can take to help decide on general career paths. I remember taking one 20 years ago. It had questions like: Do you enjoy working on your own. Does fame get you excited. Writing out direction cause you anxiety. Surprise surprise Software Engineer... Just what I love doing.

Now having said that. It is great to follow a passion, but you need to feed yourself. So you have to weight the two 'what I love' vs 'what pays the bills'

When I finished school, I had a lot of biology major friends, who were real passionate about biology. At the time they could only get low paying jobs in a human waste water plant. They envied me for being smart to choose CS, they thought I did it for the money, not realizing it was passion, and I could have had the same problem they did.

Likewise When I was laid off, about half of the other who were laid off, claimed 'Oh thank God. I have always hated programming stuff'.

Once again, it is a balance. Very few get the best of both worlds.

Sometimes you don't know what you want to do with your life, but you know what you don't like or want in life, that helps narrow down your choices.

ikigai

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigai

I'm 45 and I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up. I have had 2 distinct successful "career paths" up till now, and am at a point in life where I can do pretty much anything but not everything.

Essentially, you pick a path that in this moment a) you feel like doing, b) you have access to, and c) aligns sufficiently with your values, expectations and life needs. You can be very strategic about it, or you can wing it, there are no correct answers.

Then when you get older and are in a different place in life, chances are you become ready for something new, and then you go do that.

Careers and goals don't need to be forever, change is guaranteed and "life" is an awfully long time to decide on when you're young.

I turned a hobby into a career. I wouldn't recommend it. You lose the love for the hobby and the career doesn't match the hobby since you're mostly doing what other people need to do, not what you want.

This is very insightful and also aligns/overlaps with the rather unpopular don't follow your passion mindset. one can still find some work that's reasonably enjoyable even when it's not your hobby or passion; just that such work takes a while to find and might not last forever so you'll be back to square one.

I, like most people, have never figured this out.

"Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, But today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

For career path, you probably have little to no control over it. Life is full of people who pretend otherwise. Working your way up a ladder is largely a fantasy, especially in I.T. Too many people, not enough roles. Just go with the flow and try to find something that pays well and doesn’t suck 100% of the time.

Personal goals are mostly bullshit too. You’re not in control of life. Maybe it’ll look that way for a while but it can be taken away in a second.

Probably the only life goal you really need is to be happy after you figure out what that means.

Nobody does.

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" John Lennon

Look for careers where the daily work is something that seems interesting. Don't get too distracted focusing on salaries or impressing other people with your job. The more you enjoy the work, the easier it is to be happy and successful.

Your other priority should be to find people you enjoy working with. Finding people you enjoy being around. If you get stuck with toxic people who drain your energy or make you feel bad at the end of every day, you need to move to another job or even new city. Stay away from very negative people and don't get pulled into online cynicism spirals (Reddit, Twitter, even HN are full of this). Gravitate toward people who are happy in their own lives and spend less time with people (or internet comments) from people who are unhappy.

Don't get attached to an idea that there's one perfect career for you. Learn to enjoy doing work with people you like to be around and you will find that you can be happy doing a lot of different things.

True, focusing on salary will only guide you towards a job you will hate. If I had the opportunity to do it all again, I would work towards a caereer where I had more interaction with people rather than a computer screen. It's something you might want to think about.

I follow things that interested me and figured out what makes me happy - it's a process.

I haven't.