What’s the best career choice for a person who loves analyzing things?
I spend the majority of my free time exploring new subjects and then “beating the life out of it” for the next 2 years or so. The strangest part is that the subjects I’ve enjoyed exploring have never fit one neat category.
For example, the last 6 months or so I’ve been reading about the stock market. I’ve been absolutely fasinated by it. But consider these other things I’ve enjoyed studying for quite a length of time:
1) Walt Whitman’s poetry
2) The military campaigns of Erwin Rommel
3) Computer game development
4) The theology of C.S. Lewis
I’m nervous about picking just one “field of study” for my career since I know my interests are so numerous and not even remotely interrelated. The only common denominator among these interests are my fascination in exploring theories, explanations, and creative processes.
I’ve read many career books (What Color is your Parachute) and have taken many, many personality tests (Myerrs-Briggs). Still need more help. Thanks!
4 Responses to “What’s the best career choice for a person who loves analyzing things?”
Juli
quality control any where
Shilla
You should become an intelligence analyst. Almost every large US agency has one. There are economic intel analysts, political intel analysts, military intel analysts, transportation, law enforcement, drug, and many other types of intel analysts. The downside is you can’t really talk about your work with anyone outside the community, and it isn’t nearly as glamorous as TV would have you believe, but it can be tons of fun.
Oh, and you may want to look at becoming an economist. Read Stephen Levitts “Freakonomics” or “The undercover economist”
Rich
Poetry, military, theology, and technology all have many things in common. They all follow very rigid rules. The rules are very complex and often abstract. The end-results are demonstrable, though not always quantifiable. [For instance, in theology, an argument or belief may (or may not) become part of the religion's doctrine and the inclusion (or exclusion) can be justified logically and/or on religious grounds.] The main thing they all have in common is that in each case there is not simply a single set of rules but multiple sets of rules that can be modified to “fit” real-life situations to bring about a pre-determined result.
What you are into, really, is not analysis but the ability to change and transform a person, situation, object, or event, by modifying and applying a fixed set of rules (or a combination of sets of rules) to achieve a result that you, personally, find satisfying, in some way, shape, or form. Clearly, tactile and kinesthetic learning is not your strength. Nor do you learn by watching or listening. You learn, primarily, by thinking and predicting. You would do well as a psychologist, a stock-market analyst, a security consultant, or a marketing consultant. Basically, you will do well in a career where you can get data, think about it, and make predictions that will either come true because of the logic of the data or because you can advise people to move in a certain direction to get the desired result.
Bryon
What about compaines that rely on predicting trends? Also the FBI is always looking data and trends.
What about writing book for niche markets: If you can gather infomation and show how niche markets can use and profit from it you can make big money.
First find one subject your love:
Second find the people who will pay to have that infromation
And three be the expert…so they have to have you!