[Serious] I have a low IQ (low 90s). What kind of jobs are realistic for someone like me?

Self perception is really, really important in actual performance, please hear me out.

In elementary school I was a fidgety little weirdo. My parents taught me all that was expected of them to the point of adequacy, and my grades reflected that. Because of my odd habits I got a psych eval done in school in the third grade. At the time I didn't really understand what was going on and nobody really clued me in, I figured they were taking me out of class to do these tests because I was dumb; the other kids that got taken out of class were sent to their respective sessions for their learning disability (the slow readers would go to get help during reading hours etc). Part of the eval was an IQ test in which I scored a 108 which I was not told about at the time. The tests eventually stopped coming, I never heard about any results, so I figured I was good enough to not go to the "dumb" classes, but still felt pretty down on myself.

Third grade isn't really a time for introspection on the nuance of intelligence so all that testing faded away in my memory pretty quickly. When I got into high school, I went through the prototypical arrogant teenager phase and I began assuming I was smarter than those around me. I hit puberty late, the ladies weren't exactly flocking around me, so I got the attention kids at that age crave by knowing big words and doing well on my tests. Teachers parents and peers praised me for how smart I was and the arrogance flourished. I never developed good study habits or anything, I just figured myself smart and performed accordingly. C's turned to A's, I got a 32 on the ACT on my first attempt without studying, etc. Because I had kind of turned into a smug piece of shit, I didn't relate to anyone and ended up getting really depressed, saw a psychologist, and got another IQ test done. It came out high. Not Einstein high, but very high.

The first test I took during the period I thought I was destined for the learning disability classrooms I scored an exceedingly average score. The second test during the peak of how I evaluated my own intelligence I tested miles above that.

This isn't a universally applicable deal where we'd all be geniuses if we'd just have better self-esteem, and I imagine some of the disparity in my scores is accounted for by different testing methodology, but do realize that how you feel about your capabilities is scientifically directly correlated to how you perform. Further, an IQ in the 90's is within a standard deviation of the mean, even if that were your peak it would not bar you from pretty much any traditional job. Don't be down on yourself, commit yourself to something you enjoy with the mindset that you're capable of doing it and you'll almost certainly do just fine.

tl;dr if you think you're dumb your brain responds to challenges accordingly. don't do that.

/r/AskMen Thread