As a 5, there was a few things I considered when choosing my career path. Not saying it’s the right way, but it’s what I did.
I researched how much money one needs to make to be happy, and a random study said people’s happiness peaks around $100,000/year, and tend to drop off before and after that. So I researched jobs that had roughly that much. People might think this is shallow minded, but I cannot express how many people I know who finished school and were drowning in debt, and shocked by how little they were making. It blows my mind someone wouldn’t inquire about salary expectations before going to university for 4 years, but people do all the time.
I then researched job availability, job turnover, and job portability(at the time I thought I wanted to travel abroad for work). And excluded jobs that scored low in those categories. If there’s no jobs in your field, maybe not an ideal profession to pursue. May cause undue stress in the future. You want a career that will always be in need of you - so maybe don’t pursue a profession that may become obsolete in the future by new technology, or that has a volatile industry like oil and gas. I just have friends who graduated from university a few years ago when oil went under, and they still haven’t found a job in the industry. Might be something you may want to avoid.
One thing I didn’t consider, but wish I had was what hours I would work, and who’s much time off I would get. For example, do you mind working weekends, evenings, nights or holidays? Or would you prefer Monday to Friday business hours? Also, one thing I never considered was time off. When I went to school for 12 years I had 2 months off every summer. Then I went to university and got used to 4 months off every summer. Then I started actually working. And it’s been 6 years since I’ve had more than a week or two off work. It sucks so much. I know my friends who are teachers really love having their summers off work, paid. So take this into consideration.
The last thing to consider is how much social interaction you want, versus how much you need. After doing all this, I had it narrowed down to Accounting, and Nursing. And as a 5, my natural instinct was to go with accounting... and sometimes I wonder if that would have been a better choice. But ultimately, I chose nursing. Why? Well... as someone who is naturally a very isolated person, I thought that was something I could change about myself. I’ve always had problems making friends with women, and that hasn’t changed really. But I think having a career that forced me to engage with other people, has helped me be friendlier and less guarded of people. Especially during the pandemic, I think going to work and chatting with coworkers and patients has helped keep me sane, as I have very few friends in my real life. And the longer I go without talking to people, the more I seem to detach from reality, and the more my mental health seems to suffer.
I think the meaning of life, in one way or another lies in the relationships we have with others. So when faced with the opportunity to go the comfortable route and work isolated and autonomously, I chose to challenge myself. And some days I have bad days, and I do have certain coworkers I’m not crazy about that I’m forced to work with. I do face interpersonal conflicts etc. So I don’t know if it was the perfect decision. However now I’m in the process of going back to school to become a medical researcher or teacher, which is way more up my alley. And I don’t regret the experiences I’ve had or knowledge I’ve gained along the way.
I think I wanted my career to be stable, reliable and lucrative, so that in my personal life - I would have the time and money to pursue my passions hobbies and interests. And I think that was the right choice.
Also, it’s also nice to pick a career that you can hold your head up high when others ask you what you do. It’s such a shame when we do pleasantries at parties and people say what they do for work while looking down at the ground, ashamed. No one should be ashamed of what they do. And I’ll admit I do feel a sense of pride when I tell others what I do for work. So that’s been a nice unexpected bonus.
Oh and one last thing - don’t worry so much about student loans and the cost of school. Yeah they suck, you may graduate with a ton of debt. But when you have a solid earning potential, after just a few years of hard work they will be paid. I actually did most of my learning not in university, but by doing my own research. I just played the game to have a stable future and a solid income. I think I want to do more in life - but I don’t feel like I can do anything if my job or finances were unstable. As an enneagram 5, once that’s sorted, I have the energy to spend on other endeavors.
I hope this helped in some small way.